A real pity in Favreau's case given his film Chef is explicitly about the opposite of that. A head chef giving up his lucrative position in favour of starting at the bottom as it offers him greater artistic freedom.
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I actually read Chef as in line with his overall philosophy - “I’m done trying to please self-important critics, because there’s nothing more honorable than creating endlessly replicable content for general audiences”
There's definitely some anti-critic sentiment in there, but when a critic challenges the chef, he tries to rise up to the challenge and is only stopped by the owner (Disney exec) demanding he play the hits. He then opens a sandwich shop aiming for cheap but authentic (11 million budget for Chef)
But I do get what you mean about making a new "same thing" over and over in this case. The difference was whether or not he actually believed in the project himself and whether or not he could do something else when he felt like it.
Yeah, that's a fair read. I suppose the triple threat of his stewardship of the Marvel/Star Wars/"live action" remake empires makes it hard for me to take his search for authenticity at face value
Completely agree here. If he actually made a hard pivot I'd really respect his choices even if he failed afterwards. As it stands Chef is just a nice film in a very mixed filmography. I think Chef, Zathura and maybe the first Iron Man are the only films he's directed that I'd say I still enjoy
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