Jon Favreau, who wrote and starred in the early Vince Vaughn comedies, Swingers and Made, went on to produce and direct the Iron Man franchise, among many other accomplishments. In Chef, he demonstrates he is still a compelling actor as well as skillful writer and director for small film. He plays Carl Casper, a gourmet culinary artist whose reputation is sullied by a negative review from a food critic named Ramsey Michel, played by Oliver Platt with his usual phlegmatic charm. Platt’s brother, Adam, is a major food critic for New York Magazine.        Continue  to  Read at THE ARTS FUSE

Perhaps Turturro’s shallow writing in Fading Gigolo is enabled by having too many friends in the business telling him his wacky script is clever or even plausible. I never felt a thing for any character, or had any sense of who these people were past being comic sets-ups for some clichéd idea about the bittersweet nature of true love. It careens aimlessly. Since his actors were reduced to lines that never sounded anything but scripted, I was both removed from the story and increasingly annoyed. Is it supposed to be funny that Jewish Woody Allen lives in a scroungy apartment with a black girlfriend? And why is he sounding like a Woody in a budget Woody Allen movie? And as a pimp? Ugh.
Turturro is charming and well meaning, which   READ MORE ....

 - 2012 -  
Written and directed by Sang-soo Hong
 This film is a reflection on creativity, as well as  the themes and motifs that make up storytelling, It's seen through the imagination of a troubled young girl writing a  screenplay.  As devised by the director, multiple movie/stories with the film riff and repeat, play off one another, barely skirting cliche and eventually descending into wish fulfillment and hopefulness.    Read more ...