Food. It's something that is meant to bring humans together. In this documentary however, it serves only to totally alienate both Flynn and his mother Meg from each other all the way from his childhood through to adolescence.
My partner and I watched this and both of us can say that we have never come across a more tone-deaf control freak of a parent in a documentary. Meg, an amateur 'arthouse-esque' director who never "made it" and was instead lucky enough to give birth to what can only be described as a total culinary prodigy - leads us on a journey that is nothing short of a near 90 minute pity party. In this doco we are given everything from numerous examples of not only her shallow jealousy a la "He's on the cover of time magazine, and I will never be", but also examples of how to be the prefect obstacle to your kid's passion, success and personal and social growth. This documentary could be a perfect case study on such topics of psychology.
Every step of the way Flynn's mother Meg ridicules and criticizes her son's behavior and cooking. Her body language is one of looking down at him, whilst he works and lives his dream of cooking. Her home "directing" is nothing short of stalking and a total invasion of Flynn's personal space and comfort zone akin to the level of what the paparazzi display. Her footage is beyond amateur, with intense close-ups, shaky camera footage and camera angles that vilify him rather than glorify him. These are married with an endless stream of manic, condescending, insipid remarks towards him and others, even going so far as to undermine him towards his customers on his NY restaurant's opening night.
The relationship between Flynn and his mother sadly takes centre stage in this documentary as it is mostly narrated by the mother who spares no expense at displaying textbook examples of post-natal depression. Where the mother should show pride, she instead shows jealousy, where she should show faith, she instead shows doubt. The almost predatory victimizing nature of Meg had my partner and I needing to stop the documentary at periods to decompress.
In contrast Flynn's father (despite being constantly character assassinated by the mother) shows genuine interest, pride and even effort in helping his son. Flynn's sister also plays a part in encouraging Flynn, serving only to further highlight the distance Flynn and his mother have by comparison. The final nail in the coffin is when you see Flynn calls his dad, "dad" but Megan is always referred to by name and never "mum".
My partner and I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary despite being shocked at how bad of a parent Flynn's mother is and how she took every chance to try to steal her son's glory. At the end of the documentary we're finally left with the manic mother out of the picture and we can immediately see an improvement in Flynn's behavior and even his restaurant management.
I think this documentary should be shown in both cooking and psychology classes as mandatory viewing. It is both one equal part a total portrayal of unhealthy family dynamic and another of what it is like to have a genuine passion for cooking.
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