Nonnas plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Nonnas (Stephen Chbosky) rated PG 112 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: We begin in Brooklyn 40 years ago where we see little Joey Scaravella (Theodore Helm) is happiest when being in the kitchen with Momma Maria (Kate Eastman) and Nonna (Karen Giordano)—grandmother—then we jump ahead to a more current day where Maria has recently died (apparently Nonna also departed not that long ago; we don’t learn much about Dad, but we assume he’s passed away too) so adult Joe (Vince Vaughn) is at loose ends trying to decide what to do with the rest of his life (he works as a mechanic for the NYC Transit System, but that’s merely a job, not particularly fulfilling), even as Mom’s old friend, Roberta (Lorraine Bracco), gives him a letter from Maria which he puts off opening, not wanting to accept yet that this will be the last he’ll ever hear from her. She’s also left him a good bit of money from her life insurance policy, so his long-time friend, Bruno (Joe Manganiello), and wife, Stella (Drea de Matteo), have practical ideas of how he should spend it; however, on a whim Joe takes the famous ferry over to Staten Island, wanders around until at a farmer’s market where he used to go with Maria and Nonna he bumps into an old high-school girlfriend, Olivia (Linda Cardellini)—whom he had a bad prom date with due to slipping off for some booze, never seeing her again—and her neighbor, Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro); despite the old-days fiasco, Olivia’s friendly, tells Joe she’s now almost a lawyer.
As he continues to explore Staten Island (something I never did while living in NYC decades ago or even when visiting a few times since; I just took the ferry out there, then immediately returned to Manhattan, so I don’t expect much respect from SNL’s Colin Jost and Pete Davidson regarding my ignoring of their hometown borough), he comes across a small restaurant for sale, uses his inheritance to make a down payment on it much to the distress of Bruno and Stella. Joe’s intention is to establish a family atmosphere where nonnas will come to cook their signature dishes, with the patrons feeling like they’re dining at home. Bruno becomes involved too, as Joe uses the lifelong-friendship card to convince him to put his contractor skills into the needed remodeling, with reimbursement to come from the eatery’s profits. Joe then recruits Roberta and Antonella as cooks (despite their conflicts over specific locations of Italian heritage), places an ad for more which results in Teresa (Talia Shire), a former nun who left her order as a result of being a lesbian with a lover; additionally, Joe recruits Gia (Susan Sarandon), Maria’s former hairdresser, to be his dessert chef.
As preparations for the opening go on, Roberta puts her capuzzelle (a stuffed sheep’s head) into the over then gets into a food fight with Antonella, allowing the sheep dish to overcook with a fire breaking out. Olivia drops by to pick up Antonella, ends up talking about old times with Joe, finally notes her husband’s dead even as she still wears her wedding ring. Due to the damage to the oven and the surrounding wall the Health Dept. inspector, Fire Marshall John Borrelli (Eden Marryshow), refused to give Joe his needed certificate of occupancy, telling him it will take about a year to schedule a re-inspection. Bruno’s devastated by this (there’s no way Joe can keep stalling for a year given all that he now owes), especially because he sold his late father’s prize car to finance his own contributions to the refurbishing. However, after Teresa prays for a miracle, Olivia comes in with the inspector who gives Joe the needed certificate because Olivia’s found this guy takes kickbacks for re-inspections so he cooperates to get rid of her. So, Grand Opening night arrives, but so does a thunderstorm so no one comes, nor does anyone else in the ensuing days except a few family and friends so Joe decides to quit and sell the place, with Olivia offering a final tactic of taking some items to noted food critic Edward Durant (Campbell Scott) in hopes he’d offer a review (many previous invitations to critics have been ignored), yet this doesn’t work either as Durant says he’s booked up for months. ⇒Joe arranges for one last big night at the restaurant which manages to bring in a large, friendly crowd; later that night Joe finally opens Mom’s letter which contains recipes for many of the dishes he’s been unsuccessful in recreating. Then, everything changes because we learn Durant tasted the food, was astounded by it, gives the restaurant a rave review, crowds flock to the place, Joe and Olivia fully connect.⇐ During the end credits, we see footage of actual Joe Scaravella and how the real Enoteca Maria (Joe’s name for the restaurant) has been in business for over 15 years, now using various grandmothers from many cultures as cooks for this unique place.
SO WHAT? As briefly noted just above this movie’s a biopic based on a real guy who’s been running Enoteca (roughly translated as “wine bar”) Maria since 2007 after his parents and grandmother died ,with an evolution over the years into a wider range of “nonnas” from various backgrounds so the menu is in constant flux. (If you want to know more about Joe and his place, here’s a short video [6:48] to provide some background). In that my various times in NYC never brought me to Enoteca Maria I can’t comment on the actual place, but the images we see in this news report and in the movie (except for the sheep’s head; I don’t think I’m ready for that yet, but if I keep travelling from my current 77 years [with minimal cooking experience so I’m not advocating for a male version of what we see in Nonnas; my go-to option is just to add more garlic and drink more wine] into my 90s maybe I’ll give it a try with nothing left to lose) look marvelous, will easily give you an appetite for a fine Italian dinner (which, to enhance our viewing pleasure, Nina and I had just before watching this movie), and enhance your appreciation for how some people keep their departed family members alive in their hearts/memories by passing on to others what was so marvelous about these folks when they were alive. Given how it all works out for Joe (I’m trying to not drift into Spoiler territory here, although I’d assume you wouldn’t even find this story being told if Joe had ended up dead broke, drowning in debt), you might think some aspects of this movie are a bit too sentimental (maybe they are; I have no idea how any of the actual events played out nor do I know if various characters are fictional [Bruno’s real; he's noted briefly in those end-credits updates]), yet we shouldn’t make judgements about the plot activities too quickly because only those involved in any aspects of the events being depicted know for sure who did what, when, and for what reasons. I found this story to be a warm-hearted pleasure to watch; I think you would feel the same.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: I could not find much of substance about any theatrical presence Nonnas may have had or is still having so if you want to see it you most likely need to use streaming where it’s free to Netflix subscribers (or if you want to sign up for awhile the cheapest option is $7.99 a month) with a mixed response from the CCAC where the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at a solid level of 82%, although the Metacritic average score drops down to a grumpy 57%, so let’s see what that’s based on. In support of the positive responses we have Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter: “No subtext goes unexplained, and at times the score underlines what we already know. But the actors always find the grace notes, and there are sparks in the way everyday exchanges turn sharp with compassion. There are welcome laughs too, particularly in Bracco’s grump-meister line readings. Nonnas serves up something that doesn’t make you work; rather, it invites you to sit down and enjoy.”; on the other hand, pleasing a NYC critic may prove to be a more daunting task as shown by the Jeannette Catsoulis response in The New York Times: “ ‘Nonnas’ serves up ethnic comedy on a platter of ham and cheese. […] The ladies, professionals all, are up for it, gamely selling sitcom setups and prepackaged sentiment with a gusto that suggests a better, more authentic movie might have lurked beyond the bromides.” Wow!
(Of course, one problem for a fully-invested New Yorker may be that the movie was shot in various New Jersey locations, and if I’ve learned anything from watching Colin Jost on SNL’s “Weekend Update,” it’s that even compared to Staten Island New Jersey’s almost unmentionable. [But they couldn’t use the real Staten Island restaurant for all of these reconstruction scenes, now could they?]) Well, enough from me on Nonnas, which I do hope you’ll give serious consideration to watching despite the grouchy naysayers to which I reply (from The Godfather [Francis Ford Coppola, 1972]) “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” To finish off this posting, though, I’ll use my usual device of a Musical Metaphor, this time one that gets a brief presence in the movie’s soundtrack, Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” (on his 1977 album The Stranger, the song supposedly inspired by the Fontana di Trevi restaurant across the street from Carnegie Hall) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=izzM9LXqP-U where the visuals in this video do begin and end in an Italian restaurant with bottles of wine for the involved couple of Eddie and Brenda who could be seen as connected to Joe and Olivia with romance, breakup, reconsideration, but I’ll leave that option for you.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some cinematic options for your consideration: (1) IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the week of 5/12/2025 (at least The Brutalist [Brady Corbet] is on that list); & (2) IMDb's Summer Watch Guide.
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