Movie Breakdown: Wolfgang (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

Director David Gelb is the man behind not only Chef’s Table, but also Jiro Dreams of Sushi, one of my very favorite documentaries. To see this food documentary visionary turn his lens on one of the great characters in the chef world – Wolfgang Puck – is pretty exciting.

Post-Screening Ramble:

When David Gelb made Jiro Dreams of Sushi it felt like the emergence of a true talent. When he executively produced Chef’s Table, honestly, it felt like he was reinventing the wheel of the staid food show. With Wolfgang though, it just feels like he’s rehashing everything else he’s done before. It has the same gloss and same structure and the same dramatic feel as any episode of Gelb’s famous series but the subject doesn’t actually bring that much interest to the table. Wolfgang Puck, the first truly famous celebrity chef, seems brimming with potential interest, but Gelb never really draws any of it out. The film amounts to a sort of bland recounting of Puck’s steady rise to fame. And though it is interesting, Gelb can’t seem to figure out what part of Puck’s life he wants to focus on. There’s some interest in terms of Puck’s cooking, a touch more about his affect on the world of food, a decent peer at his relationship – romantic and business – with Barbara Lazaroff, but in general, it’s a slick glance at each chunk of his subject’s life and it doesn’t amount to much more than a slightly darker EPK. He digs deepest into the chef’s abusive childhood and how this becomes an inspiration and a deterrent to his success, but he can’t really drag a terrible amount of meaning from it and so he keeps hammering away at the same theme – resilience in the face of hardship – over and over again. In my mind this film started as a “Very Special Episode” of Chef’s Table but, for whatever reason, got the nod towards feature film and just didn’t have the content to make the stretch.

One Last Thought:

The moments with Puck’s son are so weirdly truncated. This kid whom he ignored for years as he managed his 60+ restaurants STILL became a chef, STILL followed in his father’s footsteps. And they barely talk about it.