It’s no secret that the older we get, the harder it is to keep up with friendships as adults. Between having kids, careers, and even distance playing a factor, organizing a simple hangout session with your friends can require planning weeks or even months in advance. Dinner with Friends, directed by Sasha Leigh Henry, explores the gatherings that happen between 8 longtime friends as they laugh, argue, and face some common struggles and joys of getting older.
The events occur over a series of dinners that rotate between the friend’s different homes over a span of two years. If you’re in your 30s-40s, you might find this to be one of the most relatable films you will see, as it accurately depicts awkward conversations, how news is delivered, and real conversations that sound all too much like what we’ve had with our own peeps. Through inside jokes and memories shared, actors Michael Ayres, Alex Spencer, Tymika Tafari, Izaak Smith,Tattiawna Jones, Leighton Alexander Williams, Rakhee Morzaria, and Andrew Bushell give us a glimpse of the good and no so great things that happens in a long standing friendship.
As each scene shifts from kitchens, dinner tables, and living rooms, one thing that stands out is the coloring. Cinematographer Grant Cooper uses a palette composed of olives, browns, and tans, which perfectly complements the Black and Brown skin tones of the characters. You can’t ignore how intentional the visuals are, which is key because it could have been easy to lose interest in simply watching friends gather for dinner. On that topic, the dialogue deserves recognition, as it didn’t feel forced or scripted. The conversations were very realistic and fluid, it felt like they weren’t given a script, just lots of improv. This contributed to how relatable Dinner With Friends is because it literally feels like just that: being a fly on the way as you watch friends catching up over a bite of food. Black friend groups don’t hold their tongue when it comes to their circle and are more often than not blatantly honest, so that was a great piece that was added as well.
Joy (Jones) is the unspoken leader of the friend group that is often responsible for orchestrating the dinners. We all have a Joy in our lives, and boy, are we thankful for them as they are the glue that keeps us from drifting apart when life gets in the way. Much like with her character, they oftentimes have their own mess to handle in the background of their own life, but they are unselfish and never let it cloud their minds. Joy and her husband, Malachi (Spencer), are introduced to us as a couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Despite their obstacles, they come to the agreement that it might be worth trying to get the friend group back together just like old times. While the film shows no flashbacks, there are plenty of references to allude to the past and the fact that these 8 have most likely been friends since their twenties or earlier.
There’s a scene where they are all discussing planning a group trip and everyone was so engaged and down for it while they were having some drinks and all in good spirits. A few scenes later after a heated conversation with the others, one of the characters says to his partner, “Does this mean we’re not going to Cancun?”, to which his boyfriend responds, “Baby, we never were.” I love the inclusion of this exchange because of how real and common it is for friends to get tipsy and start planning trips around the world, only to later sober up and rethink the commitment they just made.
Another part of what makes Dinner With Friends authentic is the inclusion of the text message threads. We see how the text exchanges happen between them, even going as far as showcasing how much time goes by between messages and how a character may ghost the chat (we all know that one person with their group on ‘do not disturb’). The film showcases every part of what you may find in a pack of 8 different individuals in their 30s: the gay couple, the new parents, the old heads who got married at a young age and have all the advice to give, and the exes who find themselves rekindling an old romance.
Dinner With Friends is a beautiful display of how friendships grow over time and how people handle strong themes like divorce, coparenting, death, and the responsibility of becoming parents. No matter how big or small your circle of friends is, there’s no doubting the fact that you either have already experienced some of the themes touched on in the film, or will encounter them along the way. As you watch the film, you might even find yourself comparing your besties to the characters, whispering to yourself, “Ugh, that’s so Ashley!” or “Man, Raquel is the ‘Joy’ of my group!”
Dinner With Friends premiered on September 5th, 2025 at Toronto International Film Fest.
