Nonnas

In Nonnas, we meet Joe Scaravella, a guy who turns grief into purpose the old-fashioned way—by rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. After losing his mother and grandmother, Joe opens Enoteca Maria, a cozy little Italian joint on Staten Island, not staffed by flashy chefs or TikTok influencers, but by real grandmothers—“nonnas”—serving up the kind of home-cooked meals the Food Network forgot existed. With help from his buddy Bruno and four spirited nonnas, Joe fights through red tape and money woes, all while reconnecting with an old high school flame, Olivia.

Nonnas Review

An uncomplicated story that’s almost entirely heart, much of Nonnas is warm homemade bread fresh out of the oven for the soul. That’s as much thanks to the cast as to the premise. Like vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil in grandma’s Sunday gravy, Vince Vaughn’s natural charisma blends deliciously with and complements an uncharacteristically restrained and heartfelt performance, displaying subtle notes of loss and hope.

Vaughn leads an all-star cast of well-seasoned actresses whose combined experience spans over 200 years. Their on-screen ease soothes viewers, but it’s the early scenes in which Lorraine Bracco (Goodfellas) and Brenda Vaccaro (Midnight Cowboy) bicker with one another that do most of the heavy lifting of endearing all of the nonnas to the audience. That said, Susan Sarandon, unarguably the actress with the most storied career among them, phones it in. Fortunately, she barely speaks.

As charming as Nonnas is, it could’ve benefited from deeper character, plot, and conflict development. Instead, things mostly fall into place as needed—less contrived than undercooked. The actions make sense, but too much unfolds off-screen, leaving the story feeling surface-level and overly simple.

Still, there are far worse things to watch on Netflix, and, if you’re willing to skip a horrendously bad 5-minute scene in the final third of the film that fits like a shoe three sizes too small, is peppered with the film’s only progressive nonsense (when all of the ladies go to the salon), and adds nothing to the narrative, Nonnas is a fun watch.

WOKE REPORT

Susan Sarandon

• Virtually every moment built around her character feels out of place and stitched on, as though she demanded the female empowerment changes personally (I have no evidence of this, only intuition). However, hers is a tiny part, and the following represent micro moments that are exclusive to a skippable 5-minute segment (which is why the Woke O Meter score isn’t as bad as some might think it should be).
  • Midway through, there’s a scene that feels completely tacked on, with the nonnas hanging out at a salon owned by Sarandon’s character. During it, some progressive boxes get sloppily checked as they celebrate themselves and beauty. They describe beauty as feeling “seen and heard.” It’s as weak narrative sauce as it is modern secular narcissistic BS.
  • As they pass around the liquor, sharing their origin stories like it’s Rebel Moon, it’s revealed that only one of the women had a husband worth anything. Another jokes that she would have given hers to Sarandon’s character (the slut of the group), and Sarandon says that she “loves men” but for her, “… the idea of one man for the rest of your life…” blah blah blah. The movie’s tone is that this is sexual liberation wisdom rather than a sure way to end up a miserable and lonely cat rancher.

Nun are Safe

• While it’s part of the above scene, I thought it deserved a separate section.
  • During the share-sesh, the ex-nun played by Talia Shire (Rocky) reveals that she is, of course, a lesbian. She also has the line, “It’s not easy to live in a world that rejects what you are.”
    • While it’s not definitive, according to my admittedly limited research, her character seems to be a complete fiction. Obviously, the need to include her atypical sexuality in a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with it is woke enough. That the writers felt the need also to make her a nun is beyond the pale.

I’m Going for Some Milk and Cigarettes

• From what I can find, the real man about whom the movie is based had a dad in his life. The extent to which this is so, I don’t know except that he has said both of his parents were hard workers and away a lot, but that his mother was the head of their household. However, the dad is never mentioned or even shown in a photograph on the mantle. Of course, he’s not derided in any way either, so I didn’t really mark down the Woke O Meter, I just thought it worth mentioning.