See This Movie – Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Great food movies come along about once a decade.
2007 brought us Ratatouille, but before that you have to go back to the mid-nineties for such gems as Eat Drink Man Woman and Big Night.
2012 brings us Jiro Dreams of Sushi — a movie that operates as a character study and a rumination on everything from dedicated craftsmanship, to family dynamics to an elegy on a disappearing way of life.
It is also food porn at the highest level, and a movie so mouth-watering that you will leave the theater wondering what you ever saw in a California roll.
If matters hold true to form, as a beautifully crafted, thought-provoking movie, it will be at the Regal Village 8 Theaters for one week at the most. Meaning: you will have until this Friday to catch it on the big screen.
One would think every food lover, sushi lover, Japanese food lover, chef or foodie in town would be beating a path to watch it.
Instead, the screening we went to on Friday night had maybe twenty people in the place.
And you wonder why ELV is slowly giving up on Las Vegas ever having a food culture worth talking about (0r to)?
Restaurant reviews, quips, picks and pans-with some seriously salivating history-from the man who eats his way through Sin City every day.
May 28th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Glad you’re back. Don’t give up — there’s new experiences all the time on the pan-Asian corridor of Spring Mountain.
I haven’t been to the movies in 4 years — but Jiro sounds exceptional. I’ll be in attendance today. Thanks for the notice about it.
May 28th, 2012 at 7:58 am
Actually 20 people at a documentary is not horribly bad. I saw it a few months ago in Vancouver where it’s been running over a month and really it’s not for the typical film goer. It did drag a little at times and I love sushi. But it is good prep for Kabuto.
May 28th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Or maybe the low turnout was just because the LV food community had already given up on ever being able to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi in a theater in our humble berg; the movie has been out for more than a month in theaters.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:57 pm
And remember, planes fly *out* of McCarran to cities across the country and world that offer wonderful culinary delights, should you need a quick trip to break the monotony of Vegas chow. Don’t despair. Those of us that come to Vegas for a dozen or so trips a year (until we become full-time residents in 2018) need you to steer us to the neighborhood joints that are worthwhile.
May 29th, 2012 at 6:45 am
The fact that there were twenty people in the theatre is not a direct reflection of Vegas’s food culture, rather Vegas’s love (or lack thereof) for independent films. This is why we have to wait months for independent movies, when you can see Avengers on 100,000 screens.
May 29th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Unless it’s a Michael Moore documentary, Emmanuel’s assessment is spot on. I’d say you had a bitchin’ turnout with 20.
There’s some other decent food movies you forgot that I wanted to point out:
Waitress (2007) – I had massive pie cravings for months after seeing that movie
Julie and Julia (2009) – I went home and cooked her Beef Bourguinon
May 31st, 2012 at 1:50 pm
My friend and I went on Sunday evening to watch, there were also about 20 people there. Considering the number of times it is played at that theater, I would say the turnout was alright.