Pretty simply, Chef has all the strengths of mainstream Hollywood comedies and all the strengths of indie films, without the weaknesses of either. The plot has continual forward momentum without any art-house slack, but nothing that happens is a contrivance, and all the key performances are wonderfully naturalistic.
It's wall-to-wall laugh-out loud funny, it's wickedly smart about social media, and it has touching but entirely unschmaltzy father / son and ex-husband / ex-wife relationships to boot.
And, oh yeah, pure food porn. I never thought I'd see a scene featuring Scarlett Johannson and a bowl of pasta where I desperately wanted to eat the latter.
It's wall-to-wall laugh-out loud funny, it's wickedly smart about social media, and it has touching but entirely unschmaltzy father / son and ex-husband / ex-wife relationships to boot.
And, oh yeah, pure food porn. I never thought I'd see a scene featuring Scarlett Johannson and a bowl of pasta where I desperately wanted to eat the latter.