Filmmaker Laura Gabbert’s very affectionate portrait of the L.A. Times celebrated food critic Jonathan Gold is as upbeat and sunny as this Pulitzer winner’s own writing. The movie’s focus is very much on how this native Los Angeleno has an inexhaustible passion for rooting out unlikely culinary delights and then singing their praises, and we never ever learn if he has had occasion to pen a negative review at any time.
This omission is forgivable as it is hard not to get caught up in Gold’s infectious joy as he goes about searching every crook and cranny of this vast metropolitan area looking to discover and enjoy good ethnic food. It is all so far removed from the very early days when restaurants first started to be reviewed and then they were almost always very high end French establishments.
Gabbert’s camera now trails Gold as he shoots around all the very distinctly different areas that make up LA in his green pick-up truck looking to re-visit off-beat eateries or discovering new ones. He confesses that it makes several trips to a restaurant, or even a Food Truck, before he feels he has caught the essence of the food and ready to write about it. He makes no attempt to disguise his now very recognizable face, and it is obvious from the reception that usually greets him in his favorite places that they owe their very success to his well-worded review.
We meet the proprietor of a small Ethiopian Cafe who almost had to close down after business dropped off drastically after 9/11. She had no idea that Gold had even eaten there until one day she opened her door to see a long line of people waiting to get in all clutching a copy of the review, and she has been busy ever since.
Gold comes across as something of a big bumbling extremely affable hippy with his disheveled clothes living in a house where even the stairs are cluttered up with books. His other passions are music (he’s a failed cellist) and art and his two children, and he takes time out of his busy schedule every week to ensure that none are neglected, particularly the children. His laid back approach to his work and his admitted procrastination cause his Editors to roll their eyes and sigh most of the time, but when he turns in his rather wonderful prose, all is (mostly) forgiven. He is after all the only food critic who has ever won a Pulitzer.
This culinary renaissance man and food pioneer is one of a very rare breed, and one worries that with the continual decline of newspapers and the emergence of so many amateur online food bloggers, if he is a luxury that his bosses may decide one day that they simply cannot afford. As long as there is good food to be discovered there will always be a need for Jonathan Gold to shake us out of our boring eating habits and surprise us with all the delicious new tastes and delights that are out there just waiting for us to enjoy.
Totally unmissable BUT do eat before your view it.
Labels: 2016, biography, documentary, Sundance
