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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.