Living (2022)

Bill Nighy is Oscar-nominated for Best Actor as Mr. Williams, the numb head of a 1950s Public Works office in London. He's great, the movie is sad, but very good. Among the cast, Alex Sharp and Aimee Lou Wood as his compassionate co-workers and Tom Burke as a sympathetic stranger stand out.

Oliver Hermanus directs from the script by Kazuo Ishiguro, who adapted the screenplay from the 1952 movie Ikiru, which was directed and co-written by the seminal filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and co-written by Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. And that movie was inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. The pacing is a bit slow, but that's just right for this story.

Apparently Ishiguru had hoped for many years to adapt Ikiru and attach Nighy to the project, and his dream came true when he shared a taxi with Nighy and told him about it.

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's lovely soundtrack can be found on Apple Music and Helen Scott's production design keeps this period piece firmly set in its decade. The filmmakers used vintage footage in many scenes.

Nighy was last blogged for The Bookshop plus a cameo in Emma. and Sharp for How to Talk to Girls at Parties. Wood is best known to me for 25 episodes in the ensemble of Sex Education. This is Hermanus' fifth feature. 

Ishiguro's credits include two other feature screenplays and six adaptations of his novels, two of which are the mini-series and movie based on Never Let Me Go. Levienaise-Farrouch is new to me but this score just won the Hollywood Music in media Award for Best original Score - Independent Film. I haven't written about Scott before but her previous work includes Fish Tank, the aforementioned How to Talk to Girls at Parties, and Small Axe.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are alive and well with an average of 96% and its audiences close behind at 87. Eager to see it before the Oscars on March 12, we rented it on the first day, March 3, that it became available on Apple TV/iTunes.

The Menu (2022)

This stylish thriller about an exclusive gourmet dinner turns violent in the second half but Jack and I found it quite entertaining and very funny at times. Some of the ensemble's stars are Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Fiennes, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, and John Leguizamo.

Mark Mylod directs from a clever script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and the stunning cinematography is thanks to Peter Deming. I recommend you read the imdb trivia after watching because of spoilers –– it's fascinating. Suffice it to say many chefs and restaurants inspired the story.

Colin Stetson's soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music.

Taylor-Joy was last blogged for Amsterdam, Hoult for X-Men: First Class plus a mention in The Current War, Fiennes in A Bigger Splash, Chau for The Whale, McTeer for Hannah Arendt, and Leguizamo for voicing Bruno in Encanto. Mylod has directed TV episodes such as Succession and Shameless, as well as three other features. Reiss was writing supervisor on Late Night with Seth Meyers and head writer on The Onion TV series, among his credits, and Tracy has written for The Onion, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and two episodes of Succession. This is the first feature for both screenwriters. Stetson is new to me, though not to the biz. I've seen quite a lot of Deming's work and some of my favorites are Hollywood Shuffle (1987), My Cousin Vinny (1992), Music of the Heart (1999), Mulholland Drive (2001), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Oz the Great and Powerful. He started at my film school the year before I did.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics have a taste for this with an average of 88% while its audiences need more spice at 76.

This will be number 32 in my list of food movies.

We watched it on February 28 with our subscription to HBO.

Random food movies

Updated 8/26/24.

Several years ago Vivian asked me for a list of food movies. Here's a yummy trip around the world (with plenty of laughs). Live links will take you to my blog posts about the named movies.

1. Babette's Feast (1987), of course. About a French chef, named after me, who works for some elderly and austere Danish sisters and prepares a most amazing dinner.

2. Tampopo (1985), a Japanese noodle western. Loved this. The etiquette class is top ten. The movie is one of my faves.

3-4. Mostly Martha (2002). Some of you may be more familiar with the American remake, No Reservations (2007), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, and Abigail Breslin. I liked that, but this, in German, is way better. Both are about an uptight single chef who becomes guardian of her orphaned niece.

5. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Directed by Ang Lee long before anyone thought of Brokeback Mountain (2005). A father insists on serving elaborate old-fashioned Taiwanese meals for his modern adult daughters.

6. Tortilla Soup (2001). Again, a chef father (Hector Elizando) with three adult daughters (including Elizabeth Peña), but this time they are Mexican-American. Oh, yeah, that's because it is based on Eat Drink Man Woman.

7. Woman on Top (2000). Penelope Cruz is luscious as a chef who gets her own cooking show and says about her recipes, "The most important ingredient is love." Also featuring, as her gorgeous transvestite best friend, Harold Perrineau, better known for playing Michael on the TV show Lost.

8. What's Cooking (2000). Four families (Latino, Jewish, African-American, Vietnamese-American) live on the four corners of an intersection in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. They are all preparing for Thanksgiving amidst various family challenges.

9. Pieces of April (2003). Pre-Tom Katie Holmes is adorable as a free spirit who invites her estranged family (including Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson, and Allison Pill) from Pennsylvania to her New York apartment for Thanksgiving. Her struggles with cooking are central to this wonderful indie movie, but don't expect fabulous food stylings, as you should from the rest of this list.

10. You might think rats in a kitchen are a bad thing until you see Ratatouille (2007)

11. Big Night (1996). Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci play Italian brothers named Primo and Secondo in this 1950's piece about their "true" Italian restaurant competing with a spaghetti and meatball palace run by Ian Holm across the street in coastal New Jersey. Wonderful menu, and it won the Best First Screenplay Independent Spirit award for Tucci and Joseph Tropiano. Directed by Tucci and actor Campbell Scott, who is the son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst and has a cameo. Also features Allison Janney in an early role.

12. Amy Adams as Julie Powell tries to channel Julia Child, masterfully portrayed by Meryl Streep, in Julie & Julia (2009).

13. Julia Roberts never gains an ounce as Elizabeth Gilbert does the following: Eat Pray Love (2010).

14. Celebrate the Italian holidays in Mid August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto - 2008).

and for dessert:

15. Chocolat (2000). Juliette Binoche stars as a chocolatier who puts chilis in some of her sweets and riles up her prim French town, especially the mayor (Alfred Molina), by opening her shop on Sunday and by being a never-married single mother. With Johnny Depp. Lots of nominations, a few wins.

16. Lick your lips waiting for the crowning of Kings of Pastry (2009).

But wait, have seconds!

17. Laugh and eat at the Soul Kitchen (2009) in Germany.

18. Celebrate Passover in Mexico in Nora's Will (Cinco dias sin Nora - 2008).

19. Travel across northern England (no longer a culinary wasteland) in The Trip (2010).

20. You won't want to wake up when Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011).

21. High-class Chef (2014) goes out on his own and connects with his adoring ten-year-old son for the first time. Delicious.

22. You'll work up an appetite in The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) from the classic French restaurant across the street from Maison Mumbai in the south of France.

23. Madcap Brits Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite for The Trip to Italy (2014).

24. Gorgeous food, and such small portions! in Burnt (2015).

25. Take a mouth-watering trip around Los Angeles' ethnic neighborhoods in the documentary City of Gold (2015).

26. Paris can wait for you to savor the yummy food stylings of Paris Can Wait (2016).

27. More road-tripping, comedic riffing, and gourmet eating from Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip to Spain (2017).

28. The Cakemaker (2017) will induce hunger for delicious pastries!

29. Ali Wong's celebrity chef designs some fancy food stylings in Always Be My Maybe (2019).

30. There's no pork, but Nic Cage's former chef whips up a few gourmet recipes in Pig (2021).

31. Roll up the rice and enjoy some East Side Sushi (2014).

32. You may never leave after tasting The Menu (2022).

33. Watching The Taste of Things (2023), you may long for a kitchen garden and a couple of sous chefs.

Empire of Light (2023)

We loved this layered story of a lonely woman working at a vintage movie theatre on the southeastern coast of England in 1980-81. The riveting performance by Olivia Colman, the captivating story, the Oscar-nominated cinematography, and the magnificent art deco location/sets all contributed to our enjoyment. The references to and posters of movies current to the time are fun, too.

Micheal Ward as her co-worker Stephen, Colin Firth as her boss Mr. Ellis, and Toby Jones as the dedicated projectionist are some of the excellent supporting cast.

Sam Mendes directs from his own script (the first time he has not used a co-writer), documenting social mores and the inherent racism of England at the time. In 1980 he was 15, living in Reading, England, about 150 miles west of Margate, where the movie is set and some of it was shot. 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross's dreamy score can be streamed on Apple Music. Roger Deakins is the nominated cinematographer and Mark Tildesley the production designer.

Colman was last blogged for The Lost Daughter; Ward for Small Axe; Firth, Mendes, and Deakins for 1917; Jones for First Cow; Reznor & Ross for Soul; and Tildesley for Phantom Thread.

We watched it on HBO on February 25. It can also be rented on some platforms.

The Whale (2022)

Brendan Fraser has earned his Oscar nomination (and more) with his heartbreaking portrayal of Charlie, an online English professor dying of the effects of morbid obesity and trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Hong Chau is also Oscar-nominated for playing Charlie's friend Liz. Sadie Sink is the angry daughter Ellie, Ty Simpkins a visitor, and Samantha Morton Charlie's ex-wife/Ellie's mother. Sink's little sister Jacey Sink plays Ellie as a younger girl.

Darren Aronofsky directs from the script by Samuel D. Hunter, based on Hunter's 2012 stage play of the same name. The title refers not only to Charlie's size but also to his obsession with Moby Dick.

Rob Simonsen's ethereal score can be streamed on Apple Music.

Makeup and hairstyling's department heads Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley-Sherron, respectively, earned the movie's third Oscar nomination, although there's quite a bit of artful CGI (computer generated images) to add to Fraser's prosthetics. Last weekend Saturday Night Live did a silly sketch about an actor (Woody Harrelson) not realizing he could wear a fat suit for a similar movie.

Chau was last blogged for Downsizing, Morton for Decoding Annie Parker, Aronofsky for Noah, and Simonsen for The Way Back. Sadie Sink was in Glass Castle and more. I've seen some of the movies Simpkins has been in, such as Little Children (2006), Revolutionary Road, Jurassic World, and The Nice Guys, but don't remember him. Jacey Sink has had one other credit, in an episode of Stranger Things, in which her sister acted in 27 episodes.

Chin's long resume includes department head on Synechdoche, New York, Noah, Birdman, The Post, Little Women, and West Side Story, and Bradley headed the hair styling departments for The Family Fang, A Quiet Place, Let Them All Talk, and more.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are but nibbling, averaging a scant 65%, but its audiences, at 91, are eating it up. Eager to see it ASAP, we bought it on Apple TV on February 21, but you can rent it beginning March 14.

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades - 2022)

Despite the interesting Oscar-nominated cinematography with bright colors, wide angle lenses, and long tracking shots, I lost patience during this 2:39 extravaganza, filled with dream sequences and heavy dialogue, about a documentary filmmaker who returns home to Mexico to receive an award. Described as a comedy, it didn't provide me many laughs.

Daniel Giménez-Cacho leads the enormous cast under the direction of Alejandro G. Iñárritu, working from a script co-written by the director and Nicolás Giacobone. Iñárritu is no stranger to wordy subtitles and long tracking shots, having helmed Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).

The music by Bryce Dessner and Iñárritu is available on Apple Music and elsewhere. Some of it has the lilt of a comedy. 

Darius Khondji's cinematography is complemented by beautiful and imaginative production design, credited to Eugenio Caballero.

Iñárritu was last blogged for directing and writing The Revenant, Giacobone for co-writing Birdman, Dessner for scoring The Kitchen, and Khondji for shooting Uncut Gems. Giménez-Cacho's resume includes playing an abusive priest in La mala educación (Bad Education - 2004) and the narrator in Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), and Caballero worked on Rudo y Cursi, The Impossible, and Roma, to name a few.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics wrote but a handful of good reviews, averaging 59%, while its audiences liked it better at 70.

I watched it on Netflix on February 22. Jack sat next to me on the couch but paid way less attention than I did.