What's Cooking? (2000)

Four families in LA of different ethnicity (Latino, Asian/Vietnamese, African and Jewish) gather together for Thanksgiving dinner.

Director:

Gurinder Chadha

Writers:

Gurinder Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges

Stars:

Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, Mercedes Ruehl

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mercedes Ruehl	...	Elizabeth Avila
Victor Rivers	...	Javier Avila
Douglas Spain	...	Anthony Avila
Maria Carmen	...	Sofia Avila
Isidra Vega	...	Gina Avila
Elena Lopez	...	Grandma Avila
A Martinez	...	Daniel
Richard Yniguez	...	Robert Avila
Lorraine Perez	...	Auntie Delores
Eva Rodriguez	...	Auntie Eva
Adrian Armas	...	Avila Cousin
Caz	...	Gordo
Joan Chen	...	Trinh Nguyen
François Chau	...	Duc Nguyen (as Francois Chau)
Will Yun Lee	...	Jimmy Nguyen

Storyline

In LA's Fairfax district, where ethnic groups abound, four households celebrate Thanksgiving amidst family tensions. In the Nguyen family, the children's acculturation and immigrant parents' fears collide. In the Avila family, Isabel's son has invited her estranged husband to their family dinner. Audrey and Ron Williams want to keep their own family's ruptures secret from Ron's visiting mother. In the Seelig household, Herb and Ruth are unwilling to discuss openly their grown daughter's living with her lover, Carla. Around each table, things come to a head. A gun, an affair, a boyfriend, and a pregnancy precipitate crises forcing each family to find its center.

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Plot Keywords:

video store | family dinner | pregnancy | gun | thanksgiving | 

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Taglines:

Thanksgiving. A celebration of food, tradition and relative insanity.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, brief language and a perilous situation

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gregory Itzin and Dennis Haysbert would go on to play two U.S. presidents, David Palmer and Charles Logan, in Fox's "24."

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Connections

Referenced in The Resident: Peking Duck Day (2019)

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Soundtracks

24-7-365 (Remix)
Performed by Type 4
Written by Tom Williams, Brian Cantwell and Matt Reyes
Published by Dirtneck Music
Courtesy of World One Records

User Reviews

Delightful Women-Focused, Multi-Ethnic Celebration of Family

"What's Cooking" is one of the most non-dogmatic feminist movies I've seen (as compared to say "24 Hour Woman") as exemplified by a climactic scene of one mother stuffing her face with two pieces of homemade pie amidst crisis while declaring "I'm weak? Is it weak to want to hold the family together?"

So many holiday or family gathering movies (like "Avalon" and "Hannah and her Sisters" and "Eat Drink Man Woman") have been made by men and they always felt off balance to me compared to my observations and experiences. Here the women in the kitchen are symbolically and functionally at the center of the meal preparation, the meal and the families.

Other women directors have been successful at portraying a single ethnic group's family issues, such as "Double Happiness" or Nancy Savoca's "True Love." But this is a multi-ethnic All-Americans Thanksiving in L.A. (reminding me of the children's book "Molly's Pilgrim") an L.A. where people from different traditions (Vietnamese, Chicano, African-American and Jewish) all integrate the trappings of the Pilgrims into that basic of ethnic identity--food-- to intersect in unexpected ways, at work, in the community, in their homes and in their hearts.

It's an impressive cast of actresses in particular; it's noteworthy that such a stellar cast would do a small indie -- clearly they jump at the chance to get "meaty" roles for women.

The audience laughed, and cried, and gasped. While your popcorn will pale beside the feasts before your eyes, be sure to eat something during the movie cause you'll be real hungry afterwards!

(originally written 11/19/2000)

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Spanish Vietnamese Yiddish

Release Date:

1 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

What's Cooking?

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$144,586, 19 November 2000

Gross USA:

$1,045,899

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,698,759

Company Credits

Production Co:

Because Entertainment, Flashpoint (I), Hope and Gravy Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1