Nonnas

Formulaic, dare-I-say-sappy movies, when done right, can be really good, and Nonnas is one such example.

Anyone nostalgic for their grandmother’s cooking will no doubt feel its inexorable pull toward the kitchen.

Its talented cast and tender heart do a lot of the heavy lifting, but it's the kind of movie the mothers in your family will absolutely love.

Nonnas, like comfort food, may be a little obvious, a little safe, but that’s the point.

Nonnas is directed by Stephen Chbosky (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”; the film version of “Dear Evan Hansen”) with undistilled sincerity and dollops of goo. But Mr. Vaughn’s Joe Scaravella, who seems to hew quite closely to the story’s real-life restaurateur, is free of Vaughn-ish smirk. He approaches pathos.

While director Stephen Chbosky and writer Liz Maccie have the heart in the right place with Nonnas, honoring generations of family tradition, a formulaic approach limits how far this inspiring story can go creatively.

Come for the healthy servings of capuzzelle, zeppole, and scungilli, but prepare to choke on the stale and squishy platitudes about family and tradition.

It’s hard to find “feel good” movies these days, but this is really one. When you add that it’s really a true story (really! I’ve been to the place in Staten Island and saw Joe and the nonnas) it’s even better.

(Mauro Lanari) Chbosky serves up his signature dish: the feel-good movie, this time based on events presented to us as real. It's even moving, why not? But since these events are presented as an exception, a unique case neither replicated nor replicable, the point of showing them to us as examples to emulate is lost. I would have preferred a less simplistic approach that tried to understand the reason(s) for such uniqueness. Then maybe it would have turned out that it's due to a banal probabilistic law of large numbers; in any case, the director steers clear of such an in-depth exploration.

Tão fofo quanto esquecível. Navega sempre em terreno seguro dos afetos das relações familiares, mas abraça o mainstream de forma muito acrítica. Vale por ser uma história real, mas tudo parece meio sem tensão, com personagens secundários mal trabalhados. É filme gostoso de ver em família.

Vince Vaughn plays the owner of a restaurant that he started in honor of his mother. The unique angle is that he hired all nonnas (grandmothers) to re-create their family recipes. It’s based on a real man and his place in Staten Island. The women playing the title characters are Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro & Talia Shire. Vaughn lacks his usual smirky wiseguy style that always adds laughs. The women do embody unique personalities, but they’re not especially funny either. Even the cooking montages don’t make the food look especially appetizing. The cast and the concept had potential to be a charming comedy, but this film veers much more into the heartfelt drama category. Maybe the creators wanted to honor the restauranteur’s concept by keeping it sweet, but they missed some great potential for humor. The capable cast helps it rise above Lifetime movie mediocrity, but not by much. Prety much, Nonnas is a no-no.

Even in family movie about grandmas running bakery Netflix have to be Netflix and insert some lesbians lmao. Jesus christ