Welcome to the Film Pie! Brisbane based film critic Matt Toomey has reviewed thousands of movies since 1996. See what's out now, or browse the review archive.

Julie & Julia (out Oct 8) tells two stories concurrently. The first is of Julia Child attempting to write a French cookbook. The second is of Julie Powell trying to cook up 524 recipes in 365 days. I like the idea of telling these two related stories together but felt the film was a fact-telling exercise in many places - lacking in emotion and character development. Grade: B-.