Burnt, 2015
directed by John Wells, written by Steven Knight, starring Bradley Cooper
There's this little moment when Cooper's character has to make a birthday cake for a kid, and he says,"they can have sorbet; I don't do cake" and then he does and is surly about it and he takes it out to the kid. It could have been a scene filled with arrogance and further proof (not that we needed any) of the ways in which ego destroys us but it ended up being my favorite moment in the film as he served the cake, presented a slice, and waited for the child's assessment.
Knight (most recognizable for Peaky Blinders and the recently-released MobLand) has a gift for showing us how ego is the most destructive and addictive drug of all. Somehow his presentations of this simple truth continue to be fresh, engaging, and--despite the subject matter--optimistic, or at least hopeful of hope. Cooper is great, of course, and choosing actors to portray ego-riddled chefs is always dicey. It takes a master to portray this particular breed of hypercompetitive arrogance without it becoming so one-note and performative that it's nearly meaningless. Matthew Rhys as Cooper's rival spends little enough time on screen, but when he is there, his words and his acting create depth. Knight has a knack for creating secondary opponents that show up our main character and take them to task while still being just as flawed (see Alfie in Peaky Blinders) and this is a deft art in any form of fiction. Wells hits just the notes. This is a movie about how living in our scars separates us, and how the damage is everyone's, and how our chosen families are the path out of darkness, if only we will allow them to be.