Benoît Magimel in a scene from “The Taste of Things.”
Carole Bethuel/Associated Press
Dear Mick LaSalle: So (your review of “The Taste of Things”) is all about your distaste for French cooking and your desire to make a statement about diet and nutrition. I’m neither a foodie nor a film critic, just someone who found “The Taste of Things” delightful. It’s too bad you couldn’t get beyond your personal bias and agenda.
Tim Carlton, Washington, D.C.
Dear Tim Carlton: You’ll just have to take my word for it that I don’t have an agenda and don’t sit around looking for excuses to pronounce on diet and nutrition. But I’ve been struck by the anger engendered by my comments about the gross food in that movie. French art films usually don’t have many defenders, so I have to assume that, unlike you, most of the people writing to me haven’t seen the movie and are just offended by my observation that a diet high in animal protein isn’t healthy. Recently, I drove from New York to California, and I couldn’t believe how lethal the food was in most restaurants outside the coasts. Everything was fried and drenched in butter. Eating in those places is like digging your grave with your teeth.
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Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in “The Taste of Things.”
Stéphanie Branchu/IFC Films
Dear Mick LaSalle: Maybe someone who doesn’t like French cooking should not be reviewing a movie (“The Taste of Things”) that is centered on the pleasures of cooking and eating. I get the strong impression that you subsist on granola and bean sprouts.
Stephanie Smilay, Takoma Park, Md.
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Dear Stephanie Smilay: Actually, granola’s not all that healthy, either, and I haven’t had a bean sprout in a long time. I’ve just never been a fan of meat. If I’m in France, and it’s a choice between a cheeseburger or some cassoulet that has everything but eyeballs floating in it, I’ll go with the cheeseburger. But in daily life, and by disposition, I’m pretty much a vegetarian.
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Still, I wrote a book about French cinema — “The Beauty of the Real” (Stanford University Press, 2012) — so I really am the right person to review “The Taste of Things.” It’s a movie, not a restaurant.
Christian Friedel in a scene from “The Zone of Interest.”
A24
Hey Mick: I’m writing after seeing “The Zone of Interest,” then reading your shockingly dismissive, surprisingly antagonistic and downright lazy review. Did you not want to even mention the chilling performances of Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel?
John Rogers, San Francisco
Hey John: A lazy review would have been to do what most critics did, which is to review the intent of the movie rather than the actual movie.
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There’s no revelation in “The Zone of Interest,” unless you are naive enough to be shocked that evil people can look and act just like anybody else. When Adolf Hitler’s cook brought him breakfast every morning, he didn’t throw the plate against the wall and start raving like a lunatic. He likely said, “Thank you” and ate breakfast. Ninety percent of the time he probably seemed perfectly normal, but he used the other 10% of his day to kill about 50 million people. So if we know this, what on earth is surprising, illuminating or important about a movie showing two Nazis living contentedly next to a death camp?
Seriously, the swastikas should have clued you in.
Jodie Foster in “Nyad.”
Kimberley French/Netflix
Dear Mick: A caption on your article calls Jodie Foster an “incredible actress.” Really? There’s no range of emotion displayed in her acting, just unidimensional huffiness expressed in her vocalizations, angry facial expression and clenched jaw.
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Dear Craig: I don’t write the captions, and I don’t think Foster is an incredible actress. But I do think she’s a credible actress, who brings a certain personality to her movies. I particularly liked her when I was a kid and she was a slightly younger kid. She had a precocious intelligence that was really appealing. I like her now, too, in “Nyad.” It’s the 40 years in between that I’m less crazy about.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.
Dining and Cooking