Tag: Vince Vaughn

Nonnas

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG

Length:  1 hr  51min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ True Story

Directed by Stephen Chbosky.

Starring:  Vince Vaughn, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Brenda Vaccaro with Linda Cardellini and Susan Sarandon.

Your Table Is Waiting………

FROM NEXTFLIX:

Nonnas follows Joe (Vince Vaughn), who, after losing his mom and grandmother, turns to their generations-old recipes for solace and direction. With the money from his mom’s insurance and a little help from his friends, he opens Enoteca Maria, an old-school Italian spot staffed by four grandmothers, or “nonnas,” from different cities in Italy, who share their dishes with the neighborhood.

FROM THE WEB:

Nonnas is based on the True Story of Joe Scaravella who took the insurance money from his mother’s policy and opened his Staten Island, New York Restaurant Enoteca Maria in 2007. Just like in the movie, he hired all Italian Grandmothers (Nonnas) to do the cooking. The Restaurant is still open and thriving today, and as of 2015 they have expanded the use of Nonnas as Chefs from not only Italian Ancestory but Culinary Cultures from all over the world. You can visit Joe Scaravella and Enoteca Maria on the web at their site: ENOTECA MARIA.

The filming of Nonnas took place in various places around New Jersey including: Bayonne, Paterson Great Falls National Park, Downtown Paterson, Hoboken, Jersey City and Elizabeth. In Elizabeth, New Jersey they filmed the Restaurant scenes in a now closed Italian Restaurant named Spiritos. Spiritos opened in 1932 and closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. They paid homage to the restaurant by featuring the name and date in the tiled floor in the movie, which I thought was so classy. According to a previous lifelong customer who’s mother used to work at Spiritos:

“After they permanently closed, the people in the neighborhood knew there was a movie being filmed at Spiritos in Elizabeth NJ, but we didn’t know too many details. SPIRITOS opened in 1932 and they kept everything authentic and original including the menu and decor, until they closed for good in 2020. Their ravioli was legendary and it was my favorite, but some loved the pizza best, or the veal parm, or the garlic salad… I ate there regularly throughout my life and my mom worked there for 25 years until they closed. Like all of their waitresses who were all seniors, they took the orders without ever writing them down. They didn’t serve coffee or dessert because the line of hungry customers waiting for a table used to wrap around the room. If you wanted butter you had to bring it from home because they didn’t serve it. They didn’t need it because the bread was for mopping up the “red lead”, as their hearty gravy was nicknamed.”

“What a beautiful way to honor the history of such a special place that sadly had to close, than by using it as a set for a movie that celebrates the traditions, food, and love that the restaurant left behind.  Spiritos brought family, food, love and tradition to the table, and it’s clear that the NONNAS movie is going to do the same.”

FROM BOBBY:

I am always on the hunt for the latest movies to watch and had my eye on NONNAS. I am a Vince Vaughan fan from way back and when I read the movie description about a guy opening a restaurant to honor his late Italian Mother and Grandmother, I was in. As I started to watch and saw from the very beginning that it was a true story, I started googling on my phone. It was indeed a true story and it gets even better, he wanted to use real Italian Grandmothers, Nonnas, to do the cooking. Joe Scaravella wanted to bring the love and warmth of an Italian family gathering, and the food his Mom and Nonna made to the masses in a restaurant, to honor them and spread the love.

Are you kidding me? We need more of this in our world, how is this not a major headline story? Well, ok…I guess a major Motion Picture is good enough. I was hooked from the very beginning as Joe watched his Mom and Nonna in the kitchen, I swear I could smell the food cooking in the kitchen. And then along comes Linda Cardellini, I am a fan! Susan Sarandon and all the Nonnas were loveable in this, I love how Roberta and Antonella show their love for each other with such disdain at first!

I love Italian food and love to cook. I’ve worked in an Italian Restaurant in another life and there is something very special about all day simmered Red Gravy (Tomato Sauce). I have an Italian friend up in Pittsburgh who grew up like Joe did and told me stories about Sunday family gatherings and the infamous “Sunday Gravy” sauces his mom and Nonna would make. I love this story and I love the movie. I have to tip my hat to Joe Scaravella, his Nonnas and Enoteca Maria. And I think Netflix, Vince Vaughan, Linda Carellini, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Brenda Vaccaro all did a fantastic job of bringing the warmth and love of Joe’s story to life.

Highly Recommended!

Queenpins

2021   STX Films

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  50min

Comedy ~ Crime ~ True Story

Directed by:  Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly.

Starring:  Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Paul Walter Hauser, Bebe Rexha, and Vince Vaughn.

“When folks use coupons, their oxytocin levels, they kinda spike, like in they get that little tingly sensation. They call it “THE COUPON HIGH”.”

Kristen Bell stars as Connie Kaminski, a three time gold medal winning former Olympic racewalker, currently unemployed and unhappily married in Phoenix, Arizona. Frustrated by several unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant and have a child, Connie has thrown herself into the coupon world. Constantly clipping and stockpiling everything she can get her hands on in a spare bedroom that was going to be the baby room. Her husband Rick, an IRS Audit agent, starts taking on travelling assignments to spend less time at home with Connie as they both deal with the disappointment of not being able to have a child.

JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) is Connie’s best friend and is also unemployed and living with her mother. JoJo had her identity stolen and it completely ruined her financially. She has started a Youtube channel on saving money and using coupons. Connie and JoJo team up and start a coupon business together after Connie discovers that she can get free item coupons from big manufacturers just by writing a complaint letter. They start selling the coupons on their website SUPERSAVVYSHOPPER.COM. That grows into an illegal operation when Connie learns that the free coupons are printed right across the border in Mexico and hatches a plan to “acquire” them from the facility in Mexico.

They enlist the help of Tempe Tina (Bebe Rexha), who stole JoJo’s identity and is a cyber hacker, to help them set up the illegal coupon operation on a large scale. Ken (Paul Walter Hauser) is a Loss Prevention manager for the local grocery chain A&G where Connie has been using her coupons to shop. When their coupon business starts growing and people start using the coupons, it comes to Ken’s attention and he puts together a case file and approaches the FBI. It then comes to the attention of The Postal Service and Inspector Simon Kilmurry (Vince Vaughn) is assigned to the case.

And what follows is the incredible and hilarious True Story of how a couple of women in Phoenix, Arizona built an illegal multi-million dollar business and the two guys who tracked them down. Ken is a complete a**hole with an inferiority complex. The relationship between Ken and Agent Kilmurry is hilarious, as Ken is a wannabe Law Enforcement agent suddenly thrust into a would be partnership with a real Law enforcement agent. How Agent Kilmurry takes pity on Ken and treats him as an equal is kind of sad yet very funny.

Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Paul Walter Hauser, Bebe Rexha, and Vince Vaughn all do really good jobs in this movie. It is based on the true story and real life crime case of three women in Arizona. And you know I love the True Story movies. Definitely funny and worth a watch…BOGO!

Two Thumbs Up!