Julia
12A | ★★★★✩

In 2018, Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Oscar-nominated documentary feature RBG offered a look into the exceptional life and career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The directing and producing duo have now set their eyes on another American pop culture icon in their new film Julia.

Not to be confused with a soon to be released HBO drama series of the same name and on the same subject, Julia tells the extraordinary story of Julia Child, the legendary American cookbook author and television superstar who single handedly changed the way her compatriots thought about food, TV fame, and even about women’s role in society.

Cohen and West deliver a playful, informative and utterly joyous portrait of a fearless woman who felt more at home in front of the camera than anywhere else, mixing archive footage and contemporary talking heads to tell her story.

Julia credit Sony Pictures 6

Julia Child at work in the kitchen

We learn that Child escaped the restraints of her deeply conservative, affluent background by voluntarily serving in the Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War. After the war, Child married Paul Child, the man she often referred to as her soulmate.

Paul later supported her in her decision to take advantage of the newly implemented GI bill which allowed her to enter the famous Cordon Bleu cookery school as the only woman in her class.

The documentary also touches on less flattering subjects, one of which is Child’s well documented casual homophobia, although Child later raised a huge amount of money for AIDS charities during the deadly 1980s epidemic.

While their latest collaborative work may not be a patch on the brilliant RBG, Cohen and West have still managed to deliver a deliciously playful, engaging and deftly executed portrait of a real American icon.