LIFE IMITATING ART: CHEF
AN ANALYSIS/REVIEW OF JON FAVREAU’S CHEF (2014).
Some critics were dismissive in calling out 2014's Chef as complete, self-aggrandizing bullshit and others said that the film is just another middle-of-the-road outing from one of Hollywood’s most allegedly average directors. May I remind everyone that when Jon Favreau shines the most when he is telling stories in a vulnerable state. Chef is more than just a movie, it’s a filmic metaphor of his travails as an artist.
Before any of you schmucks preemptively accuse me of being a fanboy, I’ll tell you that I really didn’t feel it for Zathura and Cowboys & Aliens. I also really despised Iron Man 2 for reasons that were out of Favreau’s hands because producer Kevin Feige had the need to sacrifice the narrative of the film in place of this needlessly bloated feature-length trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie set to be released the following year.
I wasn’t too keen on Chef either when I first saw it, but I found it a rather enjoyable watch that can be playing somewhere in the background while I’m doing something around the house later on. I did see this film upon its initial release in 2014 and I’ve probably seen this on four subsequent occasions since then. It wasn’t until that fourth time that I had finally connected the dots of what this movie, at its very heart, was really about: the daily struggles that an artist goes through and how that affects his works and how he affects the people that are around him. At face value, the film’s main character Carl Casper maybe this self-aggrandizing douche who only cares about himself and his work, but if one were to dig a little deeper beyond his mere facade, he’s a entertainer at heart.
It’s funny that Chef (2014) is about a culinary artist who has been aching to break from the confines of being dictated to by the whims of an insecure restauranteur (Dustin Hoffman) who lacks the vision and knowhow to delight its current and potential clientele. Instead he decided to play it safe. It was this same notion that got under Chef Carl Casper’s (Favreau) skin when Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), one of the culinary world’s more vocal critics just tore these supposedly tried and true dishes apart. Casper, in spite of him wanting to scratch his own artistic itch, was devastated when the critic gave him and the establishment a scathing two star rating out of a possible five. I’ll admit that this specific aspect of the film’s theme is a rather clever metaphor of his own struggles against critics as a filmmaker, in addition to fighting against the studio system so that his own artistic voice isn’t drowned out during an arduous production.
Looking back at his previous efforts in Iron Man 2 (2010) and Cowboys and Aliens (2011), one could say that Favreau didn’t put forth enough effort to make these films as great as they could possibly be. But when looking at this film, Favreau gives us the flip side of the argument that the reason why some artistic voices cannot flourish in the studio system (a la working for an insecure restauranteur) is that those pesky suits distort the end product under the notion that certain movies (foods) have to be done a certain way because that’s what made it successful to begin with. When one considers the hottest trends in the film industry over the last thirty years, the mere notion that not refining an allegedly tried and true product will consistently ensure success is a fallacy in it of itself and Favreau realized that making these theme park movies have forced him into what his character (Carl Casper) describes at the beginning of the film as being in a creative rut.
When looking at this film from a metaphoric perspective, the notion of an artist going back to his roots makes it a much more compelling narrative. One could say that the truck that Casper and his crew go across country with is a symbol of truly being the independent creative culinary artist that he so badly wanted to be at the outset of the film. And the character/actual person couldn’t have done this without the help of the many relationships that have been fostered in the last couple of decades. Speaking of which, the film features some holdovers from his previous films like Scarlett Johansson (Molly the maitre d of the establishment he quit from) and Robert Downey, Jr. (playing Marvin, who so happens to be not only his sole benefactor but his ex-wife’s ex-husband).
This isn’t really a film review. Hell, I don’t think this film is a film at all. When looking at the film from this perspective, one could say that the film is a statement, a clarion call to any filmmaker out there to not be afraid to go back to the well to rediscover that spark that ignited that passion to begin with. It asks them to go outside their comfort zones and to try new things in order to keep that passion alive.
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