You should check out The Station Agent.
I saw it on Sunday and loved all of it - I’ve since had 2 spicy Cuban sandwiches from a local spot (Soda Pops on La Cienega in West Hollywood, fwiw).
Does anyone know who the band was that was featured while the truck was in Austin?
The technical consultant on the movie, and the man that appears with JF in the credits is Roy Choi, who was quite successful with his Kogi BBQ trucks, particularly because of social networking. Kogi Korean BBQ - Wikipedia
My one (very minor) nitpick:
Carl would have been fluent enough in Spanish, having worked in kitchens presumably for many, many years in both Miami and Los Angeles, as well as having been married to a Spanish speaking wife, to understand what his former father in law was saying when they were in Miami.
My fanwank is that he knew just enough to get by, but that her father spoke so fast that he couldn’t follow along, but yes, I wondered about that myself.
Her father spoke rather slowly (for a Cuban). He would have understood him just fine. But it needed translation so the audience could follow along, so he had to play ignorant for the scene to work.
I’m very glad there was no manufactured drama in the film, just to add tension. It unfolded quite nicely and provoked all the right feelings at the right time.
Favorite line:
“Now, do you think we should serve that sandwich?”
“NO, CHEF!”
Made my eyes water a bit, that did.
Absolutely true - this nit of mine was very minor, and I actually preferred their not using subtitles for any of the Spanish.
Gary Clark, Jr. and his band.
Did this happen at any other showing: when the screen zoomed in on the mass of hash browns being flipped, every guy in the audience moaned in hunger, while all the gals looked at them in confusion? It happened at our showing, and then every guy cracked up when we realized what we had done. 
Thanks, silenus!
When John Leguizamo convinced the work crew to load the oven onto the truck, I caught the word “imigracion”…I would have liked to have heard what he said, as it apparently involved more than just promising them good sandwiches.
On a semi unrelated topic: as you may have noticed, trailers are generally tailored to match the feature: rom-coms with rom-coms, action with action. For the most part, the trailers I saw with Chef fit this criteria, with one glaring exception: a trailer for Green Inferno, the latest torture porn from Eli Roth. Did anybody else get this?
Yep. We saw trailers for that garbage, The Fault of Our Stars (which also looks horrible, but for a different reason), Sex Tape (which looks funny in a Netflix way), America (TV), The Last Ship (TV), the Pee App, Jersey Boys, and *Wish I Was Here *(which I might go see, depending on the reviews).
This required greater suspension of disbelief than anything in the Iron Man movies 
+1
8 trailers? Holy crap…we saw trailers for Night Moves and Obvious Child, and I think one more I can’t remember.
Once the lights go partially down, the real trailers start. I see A. Lot. Of. Movies, and never in my life have I seen ads for TV shows and ads for products in the trailers portion. Unless your theater is extremely incompetent, I’m guessing that those were part of a pre-show “First Look” kind of thing. Those all happen before the real trailers start.
We’re often at movies early enough for the First Look portion and I joke to my husband that I see more damned TV at the movies than I do at home (which is zero unless the Academy Awards are on). But, since as mentioned above the studios take most of the box office for the first two or more weeks, and since we use coupons and never pay full price, and since we don’t buy concessions, I’ll put up with them because I want theaters to stay in business.
What the hell is a Pee App? I haven’t seen one of those ads.
I had never heard of it either. Apparently, it’s this:
That’s gotta be a joke. Some sort of parody of apps.
You’d think, but it looks legit. There are times when something like that could come in handy, you have to admit. But it does run counter to the whole “Put your damn phone away during the movie” ethos they try to foster.
Well, the word-of-mouth campaign is officially underway.
Just got back from my second viewing, I took my mother and she loved it. First thing when we got home, she went to tell the neighbors that they should see it. She’s already talking about who she could take with her for her next viewing.
For point of interest: my mother’s multiple viewings and word-of-mouth campaign were responsible for 83% of the gross for My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Laugh That’s great!
I had the same trailer and thought it was oddly matched too. But I THINK I remember that it’s the same production company or something.
It opened recently in Calgary and the family and I went to the early show Saturday night. Holy cow did the theatre skew to older. My 16 and 13 year old daughters were the youngest in the crowd by far. I’d guess the next youngest person to be 35 and there was far more grey hair than I’ve ever seen in one place (and I’m including my own grey). But they enjoyed the hell out of it as did the wife and I. I think some of the appeal for them was the very bad language in the kitchen and truck.
You guys let me down. I came her thinking someone would rip this one apart. So far everyone has enjoyed it. Add me (and my family) to the list.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s Favreau’s best film, it is his most personal, which in some ways, might matter even more. It will be interesting what kind of projects he takes on now–hopefully something with the same low-rent intimacy and indie vibe but with more challenging material. And good to see Leguizamo again (haven’t seen him in ages, though I know he’s been keeping busy).