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Nose to Tail serves up a heavy helping of Hardships

Restaurants are not an easy business to operate. Or work in. From what I’ve heard, the service industry can cause some real inner struggles. Struggles are pretty apparent when we look to our protagonist, Daniel (Aaron Abrams) who runs his own restaurant. Despite having plenty of customers every night, behind the doors in the office is lots more issues. For starters, there’s a food truck that’s parked across the street, attracting hungry passerby types. Daniel feeling lots of pressure really lashes out at his employees especially his main cook Keith (Brandon McKnight) and his Maitre’D Chloe (Lara Jean Chorostecki) who also happens to be his on-and-off girlfriend or whatever. What kind of pressure does poor Dan have? His landlord Sid (Robert B Kennedy) is threatening to shut down the building and evict Daniel because his cheques keep bouncing. That among other things that only get worse for Doting Dan as he tries to keep a clear head. Keith leaves, or rather, gets fired after Daniel catches wind of the fact that he’s considering a new job at another establishment that seems to be better established. Thus, Daniel feels betrayed and after failing to keep up with that work, puts his new chef Angela (Genevieve Kang) in Keith’s place to step things up. But yet, still more troubles pile on, his ex-wife (Carolina Bartczak) and his son (Jonah Black) are moving away to Paris, he is unable to pay the C.O.D. in order to obtain certain products, and when he tries to please his special guest, Mark (Ennis Esmer) an investor, Mark doesn’t really know if he can help too much. Because even though they knew each other since high school, one of them can’t be trusted. Some of the tension is also caused by a foodie (Lauren Collins) who had the gall to publish some of Keith’s comments with other previous chefs of Daniel, that food truck, Chloe trying to get through to Daniel, except only making him angrier to the point of rage. Finally, when poor Dan can’t take it anymore, he storms over partially drunk to the food truck to give them a piece of his mind. But do things truly get fixed? 

Well, truth to be told, it’s hard to say. most movies I’ve seen have a problem that can be solved. But this, is… just…. Wow. It’s so realistic in consequence that it’s very messed up. You tend to learn more about someone’s perspective when they’re so wrapped up in themselves and sometimes it makes you wonder if that’s what you’re like sometimes. And it also shows no matter what you think, nothing can be solved instantly, that takes a lot of luck. With all the realism, it’s not just in story, the characters are deep and can really show true emotion. There isn’t much in colours due to most of the slate gray skies in the day and the service being done at night, but it helps provide that ominous feeling that something is always wrong. Jesse Zigelstein who wrote and also directed this film made such a compelling concept about modern day issues for business owners like competition and debt, one of these things I’ve had to deal with myself at times. A real disturbing flick, Nose To Tail will most likely have you rethink some of your own choices in life whether or not you run a business. It might even make you realize how much some people struggle with such instances as in this film. Is it worth watching? It may seem dark to some, yes, but it’s one of those films that shows accuracy in life which is something not enough people watch in entertainment. Sometimes, people need to see into things a little deeper.

 

 

 

 

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