Julie & Julia (2009). Photofest.
(Nora Ephron, US 2009, 123 min., DCP)
Resolution #3: Learn how to cook. Nora Ephron’s final film is a dual biography of famous television chef Julia Child and blogger and author Julie Powell, on whose memoir the film is based. Powell (Amy Adams) is a struggling author who has taken an enervating job as a low level bureaucrat in Manhattan. When she and her husband move to an apartment over a pizzeria in Queens, Julie finds purpose in tackling Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, intending to make each of the 524 recipes in the book in a year’s time. Her efforts are intercut with the story of Julia Child (Meryl Streep), from her struggles to be accepted in classes in Paris to her collaboration on the book and its subsequent publication. Streep earned her sixteenth Academy Award nomination for her performance as the ebullient and accessible chef.