We’ve been trained by Coppola and Scorsese to expect mobster movies to follow epic story arcs, so it might feel a little odd to watch one that’s more tightly wound around a small series of events. Or maybe “Billy Bathgate” (1991) isn’t all that good. It didn’t do much for the career of Loren Dean (Billy), who carries this Depression-era story headlined by Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman and Bruce Willis. Kidman sleeps with all of them while being married to Xander Berkeley, a more interesting subplot than the main gangster boilerplate. Billy’s a young wannabe. Maybe this film was, too.
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“Chef” (2014) is a good movie for people like me, who enjoy cooking, awkwardly embrace social media and savor hard-to-categorize, witty little movies. Jon Favreau is the chef, a well-meaning sort-of dickhead going through a midlife crisis (exactly how I imagine Favreau is in real life). It has a lot of people in it: Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, that dude from the Woody Allen movie, John Leguizamo, Robert Downey Jr., etc. I loved the cooking scenes, especially the grilled cheese sandwich. Sofia Vergara haters will totally understand how two of the main characters are her ex-husbands. She’s an acquired taste.
Will Ferrell is a really good actor who has done some really interesting movies with really strong casts. There, I said it. He has also done some total crap in which he barely even tried to write a script, much less memorize it. The adorable “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006), thankfully, falls into the former category. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hulce, Linda Hunt, Queen Latifah and Emma Thompson have all been nominated for or have won Oscars. Plus, there’s the two dudes from the Sonic commercials. And Mr. Ferrell, as an IRS agent whose life imitates art. Or vice versa.
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