Chef - A Foodie's Dream Come True

Confession: I love food almost as much as I love movies. So when I saw Chef, I was thrilled to watch my two loves come together on screen. Be sure to eat something before you watch it because I guarantee you will be starving by the credits. 

Written, directed, and starring Jon Favreau -- you may recognize him from Swingers or the Iron Man series-- this indie film follows a sort of mid life crisis of acclaimed chef Carl Casper. Casper initially seems to be losing his passion for everything from his job to his family. Tired of serving the same food over and over at a  stuffy restaurant, he loses his top chef job after a nasty twitter war erupts between him and a food critic. Add a bit of aggression towards his narrow minded boss (Dustin Hoffman) and you got a guy looking to rekindle his passion for cooking and life in general.

Out of the many reasons to see this film, the main one is this: FOOD PORN SHOTS! Heed my previous warning because the scenes of Casper cooking are so well done (haha, get it?) that I caught myself drooling or my stomach rumbling multiple times. Whether its cubano sandwiches or a simple grilled cheese, the food looks divine.

You also can't miss wonderful performances by Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Vergara, Dustin Hoffman, and John Leguizamo. Each one inadvertently teaches Casper an important life lesson about distinguishing success from happiness. The relationships with each one is what drives this cute story of re-self discovery.

But Percy (Emjay Anthony), Casper's 10 year old, son was my favorite character amongst all the big names. Not only did he teach his dad the biggest lesson of all about life, he also was a very realistic modern kid: so adept to social media and technology. It was adorable watching him bring his dad into the digital age.

For the film nerds out there, the score of the film and the cinematography mesh so well together to create a Latin flare. The dialogue was clever and funny at just the right moments. The story was neither rushed nor dragged out. All in all, it was a good example of deceptively simple film.

Chef will definitely leave you with craving for something delicious as well as a need to rethink the priorities in your life. So enjoy the food porn and wonderful story about Casper the chef/dad/food truck guy. Bon Appétit!

Watch the trailer here: 

Neighbors - Hilarious Movie with a Surprising Lesson

If you haven’t seen Neighbors yet, GO SEE IT! You’ve got a few weeks left! Directed by Nicholas Stoller, a new couple, Mac and Kelly Radner (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne), with their newborn baby are forced to deal with fraternity shenanigans from the fraternity that moves in next door, lead by Teddy and Pete (played by Zac Efron and Dave Franco respectively). Because of noise complaints and broken promises, Mac and Kelly try to sell their house so they can move, but are told no one will want to move in next to a fraternity. So they make it their mission to get the fraternity evicted, putting both sides in a huge “turf” war. They go through rounds pulling pranks on one another, such as stealing the car air bags or flooding their neighbor’s basement.

Besides the fact of how hilarious this movie is, it actually takes on some pretty deep and mature theme of the grass is always greener on the other side. Mac and Kelly have become a new family with a new baby. The miss what it was like to not have a baby, where they could party all the time, smoking weed, just like their college years, like Teddy and Pete. They later realize that that part of their life is over and they actually enjoy staying at home playing with their baby.  Teddy, in his senior of college, lives the perpetual frat boy life, never going to class and partying all the time. He wants to throw the ultimate party of the year to put him on the board of legends. After watching his fraternity brothers go to job fairs and preparing for their future, he slowly starts to realize there’s more to life after college, but he’s not ready yet. He later takes on responsibility for his actions, gets his life together and gets a job to put him through night school so he can get his degree, so he can have a future, like Mac.

I think my favorite scene of this movie is when Mac and Teddy have a discussion on Batman. By revealing who each character’s favorite Batman is, the audience discovers the age gaps between the two when Mac prefers Michael Keaton’s Batman to Christian Bale’s Batman. They thus continue to talk like Bale’s Batman for a good 5 minutes.

Go watch the movie! If you loved, This is the End, you'll love this movie! It’s imbued with Rogen’s humor with a a fresh twist from Efron. And for the ladies who want to see Efron shirtless, he has numerous shirtless scenes.

             

Blended – A Modern Family Love Story

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore are back again in the new summer movie Blended, directed by Fran Coraci. When I first went to go watch this movie, I still didn’t really understand what the movie was about, even after watching the trailers. So let me fill you in just in case you were in the same boat. Barrymore and Sandler bring the same chemistry they had from 50 First Dates to Blended. Jim Friedman (Adam Sandler), single dad with three daughters, and Lauren Reynolds (Drew Barrymore), single mom with two sons, first meet on a bad blind date, but end up stuck together at an African romantic resort for families. Their relationship starts to grow as they begin to realize that their families complete each other. Lauren becomes the mom that Jim’s daughters needs and vice versa for her sons. You learn that loving families come in all shapes and sizes, just like blended families.

This is another classic Sandler movie. It is hilarious with all-star odd actors and characters, such as Kevin Nealon, Terry Crews, and Wendi McLendon-Covey, not to mention the actors playing the kids themselves. 10-second Tom (Allen Covert) from 50 First Dates even makes a cameo in the movie! There were less sexual jokes than I had initially expected for Adam Sandler movies, which is a plus, especially since this is definitely a family movie. It takes on themes of what it takes to be a good parent, to always be there for your kid, 99% of the time, with 1% for the parent’s needs or how a parent can play a key role in a child’s life. For example, Jim’s daughter Hillary “Lary” Friedman (Bella Thorne), constantly being confused for a boy, wishes to show her girly side when she meets Jake (Zak Henri), the teen heartthrob of the movie. Lauren helps her bring out her more feminine side.

This is a hilarious, lovely family movie. Take your family to go see this movie! You won’t regret it!

Maleficent – A Feminist Take on a Non-Feminist Classic

 Disney takes their old classic Sleeping Beauty and gives it a welcomed twist to the original story. Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) takes on the role of both hero and villain. [But I mean who didn’t see that coming since the title of the movie is Maleficent.] Directed by Robert Stromberg, the movie follows her story of first living a life of curiosity and love to a life of hatred and scorn after a man, Stefan (Sharito Copley), she loved broke her heart so he could become king of the mankind kingdom. For revenge, she curses his first-born child, Aurora (Ellie Fanning), to fall into a deep sleep on her 16^th birthday but could only be awaken by true love’s kiss. She created this stipulation with the belief that true love doesn’t exist. However, watching Aurora grow, love returned to heart once again. I was ecstatic that they kept the lines of the classic curse scene from the original cartoon movie! Jolie even copied some of her the cartoon Maleficent’s gestures!

First off, the visuals of this movie were AMAZING!!! I would even go so far as saying the visuals and special effects where Oscar worthy! All the creatures were amazing! Maleficent’s makeup and wardrobe was amazing! The prosthetics were applied so cleanly. They gave Maleficent a sort of couture look, but it kept with her classic style. The special effects of this movie were seamlessly blended into the movie. Because in some movies with special effects, you can clearly define where the filmed portion of the scene is and the special effects are. Aurora’s guardian fairies, Flittle (Lesley Manville), Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), and Thistleetwit (Juno Temple), were all CGI characters. The special effects artists were able to perfectly recreate the actresses’ faces to put on their small characters’ bodies. However, my one critique is that the sizing of the heads didn’t always match the bodies.

Disney movies lately have been revamping the damsel in distress stories with Tangled, Frozen, and now Maleficent. Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites) really has no role in this movie. I believe he shows up just so that the audience doesn’t question why he never showed up to wake up Aurora. This definitely was more a heroine-driven movie, or as my brother states, a feminist movie. It gives a more humane approach to villains showing that villains aren’t always evil. Sometimes there’s a reason their heart turns cold. It brought on themes of motherly love and, of course, true love, but what qualifies as true love.

The men of this movie were characterized by stupidity, greed, or blind ambition. Prince Phillip, as stated before, is not given a chance to think or play a huge role in the story’s progression. He just played the placeholder of Prince. King Stefan takes on the classic Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein theme of blind ambition, and how it affects you and everyone around you. He chooses power over love and friendship, and becomes consumed by paranoia that his power will be taken away.

In terms of casting, I’m glad that 16-year-old Aurora was played by an actress who was quite similar in age to the character. Many teenage roles are played by 20 year old actors, convincing teenagers, this is what teenagers should look like at that age. Standing next to Jolie, emphasized Fanning’s youth and naivety. Jolie was wonderful in the role of Maleficent. She played a strong woman who defended those she loved. Her daughter, Vivienne, was even able to make a cameo as young Aurora. Although, in the movie, there is a point in the story where Maleficent and Stefan are around their 20s, but they are played by Jolie and Copley. Jolie and Copley are obviously not in their 20s. They are both wonderful beautiful people, but they are obviously not in their 20s. I think they should have casted one more actor pair to play this age group and then bring in Jolie and Copley. This is my one gripe about the movie.

So if you love Disney movies, go watch this movie! If you love the Disney Princess movies, go watch this movie! If you’re pro-Girl Power, go watch this movie! Bottom line, go watch this movie!!!