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    ‘Nonnas’ Review: Oversauced

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    Vince Vaughn plays a restaurant owner who hires Italian grandmothers to cook for him in this corn-filled gabagool.From the homily-stuffed script (“food is love,” “beautiful is a feeling”) to the relentlessly on-the-button soundtrack (please god, no more “Funiculì Funiculà”), “Nonnas” serves up ethnic comedy on a platter of ham and cheese.Based on a true story, this four-grannies-and-a-funeral caper tosses finely aged ingredients — Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire — into a slurry of Italian caricature and cliché. At its center sits Joe Scaravella (an oddly anemic Vince Vaughn), a Brooklyn transportation worker who, after his mother’s death, decides to honor her by opening a restaurant on Staten Island and hiring Italian grandmothers, or nonnas, as his chefs.Each has a single, identifiable characteristic. Meet Roberta (Bracco), the salty Sicilian and erstwhile best friend of Joe’s mother; Antonella (Vaccaro), the feisty Bolognan widow whom Joe meets at an Italian market; Teresa (Shire), the retired nun with a cheeky secret; and Gia (Sarandon), the independent glamour-puss whose enviable cleavage demands commentary.“How do you bake over those things?,” Roberta inquires, not unreasonably. Sadly, this is as saucy as Liz Maccie’s screenplay allows. Even when Joe reconnects with Olivia (an ill-served Linda Cardellini), the prom date he once unceremoniously dumped, the movie stubbornly refuses to spark. The director, Stephen Chbosky, appears unaware that food can be sexy, or that young Joe — in a glowing, idyllically staged flashback to 40 years earlier — is infinitely more excited by bubbling Bolognese and sugared pastries than his adult self is by Olivia. Their belated dance to Chris de Burgh’s oft-recycled “The Lady in Red” is so lacking in chemistry they might as well be neutered.Corny and cloying, “Nonnas” struggles to gin up energy in a plot whose every roadblock (the dwindling finances, the failed building inspection, the opening-night disaster, the desperate plea for critical attention) is comfortably predictable. The movie’s real drag, though, is a main character with no identity beyond his mother’s depressing house and no personality beyond nostalgia. Joe is a void, and Vaughn — who can occasionally be riveting, as we saw in projects like “Brawl in Cell Block 99” (2017) and the unfairly maligned second season of “True Detective” (2015) — too often shuffles through his scenes as if narcotized.This muffled affect, along with Chbosky’s pedestrian direction and his reliance on overly literal needle drops (again with the Billy Joel?), forces everyone else to work twice as hard. 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. One where, when a former nun prays for a miracle, it won’t arrive before she has even dusted off her knees.NonnasRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon Talk ‘Nonnas’

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      Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon discuss playing cooks in a new film, aging in Hollywood and the movies that their grandchildren cannot yet watch.When I signed onto a video interview with the stars of the new Netflix release “Nonnas,” the conversation was already in progress. Brenda Vaccaro, best known for her work in “Midnight Cowboy” and “Once Is Not Enough,” was raving about the film, directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on the true story of Enoteca Maria, a restaurant in Staten Island where the kitchen is run by older women.“This is my Jimmy Stewart movie,” Vaccaro said in between effusive praise.I wondered if I was ever going to get a word in edgewise.Eventually, I was able to greet the group, which includes Vaccaro, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon. The veteran actresses, whose credits include “The Godfather,” “Goodfellas” and “Thelma & Louise,” all play the movie’s nonnas, who are recruited to cook Italian American delicacies by Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn), an M.T.A. worker mourning his own mother. Bracco is a brash Sicilian named Roberta whose specialty is a stuffed lamb’s head called capuzzelle. She fights with Vaccaro’s Antonella, loyal to her Bolognese heritage, over which region has the better traditions. Sarandon is the glamorous pastry guru and hair stylist Gia, while Shire is a nun who left the convent to pursue her dreams. (Not all the nonnas here have grandchildren.)With the women, who have nine Oscar nominations between them, gathered on a call, they riffed on their history with one another, their cooking skills, aging in Hollywood and the movies that their grandchildren cannot yet watch. Below are edited excerpts.From left, Sarandon, Vaccaro, Bracco and Talia Shire in “Nonnas.”Jeong Park/NetflixDid you know each other before getting cast?LORRAINE BRACCO: Oh, yes. I knew Brenda. I knew Susan. Talia was the newbie.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Know What’s Funny About Getting Old? These Movies Do.

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      Star-studded with leading ladies, who are all a bit older, recent comedies like “The Fabulous Four” and “80 for Brady” are establishing a popular new genre.There are two new films this year in which Academy Award-nominated actresses in their 70s whip out tiny sex toys. In “Summer Camp,” Kathy Bates offers up wee vibrators to Alfre Woodard and Diane Keaton. In “The Fabulous Four,” it’s Bette Midler giving Susan Sarandon a kegel ball that she later flings at a bike thief.You might confuse these comedies with “Book Club” (2018), where Keaton, again, finds herself in the company of fellow older luminaries (Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen and Candice Bergen). Or with “Poms” (2019), which places Keaton on a retirement community cheer squad with Jacki Weaver, Rhea Perlman and Pam Grier. Then, again, there’s also “80 for Brady” (2023), where Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno go to the Super Bowl.From left: Kathy Bates, Diane Keaton and Alfre Woodard in “Summer Camp,” directed by Castille Landon. “It’s important that we see people having fun,” Landon said.Roadside AttractionsThough the circumstances are different, the similarities in plot, casting and themes make the films easy to classify but tough to label. “Legendary ladies of cinema do a light romp,” is a little long; “Old lady comedies” might seem demeaning, but that is, essentially, how the films identify themselves. In the “80 for Brady” trailer, Moreno sums it up by saying: “The Super Bowl is no place for four old women.”Regardless of the label, this growing genre of star-studded comedies has become popular in recent years, with “Four,” which hit theaters on Friday, becoming the latest installment in the canon.You can usually see the same types of characters in each film. At least one of the women is a stick in the mud. In “The Fabulous Four” that’s Sarandon’s job. As Lou, she’s a serious doctor who loves cats and is holding a grudge against Midler’s character over a long-ago offense. Often Keaton, with her turtlenecks, is the most uptight of her group. And Fonda, when she appears, plays sexually adventurous characters, prone to making off-color jokes. Megan Mullally has that gig in “Four,” with an assist from the famously bawdy Midler. There are usually high jinks involving behavior that one might not expect from seniors. They get high. They go on adventurous excursions like parasailing or ziplining. They experiment with technology and social media. (“The Fabulous Four” has a whole bit about Midler on TikTok.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Fabulous Four’ Review: Beaches (and Lots of Mojitos)

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      This raunchy comedy features Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally on a bachelorette weekend.“The Fabulous Four” stars Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally as old pals who cut loose during a bachelorette weekend in Key West.Marilyn (Midler), a recent widow, is marrying a guy she just met at the D.M.V. But first, she’s itching to grind on an exotic male dancer. In the last year and a half, this kind of all-star girls trip flick has become its own genre (see also: “80 for Brady,” “Summer Camp” and “Book Club: The Next Chapter”). This one, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and written by Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly, is the raunchiest and loopiest so far. Slapdash but executed with gusto, “Fabulous Four” feels like it was made after guzzling three bottles of champagne — and honestly, that’s an apropos way to watch.The central conflict is that Marilyn is a self-absorbed TikTok influencer and Lou (Sarandon), a self-righteous stick in the mud who considers her estranged best friend’s wedding a personal affront. Lou blames Marilyn for turning her into a lonely cat lady — and, fittingly, gets tricked into the vacation by a phony claim that she’s won one of Ernest Hemingway’s polydactyl felines, descendants of his six-toed pet Snowball that continue to roam the grounds of the author’s former Florida home. (Sarandon’s saucer eyes light up endearingly as she clutches a pet carrier to her chest.)Rounding out the foursome are Kitty (Ralph), a cannabis farmer with a born-again daughter (Brandee Evans) who wants to stick her in a religious retirement home (“Heaven’s Gate?” Kitty groans, “More like hell on earth”) and Alice (Mullally), a lusty singer who roams the margins of the plot blurting as many gasp-inducing one-liners as she can.The jokes dance right on the edge of what you’re willing to giggle at in a matinee with your mother-in-law. Somehow when Lou meets a love interest (Bruce Greenwood) who happens to be clutching one of Key West’s famous wild chickens, the script restrains itself from a wisecrack about his rooster. There’s a little too much reliance on half-baked physical comedy. Midler kicks up her heels with such pizazz that her shoes literally go flying offscreen; later, she twerks, and she’s pretty good. More impressively, she and her fellow professionals do their utmost to add at least one layer to their caricatures. Midler allows her narcissist’s vulnerability to poke through, while Sarandon, tasked to look severe, wins us over every time she loosens up. (One scene has her blitzed on edibles and hallucinating a cat performing heart surgery.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Susan Sarandon Apologizes for Comment About Jews at Rally

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      The Oscar-winning actress said she now regrets “diminishing” the long history of antisemitism in remarks at the rally, which led her agents to part ways with her.The Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon apologized Friday for saying at a pro-Palestinian rally last month that people feeling afraid of being Jewish right now were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”The remarks drew widespread criticism and soon afterward her agency, United Talent Agency, let it be known that it had dropped her as a client.In a statement posted to Instagram Friday night, Sarandon said that she had been trying to communicate her concern for rising hate crimes. “This phrasing was a terrible mistake,” she said, “as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true.”“As we all know, from centuries of oppression and genocide in Europe, to the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, PA,” she said, referring to the synagogue shooting that killed 11 and wounding six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, “Jews have long been familiar with discrimination and religious violence which continues to this day.”“I deeply regret diminishing this reality and hurting people with this comment,” she said of her remarks at the Nov. 17 rally. “It was my intent to show solidarity in the struggle against bigotry of all kinds, and I am sorry I failed to do so.”Antisemitic incidents and Islamophobic attacks have soared in New York City, on campuses and online since the Israel-Hamas war began.Sarandon, 77, has long been an outspoken activist for progressive and left-wing causes, sometimes clashing with more moderate liberals in Hollywood, while nurturing a prolific career featuring iconic roles in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Bull Durham” and “Thelma & Louise.” More recently she appeared in the Showtime series “Ray Donovan” and the DC Comics movie “Blue Beetle,” which came out in August. More

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      ‘Maybe I Do’ Review: Lukewarm Liaisons

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      Looking at the seasoned cast — Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy — you might think you want to see this movie. Hold that thought.A romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy would kill as a Nancy Meyers movie. Unfortunately, the rom-com “Maybe I Do” was written and directed by the television veteran Michael Jacobs.“Maybe I Do” not only lacks the luscious locations of a Meyers picture, it’s got nothing in the realm of her medium-sharp writing either. For the first section of the movie, three story threads are intercut in a ham-handed, arrhythmical way.The picture begins with its only funny bit, in which Sam (Macy), alone in a movie theater watching a downer art picture and losing his mind, tears up his Twizzlers and mixes them with his popcorn. He’s about to throw in some Peanut M&M’s when he’s interrupted by Grace (Keaton), another lonely senior at the movies. A spark occurs and the two, who are unhappily married to other people, begin to fan the flame.Then, in a luxe hotel room, Howard (Gere) and Monica (Sarandon) grit their teeth through a dysfunctional adulterous tryst. “You’re pressuring me with your availability,” Howard says.And … elsewhere there’s a wedding. Michelle (Emma Roberts), a bridesmaid, is eager to catch the bouquet, while her boyfriend, Allen (Luke Bracey), is so terrified of her doing so that he actually intercepts the flowers, N.F.L. style. Inevitably, this leads to a fight over commitment, and an ultimatum that requires the couple to introduce their parents to one another. Guess who the parents are?For the climactic parental summit, Jacobs, who previously worked on TV shows such as “Boy Meets World” and “Charles in Charge,” settles on a mode that wobbles between stage play and multicamera sitcom.The ostensible comedic bits in which the oldsters duck each other soon give way to musty monologues on marriage — material that even the seasoned cast is unable to freshen up.Maybe I DoRated PG-13 for language and themes. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More