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 7/16/25.

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.

34. If you're lucky, your grandma will cook as well as these Nonnas (2025).

East Side Sushi (2014)

Jack and I liked this one, another feel good movie, about Juana (do not say Joo-anna), an immigrant living in East Oakland California with her father and young daughter, who has ambitions to become a sushi chef. The movie earned many festival nominations and wins. Diana Elizabeth Torres as Juana and Yutaka Takeuchi as Aki, the head chef, head up the cast, and the movie has many wins and nominations.

Anthony Lucero makes his feature debut both directing and writing the screenplay, and shot most, if not all, of the movie in his native Oakland, with cinematography by Martin Rosenberg.

The score by Alex Mandel features some taiko drumming and can be streamed on Apple Music, among others, with some tracks available on Soundcloud.

Torres, Takeuchi, Rosenberg, and Mandel have a few other credits but are all new to me.

Eleven years ago, at Vivian's request. I began a list of food movies. She actually recommended this one and it's now number 31 on the list.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics ate it up, averaging 95% and its audiences took a big bite at 83.

We watched it free with our Amazon Prime subscription on August 25.

Pig (2021)

This multi-layered story of a reclusive former chef and his truffle-hunting pig is a tour de force for Nicolas Cage in the lead role of Rob, and Jack and I loved it. Cage is backed by Alex Wolff as Amir, who sells Rob's truffles to restaurants. Adam Arkin has a pivotal role in the third act.

Michael Sarnoski makes a solid feature directorial and screenwriting debut, co-writing the story with Vanessa Block, also her debut.

It's been six weeks since we saw it, but I remember loving the music as well. The soundtrack by Alexis Grapsas & Philip Klein is available to stream on Apple Music and elsewhere and imdb has printed the list of songs.

The dark, foggy, rainy cinematography is the work of Patrick Scola, shot in the forests of Oregon as well as iconic locations in Portland.

The one trivia point that stands out for me is that their budget was so small they couldn't afford a fully trained pig and the one they used bit Cage more than once. She is adorable.

Some interesting scenes of food being prepared earns this a spot on my running list of food movies.

Since the beginning of lockdown, we've been almost exclusively streaming movies, so I haven't been afflicted with Motion Picture Motion Sickness in our house. But this one does jump around with handheld photography and very sensitive folks might need to sit back behind their couches if possible. I'll add it to my MPMS list as well.

Cage was last blogged for Snowden. After I wrote about Arkin in A Serious Man, he's been in episodes of Masters of Sex, Fargo, and Modern Family, just to name a few. Wolff (the younger son of Thirtysomething actress Polly Draper and musician Michael Wolff), Grapsas, Klein, and Scola have many projects under their belts but they're all new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are high on this hog, averaging 97%, and its audiences aren't far behind at 84.

We rented the on iTunes/Apple TV on July 20. AFTER you see this fine film, you may want to read a spoiler-filled "biblical reading". It gives away everything. Seriously.

City of Gold (2015)

Dan, Jack, and I loved this documentary about Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold, whose adventures in ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles and beyond have kept mouths watering for decades. Laura Gabbert was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for writing and directing. The music, by Bobby Johnston, is uplifting and you can hear some clips here. Apparently there's another composer's music in the movie, too.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are in agreement with us, all averaging 90%. I can't find a DVD release date, so I subscribed to the movie's website to find out when it will be possible to stream it.

When you do get to see it, don't turn it off right away because more video plays over the music credits. Afterwards we looked on Yelp and found a great Chinese restaurant that was new to us. This is going on my Food Movie list. Thanks, Mary Ellen, for passing on the suggestion!

Chef (2014)

Yummy. Tears of joy, and maybe hunger, wet my face watching this story of a high-class restaurant chef going out on his own and connecting with his adoring ten-year-old son for the first time. We had a lot of fun, along with the opening day crowd. Jon Favreau wrote, directs, and stars (last script was Couples Retreat (missed it in 2009), last directing job was Cowboys & Aliens, last role was a small part in The Wolf of Wall Street, last role I blogged was a cameo in Iron Man 3) in a triumphant return to his indie roots. Emjay Anthony (the TV show Rake and movie It's Complicated, among others), who'll be 11 next month, is sweet as the boy. Sophia Vergara (was just in Fading Gigolo) and John Leguizamo (started out with acclaimed variety/stand-up comedy shows Mambo Mouth (1991) and Spic-O-Rama (1993), then movies To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), Summer of Sam (1999), played Toulouse-Laurec in Moulin Rouge! (2001), had small parts in Miracle at St. Anna and The Lincoln Lawyer, among many credits, with five more due for release in 2014) are in it all the way. Bobby Cannavale (most recently in Blue Jasmine), Dustin Hoffman (last role blogged in Barney's Version), Scarlett Johansson (most recently in Her), and Oliver Platt (last in The Oranges) lend their considerable talents to the first act. Robert Downey Jr., no doubt honoring his Iron Man comrade, has a nice cameo in the middle.

Favreau's script hums along with lots of good jokes, lots of 21st century technology--the chef learns about Twitter from his son, accompanied by an amusing graphic--and a truly satisfying plot. We had not seen the trailer. If you can avoid it, do so. Some of the best bits are in it.

In addition to the scrumptious food stylings (it's not often I wish for smell-o-vision), this is also a road-trip movie, and features music from the various parts of the country visited. No composer is credited: it's all songs. Jack especially wanted me to mention the musicians in the Austin, Texas sequence: Gary Clark Jr. (listen to tracks here, and if the first song doesn't pull you in, keep going because he has a lot of styles--free download available from the site). And here's the poignant Al Green song from the marionette sequence.

Don't go running out of the room when the credits start! There's an excellent bonus, featuring Los Angeles chef Roy Choi, an executive producer of the project, giving Favreau a lesson in kitchen technique, during the music credits. Usually I read the music credits carefully, but this time I had ascertained the night before that there were lots, and maybe all, on imdb, as noted in the link above.

This is in the Producers Plethora category, with 24. It's also going to be #20 in the Food Movies list that I started soon after beginning the blog in the fall of 2008. Don't just take my word for it, Rotten Tomatoes critics are coming in at 87% and audiences at 88, even though it's playing on only 72 screens so far. For fans of statistics, it ranks third in average theatre box office right now, after Godzilla and The Immigrant. Get to those, too, but see this one first! It may be rated R but I find it suitable for any child who's allowed to hear some profanity.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

I love sushi and I loved this documentary about Jiro Ono, the elderly chef whose 10-seat restaurant, Sukiybashi Jiro, in a Tokyo subway stop has won 3 stars, the highest level, from the respected Michelin Red Guide to restaurants. In case you're in the neighborhood (Ginza), a meal there costs upwards of $300, consists of only sushi, reservations must be made a month in advance, and you will be done in under a half hour. Jiro's sons Yoshikazu, who hopes to succeed his octogenarian father, and Takashi, who has his own restaurant, are featured as well.

Director David Gelb makes his feature directing debut after a short or two, and blends the western classical music of Philip Glass and Max Richter with the images of Tokyo, the fish markets, the three men, and the loving preparation of sushi.

This goes on my growing list of delicious-looking food movies. Jack couldn't make it weeks ago when I saw this, but I think it's worth saving to your netflix list.

The Trip (2010)

Funny, a little poignant, with beautiful scenery and delicious looking food, this trip takes Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon across northern England eating, chatting, doing impressions of their favorite actors, and entertaining us for a delightful week condensed into under 2 hours. Already a Coogan fan, I loved watching him squirm as yet another vain, insecure character (I wrote about my favorites in In the Loop and also enjoyed him in 24 Hour Party People (2002), Hamlet 2, and The Other Guys, among others), this time playing a version of himself. I'd never seen Brydon before but he's a great foil to Coogan and vice versa. It's noteworthy that no writer is listed in the credits, so it must have been improvised. They must be good friends in real life. At the very least, they were in the British mini-series of the same name that inspired this movie, also directed by Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005) which also starred Coogan, A Mighty Heart (2007), more).

Leave it to imdb fans to give us the exact itinerary for those wanting to visit the fine restaurants in the movie. This is getting its rightful place on my list of food movies for peeks into kitchens and gorgeous platings.

Acclaimed composer Michael Nyman (The Piano (1993), Man on Wire, and many more) provides delectable piano music but remains uncredited on imdb. His name, however, was on the screen for some of the shortest credits ever. Here's a clip.

This will be shown locally for another week. Go see it and have a good meal before or after!

Nora's Will (Cinco dias sin Nora - 2008)

Opening recently in these parts, this Mexican story of a man dealing with the suicide of his ex-wife just before Passover is funny and poignant. Its Spanish title is Five Days Without Nora, but the English title is a nice double entendre, since Nora is demanding even after death, having planned the pesach dinner to the nth degree. The feature debut of Mexican-Jewish director/writer/editor/producer Mariana Chenillo is assured and has earned her more work. After you see it, read this interview (contains spoilers) in which she talks about taking many elements of the fictional story from the lives of her own grandparents. Star Fernando Luján (new to me, he has over 100 acting credits, starting in 1953, when he was 15 years old) has a wonderful screen presence--dry and sarcastic yet sweet and playful with his granddaughters.

Great music, fabulous mid-century set dressing in the apartments (not to mention the lovely old lace tablecloth and silver pattern), and good acting make this a must see. Plus it has quite a lot of discussion and preparation of food; so it's going on the list of food movies.

Soul Kitchen (2009)

Delicious and delightful, this German farce about a Greek/German restaurateur had us howling with laughter and tapping our feet to the kick-ass soundtrack. Though the Doors song is missing, our hero Zinos sports a Jim Morrison haircut. Co-writer Adam Bousdoukos plays it straight as the beleaguered Zinos, while the better-known Moritz Bleibtreu plays his brother Ilias with a comic flair not seen in his earlier work (Run Lola Run (1998), Munich (2005), The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), among others). Moritz's mother Monica Bleibtreu has a cameo as Nadine's grandmother (she's in the photo I linked above) but sadly died in May 2009, before the movie was released anywhere. Director/co-writer Fatih Akin (no, not Faith) is a German man of Turkish descent, and there are a few Turkish references as well as the Greek ones, including the casting of Turkish actor Birol Ünel as the volatile chef Shayn. The only one of Akin's movies I've seen is his segment of New York, I Love You, but will definitely watch for him from now on. Newcomer Anna Bederke is funny as waitress Lucia. But it's Akin's and Bousdoukos's writing that really sparkles. Warning: don't read the synopses. Every one that I've seen is full of spoilers.

The soundtrack details are, for a change, listed on imdb. As I said, we loved the music, soul and otherwise. If I had thought of it earlier, I would have a list on the blog of wonderful music movies, and this would go on it. However, I do have a list of food movies, which I'm pushing up to a later publishing date, with this added, because the food stylings are great. We think it's better than its 75% rating from critics and 77% from audiences on rottentomatoes, and can whole-heartedly recommend this (to adults--there's sex in it!).

Kings of Pastry (2010)

This documentary about 16 patissiers (pastry-makers) auditioning for the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) was great fun and, Jack said, more suspenseful than most of the scripted thrillers we've seen lately. Co-directed by 85-year-old D.A. Pennebaker (best known for the Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back (1967) and numerous other "rockumentaries" and videos) and his wife since 1982, 58-year-old (since I told his I have to tell hers) Chris Hegedus (together they were Oscar-nominated for The War Room (1993), and Hegedus won the Directors Guild of America Award for Startup.com (2001)), it follows several of them before the competition, traveling between Chicago, Alsace, Lyon, and Paris, with Rule #2 exhibited immediately. Jack watches Top Chef and No Reservations, I watch no food TV shows, but we both liked the movie a lot. Going on my updated list of food movies, it's short (1:24) and, I have to say it, SWEET!

Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto - 2008)

This sweet Italian comedy about a middle-aged devoted son is quite amusing and won a bunch of awards, mostly in its native Italy. Directed (his debut) and written by and starring Gianni Di Gregorio (who co-wrote the award-winning and intense drama Gomorrah (2008) and more) it takes place over the holiday known as Ferragosto, so the English translation is misleading, as though someone translated "Labor Day" to "Early September." We missed a couple of minutes by waiting in the wrong theatre (hey, we all have our off days) but we still enjoyed it a lot. Apparently Di Gregorio shot the interiors in his own apartment and based the script on an incident from his own life. There are plenty of simple location shots around Rome, including one of the Colosseum, and much cooking, so I'll add this to my list of food movies, bringing the total to 14.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

When given the choice I tend to see the movie before reading the book. This time I had already read and loved Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of psychic healing through world travel. The movie is fine, but it's tough to live up to a good read. The cast, locations, cinematography, costumes, set design, and music are first rate. Ann, who says she goes to two movies a year, was suddenly available last Saturday. She had listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it, but found the movie disappointing. Nichole and some of her facebook friends had weighed in between August 11-13: 9 loved the book, 5 liked it some, 10 hated it; 12 couldn't wait to see the movie, 6 had reservations based on casting or their feelings about the book, and 3 wouldn't dream of seeing it. Jack was busy that day, and, though I'm sure he would've been a good sport, probably is okay about missing it (he did read the book, on my enthusiastic recommendation. He didn't hate it).

If you are among the millions who have read the book and seen the movie, you may be interested in this good analysis from NPR of what went wrong in the conversion from page to screen. Not that it is lacking for talent. Ryan Murphy (director/co-writer/co-producer of Nip/Tuck (FX-TV 2003-10), Glee (ABC-TV), and the wonderful movie Running with Scissors (2006)) performed the same duties here. He and Jennifer Salt (she played Eunice Tate on the TV series Soap (1977-81) and co-wrote 19 episodes of Nip/Tuck) co-wrote the script, using some of Gilbert's humor along the way (anything that makes you laugh, such as Richard from Texas' nickname for Gilbert, is straight from the book). Julia Roberts (I named my favorites in Duplicity) does the best she can as Liz with the tools she's been given. Billy Crudup (see my post on Public Enemies) thoroughly convinced me that Liz was right to divorce his character. Viola Davis (Doubt, a cameo in State of Play, and delightful as an eccentric artist in United States of Tara) gives her character of Liz's agent and friend Delia warmth and professionalism, but, why, as the NPR blog above asks, did the movie leave out the advance payment for the book that financed the journey? James Franco (see Milk, plus he had a funny small part in Date Night, and I'm eagerly anticipating his Allen Ginsberg in Howl--I saw the trailer online the other night). Richard Jenkins (Burn After Reading and especially The Visitor) brings his considerable talents to Richard from Texas. Comedian Lewis Black did a hilarious segment on The Daily Show complaining about the casting of Javier Bardem as the love interest, "the creepy villain from No Country for Old Men," for which Bardem won an Oscar in 2008. I guess Black didn't see Bardem in his other award-winning work as nice guys: Before Night Falls (2000--Oscar nominated), The Dancer Upstairs (2002), The Sea Inside (2004), and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I also liked Mike O'Malley (Leatherheads (2008), a regular on Glee and the now-cancelled My Name is Earl, more) as Delia's husband, Hadi Subiyanto in his first role as Ketut Liyer (the real Ketut, a very old man in India, is apparently ailing now), and Gilbert's gal-pals in the three foreign countries, Tuva Novotny (voted Sweden's most beautiful woman in several magazine polls in 1998 and 2000) in Italy, Russhita Singh in India, and Christine Hakim in Bali.

As my fellow blogger at reelsoundtrack put it, the songs included in the movie are a far better mix than we would have expected. He has posted them all, including 7 videos for your listening pleasure, and imdb has come through again with a complete list, including composers. The rest of the music is composed by the prolific Dario Marianelli (after The Soloist, I wrote about him in Everybody's Fine). It's worth mentioning that Samba Da Bencao by Bebel Gilberto, featured during the Bali sequence of the film and linked in the reelsoundtrack post, also appeared in Closer, which also starred Julia Roberts and had great songs.

The critics have not been kind to Eat Pray Love. Its imdb rating is 4.7 out of 10 and its Rottentomatoes score is a scathing 38%. Yet it was #2 at the box office last week and #3 this week (the numbers in this link will vary, depending on when you click through). I've heard that Gilbert's follow-up memoir, Committed, is even better. We'll see if that one makes it to the silver screen as well. This is going into my list of food movies.

Julie & Julia (2009)

To quote a line from the script: utter bliss. Like many children of the 60s (and the 50s), I had been looking forward to this tale of Julia Child's becoming the famous cookbook author interspersed with Julie Powell's memoir of tackling 524 recipes in 365 days for at least 5 reasons.

1. I've read much of the book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and eaten many of the dishes, though the only thing I ever made myself was the creamed mushrooms (they were divine). Maybe I tried to make the boeuf bourguignon once, too (or, as Garrison Keillor would say, "berf"). I want to try it now. Or maybe someone will make it for me? And I ate the vichyssoise many times in my teens and wish someone would make that for me too!

2. I watched Julia's cooking show from time to time, as well as the Saturday Night Live parodies and they were great.

3. Meryl Streep as Julia Child? Genius (who else could do that voice? And Streep has it pitch perfect).

4. Written and directed by Nora Ephron (This is My Life (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), more in a minute)? Also genius.

5. I happen to enjoy Amy Adams, in this and everything else (her film debut was as one of the contestants in the beauty pageant in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), she was nominated for Junebug (2005) and Doubt (also playing opposite Streep), and, as I've written, I liked Enchanted, though it was syrupy, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which had detractors, and Sunshine Cleaning, and Adams was one of the few redeeming parts of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian).

Reading through Streep's credits it's hard to pick my favorites. When I was in film school in 1982, Streep chose The Deer Hunter (1978) for us to see before she appeared to speak (Sophie's Choice, one of her first accented roles, was released later that year). Heartburn (1986), Streep starring in Ephron's directing of her own screenplay of her own novel's thinly veiled story of her own breakup with Carl Bernstein, was great fun. Streep did another accent as Ethel Rosenberg in the fabulous PBS miniseries Angels in America (2003), a similar one in Prime (2005), and modulated her voice beautifully in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Doubt.

Stanley Tucci (some of my faves: the TV series Murder One (1995-96), Big Night, What Just Happened, and opposite Streep in Prada) was delightful as Paul Child, and their relationship was enviable, in stark contrast to Heartburn. Speaking of heartburn, it couldn't have been easy for the actors to eat so much on screen--they must have had barf, er, berf, bags handy between takes. Julie's husband Eric (Chris Messina, Away We Go, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Towelhead, and a tiny part in Ephron's You've Got Mail (1998)) chowing down the bruschetta was impressive. Also impressive were the clever uses of camera angles, hidden platform shoes, and more (this wonderful behind-the-scenes article is so long, even I haven't read the whole thing, because I'm on deadline tonight, so I can't vouch for its spoiler-free status) to make the 5'6" Streep look like she was 6'2". Which they did. The set design and the music contributed to make the whole thing a delicious experience. You won't be surprised to learn I am adding it to my food movie list, which I'm going to move up to August.

Update: As I predicted, but forgot to write before, Mastering the Art of French of Cooking is enjoying a resurgence of sales. The Charlie Rose episode with Ephron and Streep is now available online.

Ratatouille (2007)

Kim, mother of kids ages 4 & 6, reminded me of this food movie. How could I forget?? In computer animation, but still about gourmet French cooking. I loved that all ads and promotion for it gave the correct French pronunciation: rat-a-TOO-ee. The female sous-chef is voiced by Janeane Garofolo. And the soundtrack was Oscar-nominated!