To Dust (2018)

To Dust: Directed by Shawn Snyder. With Géza Röhrig, Matthew Broderick, Sammy Voit, Sarah Jes Austell. Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay.

“When the R rating for this film declares disturbing images theyu0026#39;re not kidding. The movie is a dark, absurd, and morbid comedy, as a Hasidic cantor (Geza Rohrig) becomes obsessed with trying to find out how long it will take his recently deceased wifeu0026#39;s remains to decompose into dust so that her spirit can be free.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHe will eventually team up with a reluctant community college science professor (Matthew Broderick) to try and get some answers. They will employ some highly bizarre and weird techniques to try and accomplish this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI found most of the intended deadpan humor didnu0026#39;t quite work here, but as the film progressed I did find some of it darkly funny, like the scene with the security guard (Natalie E. Carter) at the Tennessee body farm.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, after reading so many glowing reviews from pro critics I came away disappointed with this movie. Itu0026#39;s not an easy watch for sure, but it also was unlike anything I can recall seeing on screen before.”