Spinster Screening: Chef
Essentially, the previews showed this: There's a chef who will never be happy working under anyone else, and so he decides to get a food truck. To me, this is an excellent premise for the following reasons:
1. Every creative person has felt this way
2. I want to eat everything
3. Food trucks are fun.
So, Friday night I bought my ticket, a small popcorn, and a cherry coke, and I made my way into the theater for some spinsterly movie time. Before I was even a quarter of the way through the movie, the popcorn was gone, which is a feat for me. But the sheer imagery of this film just makes you want to eat.
Everything about Chef is delicious. First of all, there are these incredible sequences about cooking, which include the whole mouth-watering process. Secondly, there are these fantastic accents - mostly spanish-speaking - that you can just taste. Thirdly, Scarlett Johansson eats some pasta at one point, and the way she eats it lets you know that it tastes as good as it possibly can. Fourth, the music. The soundtrack includes some really exciting, joyous salsa music, and it just makes you want to dance and eat at the same time.
Now, aside from the food, this movie is a love story of so many kinds. There's the chef's love for the food, but there's also the really sweet love story of a father and son. I really enjoyed and appreciated the exchange of information and ideas between generations in Chef and the mutual respect and admiration that engendered. It was sort of an intergenerational creativity power ballad. There are, of course, other love stories, but I don't want to ruin the whole movie for you.
Now, there is some language in the movie, so if that offends you, then...well, you're missing out on a delicious experience. If you can get past that, though, I highly recommend Chef. I also recommend you see it before you eat dinner. Plan to have something really good afterward because you will be hungry.
