The Heartbreak Kid

Ever looked at Ben Stiller and thought, “Yeah, he’s funny. But he’s no Charles Grodin”? Well, Stiller’s 2007 remake of this 1972 anti-rom-com proves your point. Luckily, AFS is screening the original to remind you that no one comedically captured suburban rage and ennui like Grodin. Adapted by Neil Simon from Bruce Jay Friedman’s 1966 short story “A Change of Plan” and directed by Elaine May, it ruthlessly attacks the nebbish Lenny (Grodin) for dumping his Jewish wife (Jeannie Berlin) in pursuit of a shiksa (Cybill Shepherd). Where the Stiller version traded on gross-out comedy, May, Grodin, and the Oscar-nominated Berlin center Jewish identity in WASPy America in a fashion that remains acerbic and hysterical. – Richard Whittaker