Jiro Dreams of Sushi - A-

Rated PG, 81 minutes

The flavorful new documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" will please foodie's and non-sushi lovers alike. Wholly entertaining, fascinating and satisfying, it's one of the best documentaries of the year. It's about Jiro, an 85-year old Japanese sushi chef who is world renown not only for the flavor of his fish but for his relentless work methods. His small, very modest restaurant (with a month waiting list as someone finds out) seats only a few people, is in the basement of a Tokyo office building yet people from across the world say he has the best tasting sushi you can find. What is his secret? Is it the fact he's still working in his 80s? Or the fact he has trained his sons and his staff in his methods? Or that he is constantly trying to improve upon those methods? Probably a little bit of all those as director David Gelb would have us believe, though the real fascination here is that cooking is a lost art, especially when it comes to fish. Jiro serves more than sushi (including tuna, shrimp, octupus and more), and much more goes into the selection, buying and preparation than you would ever believe. Jiro and his staff (his oldest son is head chef while the other son has a competing sushi restaurant) take all of this quite seriously, which equates to his large following. "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (and according to Jiro himself, he does actually dream of preparing sushi) waxes too elegaic near the end when determining who will take Jiro's place when he passes (he is the oldest sushi chef in the world), and not all of it is balanced; while we hear from Jiro's sons, along with one popular food writer and one of Jiro's former employees, we don't hear from many others, including Jiro's own wife (who is conspicuously absent from the film). Still, "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" is one of the most engaging, altogether fascinating documentaries to come along in some time and it may inspire you to do something you love, regardless of your age. Even if you don't like sushi (and I'm not one of them), you will find much to love about this documentary, and will have you hungry for more. Definitely worth a look.