Curator Watchlist
A singular, talk-driven chamber piece that turns a dinner conversation into a surprisingly absorbing meditation on work, art, alienation, and how to live. It rewards patience and curiosity more than plot-seeking, but its emotional honesty and philosophical friction still feel fresh.
Where to watch: Buy
Sun · 1h 52m
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn, Jean Lenauer
Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.
Louis Malle
Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn, Jean Lenauer
A singular, talk-driven chamber piece that turns a dinner conversation into a surprisingly absorbing meditation on work, art, alienation, and how to live. It rewards patience and curiosity more than plot-seeking, but its emotional honesty and philosophical friction still feel fresh.
My Dinner with Andre is the rare film that makes a restaurant table feel like a stage for an entire worldview. What begins as a reunion between two old friends becomes a debate about comfort, ambition, spirituality, and the fear of becoming numb to life. The pleasure is in the tension: one man’s restless searching against another’s grounded skepticism.
It is deceptively simple, but the movie keeps opening up the longer you sit with it. The dialogue has the rhythm of lived experience rather than screenplay cleverness, and the city-night framing gives the conversation an almost dreamlike isolation. Even when the ideas are lofty, the film stays rooted in very human anxieties about money, identity, and connection.
This is not a film for everyone, and that’s part of its identity. If you’re willing to meet it on its own terms, it can feel oddly electric: funny, confessional, and quietly profound. It’s less about winning an argument than about recognizing yourself in the discomfort of being alive.
Simone (4.5★) · 2913 likes
Lately, I've been reconnecting with a lot of former friends and acquaintances from high school and college. And no, I don't mean on Facebook. I mean sitting down and having an actual conversation, filled with meaningful dialogue, heart wrenching regrets, near-death experiences, and spirited philosophical debates. While watching My Dinner with Andre, sometimes I checked out from whatever they were talking about and let my mind wander to things relevant to my own life. By the end I was moved
Alan (4★) · 2906 likes
More like Andre's dinner with Andre.
Scumbalina (5★) · 2738 likes
I watched this twice today. Wallace Shawn speaks from a place of familiar futility. He's the voice of the audience. Upon first viewing, I somewhat disliked Andre. He has the luxury of purchased hipster reality. He participates in quack cult-like retreats in foreign countries as away to reconnect with his humanity. Wally struggles to pay his bills and is content with the simple details of life, but in turn never bothers to ask important questions or take any risks. Having… more
David Chen (4★) · 1439 likes
The OG rambling 2-hour film podcast.
eddyburback · 1213 likes
imagine if theo von was at the table… these guys would have shut up and listened.
A romantic counterpart to this film’s conversational intimacy, built almost entirely on two people talking through life, desire, and possibility.
If the appeal is philosophical conversation and drifting through big ideas, this is a more overtly dreamlike companion piece.
Another sustained two-person dialogue about belief, despair, and the meaning of living, with a similarly stage-like intensity.
A tense, minimal chamber drama where conversation becomes a weapon and a confession, ideal for viewers who like verbal sparring.
A single-room idea film that lives or dies on dialogue, speculation, and the pleasure of listening to people think out loud.
For its neurotic, talk-heavy examination of relationships, self-deception, and the uneasy comedy of adult life.
Shares the same sharp, intimate interest in emotional damage, intellectual posturing, and family-scale truth-telling.
A mature, reflective sequel in spirit, with conversation used to excavate regret, memory, and the lives people almost lived.
A modern, searching portrait of indecision and self-invention that balances wit with existential unease.
A talk-centered character study that explores performance, loneliness, and the gap between public persona and private pain.
A conversation-driven film about intellect, vulnerability, and the uneasy intimacy that develops when two minds collide.
A monologue-rich, self-reckoning character piece that turns ordinary life into a search for freedom and identity.
philosophical conversation, friendship and estrangement, alienation, art versus ordinary life, spiritual searching, urban loneliness, self-invention, midlife reflection
dialogue-driven, philosophical drama, chamber piece, New York City, existential, introspective, 1980s cinema, theater-adjacent, low-budget, talking heads