Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Amuse Bouche

Jon Favreau has all the 'fuck you' money a guy can need or want in Hollywood.

Director of two of the Iron Man films and producer of all three, plus the Avengers, he's pretty well set financially. He probably did ok on Elf and probably took a hit on Cowboys & Aliens. Still he has the bankroll to make any movie he probably wants.

That probably explains his indie movie, Chef - in which Favreau directs, produces, writes and stars.

Chef is a "cute" little movie that tells a story.  Sure, all movies tell some story (or try to) and many of them are of the guy who is big, hits bottom and builds his way up while also seeing the light of being a better parent.

I think I just described James Caan's character from Elf.

Chef, while food-focused, is more of an amuse-bouche. It continues to keep you entertained waiting for the bigger meal. In a way, it never comes in this film, but you don't seem to care that much. It's light-hearted, even at times when it should (or could) be more reflective and serious.

Favreau calls in two of his biggest stars from his other movies to do cameos - Robert Downey Jr. (who I never think is actually acting) and Scarlett Johansson. The latter does better than the former. And this is one of John Leguizamo's better acting gigs, though no limbs are climbed out on....by anyone.

My favourite was a small small role by Amy Sedaris...who was also had a smallish role in Favreau's Elf. I'm not sure if she's had work done or they had a great make-up person, but I recognized the voice more than the face.

Like I said, Chef is "cute". Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing award winning, but a good afternoon distraction.

And yet again, here 710 and I are early to almost mid-50s and still we are the youngest people in the audience. I think that says more about our movie choosing habits more than anything else.

We also so saw three previews of movies we put on our list. Only one had a release month (not date). The other had no designation of when they might be released, let alone make it to the Cleveland art-house market.  But at least it is encouraging.


2014 Movie Count / Goal:   3 of 12. 



Song by:  Ficherspooner

1 comment:

Harpers Keeper said...

I'd never heard of this movie until yesterday but you are the second person to speak positively about it. That's a good sign. Thanks