The Taste of Things (2023)

The only villain in The Taste of Things is an eight-hour dinner thrown by a visiting prince’s chef, and everyone at the table walks away unimpressed. It’s France, 1889. Juliette Binoche plays Eugénie, who has cooked for years at the country home of Dodin, a gourmet played by Benoît Magimel, and the two share a lot more than a kitchen. He’s proposed more than once. She likes things as they are. Trần Anh Hùng, who took the directing prize at Cannes, films the cooking in long, patient stretches, and the patience is the point. The catch: there’s barely a plot, and the second half takes its sweet time. The romance lives in what these two make for each other, and the night Dodin cooks for her instead is the best scene in the film. It holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. An 8.8 because it makes cooking for someone look like the most romantic thing a person can do. $666 says you attempt a pot-au-feu within the week and order takeout before the broth is done.

What works: Binoche and Magimel share an easy, unspoken closeness, and the cooking scenes are so absorbing you can practically smell them.

What doesn’t: With so little plot, the long kitchen stretches test your patience, and the second half moves slower still.

Who it’s for: Food lovers, patient romantics and anyone who thinks a great meal is a way of saying something.