Chef was a real treat

Do you love a good meal? Do you fantasize about sandwiches? If yes then this is the one for you. This was a simple movie, deceptively simple, a blank canvas that gets filled with passion and warmth to the point where you feel like Jon Favreau put his arm around your neck and pulled you into his food truck.

The story goes - man loses job - man doesn't have good relationship with son - man's ex wife helps him get a food truck - they drive. The beauty is that the story is purposely told to take a back seat so you can immerse yourself in this culture and Carl's journey. On an emotional level nothing is forced and you can feel Carl's conflicts and reluctances.

What this movie does great - which is generally hard to do - is to capture a time and a culture. The time this movie came out was at the point where food blogging was exploding, and restaurant culture was still completing its transition to being glued to social media. When you think back to this time this movie more than likely captures it perfectly.

The main highlight here is obviously the golden pedestal the love for food is put on, Carl from beginning to end loves what he does and you feel every slice of the knife, every bite they take and every sandwich they press. If you didn't want a Cuban sandwich after watching this check yourself for a pulse. Their trip across America allows for quick but meaningful observations of parts of American history and the importance of immigrants through the food which I thought was done really well.

From what I've seen of Jon Favreau this movie really has his stamp all over it, a really warm, slightly firey and a mans man with a lot of passion. This movie was really an achievement and something you can watch to bring you back to a time, the same way Scorcese can bring you back to gritty 70's NYC or how John Carpenter with Kurt Russell make you feel the 80's.

Overall great ride.

Submitted November 29, 2021 at 04:19AM by bigdownlow https://ift.tt/3nYRmE3