Chef: The Artist, The Critic, The Passionate

Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Jon Favreau’s grounded indie-style flick, Chef! The two explore themes of maturing and parenthood, the relationship between the artist and the observer, and the importance of passion in everyday life. 

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 25-minutes talking about those insane A Minecraft Movie screenings where people are throwing their popcorn and bringing live chickens, and how that’s wildly different to otherwise incredibly engaging fan screenings of The Room or Rocky Horror Picture Show. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• Kathryn shares what it is about Chef that she really enjoys.
• Melvin compares Chef to Parks & Recreation, saying how it’s a movie with conflict but ultimately everyone still kinda likes each other.
• It’s fairly clear that Chef is somewhat an artistic response to John Favreau’s experience with Marvel, Iron Man 2, and the subsequent critical response to it.
• Which food in the movie got us the most hungry.
• The movie explores the dynamics of the artist and the observer (or, critic), and Melvin spends some time categorizing what he thinks are variations of these archetypes.
• Chef depicts professionalism and the pursuit of maturity well.
• Sometimes eating food is like time travel.
• Seeking to live a life by design, not by default.

Recommendations:

• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking (2017) (Cookbook)
• Salt Fat Acid Heat (2018) (Cooking Show)
• Try new and exotic foods, and be adventurous with what you eat!

Chef is Rated R for language, including some suggestive references. It features Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo, Emjay Anthony, Sofía Vergara, Dustin Hoffman, Bobby Cannavale, Oliver Platt, Scarlett Johansson, and Robert Downey Jr.. Directed by John Favreau. Chef is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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