Beatriz at Dinner

Altruistic holistic healer Beatriz (Salma Hayek), a Mexican-born divorcee, is having a rough time. Her L.A. neighbor objects to her goat's incessant bleating and her old Volkswagen barely starts. Nevertheless, Beatriz wears a beatific expression as she heads down the coastline from the cancer clinic where she works to an exclusive Newport Beach enclave to give a massage to Cathy (Connie Britton)—a wealthy client whose daughter is someone Beatriz helped to recover during chemotherapy. Predictably, Beatriz's car later breaks down in the driveway, so Cathy convinces her contractor husband Grant (David Warshofsky) to graciously include Beatriz as a “friend-of-the-family” guest at a small dinner party they are hosting for Grant's boss, Douglas Strutt (John Lithgow), a billionaire real estate tycoon who owns hotels and golf courses around the world. Pompous Strutt arrives with his third, much younger wife (Amy Landecker), along with Grant's junior colleague (Jay Duplass) and the latter's social climbing wife (Chloë Sevigny). After first mistaking sanctimonious Beatriz for a maid, Strutt further infuriates her by showing off iPhone photos of his latest hunt in Africa. Heavy-handedly written by Mike White and directed by Miguel Arteta, it's a parable about the entitled haves and long-suffering have-nots, but while waiting for the inevitable confrontation between passive-aggressive Beatriz, who burns with righteous indignation and imbibes far too much wine, and vulgar, capitalistic Strutt, the concept—which also features incoherent magical realism—simply collapses. Optional. (S. Granger)