Being A High-End Chef Is The New Torture Porn In The 'Hunger' Trailer

By Jen Maravegias | Film | March 9, 2023 |

By Jen Maravegias | Film | March 9, 2023 |

I enjoyed The Menu. I thought it was a well-executed lampooning of fine dining culture.

And I love The Bear because of its honesty and realism. Even if that means no one I know in the restaurant industry is able to watch it without having PTSD flashbacks to their worst days in the kitchen.

But I think Netflix’s Hunger might be a bridge too far.

It feels like it was made for folks who get off on watching people having the worst experience of their lives, trying to pursue their passion under the worst circumstances imaginable. The master and protégé relationship here is giving off strong Whiplash vibes. That movie won J.K. Simmons a bunch of awards, but it was super stressful and didn’t do as much for Teller’s career as we predicted. Does anyone really enjoy movies like this?

Listen, if the megalomanic in the trailer gets cooked and fed to The Rich at the end of Hunger then all is forgiven. But otherwise, hard pass. No thanks. I’ll wait for The Bear to come back to get my fix of back-of-house drama.

Written by Kongdej Jaturanrasmee and directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri, Hunger stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying and Nopachai Jayanama. It will be available to stream on Netflix beginning April 8th.