Bad Education Review

 

        I was not aware that HBO, that Game of Thrones channel, actually makes their own films. Now, that’s pretty bad on my end, knowing that they make TV shows, documentaries, but apparently movies wasn’t something that I thought that they would do. Bad Education came out last year and made me aware that HBO can make movies. That’s a bit disingenuous, I was literally not expecting anything with this film. Except that Hugh Jackman was in it. Putting it out there, his role as Wolverine in the X-Men films helped a lot by passing off the idea that he’s American or Canadian since Wolvie is a Canuck. Anyways, here’s what I think about this great film. SPOILERS will appear in the review. 

1. Tragedy Makes Great Drama

        Like most films, it’s based on a true story which you’d never heard. All of it takes place in Long Island, New York at Roslyn High School where we see Jackman playing superintendent Frank Tassone. He is a respected person in the school among the students and faculty. We also get to see Rachel played by Geraldine Viswanathan who is a student newspaper writer for the school paper. She asks Dr. Tassone and his assistant about the high school’s skywalk. As Rachel goes over the school’s finances, everything starts to go south, for the faculty. 

It’s great drama for a good hour and 48 minutes. Jackman does a great job of playing the guy and he is just likeable. What sells us is that his character was a former teacher and has this great connection with everyone. The problem is that he’ll turn a switch when he is confronted with any problem that threatens him. The scene with him and Rachel in the school grounds highlight it. He figures out what she’s actually writing and tells her that the article she’ll publish will damage her. 

The whole movie is not so much on the school system’s problems, but more so that Tassone was unable to stop from the egregious spending that was going on. That exceeded millions of dollars that the school auditor found out and threatened of being fired by Tassone. It’s his personality and lifestyle that really made him a fallen angel. He was also an unfaithful man. Not in a religious sense, but of the cheating variety. I felt bad when his partner was shown a picture by the District Attorney that had Frank and his former student at a house in a Las Vegas suburb. 

I think what amplifies this type of drama is the dedication that Rachel has for the article, which was supposed to be a fluff piece for a school renovation. I love the idea that her Dad was happy to help her track down the companies that was tied to the school’s invoices. And the whole perspective that her Dad was tied to a financial crime and he could’ve raised his voice about it but didn’t. 

2. School Bureaucracy 

        Does this school have so much behind the scenes drama and politics like, wow. When word gets out that Tassone’s assistant Pam played by Allison Janney has a family member who splurges on the school’s business card, Frank throws her under the bus when the initial financial report was around $200,000. Not just him but the entire front office staff tried to figure out how exactly to cover it up. It makes you think how anything that were to happen in your high school would react to something like this. 

        Another thing that I noticed is that there’s one parent who sees Frank twice in the film. Both in the beginning and near the end of the film, the parent begs him to have her son be in an advanced class. The final part is one of the best moment in the entire film. Frank sees that the student is having difficulty reading a letter that was written by the mother. He keeps struggling on the word “accelerate”. So much so, that Frank helps him and use the analogy that the student is like a racecar being restrained. 

        We see that for as much as Frank is seen as a asshole to the parent, he is proving a point that every teacher and administrator is seen as the problem for not helping their kid. Him just getting so frustrated with everything about the school administration and having a parent try to ask for a favor. He wants to help, but can’t. It would’ve been easy to make him one note, and the entire administration corrupt. They were just caught in something that was building up and had no idea how to deal with it. 

3. All The Superintendent’s Men

        Aside from one man’s fall from grace, it’s a good newspaper drama. I thought that the stuff with Rachel and her Editor would just be around the background when we see Frank’s life slowly turn upside down. It’s one of those things where if you’ve never heard of this story and all it took was a high school newspaper to break story so massive, you or anyone would believe any ounce of it. I think what drives her to make the paper more than just a simple one is just her digging more. Which is actually prompted by Tassone to tell her to make it more worthwhile. 

        I feel that’s just dramatic irony in a way that, she eventually finds enough dirt of what’s going on that it comes back and wrecks havoc on the faculty. I’m not saying that this film is anywhere close to All The President’s Men, but it’s up there. More on the person than the actual event. 

4. Overall 

        This is one of those hidden gems of a movie that you need to have HBO in your cable service or sign up for HBO Max. As far as I know and I can be wrong, but I think there’s only a digital copy of the film that is available online. Bad Education was one of the worthwhile movies that I saw when I was lockdown during a pandemic. 

Bad Education gets a four out of five. 

Attack the Block Review

 

        I’m with you on this one since neither of us have even heard of this movie. I forgot where exactly I heard about this movie that made me want to check it out. Just to get this out of the way, I didn’t watch the movie just because it had actor John Boyega, who was in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. With most movies, I went in with an open mind. Attack the Block is probably one of my favorite foreign films. SPOILERS will appear in the review. 

1. Intimate Alien Invasion

        One would think that it would be film about a turf battle among gangs. Absolutely not, a gang that’s called The Block. Led by Moses who is Boyega’s character see an asteroid crash onto a car. The group breaks in to steal the radio, a small alien attacks and Moses kills it. Little did they realize, more aliens in asteroids are falling in their area of London. 

It’s a breath of fresh air when anyone who thinks about an alien invasion movie thinks big invasions, massive battles, generals strategizing, and Will Smith. With Attack the Block, the invasion is limited to a high-rise apartment complex. It would’ve taken away from the characters to have the aliens land elsewhere. Also, the weapons that the gang uses are limited to fireworks and baseball bats. 

The aliens do look interesting. When we see the first one, it’s white and small. Very feral along with the black ones who have glow in the dark teeth. Which I thought they were eyes, but they have no eyes. I feel that the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise is always the go to for people to make a good knockoff. We really don’t get an explanation, but just that they land and wreak havoc among the gang.

2. Unlikely Heroes

        The Block Gang are the quintessential anti-heroes. They begin by robbing a woman of everything. I honestly thought that the character Sam would just appear in the beginning and that’s it. She actually contributes to the overall plot. Since, Moses and Sam have this distrust for each other that they begrudgingly accept help from each other. 

        The other members in the gang are actually good on their own. I was surprised that when more aliens appear that some were actually killed. Shocked as I was, I literally thought that all of them would survive. Moses and the gang practically change throughout the film. It’s a little known tidbit that can make a movie better than what it is. Since near the end, the whole gang changes their act including Moses who actually tells Sam that he’s just 15. 

    

        One thing that kept popping up is the idea of broken homes in the movie. Mostly all of the gangs in the apartment complex don’t have a stable family. Most of them live with single parents, grandparents and relatives. It’s the idea of nature vs nature that’s all over the film. Especially when Sam tends to one of the gang member’s wounds when an alien bit him. And it’s apparent since there are two little kids who mimic them and unintentionally help out killing the aliens. 

        The final aspect that I noticed is the slow moments when characters just talk and really digest what’s going on. After the gang survive an encounter with the aliens, they stay at their friends room. All of them are wondering why they are seeing aliens invading on their neck of the woods. Moses questions possibly that the creatures are the government’s creation. The movie didn’t have to be that deep, but when you see later on Moses’ life, it make sense since he was dealt a bad hand of fate. 

3. Overall

        Arguably, this is one of the best foreign indie films that I have seen just by pure curiosity. The scope is small to make the characters intimate and the threat isn’t exacerbated by them being everywhere. It’s a fun, poignant film that deserves to be watched on Hulu, for a limited time since I have no clue when it’ll be removed from the service. 

Attack the Block gets a four out of five. 

Underrated Gems: Steve Jobs

 

        In 2011, Steve Jobs died from cancer. Many remember him as an innovator for technology such as reinventing the computer and phone. For some, he was considered a hero despite not really knowing him personally. Two films were released to showcase the innovator, Jobs in 2013, and Steve Jobs in 2015. The first one was not great and the one for today’s review bombed in the box office. While the films damper the general audience on watching any film about Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs offered a glimpse as to who the man was. SPOILERS will appear in the review. 

1. Reality Distortion Field

        At a first glance, Michael Fassbender does not look anywhere near as the title character. I feel it’s a compromise since he absolutely nails the person. He easily steals the show since he perfectly acts and delivers his lines just how the actual guy acts. I think the thing he does well is that the whole product presentations just show how anal he was with making sure everything was perfect. 

        He has a confidant Joanna who is the person who really tries to level with Steve about product expectations and to really guide him down when he’s being a total dick to the computer engineers. It would be one thing where we had a film where we see Steve Jobs from college dropout to making an Apple product. Here though, his interaction perfectly captures just who Steve was for the people who never knew him. A complete asshole, for one thing he is very blunt and has the my way or the highway attitude. 

        The thing that spotlights the whole movie is him being a Dad. Or the opposite since he claims that his daughter Lisa isn’t his. This is the part that a whole lot of people weren’t even aware. If you read the biography by Walter Isaacson, he delves into the relationship between Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Here, he attempts to dress down his ex by really justifying the Mac and how he misspoke when he said that Brennan slept with a determined number of men. 

        It’s one thing to make the film completely biased and to really deify him. Here, the film presents him as such, he’s poorly built. The movie goes out of its way to explain why he has such a big issue with control and making sure everything has to be perfect. He thinks in a different way most people would see as not possible. In context, when we start the film he stresses that the Macintosh has to say “Hello”. Joanna wants to skip the feature while engineer Andy Hertzfeld attempts to explain to Jobs why the computer can’t do that function.

2. A Story Told in 3 Product Announcements

        As I said earlier, the film has three product launches as a way to start a new act. Each has a different music style and how it was shot. It makes the setting, even though it takes place in a theater and backstage authentic for the most part. The really interesting aesthetic is the upgrade in film footage that was used in the successive acts. In the first two acts, they were filmed on 16 and 35mm footage. Which helps explain why in the Mac launch there was a grainy look to it. Then in the last one was shot on digital. 

        As with most movies based on actual people, the best ones are focused on an event that made the person famous. Steve Jobs does that but in an interesting way such as with the launches of the Macintosh, the NeXT computer, and the iMac, we get to see just how the person has grown up and really come to terms with who he is. Part of it feels repetitive, but I think it allows for the character to grow and that makes the film endearing. Aside from meeting with Chrisann and CEO John Sculley, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak shares the highlight of stealing a scene. In the final act, both Jobs and Wozniak argue about why Steve won’t acknowledge the Apple 2 team. Woz thinks that since Steve was kicked out that he’s doing it as a snub. While Jobs see it as them really hurting the company. 

        It goes to show just how complicated the legacy of Steve Jobs is. For one, he was an innovator who had fantastic ideas of using a computer. Although, he didn’t input any code or built anything, he was just the spokesman who really nailed the pitch of getting people to want to buy an Apple computer. This film really does a great job with setting the record straight with just who he was as a person. 

3. Altered History

        The biggest complaint in the movie is that the events that happened on film didn’t really happen. Mind you, I feel that anyone could be bored when Steve is preparing himself with a product presentation with no technical difficulty or personal beef that needs to be settled. It’s a creative liberty that is justified since it shows just who Steve was. I hate to really sound like a broken record when stating that since that’s really what made the film work. For drama sake and for being invested with what’s going on. 

4. Overall

        With all that being said, this is one of the best films that came out in 2015. I feel that the Ashton Kutcher movie made more of an imprint in pop culture due to him looking like Steve Jobs. Although, this movie delivers on nailing just who the character was. I think if The Revenant wasn’t around, Michael Fassbender would’ve won the academy award for best actor. Regardless, this is one of the best underrated gems in the 2010s.

        Steve Jobs gets a four out of five. 

Napoleon Dynamite Review

 

        For some weird reason, this movie was shown when I was in a after school program in elementary. Something about it was intriguing to me. Perhaps it was the main character or it was just that the whole movie was really nothing that I have seen before. Keep in mind, I watched animated movies and superhero movies growing up. This was so left field for me when I was young. Years later, this is one of those films that I will re-watch and still laugh. SPOILERS will appear in the review.

1. Not Your Usual High School Movie

        At a glance, this doesn’t look like a typical high school movie. There’s a template on how to do a successful one such as any John Hughes film or Mean Girls. Napoleon Dynamite is that aberration of a high school movie where it adheres to no formula and instead just forges its own path. When you watch it, you feel like nothing is happening. Mostly we follow what Napoleon is doing and just how he is.

        Played by Jon Heder is an anti-social person with the worst people skills. He opens up when the new student Pedro becomes his friend. At his house, his washed-out uncle comes and wreaks havoc when he invites his older brother to join in his get rich quick schemes. You would think it would be about Napoleon trying to figure out who he is. That’s not really it, it’s more or less a slice of life movie, about how yes, figures out what skills he has, and help Pedro run for class president. 

        What it does well is that the whole approach is bizarre. Not that it’s bad, but it gets away with just how Napoleon is just an endearing loser. His idiosyncrasies are hilarious and just the stuff he says is just funny. I think it’s an acquired taste in comedy since its very low energy, but the comedy just comes from the overall weirdness of it. If there is one thing that I noticed is that nobody acts their age. Like Uncle Rico yearning for his football days in high school and Grandma riding the ATV in the Idaho dunes. I think we’re supposed to laugh that they’re clinging to something that they should move on from. It could be just that they are just flawed people. 

2. A Good Bland

        Another thing I noticed is that the film feels like it’s on a time warp. It has the aesthetic of the 80s, despite taking place in the 2000s. I just think that Idaho reacts later than the rest of the country in terms of keeping up with the times. I joke, but I think it just emulates just how small towny it feels. There’s just a lot of white people and the only minority is Pedro. Not that it’s a bad thing, but everything that happens is mostly happening within Napoleon’s world. 

        I think the whole town just screams indie film. Mind you, it’s a studio indie film, meaning that Fox Searchlight Films was created by 20th Century Fox to distribute small budget indie films but carry the name of Fox to increase profits. Other than that, the whole town is like the same bizarre as the characters themselves. 

3. Overall 

        This is one of those aberrations that occur in film where it pops up, and word of mouth give it the right kind of publicity. As far as I can remember, there were t-shirts and an animated show that was aired on Fox back in the early 2010s. Napoleon Dynamite is one of those movies where it’s a good slice of life where you’ll feel good about the characters. 

Napoleon Dynamite gets a four out of five. 

Minority Report Review

 

        I remember I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel back in the mid-2000s. There was a show that talked about Hollywood movie science, and in one of the segments included from the film Minority Report. One of the first shots that I saw was the use of tiny tripods in the film. That was only a small slice of the futuristic tech in the whole movie. When I finally sat down and watched it for a film class at Texas A&M, never would I think that this would be my favorite Steven Spielberg film. SPOILERS will appear in the review.  

1. Story

        The film takes place in 2054, John Anderton played by Tom Cruise is an officer for a new department called PreCrime. Their job is to stop crimes before they even happen. They use a dual way to assess threats by using three beings called Precogs. Twins and a woman who have clairvoyant powers to see into the future. Also, technology that helps John with putting together footage that the Precogs see.  After a successful mission, Agent Danny Witwer played by Colin Farrell, assesses the department before giving it the go ahead to become permanent. 

        While looking through new footage from the clairvoyants, John realizes that he is a perpetrator for killing a man. He goes on the run from his fellow officers and Agent Witwer, in an attempt to clear his name. I never realized that the overall world and technology would make me love this film. I feel that the film is a combination of an action, sci fi, and noir film rolled into one. Not once where it feels so tonally off but manages to keep the action and the drama balanced to make an enjoyable film. 

        One of the other things about the film that is the focus is the technology. Back in 2002, nobody thought that we would have anything that closely matched the film. Most of it feels quaint and not that far off, considering that we have ads targeting us and wireless earphones where we can talk to people. Although, you would probably need a phone. Not that it didn’t steal the spotlight, I feel that it’s a character in its own right. The world feels idealistic but frightening. Since the very idea that you or anyone can be a criminal for a crime you weren’t aware that would happen. 

2. PreCrime

        The whole organization is the main thing that drives John to be who he is. We get a reason as to why he joins. He lost his son at a pool and vows to use the department to try to find him. When he gets confronted by Agent Witwer, it is probably one of the best moments in the film. They discuss just how PreCrime is functional. It’s a battle of wits in the spoken word. Since Danny is questioning if its possible that the department is prone to mistakes and John sticking to his guns by saying it’s a fool proof way of dispensing justice. 

        I like that it’s not very biased but presents the organization as a good and bad. Mostly leaning to the really bad aspect. Since we see that John might have sent some innocent civilians to jail. The whole futuristic jail is such a frightening sight, most of the prisoners are in a suspended state where they see an idealistic vision of their life. The whole unraveling of the department mostly helps the character arc of John. Who becomes such a cheerleader for the new way of justice, to running away from it. 

        Even when John meets the founder of Precrime, she has doubts about the whole project. Throughout the film, it more or less talks about the idea that maybe stopping a crime before it happens is wrong. For anyone, it seems ideal since nobody gets hurt. On the other side of the coin, someone innocent might become a victim for a false arrest. It’s more or less a metaphor on authority since that is fallible as well. For a film to based on a short story from the same writer that wrote Blade Runner, he appears to be prescient. 

3. Precogs

        Continuing from my talk about the department, these beings as well gets its own tab. All three are named after detective authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie. We only ever focus on the clairvoyant Agatha since she has the McGuffin that drives the film and gives John what he needs to clear his name. The whole reason as to why they were granted the ability to see into the future made sense, sort of. They explained that they were birthed from some drug using parents. I’ll let that slide since it is the future and I’m assuming any narcotic can produce some power.

        I like that they as well bring the conundrum that PreCrime isn’t a reliable system of justice. When we see their visions of a crime that will happen, there appears to be some version where it happens differently. It’s used so well as a red herring since the director of Precrime Lamar Burgess, played by Max von Sydow actually manipulated the future in order to implicate John from using Agatha to solve her mother’s death. 

4. Very Basic Philosophy That I Understood, And So Can You

        Now this movie has some philosophy that anyone can understand. Hell, it’s in the dialogue as well. There are two concepts at work here: the idea of free will and predeterminism. The latter is mostly this, anything that is going to happen will happen. John sees his supposed crime being committed and he is given a chance to avoid it from happening. I like that concept since there is a chance for him to essentially avoid being a cold-blooded killer. 

        That isn’t to say that the movie is deep in anyway. The ending is probably my only complaint since John gets captured and anyone can interpret that what we see after is what John is being shown in the futuristic jail cell. Although, with that he can’t see what his ex-wife is saying to Lamar. Who knows, it’s cathartic since John gives Burgess an ultimatum to either give Precrime the attention it deserves or ruin it. All which is a catch 22, and highlighting the philosophical points I just mentioned. 

5. Overall 

        As I said earlier, Minority Report is one of my favorite Spielberg movies. An honest tough choice to really pick and choose a favorite, but this one is a within the Top 5. It’s prescient with its subject matter and the technology isn’t that far off. Just the thought that the film is nearly 20 years old is crazy to me. More so that people have not heard of it nowadays. 

       Minority Report gets a four out of five. 

Little Miss Sunshine Review

 

        This is one of my favorite films that I watched during the pandemic beginning last year. It’s one of those most endearing films that I have seen in a long time. Every now and then I see the film referenced in numerous ways. Such as having a spoof moment in the film Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. Besides that, there’s so much heart in the film that it really struck a chord for me, which is rare for any film to do that nowadays. SPOILERS will appear in the review. 

1. A Family Story

        Just by looking at the cover of the DVD it has everyone running and pushing a yellow VW van. It has Olive looking at an old Miss America pageant video to get the right reaction to winning the title. Her mother Sheryl picks up her suicidal brother Frank from the hospital. In between that, Richard the husband is presenting in a seminar emphasizing the idea of winning is better than losing. Sheryl and Richard have a rebellious son Dwayne, who has taken upon himself to be mute since he wants to be a pilot in the Air Force. 

        Helping Olive with her dance routine in the pageant is her grandpa Edwin. We don’t see what they are practicing, but when you see it being performed is the best part in the movie. Anyways, Olive gets word that she gets to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant in California. The family adjust as to how they are going to do the trek. Due to Sheryl having to keep Frank from killing himself and Richard attempting to call his book agent about his book on his motivation philosophy. 

        This is one of the those films where there’s never a slow moment to be wasted. The best part is when they are riding in the hunk of junk Volkswagen van and just trying to get to California. No one wants to be there, but they have to suck up their pride to support Olive. Most of the characters are giving a whole lot of depth despite the fact that the film is clocking in at 1 hour and 45 minutes. It would’ve been one thing where the family are just one dimensional, but the film succeeds by having the most realistic portrayal of a dysfunctional family. Since one would think that they’ll be trailer trash. This isn’t the case since it’s implied that they are barely hanging on. Hoping to have the husband have a successful book career. 

2. Success in Failure

        Aside from the family aspect of the film which is the highlight, another piece to the film is the idea of being okay to fail. At the beginning when Richard is giving a lecture, he stresses that the way to be a winner is to not be a loser. He hangs on to that tenet throughout the film, even talking about it with Olive by instilling a sense of positivity that she has to have a winner’s edge to win the pageant. 

As the film continues or just stressed that everyone in the cast has failed. Sheryl is a divorced wife, Frank is a suicidal would-be Shakespeare scholar, Rich is an ambitious motivational speaker who is out of his league. Edwin is a narcotics user. The moment when Olive is testing Dwayne’s eyesight by giving him a color test is the saddest scene and the film’s best moment. It’s established that Dwayne has taken an oath of silence until he becomes a pilot. When he struggles with an eye color test, Frank breaks it to him that he can’t fly. What proceeds to happen is the most gut-wrenching moment in any film that I have seen.

He bangs on the van until Richard pulls over. Dwayne screams out and cries. You have to feel sorry since he honestly wanted to be a pilot. All that silence and reading about Nietzsche was for nothing. The very fact that the film is mostly about failure is endearing since the message is that its okay to fail. I mentioned before in my Nightmare Before Christmas review that the musical was about being okay to fail. This film is exactly like that and it embraces it. 

Olive is the only one who has no shame when we are confronted with shots of little girls being dolled up for the pageant. Her youthfulness and positive attitude propel her to perform the routine she and Edwin had practiced. The most satisfying part is that her family joins in on her dance recital. All of that constant barrage of failure is uplifted when Olive is just having fun. 

3. The Hypocrisy of Pageants

        I feel that it’s one thing to bring up the idea of beauty pageants as the ultimate representative of winners and losers in the film. Olive gets in only because a contestant was disqualified due to her using diet pills to better her figure. The little girl is reminded by her Dad that skinny girls win the pageant when the family is in the diner eating. The rest of the family cheer her up by tempting her to eat ice cream when they eat it. 

        The whole clash of ideas is interesting since it’s common knowledge that any stubborn parent is willing to parade their daughter to look skimpy and dolled up to win a trophy that doesn’t mean anything. When Olive performs, every single parent is shocked to the point that they clutch their hypothetical pearls. I feel it’s a subversion since it’s on point that Olive does her routine since the pageant is built like that to be very evocative.  

4. Overall 

        Without a doubt and I can repeat myself so much that I love this film. Little Miss Sunshine is one of those studio indie films that is easily on my definitive top ten. It’s an endearing story about family and coming to terms with the reality that they’re not perfect. And that being a failure is okay. I was laughing and feeling sorry and it’s one of those films that is a sure-fire way to have anyone emote in any emotion. 

        Little Miss Sunshine gets a five out of five. 

Chef Review

 

        Jon Favreau is a unique talent in Hollywood right now. I think he’s the only talent who can direct and act in the film and not come off smug in the least bit. The first time I got exposed to his work was in Elf and then later for Iron Man and its sequel. Chef is probably one of his best movies where it’s mostly about him but with everything about filmmaking replaced with being a chef. I will explain that tidbit later. SPOILERS will appear in the review. 

1. Redemption Story

        Favreau writes, directs, and stars as Carl Casper. He is a chef at a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles. After unintentionally starting a Twitter beef with the local food critic, he is let go and attempts a way to have a fresh start. His ex-wife Inez helps him with her ex-husband to rent a food truck. From there, Carl and his son Percy along with his assistant cook Martin go east to travel west to rekindle Carl’s love for cooking. 

        The story is one way a redemption and a story about a father and son rekindling their relationship. Carl and Percy are sort of distant. As the film goes on, Percy asks to help out his Dad with running the food truck. My favorite moment is when Carl takes Percy aside and explains to him why he loves cooking. In the context that Percy almost lets a worker eat a burnt Cuban sandwich.

        It’s a charming story for one thing, since we see Carl grow up a little and really realize his love for cooking. The moments when he is conversing with his cook friends and Inez is endearing since they try and pump him up to be the best. One thing I noticed is that the film has tons of Marvel alumns: such as Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. It just shows just how much of an actor-director Favreau is. I feel that he works best when he works with the actors to get a feel more for their characters. 

2. Cooking Food

        Now, when you have the title of the film called Chef, you’d expect to have scenes or shots of food being cooked. And man, do they really steal the show. Most of it is shot very voyeuristic with close ups and shots with Favreau and others prepping the ingredients. It’s not entirely new when a film deals with food to have that. Ratatouille mastered that aesthetic by having it all be animated. 

        When I mean voyeuristic I mean that it makes the audience and yours truly want to actually eat the food. It’s a way to actually take the film term called The Male Gaze and apply it to food. I might as well explain what The Male Gaze is. To be brief about it, ever notice that in some action films, sometimes shown in Michael Bay and Quentin Tarantino films, there are moments with women being shot in various sexy shots. That’s where that film term means.

3. Real Life Parallels 

        As I mentioned before in the introduction, the film is used as a way to parallel Favreau’s film making career with being a chef. Prior to this film’s release, he directed Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens. Two films that, while not great but just okay that it signaled to some that Favreau had already started a slow decline. Now that’s bologna since he drew from his actual life to incorporate aspects to Chef. 

        I feel the moments when he is working at a professional restaurant is supposed to represent that he felt constrained to the studios. This one moment when Carl and his son are watching a puppeteer using a skeleton marionette, the camera zooms in on the puppet as its supposed to symbolize to us that Carl is being restricted to be a talented chef. Back at the restaurant, Carl changes the menu and is scolded by the manager. 

        Just the observations is just how I felt how Favreau must’ve felt during that time prior to filming. Especially when he just airs out his grievance to the food critic. It’s cathartic since he probably had opinions about movie critics who tore his films up. Even though, in the movie Carl unintentionally caused a beef that the food critic just wanted to point out that the chef was being restrained of his talent. That part felt refreshing since it’s probably, and I think only time where a critic and an artist try to understand one another. 

4. Legacy

        After the film was released, Netflix released a cooking series called The Chef Show. Where Jon Favreau and his cooking friend visit various people to understand various foods in the country. I enjoyed it since he has a friendly personality, and he did an episode with the directors of Avengers: Endgame and the producer for Marvel Studios. This is the first time where you guys get two recommendations. 

5. Overall 

        What else can be said that I love this film. It’s a step away from the blockbusters that Jon Favreau did for a while, and still doing. It’s a passion project that has his quality as a director and as a cook on display. I think the benefit to enjoy this movie is to have no expectations and to see a family be reunited. 

        Chef gets a four out of five. 

State From The Top #8

Howdy guys, I thought I should update you all on the movies I will be talking about for this month. This is probably the toughest part since I've been struggling to pick the right movies to review. For one thing, I don't want to have a specific theme. I think it would be repetitive to have back to back months were there was a theme. With all that said, just for this week only, I will be taking a break. Then after that, it will be full steam ahead with yours truly. 

I've been thinking about spicing up my review slate from two movies to three a week. I'll probably implement them either when April comes around or during the Summer. Not to get too ahead of myself, but I am thinking of doing a summer blockbuster slate for the entire summer months. I haven't looked at what movies to see, although with them being blockbusters, anything good will pop up. 

With all that being said, here's upcoming slate for March. 

Chef 3/10/2021

Little Miss Sunshine 3/13/2021

Minority Report 3/17/2021

Napoleon Dynamite 3/20/2021

Underrated Gems: Steve Jobs 3/24/2021

Attack the Block 3/27/2021

Bad Education 3/31/2021