Bad Manners

R

Released Oct 25, 1997

1h 28m

Comedy

Drama

List

85%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

43%

Audience Score

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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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

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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

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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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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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