SF Jewish Film Festival: The Hedonist

Q&A with Nick Funess after the screening!

For fans of cringe comedy and not for the faint of heart, The Hedonist is a lo-fi lazy-river ride through a Gen Z quarter-life crisis. Socially awkward and crashing out, it only takes a coworker’s dirty dish to send Reed spiraling. He retreats to his parents’ Arizona compound, and as soon as he is left alone, he hires an escort, Tess, to join him for a week-long self-described “sabbatical.” Armed with pool floaties and cigars, strap-ons and slushies, this man-child defies all common wisdom: he runs with scissors, ignores stranger danger, and never reapplies sunscreen.

Writer-director Nick Funess leans into memeified dialogue and deadpan delivery, playing Reed as both painfully sincere and oblivious to his own privilege. Izzi Rojas is thoroughly charming as Tess—entrepreneurial, perceptive, and far more self-aware than her aimless client. Comfortable in discomfort, The Hedonist keeps viewers on edge, laughing and squirming through one peek-through-your-fingers scene after another. —Laura Henneman