Nose to Tail (2018)

(On Cable TV, July 2021) Movies taking a look at the pressure-cooker environment of a restaurant aren’t exactly a new concept and neither are character studies of toxic masculinity, but that doesn’t mean that Nose to Tail, which combines the two, isn’t worth a look. Set in Toronto, the film works because it compresses its action to a single day in the life of a former hotshot chef who’s struggling to keep his restaurant running. The food is good, as everyone keeps telling him, but his costs are unsustainable and his temper makes it difficult to sustain his relationships — all kinds of relationships. He hopes to be able to fix the money issue by feeding a group of investors, but the temper thing… well, there’s no cure for that. Aaron Abrams looks like a roughed-up Bradley Cooper (something that the similarities with Cooper’s Burnt bring to mind), but he does pretty well at the genius jerk archetype. Not to spoil much, but the film does get one thing right: people don’t change overnight. Much of the movie thus becomes a demolition derby, as the protagonist’s karma comes crashing down on him in short order, obliterating what he thought was his life. (Don’t ask what’s coming after, because the protagonist doesn’t have a shred of regret.)  It’s familiar and darkly funny the moment you understand that the protagonist is the villain of the story, and that he deserves every single setback. It helps that writer-director Jesse Zigelstein keeps this tight within the film’s 82 minutes, sending its anti-hero off from one crisis to another. The premise is nothing revolutionary, Nose to Tail’s execution is well-done. Well, maybe medium-rare.