These movies keep me at the edge of my seat and on edge, and at the same time I am committing to memory the recipe from the movie since I will definitely try to recreate it in my own kitchen, immediately after watching.
Tena Razumović ŽmaraFebruary 25, 2024
Movies about food that keep me glued to the screen, that cause mild anxiety, movies where I nervously await each next scene, where the tension can be cut with a knife?
Yes, thrillers and dramas featuring food, where the meals are as important a character as any other played by the actors, may be one of the more neglected genres when I think about movies and food, but they are certainly one of the most tense and exciting. They keep me at the edge of my seat and on edge, and at the same time I am committing to memory the recipe from the movie since I will definitely try to recreate it in my own kitchen, immediately after watching. It’s a great match; the tension and satisfying the sense of taste.
“The Menu” is a movie that is a drama, thriller, horror and comedy in one, with thriller and horror as the prevailing aspects. The movie follows a young couple, Margot and Tyler (played by Anya Taylor Joy and Nicholas Hoult), who are traveling to an island to dine at an exclusive restaurant where chef Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a sumptuous menu, along with several shocking (and life-threatening!) surprises. With the cook’s and chef’s each move in the kitchen, with each dish served, the tension becomes stronger and higher.
While “The Menu” does play a bit with food-related anxieties and concerns, it actually shows us how a “fine dining” restaurant works. At the same time, this movie relies on the long tradition of horror movie about artists who are driven crazy by the demands of critics and consumers and eventually lose their minds and, in this case, become villains. Everyone performs well in the movie, but Ralph Finnes did a great job portraying Chef Slowik, showing us what a “mad scientist” looks like in the kitchen.
“Boiling Point” is a movie that brings the bustle, anxiety and neurosis of a professional kitchen almost into real space in front of the screen! Director Philip Barantini leads the audience through a fascinating journey of gourmet cuisine, and actor Stephen Graham did a great job portraying the character of chef Andy, who lives under unprecedented stress in the hour and a half of the movie. His high-end restaurant has just been stripped of two stars, the restaurant is full of reservations due to the holidays, and his former mentor, an icon of the culinary world, has just walked into the restaurant with a food critic.
Watching the movie, I’m just waiting for that “boiling point”, or maybe better said in this case – “breaking point”. Because the whole time everything looks like it’s going to break, fall apart. The tension is unbearable.
Sitisiri Mongkolsiri directed the movie “Hunger”. The story follows Aoy, a young woman who went from her everyday life as a cook in her family’s street noodle restaurant to one of the best kitchens in Bangkok, Hunger. At the helm is Chef Paul, a dictator who controls his unit with the precision of the powerful generals he cooks for. As Aoy delves deeper into the world of fine dining, she is confronted by the toxicity of the industry and the clientele she cooks for. Toxicity as a motif that runs through the core of the “fine dining” industry is also dealt with in this movie. But there’s never enough good motifs! Especially those that encourage tense and exciting works such as this movie.
The movie stars Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. Reason enough to watch. Especially when we add to that that Bradley plays the character of a failed chef who returns to take his place under the culinary “spotlight” and along the way we learn everything about his emotional, romantic and addiction past and baggage. An exciting, at times comical, story unfolds on the screen.
The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Movie. The movie is Danish, and the recognizable Scandinavian aesthetic permeates the movie. The movie premiered at Cannes in 1987 and immediately won over the audience and critics, and in 1988 won an Oscar. I discovered this movie during the lockdown because I accidentally came across it while searching the internet for something related to the lockdown. In fact, this keyword is so specific to this movie that it might be better not to reveal more about the movie. Watching it will make everything clear. The movie shows us that when we take care of what we eat and pay more attention to it, we can achieve more with less!
