Get Your Reps In: “Dinner in America” Serves Cult Classic Punk Comedy

Dinner in America (2020)

Cinemagic has been the unofficial Portland home of Dinner in America since last fall, when the punk-rock comedy’s co-star, Emily Skeggs, visited for a live Q&A. Now, Cinemagic’s encore run of Dinner in America reaches its latest conclusion on Jan. 9.

But you could easily bet it won’t be the last engagement. Dinner in America just breathes like a cult film that was made to be discovered gradually, as it has been all the more since director Adam Rehmeier released his acclaimed follow-up, Snack Shack, in 2024.

Twitchy, pissed and rough around the edges, Dinner in America follows a drug-dealing punk (Kyle Gallner) who stumbles into the life of a solitary pet-store employee (Skeggs)—all set against the satirical hellscape of mannered Midwestern drudgery.

How are two alienated, yet opposite, individuals to respond to all this flagrant materialism and prejudice, and a literal string of bad family dinners in America? Light some fires, cut a demo, and match each other’s freaks, of course. Cinemagic, Jan. 9.

Also Playing:

5th Avenue: This Is the End (2013), Jan. 10–12. Cinema 21: Rear Window (1954), Jan. 11. Cinemagic: Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Jan. 10. Oldboy (2003), Jan. 11–13. 13 Assassins (2010), Jan. 11 and 14. Made in Hong Kong (1997), Jan. 15. Paprika (2006), Jan. 11–14. Clinton Street: Boom! A Film About the Sonics (2018), Jan. 10. Moonage Daydream (2022), Jan. 11. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Jan. 11. Hollywood: Let’s Get Lost (1988), Jan. 12. The Net (1995), Jan. 13. Tomorrow: Songs From the Second Floor (2000), Jan. 9. Jawbreaker (1999), Jan. 10. Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America (2019), Jan. 11. The Taste of Things (2023), Jan. 12. Tampopo (1985), Jan. 12.