Toast (2010)

How do you beat the best lemon meringue pie ever baked in the world?

Ken Stott looks a bit like the
old guy from Up (2009), doesn't he?

At a glance:

Offbeat British telemovie set in the 60s, first aired on BBC One in December 2010. The narrator is Nigel Slater, an openly gay cook, food writer and TV personality whom New York Times' Stephen Holden calls "a Billy Elliot of the culinary arts". Not coincidentally, the screenplay is written by the same guy who did Billy Elliot (2000). Anyway, the proceedings are based on the memoirs first serialised in The Observer and then formin his 2004 autobiography Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. We follow Nigel (Nottinghamshire upstart Oscar Kennedy as the younger version and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory's Freddie Highmore as the older one) as he lives out his early, pathetic and eventless Wolverhampton existence with his grumpy dad (Ken Stott) and acutely asthmatic mum (Victoria Hamilton) whose idea of cookin is boilin tinned foods in a pot. Title is a reference to the only thing the mum can do without burnin down the house.

Bad news on the doorstep:

I thought gays and pies never mix.

Strong first 15 minutes, everythin meandered thereafter. Probably that's why it's a TV movie. Pronounced lack of energy to the picture, nowhere as compellin as Billy Elliot and certainly well within the weekend viewin that TV series director S.J. Clarkson is comfortable with.

In the production notes, the adaptation is explained: For Hall it was a daunting task to convert Slater’s memoir to the screen. The book had been constructed as a large collection of beautifully crafted vignettes. These were moments that Slater recalled with stunning detail, but which were ultimately episodic, collated into a large canvas upon which the audience can see the entire scenery of Slater’s young life etched out. “It was clear to me that there was a proper narrative there underneath, but the way Nigel wrote it dusted the surface,” says Hall. “So it took a long time to piece together, like a jigsaw puzzle, all the little bits that he’d dropped from the book to make a clearer screenplay.” Shouldda taken a longer time, methinks. Really wanted to enjoy this but it came across grossly uneven and self-important to me.

Helena Bonham Carter
makes her presence felt in any movie.

You do like them prickly, don't you, son?

Perennial wonderment:

How Helena Bonham Carter can inject some pizazz into any role and movie, as she does here. Her solid performance as the brash but redoubtable house cleaner Mrs Potter is one of the few high notes of the movie.

Reminds me of:

It really oughtta been Chocolat (2000) in the West Midlands but no such luck.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Consistently but intentionally underhit throughout, this was probably magically intimate on paperback but it's hard to care for its big screen adaptation. Difficult to relate to Nigel here beyond token sentimentality. In fact, it made it all looked a bit too ordinary. Loved the Dusty Springfield score though, so we'll be kinder.★★★
Bonus material:

"Toast may have discarded some of the darker episodes from Slater's adolescence but it stayed doggedly loyal to the spirit of the book:
think Cinema Paradiso, but with pork pies instead of movies."
- This Is Leicestershire

Mama's Guest (2004) @ مهمان مامان Mehmane Maman

"This cake, it is made from virgin juice. I marinated all night."

At a glance:

Iranian cinema vet Golab Abdineh plays the matriarch of a poor family. She's thrown into a tight spot - they have to welcome her policeman nephew and his bride but they haven't got a single morsel of food in the house! Like the old school Hitchcock movies, we're given a slow introduction to the characters, some of which include her cinema projectionist husband Yousef (Paras Pirouzfar), her naughty young son Amir, her daughter Bahareh (Melika Sharifinia), and neighbourin busybodies like a chemist (Amin Hayayee) and an old hag (Farideh Sepah Mansour). Simply to give the good colonel (he's just a sergeant, really) and his exquisite wife a feast, everybody puts their wits together and overcomes adversity in charmin ways. Not dissimilar to the Asian values of pride and "face" as incessantly repeated in the film, this tight-knit family is so enamoured with preparation and procedure that they become instantly likeable, although it may take longer than usual to relate to their culture of halvas and curious posters of bodybuilders on their walls.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Not for everyone, obviously.

Perennial wonderment:

When you watch a movie like Mama's Guest (2004) @ مهمان مامان Mehmane Maman, you'd realise why fast food culture in the 20th century completely destroyed the family as a unit of society. From the process of pickin out the freshest fish to peelin onions and boilin water, home cookin is one of the last bastions of family time that ensured everyone had somethin to do and somethin to talk to each other about. When you place a phone order for McDonald's Value Meals, that old time tradition becomes a bygone relic. That's why Mama's Guest is still a rewardin watch despite appearin very dated for a 2004 film.

Reminds me of:

Cookin pork feet in vinegar with me gran, God rest her soul. Of course, no pork was depicted in this movie about Moslem people.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Three stars. Mama's Guest is a New Year movie - fun and easy to watch. With quirky scenes like an operation on a goldfish to wife-beatin antics by a drug addict, one may find this movie to be just the sort of light entertainment that is interestin enough to stimulate Hollywood-hardened cinematic taste buds. For further readin, please see what this Mongoose guy wrote.

Trailer for the curious:

Kamome Diner (2006) @ かもめ食堂

"Wanna try our kopi luak?

At a glance:
The people from the Land Of The Rising Sun tryin to carve out a life in the Land Of The Midnight Sun – it can't get more ironic than that! Yet, Kamome Diner かもめ食堂 isn’t about dissent or conflict; instead it’s about celebratin the wonderful details in life which escape us every day. You can read on its official website (still up today!) that the story is based on a novel written by popular writer Yoko Mure who apparently has countless female fans for her emotional portrayal of people livin modest lives. Mure wrote the full-length novel in response to the film’s idea for production. It’s said to be an unusual novel, which fully captures the atmosphere of the city’s street corner, although Mure herself has never been to Finland (which by the way, is apparently the closest European country to Japan via a 10 hour flight from Tokyo). Sachie (Satomi Kobayashi) is a Japanese woman who runs a diner (she insists it’s not a restaurant because "that’s too formal") in Helsinki, Finland. Nobody visits her Kamome (Japanese for 'seagull') diner except Tommi, a young blonde Finn who loves Japanese manga. Soon Sachie meets Midori (Hairi Katagiri), an awkward woman who lands in Helsinki with no real reason. The two make quick friends as business start to pick up due to their patient, unassumin approach to the locals. When lost 'tourist' Masako (Masako Motai) joins the fray, these Japanese women truly find the meanin of life, as they realise that everythin which is important usually isn’t!
Bad news on the doorstep:

None, really. I could write that synopsis a hundred times but still wouldn’t capture the precise flavour of the film. That’s because Kamome Diner is such a quiet little gem of a movie that offers somethin for every kind of viewer. It’s drama, it’s comedy and sometimes even social commentary – but whatever it is, it’s very gentle and dignified, never succumbin to pushy, message-driven plot devices. The performances here are top-notch, my favourite being the maternal Masako Motai (fabulous in director Naoko Ogigami’s first feature film Yoshino’s Barber Shop – but take nothin away from the cast because everyone delivered a satisfyin dimension to the film.
Perennial wonderment:
How do you sing the theme song to the Gatchaman cartoon (G-Force to Malaysian kids in the 80s)?

Reminds me of:

Director Naoko Ogigami's other movie that I enjoyed - Yoshino's Barber Shop (2004) @ バーバー吉野. This one's better, though.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
With its host of colourful, quirky and mostly rootless characters, it’s difficult not to find yourself fixated on the story, despite there not being much of one! Everythin happens by chance and people come largely unexplained. This makes it fun to watch because the character build-up is more gradual and natural, much like how we talk to strangers. The entire film could be said to be a conversation between strangers – and we don’t need to be bogged down by the harsh realities of distrust. The characters take each other as they are – and invite us to do the same. Shot with such delightful and rich observations on geography and society, the film has immense international appeal. Kamome Diner opens doors and builds bridges, invitin people in for a look at what’s on the cultural menu, without askin for too much thought or attention. We feel optimistic about life again and for once, feel-good cinema never felt so easy to believe. ★★★ 1/2

Trailer for the curious:

Deadly Delicious (2008) @ 女人有毒 @ 双食记

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

At a glance:
Directorial debut of screenwriter Zhao Tian Yu, about two women, a man and how food can be an instrument of evil. Themes of infidelity and revenge. Reminds me of films like Thinner (1996), Perfume (2006) and Chocolat (2000). Decent premise, adequate suspense.
Bad news on the doorstep:
The ladies - Yu Nan (left) from Tuya's Marriage (2006) and Jiang Yi Yan, (right, Zhang Zi Yi lookalike) aren't too pretty and they sometimes look like each other. Other complaints I read concern the distant characters and inconsequential dialogue. Francis Ng did his best, I guess. But the movie really needed somethin sicker or at least some token sex scenes.
Watch out for:
Terrapin beheadin on wooden choppin board with Chinese cleaver. Always nice to see. People need to be more unflinchin. Reminds me of the poor turtle in Cannibal Holocaust (1980).
Most memorable line:
Ah I'll get back to you on this. Francis Ng orders a long list of funky gourmet shyte to impress his air-stewardess girlfriend.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Doesn't really hit the pyschological thriller high notes I'd like, though it's rather dark and sombre. At times, unanappetisingly cold, like some of the various dishes featured in the film. Better than what I'd expect from a commercial Mainland movie though.★★1/2