“I couldn’t watch another episode of Big Bang Theory, at least not right away. And pretty soon, I wouldn’t be able to play another quest in Wow. That just meant straying from the Black Friday TV binging and into the Black Friday movie stash I had brought with me. Chef, I’d picked up for two bucks.
This movie was released about two years ago, and I remember it being somewhat of a sleeper hit. I’d never so much as seen a trailer for it, but it appeared in theaters and stuck around for a while. The buzz was generally positive, but it never really peaked my interest enough to choose it over the summer blockbusters it was up against. An end of the year wrap up I saw described the movie as “”Your Mom’s favorite of the year””.
Written, directed by, and starring Jon Favreau, Chef follows a, um, chef, who’s feeling creatively stifled in his big restaurant job. Hoping to reclaim some of the joy that comes with the freedom in his work, he buys a food truck and drives it across the country with a close friend and his not so close young son. There’s lots of food and lots of feels.
I get why this movie ended up being so well received. It fits every requirement of a feel good family film, beat by predicable beat. But watching it over the holidays when I didn’t have too much else going, it was nice. There’s a reason the formula works over and over again, and to top it off, we had a good cast (John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Bobby Cannavale) to really do it right.”