Review: _Chef:_ A smart, upbeat film about cooking and family

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Every now and then my partner and I have what I call a 'Netflix' night; forgoing the dubious pleasures of commercial television, we go for a selection or two that we can stream. J loves superhero flicks, while I go for period dramas, and often we switch from one evening to the next as to who gets to choose. Tonight's selection was a low-key independent movie that I had briefly glimpsed while I was on a recent cruise. Chef tells the story of Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) who is the chef de cuisine at a high-end eatery in Los Angeles. As with most chefs, he works too hard, does too much, cares too much, and unfortunately has a boss who doesn't know the first thing about cooking. Carl has gotten miserable over his job, itching to try new dishes for the restaurant, but Riva (Dustin Hoffman), the owner, wants him to stay with the exact same thing as they do every night. When a famous critic, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Pratt) turns up, Carl intends to do an entirely new menu for him, but Riva shoots it down, and Carl has to put out the exact same thing as before. Under the surface he is seething, and what happens next is catastrophic. The critic writes a scathing, biting review, and Carl -- who knows nothing about social media or Twitter -- gets mired into a real mess. Carl has a son that he adores, Percy (Emjay Anthony), who he shares custody with his ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vergara). Percy is like any kid, savvy about the internet and using a cell-phone to document his life. Carl borrows Percy's phone and tells Ramsey exactly what he thinks, and all hell breaks loose as the message goes viral on Twitter and the internet. Suddenly, Carl is out of a job, out of money and in a moment of madness, corners the critic in the restaurant and lets loose in the verbal tirade. It's pretty raw, and if his reputation is rocky before, he's pure poison now. It's Carl's ex who comes up with a solution. Why not come with her to Miami, and watch Percy while she's working? It'll give Carl time to get his head together, and decide what to do to put his life back together. What he does next is what makes this film work... This is a great, rather understated, film. The story is simple and honest, told is a funny, human style, and with a few surprises. The music is great, combining Latino and blues music, with plenty of catchy tunes that fit the rather frenetic style of the chef lifestyle. Best of all are the cameos here -- from John Leguizamo as the very supportive sous chef, Robert Downey Jr. as Inez' -other- ex-husband, and Scarlett Johanssen as Molly the hostess at Riva's restaurant. I really enjoyed Jon Favreau's performance here, he's funny, despairing and very watchable as the down-on-his-luck chef -- I could believe his character, and that he would be someone that I could easily meet anywhere. Other big plus to this movie was that they went to trouble of filming in each location that they mention in the story. So yes, that really is Miami, Austin, and New Orleans in the film, and it's a fine touch of authenticity. There's not too much that is offensive in this one, except for two characters sharing a joint, and some profanity. Some might get upset over the scene where Dad shares a sip of beer with his son, but hey, it's a rite of passage -- and it's worth it for the kid's reaction. Now, I usually can't stand films where the lead actor both writes and directs the movie; I tend to see these as not much more than self-indulgent exercises in vanity. But there are exceptions, and this is one of them. Jon Favreau does an excellent job here, and for his efforts he got the win for Audience favourite for Film Narrative at the TriBeCa film festival in 2014. I give this one four stars overall, and it does work just fine for a weeknight movie. Comes in just under two hours, and I give it a big thumbs up.