They tend not to release films like 'Nonnas' in cinemas anymore.
In the 1990s and early 2000s you still used to get plenty of light comedy dramas that fared decently at the box office.
These days, though, if they do hit the big screen, they end up in arthouse cinemas or wind up on streaming services.
And that is the fate of Stephen Chbosky's 'Nonnas' - a tale inspired by a real Italian restaurant in Staten Island that was acquired for $20 million on Netflix.
Vince Vaughn plays Joe Scarvella, a Brooklynite who is mourning the death of his mama who along with his grandmother or nonna imbued him with a love of homely Italian cooking when he was a kid in the 1960s.
Now a bus company mechanic, Joe is obsessed with trying to recreate her gravy and cooking her recipes at home.
As he comes to terms with his loss, he's taken aside by his best friend, Joe Manganiello's Bruno and his wife, Drea De Matteo's Stella who are concerned about how he'll manage without his mama.
The couple encourage him to use the inheritance she left him to do something he's really passionate about.
Joe's passion is, of course, food and it takes him to Staten Island where he runs into an old crush from high school, Linda Cardellini's Olivia at an open air market after striking up conversation with her friend and elderly neighbour Brenda Vacarro's Antonella when she reminds him of his nonna.
While visiting Staten Island, Joe also stumbles upon a dilapidated, abandoned restaurant and begins to dream up the idea of running a restaurant serving up homely Italian dishes cooked by Nonnas.
Bruno is initially sceptical about the idea of Joe opening a restaurant named Enoteca Maria after his mama because of his lack of business nous.
However Stella loves the concept and after purchasing the restaurant, Joe employs Bruno, as a contractor, to renovate it to give it a homely feel.
Joe also recruits Antonella, a hotheaded friend of his mum, Lorraine Bracco's Roberta and Susan Sarandon's hairdresser Gia, who is a dab hand at pastries, to be his chefs.
Talia Shire's former nun Teresa also signs up for the job.
However the group initially struggles to bond, with Roberta and Antonella clashing because the former is of Sicilian extraction and the other's ancestors are from Bologna.
As the women start to gel, romance also starts to spark between Joe and Olivia who reveals the wedding ring on her finger has not been removed since the death of her husband.
Joe, however, is walking a financial tightrope, struggling to balance the demands of the restaurant with the bus company job he still needs to l bankroll the enterprise.
He is also not helped by Michael Rispoli's Staten Island market vendor Al taking umbrage at the signs from the previous owner's restaurant being tossed out into the street because he was a close friend.
Denouncing Joe as an outsider who doesn't belong in Staten Island, Al encourages the locals not to give their custom to the new venture
Can Joe overcome the obstacles his business venture faces including Al's opposition?
Will he find happiness with Olivia?
Will the nonnas win over the local community without falling out?
Written by Liz Mackie, it's hard to be too critical of Chbosky's film.
Yes, it's a bit stage Italian American and it follows predictable lines but it's a story that's charmingly told.
Vaughn is a likeable screen presence and Sarandon, Bracco, Vaccaro and Shire have a lot of fun in their stereotypical roles.
Cardellini is charming as the love interest and De Matteo, Manganiello and Rispoli are vivacious screen presences.
In a nice nod to the 1996 Italian restaurant movie 'Big Night,' Campbell Scott has a cameo as a food critic Edward Durant who Joe tries to persuade to review the restaurant bit who is pretty reluctant.
Chbosky delivers a decently paced, no frills comedy drama that's comfy viewing.
It's not visually arresting but it's a good distraction for a while from the strum and drang of everyday life.
'Nonnas' is dish that's as comforting as a hearty lasagne and at times as sweet as perfectly baked cannoli.
It may not be a jaw dropping experience but sometimes, light hearted escapism is all you need.
('Nonnas' was made available for streaming on Netflix on May 9, 2025)
There's nothing better than seeing a star who has been written off taking a gamble and revealing a depth to his or her talent.
For much of her career, Pamela Anderson has been dismissed as bimbo because of her Playboy model roots, her subsequent starring role in the hugely successful 1990s lifeguard series 'Baywatch' and her turbulent marriages to Motley Crue's Tommy Lee and Donald Trump's favourite rock star Kid Rock.
Anderson'z career was damaged by the leaking of a sex tape of her and Tommy Lee and there was also a high profile Hollywood box office flop 'Barb Wire' in 1996.
Yet here we are 29 years later with Anderson appearing to be on the brink of a movie career that commands respect.
Not only has she nabbed a prominent role starring opposite Liam Neeson in Akiva Schaffer's highly anticipated reboot of 'The Naked Gun' and earned his praise but other movies are also in the works where she stars alongside Riley Keogh and Taika Waititi.
Bit it is in Gia Coppola's sensitive indie drama 'The Last Showgirl' that has really got audiences and critics reassessing the Canadian actress.
In a smart piece of casting, Anderson plays Shelly Gardner, the last of a dying breed - a Las Vegas showgirl in a Parisiene style revue that has seen much, much better days.
The longest serving member of a dance revue that includes Kiernan Shipka's young, twenty-something dancer Jodie and Brenda Song's Mary-Anne, her best buddy is Jamie Lee Curtis' former showgirl turned hard drinking, cocktail waitress Annette.
Everything about Shelly's life looks tired - the casino where she works, the city she lives in, the costumes she wears, her home.
But it's all she's got.
When Dave Bautista's revue producer Eddie informs Shelly and Annette that the revue is going to close, she's devastated and thrown off her axis.
Shelly desperately reaches out to her estranged college student daughter, Billie Lourd's Hannah in the hope that rekindling their relationship may offer salvation.
But can she reconnect with her daughter and find work in a brutal industry that is more eager to invest in pole dancing than old fashioned revues?
Working from a screenplay by Kate Gershon, Coppola delivers a thoughtful film that celebrates Shelly's romantic attachment to a dying art.
Wearing elaborate but faded showgirl costumes that hark back to a bygone age, Anderson turns in a wonderful performance devoid of vanity.
Shelly's not that far away from Blanche du Bois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - a woman who is clinging to a glamorous past who is being treated insensitively by a harsh world that regards her and her job as a relic of the past.
It's a beguiling performance that is oddly reminiscent of Mickey Rourke's washed up character in Darren Aronofsky's 'The Wrestler'.
Coppola also elicits equally impressive performances from Curtis as the fiercely loyal Annette who nurses her own pain and Bautista who brings real depth to the part of a reserved co-worker who has clearly had a romantic history with Shelly.
Lourd, Shipka and Song are also spot on as a younger generation who seem insensitive and incapable of grasping why Shelly is so attached to her job.
Anderson, Curtis and Bautista should definitely feel unlucky not to have been contended this year for Oscars - although Anderson and Curtis did get Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nods.
Regardless of this snub, all three actors should take great pride in their subtle performances which illuminate movie that never patronises its beaten down characters.
Marking her third outing as a feature director, Coppola is clearly a talented director of some note.
That's not really a surprise given her family pedigree - she's the granddaughter of Francis and niece of Sofia and Roman.
But she also works well with cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw's whose bleached out images heightens the sense of faded glory that dominates the film.
Here's hoping, though,Anderson's career continues to flourish with daring roles that buck audience expectations because she deserves a strong final act.
In fact, she's more than earned that right.
(The Last Showgirl' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on February 28, 2025 and was made available on streaming services on April 18, 2025)
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