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Bad Manners

Play trailer Poster for Bad Manners R Released Oct 25, 1997 1h 28m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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85% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
When married professors Wes (David Strathairn) and Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia) invite fellow academic Matt (Saul Rubinek) and his girlfriend, Kim (Caroleen Feeney), over for dinner, the gathering soon descends into an emotionally charged evening. Nancy and Matt are former lovers, a fact that makes Wes tense, and things get worse when the uptight host suspects that Kim has stolen $50 from him. As these and other issues surface, the film points to problems inherent in relationships and in academia.
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Bad Manners

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: B Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Rated: 3/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Wickedly funny. Rated: 3/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jul 17, 2005 Full Review Andy Klein Los Angeles CityBeat Rated: 4/5 Aug 18, 2004 Full Review Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Rated: 3/5 Jul 30, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (5) audience reviews
Audience Member Bad, boring and bloody awful! Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member To be fair the context in which I saw this was late night on tv. I kept expecting it to become soft porn the way movies at that time sometimes do. It didn't. Instead it was an exploration of trust. Sort of like the play 'proof' but with ethnomusicology instead of mathematical theory. a 'quote' of an old religious composition appears in a contemporary composition that has been created by computer programs from random sequences or something. also $50 goes missing. mistrust makes everything descend into a chaos of accusations and interpersonal misconduct between wordy academics. the moral: don't invite ex lovers to stay over. come on kids that's an easy one. the other moral: probably when there's an ethnomusicologist character giving a dissertation at harvard it's not going to turn into hilarious soft porn. oops. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member I think me and Leonard Maltin are the only people who saw this great character study. Some have called it "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"-lite and I can see the comparison. Wonderful performances all around especially by the always underrated Bonnie Bedelia. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Really clever little movie which I randomly watched on tv at 3am. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member (***): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Bad Manners

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Cast & Crew

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Jonathan Kaufer

Director

David Strathairn

Wes

Bonnie Bedelia

Nancy

Saul Rubinek

Matt

Caroleen Feeney

Kim Matthews

Julie Harris

Professor Harper

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Bad Manners

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Movie Info

Synopsis When married professors Wes (David Strathairn) and Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia) invite fellow academic Matt (Saul Rubinek) and his girlfriend, Kim (Caroleen Feeney), over for dinner, the gathering soon descends into an emotionally charged evening. Nancy and Matt are former lovers, a fact that makes Wes tense, and things get worse when the uptight host suspects that Kim has stolen $50 from him. As these and other issues surface, the film points to problems inherent in relationships and in academia.
Director
Jonathan Kaufer
Producer
J. Todd Harris, Alan Kaplan, Stephen Nemeth
Screenwriter
David Gilman
Distributor
Phaedra Cinema
Production Co
Davis Entertainment Classics
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 25, 1997, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 21, 2019
Runtime
1h 28m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby
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