A heartwarming, hopeful, yet surprisingly shallow entry from Ron Howard, We Feed People seems more interested in dissecting the man behind World Global Kitchen than in examining the work that they do. Founder José Andrés (who did not want the film to be centered on himself) is an interesting person, to be sure, but amidst the vision, drive, leadership and selflessness, you only ever see glimpses of the anger, frustration, and family neglect that live alongside them. What remains feels like an incomplete portrait. The same holds true for the organization that he started and functions as the heart of. As his team moves from disaster to disaster, we only get flashes of how they perform what can only be considered to be miracles to get an industrial-scale kitchen up and running in the middle of a disaster zone all while building logistics & distribution networks amid ruined infrastructure. The closest that they come is when the NGO is responding to a hurricane in Bermuda. A team on the ground scrambles to find a way to set up a kitchen so that they can start processing the food that they are ferrying in via helicopter. But just when it seems as if we're going to get details on the kitchen build and the rallying of volunteers, we've moved on. What should really be the star of the movie - the team members & locals who create the needed systems seemingly out of thin air - are seen as we drive past them, following Chef Andrés as he moves from place to place. There's not nearly enough on them. This gives us a documentary that is an examination of Who, What, Where, When & Why, but offers frustratingly little about How.
Review by Mike ShawVIP EP 2BlockedParent2023-07-05T03:39:57Z
A heartwarming, hopeful, yet surprisingly shallow entry from Ron Howard, We Feed People seems more interested in dissecting the man behind World Global Kitchen than in examining the work that they do. Founder José Andrés (who did not want the film to be centered on himself) is an interesting person, to be sure, but amidst the vision, drive, leadership and selflessness, you only ever see glimpses of the anger, frustration, and family neglect that live alongside them. What remains feels like an incomplete portrait. The same holds true for the organization that he started and functions as the heart of. As his team moves from disaster to disaster, we only get flashes of how they perform what can only be considered to be miracles to get an industrial-scale kitchen up and running in the middle of a disaster zone all while building logistics & distribution networks amid ruined infrastructure. The closest that they come is when the NGO is responding to a hurricane in Bermuda. A team on the ground scrambles to find a way to set up a kitchen so that they can start processing the food that they are ferrying in via helicopter. But just when it seems as if we're going to get details on the kitchen build and the rallying of volunteers, we've moved on. What should really be the star of the movie - the team members & locals who create the needed systems seemingly out of thin air - are seen as we drive past them, following Chef Andrés as he moves from place to place. There's not nearly enough on them. This gives us a documentary that is an examination of Who, What, Where, When & Why, but offers frustratingly little about How.