Soul Food: Critic Reviews

The steaming platters of fried catfish, macaroni and cheese, sweet corn bread, and black-eyed peas that appear early and often in writer-director George Tillman Jr.'s sentimental family drama should be listed in the credits as costars.

This new menu movie has a soapy plot, appealing stars, family values, down-home atmosphere and a conviction that there's rarely a problem fried chicken can't cure. There sure are worse ways of looking at the world than that.

An attractive cast and lingering shots of artery-busting delights that amount to pigout pornography.

Tasty, but easily forgotten.

George Tillman says Soul Food is based in part on his own family, and I believe him, because he seems to know the characters so well; by the film's end, so do we.

Tillman is tremendously skilled at bridging the vast shifts in tone.

Soul Food serves up family melodrama-cum-comedy that's tasty and satisfying, if not particularly profound or original.

There's a fine line between good, solid drama and the sudsiness of a soap opera, and, although there are times when Soul Food crosses over, the movie remains predominantly on the right side.

Soul Food aims to be a banquet of feelings, but mostly it serves up tripe.

Tillman drew inspiration from his own Milwaukee family, his beloved grandmother in particular. Humor, sentiment and melodrama strike a balance as he brings to life nine major characters and a host of others as well.

As warm and funny as it is dramatic and emotionally involving, with fully-fleshed characters brought to life by the strong ensemble acting.

A messy, good-natured paean to the power of food and family to fix what ails you.

An overt desire to please often leaves Tillman relying on force-feeding techniques.

Your appetite may be blunted by the surfeit of syrup.

This story is right out of America's collective unconscious.

A hearty, old fashioned meal of a film.

A glossy and generally praiseworthy melodrama by writer-director George Tillman.

Lively family comedy-drama, nicely served up