Film

Review: "Lunch Line" an excellent primer on how school lunch came to be what it is - and should be required viewing for anyone seeking to change it

By Tracie McMillan

The Atlantic 2010-06-10

Review: "Fresh" documentary focused on practical solutions and is less judgmental than "Food, Inc."

By Jeannette Catsoulis

The New York Times 2010-04-08

Sony pictures head calls for healthier snacks at move theaters during convention speech

By Richard Verrier

Los Angeles Times 2010-03-15

Review: Flaming tap water, fracking and other dirty water, air tales from natural-gas drilling in "GasLand," a new documentary

By Robert Koehler

Variety 2010-01-25

Blog: Oscars nominees include documentaries "Food, Inc." and "The Cove"

By Jennifer Merin

About.com 2010-02-02

Films: Bluefin tuna, extinction and "The End of the Line'

Films: Bluefin tuna, extinction and

By Nathan Lee

The New York Times 2009-06-19

Review: In 'It's Complicated,' baker pursued by two suitors while getting dream kitchen

Review: In 'It's Complicated,' baker pursued by two suitors while getting dream kitchen

By Michael O'Sullivan

The Washington Post 2009-12-25

Honey, bears aren't the couple we thought, biologist learns

Honey, bears aren't the couple we thought, biologist learns

BBC

Wildlife biologist abandons scientific detachment, takes daring, controversial step of forming relationships with his study animals, using food to gain acceptance among an extended bear family in Minnesota. In 'Bearwalker of the Northwoods' documentary, he gains trust of black bears, learns that they aren't ferocious, their cubs purr while suckling,and they don't like honey. And: Click 'See also' for video.

By Suzanne Goldenberg

The Guardian (UK) 2009-10-27

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Review: 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs'

Review: 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs'

sonypictures.com

Film adaptation of classic children's book is heaping helping of delicious visual jokes, including sequence that shows different characters staring up at the sky at first instance of 'food weather.' It begins as chuckle-worthy, becomes a giggle bomb, and grows into masterpiece of timing that draws guffaws without a wisecrack, a sound effect, or anything colliding with rear end of anything else. It's a movie for almost anyone between birth and death.

By Linda Holmes

National Public Radio/Monkey See 2009-10-13

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Dark comedy probes scandal at agribusiness giant

Dark comedy probes scandal at agribusiness giant

Warner Bros.

New film starring Matt Damon as informant at agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland is dark comedy based on true story. Actor gained 30 pounds, wore mustache to play Mark Whitacre, who turns from corporate golden boy to FBI source to uncover price-fixing practices in industry. And: In 'The Informant,' (click 'See also') Kurt Eichenwald, author, poses unlikely question: What happens when government informant at heart of global criminal conspiracy is a bipolar, serial-lying embezzler?

By Silvia Aloisi

Reuters 2009-09-07

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On the trail of a film about a book about fruit hunters

On the trail of a film about a book about fruit hunters

Barnes & Noble

3-D film is in the works for 'The Fruit Hunters,' a rambling, episodic narrative by Adam Leith Gollner that ties together stories of a diverse cast. And: 'The Fruit Hunter' is lustrous and exhilarating, writes reviewer (click 'See also'). Author's is not the sort of talent one can develop. It is rare and exotic, genetic, physical - an exquisite sensitivity of tongue, nose and eye. Gollner has talents of a food writer, investigative journalist, poet, travel writer and humorist.

By Peter Meehan

The New York TImes 2009-08-27

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This writer knows story behind drama in 'Julie & Julia'

This writer knows story behind drama in 'Julie & Julia'

Barnes & Noble

Nora Ephron's 'Julie & Julia,' the story of two women whose lives have been defined by food, is superb on many levels, and should be seen. And as for the moment in the film that elicits a shocked gasp from the audience? This writer knows the back story, because he knew Julia, and chose to protect a valued friendship - and not publish a couple of juicy paragraphs (click on this link for the spoiler). And: After 48 years, her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is finally topping best-seller list (click 'See also').

By Russ Parsons

Los Angeles Times 2009-08-12

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Documentary on dolphin slaughter in Japanese fishing village

Documentary on dolphin slaughter in Japanese fishing village

youtube

Sundance-winning documentary, framed as a real-life thriller, follows filmmakers as they sneak into 'The Cove' in Japan where dolphins are killed for meat. Crew captured process with cameras in fake rocks. Fishermen primarily use spears for slaughter, which turns cove's water red - earning film a PG-13 rating. And: Dolphin meat often peddled as higher-priced whale meat; hundreds of samples toxic with mercury, sometimes 5,000 times more than Japanese health advisory of 0.4 parts per million (click 'See also').

By John Jurgensen

The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2009-07-24

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Review: Serving up a horror film for the dinner table

Review: Serving up a horror film for the dinner table

Food, Inc.

Needy family skips high-priced fruits, vegetables, choosing cheap fast food so dad can afford diabetes medicine.

"Food, Inc.," a mind-boggling, heart-rending, stomach-churning expose on food industry, makes case with methodical, relentless urgency of muckrakers trying to radicalize - or rouse - a dozing populace. And: Film shows we're living in a simulacrum, fed by machines run by larger machines with names like Monsanto, Perdue, Tyson that make everything (click 'See also'). We humans can win, but we should hurry, before Monsanto makes a time machine and sends back a Terminator to get rid of Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan.

By Amy Biancolli

San Francisco Chronicle 2009-06-12

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Review: 'The Garden'

Review: 'The Garden'

Black Valley Films

Transformative power of water, shovels and sweat raise matters deeply meaningful to gardeners of South Los Angeles, whose struggle at South Central Farm is documented in 'The Garden.' But owner wants his land back, and we know that without clear rights of possession, society doesn't develop economically. Should gardens trump a soccer field, or development? We need to know more about landowner. Film notes only in passing the desperate need for better, greener, more equitable urban planning. For trailer, click 'See also.'

By Philip Kennicott

The Washington Post 2009-05-15

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Review: Film is masterpiece of food and family

Review: Film is masterpiece of food and family

Abdel Kechiche's thrilling drama, 'The Secret of the Grain,' takes one man and his extended family and creates masterpiece (click 'See also') about strange power of food - to heal, unite, exasperate. It's also story of Slimane the shipbuilder, unceremoniously sacked after 40 years, choosing not to wilt but to open a restaurant. Gifted director fills movie with new actors, extracts natural rhythms of human interaction - fire, joy, pathos. Final shot is a masterstroke that settles nothing.

By Wesley Morris

The Boston Globe 2009-02-20

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Corn powers $100 billion fast-food industry

Corn powers $100 billion fast-food industry

Mosaic/youtube

In 'King Corn,' college pals follow the trail of the ubiquitous grain into the U.S. food supply.

Corn was sole food for all chicken, 93 percent of beef in 486 servings of food from McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's in six states, study shows. Environmentalist predicts that corn-based biofuels mandate could push industrial farmers to soy-based feeds. And: 'King Corn' documentary follows myriad paths of corn into food supply (click 'See also').

By Catherine Brahic

New Scientist 2008-11-10

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Review: 'The World According to Monsanto'

Review: 'The World According to Monsanto'

Marie-Monique Robin, filmmaker and veteran journalist, conducts Google searches onscreen.

Filmmaker explores history of biotech seed company Monsanto, including: Its manufacture of Agent Orange and PCBs; its Roundup weedkiller; its aggressive use of patents; its success in persuading U.S. to approve its genetically modified seeds without scientific testing; the revolving door between the U.S. government and Monsanto's executive board; and its domination of U.S. commodity crop markets with its GM seeds. To watch the film, click 'See also.'

By Malcolm Fraser

Montreal Mirror 2008-05-22

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Oscar-worthy food scenes

Oscar-worthy food scenes

Deborah Coleman/PIXAR

'Ratatouille' which won an Academy Award for best animated film, follows the journey of a rat whose culinary aspirations land him in Paris.

For 'Best Use of Food in a Film,' the nominees are: "Ratatouille" and Thomas Keller's vegetable sculpture; "Eastern Promises," rivaling Gourmet magazine; "Juno," with her cola, fries and chips; "The Bucket List," with black walnut ice cream, Champagne, Beluga caviar and oysters on the half-shell; and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" with an oyster on the half shell and Champagne, sole with lemon and a glass of Chablis, a steak with bearnaise sauce and pommes frites. And, to finish, ripe, runny cheese and a slow sip of sweet wine.

By Beverly Levitt

Chicago Tribune 2008-02-20

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Celebrating a treasure

Celebrating a treasure

John Hill

Edna Lewis, chef, author and champion of Southern food.

As companion to a newly discovered and now published essay, "What is Southern?" by the late Edna Lewis, Gourmet magazine (via Epicurious) includes a short documentary, "Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie," by the Atlanta filmmaker Bailey Barash.

Gourmet magazine 2008-01-01

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Melting pot

Melting pot

Multicultural Olympic Diner, in Jamaica, Queens, is backdrop for Steve Barron's new indie film that explores the immigrant experience and the relationship between a shy Ecuadorian dishwasher and a Chinese waitress.

By Nathan Duke

TimesLedger Newspapers (NY) 2007-12-06

Review: 'Sharkwater'

Pointless hospitalization and hardbody shots aside, this propaganda film with teeth blames the precipitous drop in shark population on popularity of shark fin soup, a $300-a-bowl Asian status symbol, and on mobsters who protect practice of hacking off shark fins and leaving the shark to die.

By Matt Zoller Seitz

The New York Times 2007-11-02

Review: King Corn

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis take us on a moral, crucially skeptical road trip that reveals how industrialization, government subsidies and food technology have transformed subsistence family farming into a tradition-killing welfare system that intentionally overproduces and to food makers who put high-fructose corn syrup in, well, almost everything.

Los Angeles Times 2007-10-26

Review: Bittersweet

Review: Bittersweet

"The Price of Sugar" focuses documentary lens on Dominican Republic and horrific conditions of mostly Haitian illegal immigrant sugar cane workers there, then tells story of Catholic priest who sets out to improve their lot.

By Stephen Farber

The Hollywood Reporter 2007-08-23

Review: No time

Judging from plastic bottles clogging the landfills and SUVs clogging the highways, the news that we're killing ourselves and our world hasn't kicked in, so that makes "The 11th Hour," an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary, essential viewing.

By Manohla Dargis

The New York Times 2007-08-17

Food's the star:

In "Ratatouille" and "No Reservations," top chefs at restaurants and culinary schools consulted on appearance of dishes; actors ate the featured dishes, and the animation department went to cooking school, for authenticity's sake.

By Beverly Levitt

Philadelphia Inquirer

Picking Popeye's

Mushy sides aside, fried chicken from Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits is some of the best soul food in Boston - but does it matter that this tender, juicy, extra crunchy bird with a cayenne kick is from a chain, if it's a cool chain?

By Devra First

Boston Globe