Pressure Cooker
Source: Variety (Original Article)
L.A. Fest
Pressure Cooker
(Documentary)
By ROBERT KOEHLER
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A Participant Media presentation of a Non Sequitur production. Produced by Jennifer Grausman. Executive producers, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann. Co-producer, Myna Joseph. Directed by Jennifer Grausman, Mark Becker.
With: Wilma Stephenson, Erica Gaither, Fatoumata Dembele, Tyree Dudley.
As much a tribute to a determined public school teacher as it is an inspirational vehicle for young viewers, “Pressure Cooker” dutifully and unimaginatively follows a cluster of culinary arts students learning their craft in a northeast Philadelphia high school. Doc is the latest in a long, dull line of Yank nonfiction films that, designed with the best intentions, obediently follow the underdogs-overcoming-odds template. Regulars of Gordon Ramsay’s much more entertaining “Hell’s Kitchen” series will yawn, but enough fest auds will applaud to win distrib and cable favor.Had they made their fairly gentle film before the Ramsay era, co-directors Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker might have created a slightly different impression in the way they center on no-nonsense teacher Wilma Stephenson and her hard-working students.Perhaps Stephenson is outrageously tough in comparison with other teachers at Philly’s Frankford High School; this is what one of her students, Tyree Dudley, insists. But for viewers familiar with Ramsay’s weekly volcanic blasts as he pounds would-be exec chefs into shape on his show, “Pressure Cooker” has all the sharpness of Kraft cheese.Grausman and Becker seem to have little idea of how to film in a working kitchen with many people preparing competing dishes. The filmmakers are more comfortable laying out the usual narrative frame focusing on three student characters — Dudley, Erica Gaither and Mali-born Fatoumata Dembele — as they progress through University Course 895 the year, hoping to earn culinary …continue reading