Jiro Dreams of Sushi Reviews
Top CriticThe exquisite nigiri slices gleam with freshness, and you do learn about the component parts to the perfect serving of sea eel or gizzard shad.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
It's torture to watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi -- if you are on an empty stomach.
By the time this graceful film is over you understand why Japan has declared the bald, bespectacled Jiro a national treasure. Even if you've never tasted sushi, the man's singleness of purpose will inspire you.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Gelb apparently understood that his subject was itself so taking that he wouldn't need filmic embellishments to keep his viewers alert.
Obsessive, we were saying? Oh my, yes, and that's what makes the film so compelling.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
The most interesting moments, however, belong not to the chef but to those who labor in his shadow.
As exhausting as Jiro may be, he's also inspiring.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Would you be willing to massage an octopus for 45 minutes, until its flesh possesses just the right amount of chewability? Jiro is.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
As a documentary about world-class sushi, this film is definitive. It runs only 81 minutes, but the subject is finite.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
At the age of 85, the subject of this fascinating documentary not only dreams of sushi but still drives himself to make it better.
Overall, this is a pleasant and often enlightening journey.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Jiro Dreams of Sushi isn't just a film for foodies, or Japanophiles. It's a meditation on work, on finding one's path in life, and then walking it with singular purpose.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Director David Gelb pulls back the curtain on the kitchen rituals of sushi, inviting us to experience the savory-smooth sensation of ''umami,'' roughly translated as ''Ahhh!''
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
A profile of a celebrity chef, a quick cultural immersion and many mouth-watering montages of food preparation in one package.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
"Jiro Dreams of Sushi"is as elegant and tasty as the splendid sushi prepared by the man in the title, and that is saying a lot
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
It is as much a family saga as a visit to sushi nirvana, and that adds an unexpected and satisfying narrative to this visual stunner.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
It's beautifully photographed and explained at every stage from market to table, a foodie's dream night at the movies. The gentle shaping of the fish and sushi could lull you into a trance. A hungry trance.
An extraordinary morsel of a movie, and yes, you'll want sushi afterward. But it won't taste like Jiro's.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
The real star of the movie is the delectable sushi itself.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Like many other such portraits, it wastes valuable time declaring its subject's excellence that could be spent fleshing out demonstrations, explanations, context.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
The movie's first word is oishi, Japanese for "delicious," and what follows is a treat for sushi veterans.
If you have any kind of affinity for the food at all, you will very much want to dine at Sukiyabashi Jiro, regardless of the distance or cost, after seeing Jiro Dreams Of Sushi...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Gelb might flit around a bit too much, but his appealing documentary always comes back to its subject's determination (sometimes overbearing) to leave the most meaningful possible legacy to his family and his craft.
An appetizing portrait of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, the oldest chef to win three Michelin stars (for his 10-seater, sushi-only Tokyo restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro), pic is as clean and simple as one of its subject's creations.
