Chef (2014)
Directed by Jon Favreau
When Chef Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner, he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife, his friend and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen -- and zest for life and love.
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30 films that influenced Chef
What critics say influenced Chef
The film “Chef” heralds the glorious return to the big screen of food porn, a term once ascribed to “Babette’s Feast,” “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Big Night” but now mostly relegated to the Cooking Channel.
Complete with a chocolate cake contretemps that reminds you of Stanley Tucci in Big Night , Chef can seem like a reheated mid-budget studio comedy, yet the light Favreau-and-friends romp (which morphs into a road movie) goes a long way on charm.
The movie reminded me of other delectable food-focused fare such as “Big Night” and the animated “Ratatouille.”
"Chef" is the food movie for the food truck era, a film that doesn't appear to be headed for classic status in the vein of "Big Night" or "Eat Drink Man Woman," but which taps into the zeitgeist in an assertive, interesting way.
Even without that comparison, Chef very much deserves to join Big Night and Dinner Rush in the canon of great American food movies.
It's a return to form deserving of a place alongside culinary classics such as Big Night and Babette's Feast.
A subplot involving Casper’s social media naïvety and a public spat with a critic lifted straight from Ratatouille, however, is absurd – even more so than the notion Scarlett Johansson’s sommelier would be falling at Casper’s feet.
The movie reminded me of other delectable food-focused fare such as “Big Night” and the animated “Ratatouille.”
The all-important, snotty-nosed reviewer is a staple of the restaurant-set film – you immediately think of Anton Ego in Pixar’s Ratatouille , which was another fable about holding on to your established high standards.
In many ways, Chef is a live-action — and R-rated (mostly for language) — variation on Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007), right down to its nasty food critic (here played by Oliver Platt), albeit one who is treated a bit more fairly.
Compare Chef with Ratatouille, which insists there are times when a critic takes a bullet for a real talent.
But announced visits were good enough for the critic Anton Ego in "Ratatouille," which "Chef" resembles in many ways, and they're good enough for this critic, Ramsey Michel; he's played by Oliver Platt, who comes on, wittily, like a leaner cut of Orson Welles.
The film “Chef” heralds the glorious return to the big screen of food porn, a term once ascribed to “Babette’s Feast,” “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Big Night” but now mostly relegated to the Cooking Channel.
"Chef" is the food movie for the food truck era, a film that doesn't appear to be headed for classic status in the vein of "Big Night" or "Eat Drink Man Woman," but which taps into the zeitgeist in an assertive, interesting way.
Foodies who feasted on “Big Night,” “Babette’s Feast” and “Eat Drink Man Woman” may flock to “ Chef ,” a lightweight but high-calorie confection in which the actors often run the risk of being upstaged by all manner of scrumptious-looking cuisine.
No doubt the man who famously walked away from the Iron Man franchise and was pilloried for Cowboys & Aliens wants to remind us of his Swingers origins, and maybe blame the critical failings of his last few flicks on those in charge of the coffers (and on reviewers’ general, erm, meanness ).
Indeed, it could be that, not unlike his maybe-autobiographical protagonist, the writer-director-star wanted to get back to his own roots, and try something as simple and shaggy-dog-story-like as “Swingers” (which he wrote, and starred in, for director Doug Liman) and the underrated “Made.”
Favreau -- who went from small films like Swingers and Made to large films like Iron Man and Cowboys and Aliens , and yes, filmmaking-to-food parallels will be served up hot, if not fresh, during the film -- is Carl Casper, a L.A. chef whose kitchen is spotless and whose life is a mess.
And yet, “Chef” is Favreau (whose last directorial effort was “Cowboys & Aliens” and last script was “Couples Retreat”) aiming to recapture the light, independent vibe of his “Swingers,” and the result is charming and personable.
The story of a successful but creatively stifled chef who finds happiness driving a humble food truck, the movie is filled with obvious parallels, beginning with Favreau's own trajectory from indie maverick (the 1996 charmer "Swingers") to manufacturer of Hollywood blockbusters like "Iron Man."
Favreau has always been a cool, amiable presence, all the way back to “Swingers” (1996) and his mini-gem feature directorial debut, “Made” (2001).
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The film “Chef” heralds the glorious return to the big screen of food porn, a term once ascribed to “Babette’s Feast,” “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Big Night” but now mostly relegated to the Cooking Channel.
It's a return to form deserving of a place alongside culinary classics such as Big Night and Babette's Feast.
It also belongs in the pantheon of great films about food – think “Tampopo,” “Babette’s Feast” and “Big Night.”
Foodies who feasted on “Big Night,” “Babette’s Feast” and “Eat Drink Man Woman” may flock to “ Chef ,” a lightweight but high-calorie confection in which the actors often run the risk of being upstaged by all manner of scrumptious-looking cuisine.
It's not a food-and-feelings film on the order of Babette's Feast or Big Night or other similar-yet-superior films, but it's an acceptable light snack of entertainment that, at the very least, comes out of the metaphorical kitchen homemade, heartfelt and nicely plated.
This movie will be on lists of “Great Food Films” forever, along with classics like “Big Night” and “Babette’s Feast.”
Peter Jackson was more fun when he was shooting zombies, George Lucas was more invested in American Graffiti than his Star Wars prequels, and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 – in terms of entertainment value and in cultural clout – easily laps whatever he put in his studio-sanctioned Spider-Man movies.
If you think about it, the developments here arent terribly dissimilar from Garry Marshalls Overboard, in which Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn form a makeshift family and drum up a get-rich-quick scheme involving building a series of mini-golf courses -- and the last hour of Chef feels about as realistic.
Indeed, it could be that, not unlike his maybe-autobiographical protagonist, the writer-director-star wanted to get back to his own roots, and try something as simple and shaggy-dog-story-like as “Swingers” (which he wrote, and starred in, for director Doug Liman) and the underrated “Made.”
Favreau -- who went from small films like Swingers and Made to large films like Iron Man and Cowboys and Aliens , and yes, filmmaking-to-food parallels will be served up hot, if not fresh, during the film -- is Carl Casper, a L.A. chef whose kitchen is spotless and whose life is a mess.
Favreau has always been a cool, amiable presence, all the way back to “Swingers” (1996) and his mini-gem feature directorial debut, “Made” (2001).
Like Sam Raimi with Drag Me to Hell, Chef represents a mega director (in this case Iron Man‘s Jon Favreau) returning to the flavour of his early work (in this case, Swingers and Made) to rejuvenate his storytelling juices.
Jon Favreau started off his filmmaking career with such cult indie titles as Swingers and Made, before he progressed onto making such popular mainstream offerings as Elf and Iron Man.
This is the third feature film written and directed by Jon Favreau, who vaulted to fame with "Swingers" (1996) and followed that with "Made" (2001), another superior comedy.
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Don’t expect the gastronomic wit of Michael Winterbottom’s two versions of The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden or the whimsy of Roddy Doyle’s The Van , another food truck folly.
I remember Al Pacino, as a short-order cook in “Frankie and Johnny” (1991), going all Scarface on the celery to show what he could do.