Chef finally arrived in the Fort this weekend, and fits well with many of the themes we've discussed in our films thus far. The one that struck me the most as I watched was the artist/chef connection we've seen in several of our films such as Babette and Big Night, especially their relation to their audience/diners. It plays out in the movie in Carl Casper's (Jon Favreau) battles with a food blogger and in a larger sense through this most recent turn in Favreau's own career, which started in the sort of indie film that Chef (the movie) aspires to be (it's not exactly the same for the director of Iron Man to make his own film as it was for an unknown Favreau to make Swingers).
Food eventually takes more of a backseat in the film than in the films we've been watching, but still maintains a food focus as Favreau's character attempts to put some heart back in his career and his life (a la Eat Drink Man Woman). It's a suprisingly sweet film, and wobbles a bit in the beginning, but avoids becoming too cloying with healthy doses of humor and Leguizamo. Definitely worthwhile if someone is interested in pursuing the artist/chef focus or even gender.
It's also apparently convincing in many of its details to other chefs, as this article demonstrates.
I love Chef! I thought it was funny and even slightly inspiring. Living in Chicago for a good deal of time I was able to kind of see the rise of food trucks. When I first moved there I only ever saw one or two trucks. By the time I moved away almost two years later there were at least a dozen trucks one could regularly order from downtown. It is so interesting to see this trend in popularity brought to a major motion picture.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree, and will likely use it in future. Glad to Hear Chicago is finally on board with trucks. They've always ordinances against carts. Maybe trucks convinced them they're different.
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