Beatriz at Dinner

Director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White, who previously collaborated on Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl (as well as the HBO series Enlightened), team up again for the low-key satire Beatriz at Dinner. It seems that their ambitions have tempered over the years, as Beatriz at Dinner, while smart, observant and well-acted, is an almost excessively minor culture clash drama. Salma Hayek stars as the titular dinner guest, a healer stranded at the home of a wealthy client, and awkwardly invited to stick around for the meal. The guest of honor is the rapacious Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a conservative boogeyman figure presented as an amalgam of Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly and every Cialis-popping piece of shit who kills endangered animals for “sport.” Naturally, Beatriz and Doug butt heads, highlighting the differences between the wealthy and the working class, and shooting other fish in a barrel in the process. D.B.