News December 2007

Hollywood Classics acquires rights to What's Cooking?

A well-observed ensemble comedy from the director of Bhaji on the Beach and Bend It Like Beckham about US multiculturalism, the ceremony of Thanksgiving and the family issues exposed by the occasion.

Americans are a different race, and if any proof of this assertion is needed, British-born director Gurinder Chadha's smart ensemble piece about multicultural Los Angelinos celebrating Thanksgiving provides it in spades.
The plot is minimal: four families, with links to one another that reveal themselves as the movie unfolds, are partaking in the American tradition of cooking a turkey and then arguing with each other before collapsing in front of the television.
A young Latino man is bringing his parents back together for the occasion, despite his father's philandering; a black matriarch battles with her daughter-in-law for supremacy in the kitchen; a Jewish working class couple pretend that their daughter's lesbian partner is only her roommate; and a Vietnamese mother despairs of her daughter's waywardness while somehow turning the turkey oriental.

All of these ingredients blend together to fashion a well observed portrait of family life, in which the American spirit is the essence that binds the whole dish together.

'It's a meal you may feel you've eaten before, but you nonetheless walk away stuffed and happy.'                      (The New York Times)