Director Miguel Arteta (Cedar Rapids) and writer Mike White—the team behind the acclaimed indie films Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl—reunite for an uncomfortable and suspenseful satire at one of the unlikeliest of events: an upscale dinner party.
Beatriz (Salma Hayek), a self-effacing immigrant from Mexico working as a massage therapist and holistic healer, has spent her adult life caring for the sick while neglecting herself. When her car breaks down and she is stranded at a client’s luxurious Newport Beach home overnight, her well-meaning employer Cathy (Connie Britton, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) insists she join them for a dinner party that evening. There, Beatriz is introduced to Doug Strutt (John Lithgow, Love is Strange), a ruthless billionaire real-estate developer. She listens uncomfortably while Doug brags about his aggressive business tactics, but when he boasts about shooting a rhino in Africa, she can no longer hold her tongue. As opposing worldviews collide over the dinner table, Beatriz’s pent-up outrage emerges in a way that surprises even herself.
Stripped of her usual glamour, Hayek’s performance is one to watch. Arteta and White sharply take on a buffet of ill-advised dinner topics including money, power, and class, all with subtle, dark humour that is bound to get audiences talking.
“The first dramatic comedy that’s an explicit—and provocative—allegory of the Age of Trump.” (Owen Gleiberman, Variety)
“The real power of Beatriz at Dinner is that it isn’t about politics but the human heart. Beatriz and Strutt are not arguing legislation; they’re arguing two visions of the American dream, two visions of the human soul.” (Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic)
“Deftly balances subtle humor with sharp observations about class, wealth and power.” (Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)