Abe: Seu Jorge Cooks (Portuguese Translation)

I've been a Seu Jorge fan since covering him at last Sundance, both as an actor in Abe, and as a performer at the ASCAP Music Cafe, so I'm thrilled to be able to post a Portuguese translation of my original film review, courtesy of Angelica Sakurada:

Abe: Seu Jorge cozinha

Se existisse mais cozinha fusion na Conferência de Taba, talvez existisse paz no Oriente Médio. Ou talvez não. Um chefe novato de treze anos tenta aproximar a sua família uma mistura de Israel e Palestina por meio da comida, mas as divergências deles podem ser muito grandes para os seus esforços culinários sanar, apesar da ajuda vinda do Brasil no filme Abe de Fernando Grostein Andrade, que recentemente foi lançado em VOD (video on demand) após o lançamento no Festival de Sundance de 2019.

Abe prefere ser chamado de “Abe”, mas sua família o chama de Abraham, Avraham, Avi ou Ibrahim, depende de qual lado da família está falado. Sua mãe e os pais dela são judeus de Israel, seus avós paternos são muçulmanos da Palestina, e seu pai é um ateu convicto. Como você pode imaginar, os encontros familiares são sempre difíceis. Francamente, eles batem boca tanto, que nunca chegam a apreciar a comida de Abe.

Para um garoto de treze anos, Abe é bom com a culinária básica (ou ele acha que é), mas ele precisa de um pouco de coaching para desenvolver criações mais ambiciosas. Chico Catuaba é o tipo de chefe que ele tem em mente como mentor. O baiano já teve seu próprio restaurante no passado, mas agora vende no bairro do Brooklyn a sua culinária exclusiva fusion brasileira-jamaicana que ele prepara em sua cozinha improvisada. Inicialmente, Chico Catuaba fica com um pé atrás em relação a Abe e com receio de problemas potenciais legais de exploração de menores que Abe pode trazer, mas a sinceridade do garoto acaba o convencendo. Entretanto, Chico Catuaba faz questão que Abe cumpra sua parte primeiro, antes de dar-lhe responsabilidades reais na cozinha.

O filme de Fernando Andrade destaca uma trilha sonora brasileira gostosa e cheia de energia, trazendo o co-protagonista Seu Jorge em duas canções (“Imigrantes” e “Meia Lua Inteira” de Caetano Veloso), Tulipa Ruiz com “Sal e Amor”, e o supervisor musical Jacques Morelenbaum com arranjos solos de violoncelo em “Brigas Nunca Mais” e “Samba de Uma Nota Só”. O som é ótimo e a comida parece deliciosa, então é fácil perdoar o aspecto previsível do roteiro de Lameece Issaq e Jacob Kader. De fato, Fernando Andrade executa de maneira leve o conto culinário em que o garoto vai crescendo, abafando os clichês óbvios e os potenciais desconfortos políticos ao máximo possível. Ao invés disso, ele foca na diversidade e carisma do conjunto dos personagens.

Sundance ’19: Abe

If only they had more fusion cuisine at Taba, maybe then there would be peace in the Middle East. Or perhaps not. A thirteen-year-old aspiring chef in Brooklyn tries to bring his mixed Israeli-Palestinian family together with food, but their divisions might be too deep for his culinary efforts to heal, despite some help from Brazil in Fernando Grostein Andrade’s Abe, which screens during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Abe prefers “Abe,” but his family calls him Abraham, Avraham, Avi, or Ibrahim, depending on which side is doing the talking. His mother and her parents are Jewish Israeli, his paternal grandparents are Palestinian Muslims, and his father is a “plague on both your houses” atheist. As you might guess, family gatherings are super awkward. Frankly, they bicker so much, they never enjoy Abe’s cooking.

For a thirteen-year-old, Abe is pretty good at the basics (or so he thinks), but he needs a bit of coaching when it comes to more ambitious creations. Chico Catuaba is the chef he has in mind to mentor him. The Bahia native once had his own restaurant, but now sells his unique brand of Brazilian-Jamaican fusion cuisine in his pop-up kitchens throughout Brooklyn. Initially, Catuaba is suspicious of Abe and the potential child labor legal problems he might bring, but the young teen’s sincerity wins him over. However, he will make sure Abe pays his dues first, before giving him real kitchen responsibilities.

Andrade’s film boasts a lithe and lively Brazilian soundtrack, featuring co-star Seu Jorge on two tracks (“Imigrantes” and Veloso’s “Meia Lua Inteira”), Tulipa Ruiz on “Sal E Amor,” and musical supervisor Jaques Morelenbaum’s solo cello arrangements of Jobim’s “Brigas Numcas Mais” and “Samba de Uma Noto So.” It sounds fantastic and the food looks delicious, so it is easy to forgive the formulaic aspects of Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader’s screenplay. In fact, Andrade executes the culinary coming-of-age tale with a light touch, dialing down the obvious clichés and potentially fraught politics as much as possible. Instead, he focuses on the diverse, likable ensemble of characters.

Noah Schnapp from Stranger Things is appealingly energetic and earnest as Abe. However, the perfectly cast Seu Jorge frequently steals the show as Catuaba. Anyone who has seen him perform knows he has serious charisma and a voice that could take work away from James Earl Jones, but he also wields a kitchen knife with authority. As Abe’s parents, Dagmara Dominczyk and Arian Moayed also convincingly look and sound like a loving couple, whose relationship is under strain and stress. As a bonus, the great character actor Mark Margolis adds some crusty flair as Abe’s Jewish grandfather, Benjamin.

Abe is a very nice little movie with a terrific soundtrack. The notion of refracting the Middle Eastern conflict through the microcosm of a Brooklyn family might sound like a ham-fisted, finger-wagging cinematic lecture, but Andrade mostly makes it work, by not forcing it too hard. Recommended for fans of foodie movies and Seu Jorge, Abe screens again today (2/2) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance ’19: Seu Jorge at the ASCAP Music Café

He was Pelé dos Santos, the Bowie singing crew-member in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the vengeful Knockout Ned in City of God, and Pelé’s dad in Pelé, but Seu Jorge is first and foremost a major MPB star. If you have him in your movie, you ought to take advantage of his chops, like Fernando Grostein Andrade did in his Sundance-selected film Abe. Not only did Seu Jorge play a major supporting role, he is also featured on the soundtrack and played an intimate 45-minute set at the ASCAP Music Café on Wednesday (as part of the programming of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival), backed only by the film’s music supervisor, Jaques Morelenbaum, on cello.

Technically, Jorge’s program of music from-and-inspired-by-the-movie Abe will not sound so familiar to anyone who just saw the film, but his fans recognized nearly every tune. For Brazilians, there were a handful of his old school hits, given a distinctly samba vibe from Jorge’s guitar and Morelenbaum’s cello. They also played a lightly swinging and downright jazz-like rendition of Gershwin’s “’S Wonderful” (the only English language performance of the set).

However, the centerpiece of the set was a trio of Jorge’s Bowie songs translated into Portuguese for Life Aquatic, which was a shrewd strategy, considering the Sundance audience’s likely familiarity with the Wes Anderson film. The stripped-down arrangement of “Rebel Rebel” is an absolute knockout that perfectly suits his deep baritone voice. “Life on Mars” sounded similarly haunting, in a way that is perfectly in keeping its Bowie roots. The same was generally true of “Ziggy Stardust,” but the slower tempo does not suit the melody as well.

Throughout the set, Morelenbaum’s accompaniment was tasteful and classy. The combination of guitar and cello was evocative of samba, as well as the coffeehouse and chamber music traditions. Even though Morelenbaum was definitely there in a supportive role, the standing-room-only crowd could hear the simpatico between the two artists.

The music on Abe is really quite different, but also very distinctive, including Jorge’s vocals on "Imigrantes" and Caetano Veloso’s “Meia Lua Inteira,” as well as Morelenbaum’s solo cello arrangements of Jobim’s “Brigas Numcas Mais” and “Samba de Uma Noto So.” All of the music associated (even distantly) with Abe is highly recommended and the movie is quite nice too (review to come). One thing is certain—Jorge’s ASCAP Music Café accomplished its mission, because it surely generated buzz and interest for the film.

(Photo: Erik Philbrook)

Pele: Before the New York Cosmos

Pelé was the Derek Jeter of the mid-1970’s. He was the biggest sports star in New York, playing for the top team in the league. Having the resources and willingness to sign the best players in the world (exactly like Pelé), the New York Cosmos were the most popular American professional soccer team, arguably to this day (but the rest of the NASL league did not fare so well). However, nobody was showering money on young Edson “Dico” Arantes do Nascimento during his formative years in Jeff & Michael Zimbalist’s Pelé: Birth of a Legend (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Dico and his siblings are growing up cash-poor, but rich in spirit. Naturally, Nascimento and his street urchin friends love nothing more than playing through the streets and back alleys of Três Corações, much to the chagrin of his protective mother. She has had enough of football ever since her husband Dondinho’s career was cut short by a freak accident. Apparently, he stepped in a bear trap accidentally left on the field or something equally painful. In fact, the physical damage was not nearly as debilitating as the blow to his confidence. Recognizing his son’s talents, the elder Nascimento secretly trains him in the exuberant Brazilian “Ginga” style, in between cleaning toilets at the city hospital.

Eventually, Nascimento will stand up to Jose Altofini, the local wealthy, wannabe Aryan bully on the field and start to make a name for himself. Sure enough, teenage “Pelé,” as Altofini dubbed him is duly signed by the Três Corações farm team, playing his way up to the pro squad and the national team. However, “Ginga” is a dirty word for coach Vicente Feola, who blames the improvisational style of play for Brazil’s ignominious showings in the 1950 and 1954 World Cups. He therefore insists they play a slow, rigid, Euro style of play, leading to considerable strife within the team.

It is rather surprising the Zimbalist documentarian brothers, who previously helmed The Two Escobars, would take such a predictable, TV movie approach to Pelé. Forget subtlety. The poverty is never too grinding for them, nor can the Europeans ever be snobby enough. Swedish national coach George Raynor, as played with hissy contempt by Colm Meaney, represents an especially over-the-top caricature. It is hard to believe anyone would prattle on about breeding and racial purity at a press conference (especially considering how doggedly post-war Sweden was trying to sweep its WWII collaboration under the rug).

By far, the best thing going for Birth of a Legend is MPB recording star Seu Jorge, who soulfully anchors the film as Dondinho. Frankly, neither teenage Kevin de Paula Rosa or adolescent Leonardo Lima Carvalho have a fraction of his charisma, but they seem to have game. In fact, the Zimbalist Brothers rather perversely cast Nascimento as a brooding, joyless kid, who really is not much fun to hang with.

Equally strange, accomplished Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman was hired to score the film, because apparently producer Brian Grazer did not realize they have a bit of a musical tradition in Brazil. Rahman does his best to incorporate Brazilian elements, but this is definitely not his most memorable work. At least the Brothers Zimbalist do their best to keep it zipping along. Serviceable but kind of dull, Pelé opens this Friday (5/13) at the IFC Center, but his New York fans should revisit him and Sylvester Stallone in John Huston’s Victory instead.