We Feed People

You know that one friend you have who does good deeds but CONSTANTLY posts pictures about how majestic their good deeds are?

Imagine that, times a billion.

Long, tedious interviews where "volunteers" talk incessantly about themselves, how important they are, and how underpublicized their self-described heroics are to the media.

After an hour I thought it was actually a comical parody of a documentary like "Best In Show" or "Waiting For Guffman".

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

I don't know if the producer, and no coincidence the "star", of this film is running for office or trying to buy a Nobel Peace Prize or what but this film is cautionary tale about confusing narcissism with charity.

This film is hardly flawless - Andrés feels a little too centered and the pace drags a bit over the second half. That said, we should talk more about good people doing good work. You can do way worse than a great director telling an important story.

Ron Howard's fast-moving documentary about chef Jose Andres' journey from ebullient celebrity chef to global humanitarian is a genuinely inspiring film. Andres' empathetic work with the World Central Kitchen is familiar from brief snippets on the news, but the amount of life-threatening risk and sacrifice would put anyone else's efforts (or lack thereof) to shame. Howard masterfully jumps from one emergency location to the next by exposing the hard reality of Andres' actions often based on decisions that need to be made on the spot and on the chef's unbending spirit in keeping everyone motivated. Howard smartly portrays Andres not as an angelic saint but as the hard-driving leader he needs to be during a crisis.

"We're not only feeding people, we're creating a system," said José Andrés in the opening scene in Ron Howard's new documentary We Feed People.

He is creating a system, indeed. A working one, called World Central Kitchen. He has been cooking and feeding thousands of people, mostly suffering from the aftermath of hurricanes. At one point he Is in the middle of one too, as seen in his Instagram videos.

The foreign title of the film reads "Charity Rescue Mission," which is a bit deceptive, as the description only fits the last half of We Feed People. We start with abrupt and brief footage of him on a mission, but the real mission does not really take place until the 50-minute mark. We know a lot more about Andres first. Howard devoted half of the film to introduce us to him. His background, family, work, and the creation of his foundation are all told using talking head interviews and archive footage. Andres plays a significantly smaller role later on. We don't see him as often. We only see how his remarkable actions affect people.

After the "rescue mission" begins is when the film starts to repeat itself. It constantly praises Andres and remind us of the goal of WCK. It is all good-hearted, though, as we clearly see the impact WCK has on people. The impact it has on us, though, is lacking.

I appreciate those who have an analytical perspective on this! That said, from my "normal/civilian" perspective, this documentary is transformational for a person such as myself. I cannot recommend this film any higher!