TIFF 2021 Review: Julia

Julia (2021) is an American documentary film. It was directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West.

Julia Child was a pioneer in the arts of cuisine, literature, and television. Fortunate enough to be able to travel the world at a time when that sort of thing was much easier and far less fraught with bullshit, she discovered she had an affinity for French cuisine. She brought that love with her when she returned to America. She continued to hone her craft and became quite skilled at being a chef herself.

Much to her dismay, Julia Child found that the culinary landscape in the good ol’ U.S. of A was focused primarily on ease and convenience, eschewing things like fresh ingredients and genuine preparation. So displeased with the direction things were taking, Julia took things into her own hands and wrote a cookbook that introduced the folks that prepared dinner in this country that with a little time, effort, and care, that they too could provide their friends, family, and loved ones with amazing dishes that didn’t come out of a can or out of the freezer.

Now a chef in her own right as well as a published author, television was the next step. Following an appearance on public television somewhere in Massachusetts, a demand for her began to spring up. Before long, she was doing her own regular cooking show for PBS, and becoming a celebrated public personality as well. Julia chronicles the life and times of this trailblazing artist. Her highs and lows, her loves and losses, her successes and her failures. Most of all it features her love of her craft, and the joy she brought to so many through her cuisine, and her enthusiasm for it.

Another film festival, another documentary. I find that when it comes to film festivals, the narrative films they feature tend to be a little hit a miss. This isn’t as much the case with documentaries. Documentaries tend to be on a more even keel, quality-wise. Very rarely am I disappointed with a documentary the way that I find myself with narrative films around 50% of the time.

Naturally it follows that I found Julia to be a moving and emotional doc. For anyone born before a certain year, Julia Child was more or less known to everyone. Even if they never watched a minute of any of her shows or read any of her numerous books, she was an almost instantly recognizable public figure. Her idiosyncratic look and her utterly unique voice set her apart from most other celebrities. Not to say that she was a walking caricature, but she was absolutely ripe for impressions. Something that, according to the film, she actually enjoyed. She wasn’t the kind of celebrity that one could easily forget. She was one of a kind and everyone knew who she was.

I couldn’t help but compare Julia to the last chef-centric doc I watched at the last film festival, Wolfgang (David Gelb, 2021). While I enjoyed Wolfgang, I found it to be a little light. Of the two docs, both of which claim, if I’m not mistaken that their respective subjects are the “original rock & roll chefs,” Julia is superior. In Julia, we see a little bit more of the darker side of things; the tragedies and the missteps. Not that I am looking to these films to take these celebrated icons down a peg or two. However, life is very infrequently an experience without peaks and valleys. Julia does a better job at illustrating both.

Perhaps what I enjoyed the most about Julia is that I learned so much about her, and her contributions. Not just to the world of cuisine, nor her paving the way for the countless celebrity chefs that were to arrive in her wake, but in terms of her being a cheerleader and advocate for women in the culinary world. As well as her encouragement of each and every one of us that has access to a kitchen to not fear cuisine, and extra-national ingredients, and methods of food preparation. Anyone, with a little thought and care, can do what she did, and she spent her life trying to help all of us out.

Julia, while nowhere near as much a gut-puncher as something like Attica (Stanley Nelson, 2021) is still a completely satisfying documentary. Heartwarming, informative, touching, and very much appetite-inducing, Julia should satisfy any fan of the form. Additionally I would hope that it might turn future generations of aspiring culinarians, professional or amateur, on to this vibrant, intelligent artist who wasn’t just ahead of her time. She ushered in a time in which everyone could be included in a discipline that has traditionally felt off-limits to so many.

It feels rewarding to spend some time with someone so deserving of being remembered, discovered, or re-discovered. Sure, she was already world-famous. However, with each passing year, posterity seems to shed more and more of history’s layers, paring the past down to strictly the best-selling, the highest-charting, the most reprehensible. If this film can help keep Julia Child’s flame burning, then I am honored to have been touched by her light.