Eat It

Anthony Lane's New Yorker review of Chef (which is doing pretty well for a small release) ends thus:

[T]he real subject of “Chef” is the Internet.The offending critic writes a blog post; Percy teaches Carl how to respond on Twitter; the fame of the Cubanos spreads virally; there are plugs for Facebook and Vine; and the whole cross-country trip is captured on the kid’s phone and finally put online. Worst of all are the tweets that pop up onscreen and then fly away, chirruping, like the Disney bluebirds that greeted Snow White and helped Cinderella with her gown. This digital worship, unlike the food, is flavorless and dehumanizing, and in a few years’ time it will look archaic. For now, it spoils the appetite.

There's no question the Jon Favreau film makes liberal use of social networking--it's part of the fun.  Why is Lane being such a sourpuss? He's probably right it will look dated in a few years, but so already do payphones and pagers and indoor smoking in a lot of old movies Lane dotes on.

And the tweets that fly away?  That was cute.