Summary
A sweet and saccharine serving of homespun cookery that might play for some of the more obvious menu items, but still leaves you feeling full and mostly satisfied.
Lots of us have stories about our grandmothers. Our nans. Our nonnas. The formative memories often revolve around special occasions—and, invariably, food. That’s where Stephen Chbosky’s comedic drama Nonnas finds its heart, drawing inspiration from both nostalgic sentiment and the real-life story of Staten Island restaurant owner Joe Scaravella.
When the fictional Joe (Vince Vaughn) loses his beloved mother, a chance encounter with his high-school sweetheart Olivia (Linda Cardellini) prompts him to buy a rundown restaurant and staff it with local nonnas, recreating the feeling of home-cooked meals for the people around him.
Despite enlisting his mother’s best friend Roberta (Lorraine Bracco), local hairdresser Gia (Susan Sarandon), retired nun Teresa (Talia Shire) and Olivia’s friend Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro) to cook, Joe must overcome a closed-minded community, and confront his own grief, if the business is to survive.
There are very few surprises in Chbosky’s film. From the opening flashback to the predictable trials, romantic detours and life lessons, you’ve seen all of this before. Even Marcelo Zarvos’ light score is peppered with expected Italian background music. If you’re humming “Funiculì, Funiculà” right now, you’re spot on.
Like many nostalgia-tinged streaming originals, the runtime stretches itself with parenthetical detours before the inevitable conclusion. There’s a food fight between the nonnas. There’s a full-blown makeover montage with Sarandon, Shire and Bracco. If you asked me how we got there, I probably couldn’t tell you now—but they did make me smile.
If NONNAS feels out of step with modern sensibilities—particularly in Joe’s montage of rejection from food bloggers, online press and usually content-hungry critics—it’s because Chbosky bathes the whole film in the golden glow of nostalgia. In the end, it’s the memory that matters. It’s about how coming together over food makes you feel. And in every way, the feeling here is ‘good.’
2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Stephen Chbosky | WRITERS: Liz Maccie | CAST: Vince Vaughn, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Brenda Vaccaro, Linda Cardellini, Susan Sarandon | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 09 May 2025
