SXSW 2014 Review: CHEF Cooks Up Profound Retrospect

I've been waiting 15 years to give Jon Favreau the glowing review he's earned in spades with his return-to-roots film Chef. He has no doubt had a very interesting career since his initial indie splash Swingers back in '96, but in many unfortunate ways, everything he's done since has somewhat existed in that film's shadow.

In the introduction to his Chef premiere, which earned the highly coveted opening night slot at SXSW, Favreau described the genesis of his new film as the rare kind of lightning-in-a-bottle spark that only strikes a handful of times. In his case, it's a feeling he personally hasn't experienced since the screenplay that launched his career, making him an overnight indie darling. After the double-edged success of Swingers, Favreau was faced with the stultifying task of delivering on the expectations of his vast promise. And so reunited two years later with bromance compadre Vince Vaughn, the pair attempted to reignite their beloved chemistry with Made, a buddy mob-com that saw a far more annoying Vaughn than the charismatic playboy that won Indie hearts in '96.

Perhaps it was in the wake of the Made disappointment that Favreau opted for the far more traditional Hollywood trajectory, accepting generic acting gigs and translating his writing and directing talents into the world of large budget, please-all blockbusters like Elf and Iron Man. By no means am I putting these movies down - as far as blockbusters go, they really don't get much better than these contributions. Nevertheless, with blunders like Cowboys And Aliens, there was a sense of betrayal amidst the indie community that a filmic voice had been corrupted by 'movies'. I opt to provide this brief history not to rehash my decade old disappointments but rather because these feelings are precisely the subject of his return-to-roots film, which plays like an emotional map of the ups and downs of his entire career.