Chef
My stomach: "Grumble,
grumble, grumble!"
Chef
is directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man,
Elf, The Jungle Book) and stars Jon Favreau as Carl Casper, Emjay
Anthony as Percy, John Leguizamo as Martin, Sofía Vergara as Inez, Bobby
Cannavale as Tony, Scarlett Johansson as Molly, Dustin Hoffman as Riva, Oliver
Platt as Ramsey Michel, Amy Sedaris as Jen, and Robert Downey Jr. as Marvin.
Carl, the head chef of a reputable
restaurant, quits his job after being humiliated on social media by a
particular food critic. Now without a job and money, his rut leads him to go on
a quick vacation to Miami, Florida with his son, Percy, and ex-wife, Inez. Carl
realizes that his creative juices for making beautiful and delicious meals have
been held back by other people telling him what to cook. To make himself and
the others around him happy, he buys a food truck and starts his own
independent company. He goes across country back to his home in LA with his son
and his sue chef, Martin. Carl's journey, from quitting his job to ending up in
LA with a food truck, is all captured by social media and put online. We all
know how people online can be nice, but mostly cruel...
I feel like I'm accomplishing so much when I make make a good stuffed quesadilla. Imagine what would happen if I make a good baked Alaska.
Whether you're aware of it or not, Jon
Favreau is one of those directors/actors/writers who has made an impact in
trends going around today like superhero movies, realistic CGI, and comedy. Chef is a film that allows him to take a
step back from the trends. It's a film that's smart and heartwarming. It's also
one hell of a film to get you want to cook something. I swear, after I saw this
movie, I looked up how to make a risotto. Yeah, I'm not saying I would do a
good job at making an extraordinary meal like that, but I would have never
looked up how to make it without seeing
all the delicious food presented in Chef.
What I love about this movie is the script. It's real. Carl is a dad who knows nothing
about social media. Yet, he uses it and gives himself a forced ultimatum that
he didn't see coming: quit his job or keep getting personally attacked and
humiliated by the internet, thus giving a bad name to the restaurant he works
at. Chef makes good use of social
media in its script. I can see people saying that it feels forced, but I
honestly feel it serves a purpose to the story. Actually, it's a main part of
the story. It also doesn't feel like the Twitter exchanges between Carl and his
fans/haters is the predominant worry surrounding Carl's life. It's actually him
and his son. Carl needs to mend his family life and his work life to be content.
Chef is a film ultimately about
finding something that makes you smile and being happy with yourself. Carl's
rut reminded me of myself. Before I started writing in a blog, I didn't know
what I wanted to do with my life. I was studying something that made me anxious
and depressed, I was living with thoughts that caused me to sink deeper into loneliness,
and I wasn't able to handle the pressure that I put on myself. I kind of had a
mental breakdown and later that night I wrote my first review of Inside Out. This was back last July.
I've written every week since then. Sometimes I can't make deadline due to many
of those personal issues, but hey, I try. Bringing it back around, like Carl in
Chef, I could relate to the rut that
he was in. Like I said, the script is smart and heartwarming. It's freaking
funny too, in a realistic sense. All of the comedy is real-life-what-I-see-my-family-doing
kind of comedy. Speaking of family, people whose lives were influenced by
family cooking are going to get a huge nostalgic kick out of seeing a father and
a son cook their butts off.
Some damn good food...
I can say that as Latino, I enjoyed Chef very much. The story gives off a
strong Hispanic vibe towards the latter half of this movie and I couldn't help
but be incredibly engaged not only with the food, but also the music. It's
catchy as f**k! One of the biggest warnings I can give you before you watch Chef is that you should eat beforehand.
Seeing all the yummy food and drinks made me get out of bed and eat a sandwich.
Unfortunately, I did not have the ingredients to make a Cuban sandwich right
away. Despite that big flaw that can be easily fixed by eating a granola bar, I
would say that Chef hit all the notes
of being an excellent independent film: top notch script, heartwarming story, and
originality, in this case consisting of well utilized social media use and
food.
Chef is rated R
for language, including some suggestive references
Click here to watch the
trailer
Chef is now
available on DVD, Blu-ray, some streaming services, and digital download
Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do
appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to
receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen Chef, comment and let me know what you
think of it. I'll post another Check This One Out! next week. Thanks again!
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