Last week on Documentary Now!, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen took us deep into The Bunker in their skewering of DA Pennebaker’s classic campaign documentary The War Room. This week, Hader and Armisen lampoon a more recent documentary with their take on Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Juan Likes Rice & Chicken. Once again, Documentary Now! stands out as the premiere revival of the spoof genre, providing catnip for cinephiles and display the immense talents of everyone involved in this magnificent show.
David Gelb’s 2011 documentary followed Jiro Ono, the meticulous head of his revered sushi house in Tokyo, often referred to the best sushi in the world. Not only would Jiro scour the fish markets for the perfect pieces of fish, he would massage the cold slabs for 30 minutes to ensure a certain level of tenderness. Beyond that, there’s a familial angle to Jiro Dreams of Sushi, as one of Jiro’s sons had left his father’s domineering shadow to start his own restaurant while the other son stays working for his father in the hopes of one day taking over the family business.
Juan Likes Rice & Chicken follows the template of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, simply transplanting the location from Tokyo to a little restaurant nestled in the hills of Colombia. Juan (Hector Elias) is a meticulous perfectionist in every facet concerning his restaurant, which has earned a legendary reputation over the years from critics like Nico Rodriguez (Hader). The restaurant which isn’t easy to access is famous for its dishes consisting of rice and chicken, though it’s not uncommon to arrive only to find that chicken isn’t on the menu. Juan goes through his peculiar process in procuring his chicken and if his standards aren’t meat, there’s simply no chicken to be served.
Of course, Juan Likes Rice & Chicken plays upon the familial aspects of Jiro with Juan’s son Arturo (Armisen) loyally working away for his father after his brother Diego (Luis Fernando Hoyos) has started his own establishment, Diego’s Fun Restaurant. Arturo left behind a life studying improv in Amerca in order to pick up the slack at the restaurant after Diego left, but the wounds of Diego’s departure have embittered Juan towards his son.
As they’ve done with every episode, directors Rhys Thomas and Alex Buono, with Buono also serving as director of photography, perfectly capture the essence of the documentary they’re spoofing, employing extreme close ups of their subjects and elegant slow motion set to dramatic classical music in recreating David Gelb’s film. The script by Seth Meyers is wonderful in lampooning the Jiro Ono’s meticulous process, bringing the inherent absurdity to the forefront in Juan’s process for chicken. All of the details as to Juan’s process are slowly doled out and culminating to a wonderfully silly crescendo.
Last week, Bill Hader was the one stealing all of the scenes he was in as he did his best James Carville. This week, it’s Fred Armisen as Arturo, the meek son of Juan, that gets his day in the spotlight. Not only was the episode filmed Colombia, it’s almost entirely in Spanish and allows Armisen to highlight his bilingual abilities. Week after week, Hader and Armisen take turns taking on extremely varying character archetypes to astounding results. As Armisen’s performance this week proves, Documentary Now! isn’t dependent on its leads to play bombastic, larger than life characters to be comically effective.
Juan Likes Rice & Chicken is just latest piece of brilliance from Documentary Now! and another wonderful episode that doesn’t require intimate familiarity with the source material to find the robust humor on display. But to fully embrace everything that Hader and Armisen are doing, and just how impressive it really it is, I do recommend watching the documentaries that these episodes are based upon. (Jiro Dreams of Sushi is on Netflix right now.) Two weeks into the second season and Documentary Now! has yet to have a single misstep in a show that simultaneously spoofs and homages the classics of documentary filmmaking.
Documentary Now! airs on Wednesdays at 10pm only on IFC.
Juan Likes Rice & Chicken
- Overall Score
Summary
This time spoofing 2011’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Juan Likes Rice & Chicken is just the latest masterwork from the cast and crew of Documentary Now!, one that recreates the visual feel of its source material and amplifying the comedic subtext into bold text.
