Food Porn And Cinematographers

Sometimes I get to see quiet gems on my Netflix queue. One that I liked recently is "Toast," which is a movie based on the life of British chef Nigel SLater. I don't really know Mr. Slater which may have contributed to my appreciation of the movie. Slater grew up with a mother who did not really know how to cook, so as a kid he used to read cookbooks and he used to stare at the pictures, hiding to look at them like they were pictures of naked ladies - giving new meaning to the term food porn. Really the only thing her mother can really do is toast. When his mother dies, he makes a mission of learning how to cook after his father marries their housekeeper/cook as a way of trying to compete for his attentions. There are a lot of things I liked about the movie - it had this atmospheric fantasy vibe scored by some of Dusty Springfield's songs, and Helena Bonham Carter gives a deliciously over-the-top performance. And Freddie Highmore is a cutie - chaste and accessible, although, really, even though he is billed above the title, he only appears in the last third of the movie. I wish the gay storyline was punched a bit to fully know his character, and I suspect it is more fleshed out on the memoir. I also would have loved to have known about his "rise" in his field, but perhaps that's where knowing of Slater would be beneficial.

When I saw Julia Roberts in the cast of "Fireflies In The Garden," I half-asked myself what the hel is she doing in a small independent film until I saw her husband's name as the cinematographer (Danny Moder) and I got my answer. She is photographed beautifully, of course, and heck, the picture does look like a glossy magazine. The movie isn't as bad as the scathing reviews it got, but that's perhaps because people were expecting a lot more from it. Not that I am saying it's any good - characters are cardboard pieces, and there really isn't an arc in the supposed heart of the movie - Ryan Reynolds'. This has some very good performances from Reynolds, Roberts, and Watson, but there's no there there, so they're all kind of wasted.