I sure hope you brought your appetite for this week’s new installment of Review Stew! We are heading to the kitchen to see what the neighborhood grandmothers are cooking up in… Nonnas (2025).
Title: Nonnas
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Released: Theatrically in a limited capacity on May 1, 2025 (United States) and on streaming worldwide on May 9, 2025.
Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes
Available to stream on: Netflix
Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) is mourning the recent passing of his mother. In an effort to keep her spirit alive, along with his nonna’s (grandmother’s), Joe considers opening a restaurant. Nothing says “family” like home-cooked Italian food, right?
Well, there’s just one small problem with Joe’s idea. He’s a transit worker with zero experience in the restaurant industry. But that isn’t going to stop him. He travels from Brooklyn to Staten Island, finds a restaurant space for sale that was an old neighborhood staple, and decides to purchase it.
While that all sounds great, who’s going to be cooking the food and making it taste like the comfort of home? Who else, real authentic nonnas of course.
Joe manages to recruit Roberta (Lorraine Bracco), Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro), and his mom’s former hairdresser, Gia (Susan Sarandon), to be his nonnas in the kitchen. By pure luck, he even gets Teresa (Talia Shire) as a walk-in looking to be a cook.
So now Joe has the building and the staff, but can he run a profitable restaurant?
As someone who is a fan of the movie Big Night, the premise of Italian grandmothers cooking their beloved recipes for the masses was not a tough sell. The fact that it is based on a true story just happened to be an added bonus.
The writing is strong enough to hit all the right notes and tug at the heart strings. And the cinematography gifts us with aesthetically pleasing shots of Joe’s ferry ride and delicious meals being cooked in the kitchen.
But the real draw in Nonnas (2025) is the cast.
While Vince Vaughn taps into his trademark charisma, it is the group of nonnas that steal the show. The interactions between them are really what makes the movie. You can just feel the chemistry between Bracco, Vaccaro, Shire, and Sarandon whether they are lobbing insults and being petty with one another or coming together to make the dream a reality. To round things out, Linda Cardellini, Drea de Matteo, and Joe Manganiello are all great in their supporting roles as well.
If nothing else, Nonnas (2025) was released at a perfect time. When every new day brings some new unprecedented horror, we could all use a light and heartfelt escape for a bit. Nonnas (2025) fits that bill perfectly and is absolutely deserving of at least one viewing.
So, have you seen Nonnas (2025) yet?
If so, let me hear what you thought of it in the comments below or over on Bluesky!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to keep up with everything else that I’ve been watching lately.