My Dinner with Andre is is a landmark of independent cinema that I long avoided because it seemed like homework. Two men talking for two hours? Writers/stars Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory workshopped the screenplay for months and attracted the attention of acclaimed director Louis Malle. What resulted is a quietly radical experiment that has rarely been attempted since.

Wallace Shawn as a fictionalized Wally is dreading this dinner as well. He hasn’t seen Andre (Andre Gregory) in years and has heard wild stories about his travels and behavior. We are let inside Wally’s concerns through voiceover as he travels via subway through early eighties New York City. He’s a playwright who comes from wealth but now frets about money and takes acting jobs to make ends meet for himself and his girlfriend. He is a stocky man and feels discomfort between the chosen restaurant and chosen dinner company. Andre enters, comfortable in this high class restaurant and physically Wally’s opposite, lanky, angled, and tall. He is also a playwright, years Wally’s senior and successful enough to take a break and travel the world.

What ensues is a fascinating conversation about life, experience, modern society, culture, social norms, and dinner conversation itself. Andre speaks uninterrupted for forty minutes about his journeys in Poland, Scotland, the Sahara, and many other places. He is a natural storyteller, and although we are watching two men at a table, we see the world. I could list off the amazing tales but they are dense and should be discovered by the viewer. And frankly, it doesn’t matter what stories are being told. This is a movie about two men that is really about tone, and comparisons and contrasts between them.

Wally listens respectfully and sometimes tries futilely to get a word in. Then halfway through, the conversation shifts. He challenges Andre on his point of view because Andre has a rare luxury in searching for a greater truth. Wally, the rest of New York, and the rest of the world can’t drop what they’re doing and “go to the top of Everest”. Both are uncomfortable with the idea that we are all living in a trance but Wally admits that he likes his life living in an apartment with his girlfriend and reading. These diners are paradoxes and never come to a conclusion but that is life. There are no cliches here, no clean narrative to streamline these ideas. The film ends with Andre paying the check and we leave with Wally to reflect on the conversation we had the honor of sitting in on.

I wish retrospectively that we could have returned to these characters over time like the Before Sunrise films. Fortunately I can return to this cozy, prickly masterpiece in the future and reset philosophically.