Dinner with Friends with Brett Gelman and Friends 2014

At a dinner party hosted by Brett Gelman, a small circle gathers for an evening that starts with polite chatter but quickly takes a darker turn. The guests include Dale Dickey as Dale, Gilbert Gottfried as Gilbert, Alex Karpovsky as Karpovsky, Fred Melamed as Fred, Alison Pill as Alison, and Lance Reddick as Lance. The night unsettles as Gelman reveals a menacing undertone to the gathering, and even the ever-curious Joey Fillipiano, portrayed by Anthony Atamanuik, warns that there may be no easy exit.

As the plates arrive, Gelman intensifies the pressure. He declares that this evening will serve as a step toward genuine bonding, pushing the five remaining guests to divulge their deepest secrets—秘密 shared in private, a clandestine ceremony that changes the mood of the room. Midway through the confessions, a dramatic turn comes when the group discovers that Karpovsky has left the party, an exit that only heightens the tension and foreshadows the chaos to come.

With secrets now out in the open, Gelman unveils a cruel device: a play written to feature each of the five survivors. He records their admissions and uses the coercive edge of that recording to keep them compliant, threatening to restrain them just as Karpovsky has been restrained if they refuse. The five reluctantly perform the play on Gelman’s command, hoping to appease him and regain control of the night.

When the performance stalls, Gelman halts the staging, dissatisfied with their efforts. Sirens abruptly pierce the air, and Gelman orders the guests to confront the approaching officers—armed with handguns that he has provided. What follows is a shocking twist: the uniforms and weapons belong to a chimpanzee dressed as a police officer, bringing a surreal moment of relief, until a henchman reports that a crucial gun is missing. Gilbert Gottfried (the actor behind the role of Gilbert) holds the firearm, and Gelman coerces him into surrendering it, a move that leads to a fatal turn: Gottfried is murdered by Gelman.

The consequences escalate quickly. Gelman forces Fred Melamed to help bury Gottfried’s body outside with a shovel, a grim task that consolidates the night’s horror. The shovel becomes a weapon in the hands of the others as they close in on Gelman, attacking him along with the rest of the party. The scene shifts from chaos to a startling self-reckoning as Gelman pretends to drift into a psychotic episode, lamenting Gottfried’s murder before revealing that the entire sequence was a deliberate ruse and that the danger was manufactured from the start.

In a final, chilling twist, Gelman lets the guests go but makes one unsettling promise: he will be watching them for the rest of their lives. The party’s true nature—its secrets, its violence, its fragile facade—lingers in the air, leaving a haunting reminder of how far a dinner party can tilt when someone toys with fear, control, and truth.