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FLQHPD Chef Jon Favreau has written, directed and starred in a movie that plugs directly into two of today’s weirdest and (to me) most fatuous obsessions – Twitter and the cult of the kitchen – only to leave his commentary on them floundering halfway through. As Carl Casper, he is a oncewas-legendary chef who has gone stale working in the up-market but conservative restaurant of no-nonsense Riva (Dustin Hoffman). This in itself is a stimulating beginning, full of tension and edgy questions – the individual’s creative urge at loggerheads with business’s (in this case his employer’s) bean-counting pragmatism is a perennial struggle. When LA’s most influential foodie critic (Oliver Platt) bags Casper for his laziness, his predictability and (inexcusable) his lousy lava chocolate cake, a war of words between the pair erupts and goes viral. Favreau does well to highlight how hurtful to people the insidious cycle of 24/7 gossip posing as news can be – his public meltdown scene is spectacular. Unfortunately, as things are heating up, he opts to take his foot off the pedal by allowing his subject to walk away from the conflict. Casper buys a decrepit food-van and, accompanied by the young son (Emjay Anthony) with whom he shares custody with his divorced wife (Sofía Vergara), and cooking buddy
Jon Favreau in Chef (2014)
Martin (John Leguizamo), Casper returns to his roots as a sandwich-maker. In what evolves into a soft-sell road trip, the gang make their way from Miami back to California doing little more than eating and having a swell time. I kept expecting something to happen – but nothing does (presumably Favreau was content to allow his film to become a vehicle for the tourist offices of Florida, Texas and California). It’s harmless enough and, as winter descends, it is a cosy way to pass a couple of hours, but the fade to irrelevance disappoints. And without wishing to denigrate porky chaps in glasses and bad hair, that a bloke like Favreau could pull a couple of women like Vergara and (waitress) Scarlett Johannson is, well… hard to swallow. John Campbell TUESDAY
13 MAY to
WEDNESDAY
21 MAY
STARS ORLANDO BLOOM
The conflict initiating and maintaining the story is centred on Mac and Kelly’s efforts to get Teddy and the undergrad revellers to tone it down. All-out war erupts between the Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in Bad Neighbours (2014) two sides with a string of not entirely surprising setups and site gags ensuing – one that involves the theft from Mac’s car of its safety airbags is hilarious. Rogen does Bad Neighbours nothing out of the ordinary – despite his different hat It was only a matter of time before somebody made a he smokes a lot of dope and gets plastered – but letting gross-out flick that dealt more pointedly with the issue her hair down and venting righteously in the Australian underpinning the genre – the man-boy who won’t grow accent that she is allowed to keep, Byrne is a harridan of up. As a loudmouth stoner who has turned a pretty buck frazzled wild-haired energy and cunning. It is when the from acting the goat, it comes as a surprise to find Seth sub-text kicks in, when Teddy’s best mate and V-P, Pete Rogen swapping roles to play the middle-class family man (Dave Franco), confronts him with the awful truth that with wife and tiny tot in the burbs. Mac and Kelly (Rose Teddy’s behaviour is a manifestation of self-denial, that Byrne) and little Stella (I’m not a baby kinda guy, but this there really is a post-party world to be dealt with, that kid is fab) have their quarter-acre idyll shattered when the the heart of the movie beats strongest. There is a fart house next door becomes home to a college fraternity. joke in the first five minutes and plenty of not especially scintillating humour concerning dicks and tits etc, but I The president of the Delta Psi Beta boys is Teddy (Zac got a lot of laughs and enjoyed heaps the mix of Rogen, Efron), a rager whose mission is to throw a graduation Byrne and Efron. party that will outdo all of his predecessors’ and go down in the annals of debauchery, drunkenness and decadence. John Campbell
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FADING GIGOLO (M) Tue 13: 11:50am, 4:20, 8:50pm Wed 14: 12:20, 4:30, 9:20pm Thu 15, Fri 16, Sun 18-Tue 20: 10:20am, 12:15, 4:45, 9:10pm Sat 17, Wed 21: 10:30, 4:45, 9:10pm THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (M) Tue 13: 9:25am, 1:50, 4:00, 8:40pm Wed 14: 9:40am, 2:20, 4:30, 8:50pm Thu 15, Fri 16, Sun 18-Tue 20: 10:15am, 2.30, 4:40, 6.50, 9:00pm Sat 17, Wed 21: 10:00am, 12:30, 2.20, 6.50, 8:40pm THE OTHER WOMAN (M) Tue 13-Wed 14: 5:00pm Thu 15, Fri 16, Sun 18-Tue 20: 10:00am THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (M) Tue 13: 9:30am Wed 14: 10:00am All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: www.palacecinemas.com.au
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The Byron Shire Echo May 13, 2014 25