Chef
Director: Jon Favreau
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.0
A successful chef (Favreau, sporting some ink and some girth) has his ego shot down when a food blogger (Oliver Platt) knocks his stale menu, so he quits his job and starts up a food truck business in order to bond with his son (Emjay Anthony) and work with a good buddy (John Leguizamo). While I like the cooking scenes and the shots of delicious dishes (this movie will make most anyone hungry), it sacrifices actual drama for feel-good pandering and technology-love (Twitter and Vine get invoked constantly): everything gets worked out (family restored!) by getting-back-to-your-roots and working for yourself, evidently. It's a shame it's so innocuous and unsurprising since Favreau definitely has an ear for dialogue, and it's evident he has positive rapport with actors both on-screen and as a director.
