Rating: 2/5
In the lush Oregon forests, a reclusive man named Rob lives in a cabin and hunts for truffles with his foraging pig. He sells his truffles to Amir, a snot-nosed distributor. One night, in the din of coyote howls, a car approaches Rob’s shack. They knock down the door, attack Rob, and steal the pig. With no other choice, Rob calls Amir to give him a ride into town. Following a trail of drug addicts leads Rob and Amir into Portland and to an underground fight club where people pay to beat up high-end chefs. Rob writes his real name on the scoreboard. He is Robin Feld, a once-renowned chef in Portland.
Will Robin’s name be enough to get around in this city?
They're not real. You get that, right? None of it is real. The critics aren't real. The customers aren't real. Because this isn't real. You aren't real. Why do you care about these people? They don't care about you. None of them. They don't even know you, because you haven't shown them. Every day you'll wake up and there will be less of you. You live your life for them, and they don't even see you. You don't even see yourself. We don't get a lot of things to really care about.
Like Rob, this film has an identity crisis. It wants to blend genres, but it also wants to be IMPORTANT. Both Rob and Amir have loss in their lives—Amir lost his mother to suicide, and Rob lost his wife. Rob has given in to fatalism, while Amir hides his pain behind a veneer of vanity. Beyond that, milking this movie for a deeper meaning is like hunting for truffles without a pig.
Look, I love Nic Cage as much as the next person, probably more. But he, as well as everyone else in this movie, is a cardboard cutout, not a character. I appreciate that he spends most of the movie covered in blood.
I love the pig too — would literally go to war for it.
When I saw this during the pandemic, I gave it a higher score because I didn’t want to appear pretentious. Also, to be honest, I zoned out for half the movie. But maybe the movie that uses a dead serious Lacrimosa sting is the pretentious one. This is a very silly movie.
I remember every meal I ever cooked. I remember every person I ever served.