Netflix’s latest ‘charming’ film with ‘giant heart’ is your ultimate weekend watch

If you want something to warm the cockles of your heart this weekend, we have just the thing.

This 2025 release has been widely praised by viewers, acquiring an 89% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes and being compared to legendary 80s sitcom The Golden Girls.

Starring Hollywood legends Susan Sarandon and Vince Vaughn, Nonnas is a comedy-drama film with a charming story, directed by Stephen Chbosky.

Filmed in 2023 in various locations in New Jersey, it is based on the life of Jody ‘Joe’ Scaravella, a New Yorker who owned Staten Island restaurant Enoteca Maria, where grandmothers (aka nonnas in Italian) from all over the world are invited to work as chefs.

While the women in the movie are fictionalised, the concept is firmly based on a true story and the risk Scaravella took after losing two of his most cherished people.

Vaughn, 55, stars as restaurant founder Scaravella, 69, who opened the 35-seat eatery in 2007 as a tribute to the Italian women who helped him fall in love with cooking.

Nonnas is the latest ‘charming’ film to warm everyone’s hearts (Picture: Jeong Park/Netflix)

This included his grandma, Domenica, a confident home cook who died shortly before turning 100, and his mother, Maria, after whom the place was named.

Scaravella quickly grew to miss the authentic Italian cooking of the matriarchs in his family following their deaths, telling the New York Times in 2017: ‘I wanted to try to recreate that, you know, grandma in the kitchen cooking.’

Despite having zero experience in the restaurant business, he set up Enoteca Maria by way of ‘comforting’ himself, having previously worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for over a decade.

Oscar winner Sarandon, 78, plays one of the elderly female chefs in Nonnas, along with Talia Shire, 79, Lorraine Bracco, 70, and Brenda Vaccaro, 85.

After watching Nonnas, which was released just this week on May 9, critics flooded Rotten Tomatoes with praise, describing the story as ‘heartfelt’ and one that will make you ‘tear up and smile’ in equal measure.

‘A warm, wise and wonderful delight that will nourish your heart, mind and soul. It’s the cinematic equivalent of comfort food,’ writes Avi Offer.

The movie is based on an incredible true story (Picture: Jeong Park/Netflix)

‘It all could easily have been played for cheap laughs or schmaltzy tears. Instead, we get something much rarer: a story that respects both grief and joy as necessary companions on the journey back to life,’ adds Joe Botten.

Meanwhile, over on X, audiences are already demanding more.

‘Loved this wonderful sweet Netflix movie. Please make it a series…the new “Golden Girls”!’, wrote @MMMPrinceton.

‘It should be on your watchlist for this weekend!’, said @Jp_Juan_1. ‘Do it for the love of your grandma’.

@msbreviews added that while the film is not ‘reinventing the genre,’ it makes up for its lack of originality with ‘giant heart and emotional sincerity’.

‘It’s a heartfelt tribute to family, culture, the women who raised us & the power of food to bring people together & heal old wounds’, they said.

The comedy-drama movie follows grandmothers who work in a restaurant kitchen (Picture: Jeong Park/Netflix) Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon plays Gia, one of the elderly female chefs (Picture: Jeong Park/Netflix)

Enoteca Maria still exists away from the small screen, and you can actually go there to eat a delicious meal crafted with love.

Initially, all of the cooks were Italian, but in 2015, Scaravella welcomed a woman from Pakistan into the kitchen. This altered the restaurant’s future permanently, as it became known for its ‘Nonnas of the World’ and began hiring women from all over the globe to add their touch to the menu.

At any given time, two nonnas are working in the kitchen, one as head chef and the other as sous chef, usually from different cultures.

‘Most of these ladies, their husbands have passed away, the children have grown up, and they’ve moved out,’ Scaravella previously told People.

‘They’re packed with culture, and they need an outlet. And that’s what we do—we provide that outlet.’

Stream Nonnas on Netflix.

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