The new Vince Vaughn movie Nonnas aspires to be a bit of cinematic comfort food. It’s based on a heartwarming true story, features a lot of shots of simmering Sunday sauces and touts a lovable cast of veteran Italian American actors in Talia Shire, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro and Susan Sarandon. One would hope that those are the kind of ingredients that would be difficult to mess up too badly.
And Nonnas, streaming on Netflix, is what it wants to be: A glossy, movie version of the local joint. Nothing’s groundbreaking or particularly unexpected, the story beats are predictable, and the music choices and Italian American stereotypes a bit cliché. And yet it’s done with an evident earnestness and kindness that makes it impossible to write off. Is it a sign of the times that a bunch of people just being kind to one another is basically enough?
Nonnas was directed by Stephen Chbosky (Perks of Being a Wallflower) working off of a script by Liz Maccie, whom he is married to, and based on the true story of a New Yorker named Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) who starts a Staten Island restaurant with Italian grandmothers as the chefs.
Joe has no business savvy or restaurant knowledge, just an idea after the loss of his own mother and grandmother. He just wants to pay tribute to the way that they always made him feel with their cooking in the kitchen. There’s a gauzy, sun soaked flashback to the neighborhood in the 1960s showing a young Joe watching his mother and grandmother make the Sunday sauce that’s so idealized, so full of smiles as substitute for character, it might as well be a Prego commercial.
