Soul Food (1997) on Netflix
Mama Joe holds the family together with soul food dinners. When diabetes hospitalizes her, the meals stop, the sisters feud, and her grandson Ahmad tries to bring them back to the table.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.0/109,899 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mama Joe's Sunday dinners of soul food have kept her extended family close for years. Her three daughters lead different lives: Teri is a successful lawyer married to Miles, who has quit his job to pursue a music career she does not support; Maxine, mother of eleven-year-old Ahmad, married Kenny, once Teri's boyfriend, which fuels a long-running feud between the sisters; and Bird, the youngest, runs a barbershop and beauty parlor and is married to Lem, an ex-convict. When diabetes puts Mama Joe in the hospital, the weekly meals stop and the sisters' disagreements intensify. Ahmad, seeing the family drift apart, wants to find a way to bring everyone back to the table.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Soul Food (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- George Tillman Jr., making his major studio debut, based the film's extended Black American family on his own, and Soul Food was widely acclaimed for presenting a more positive image of African-Americans than is typically seen in Hollywood films.
- Halle Berry and Whitney Houston were both considered for the role of Teri, and Regina King, Kenya Moore and Jada Pinkett Smith for the role of Bird; Vivica A. Fox auditioned for Teri but landed the role of Maxine instead.
- The character Miles, played by Michael Beach, plays keyboards in an R&B group called "Milestone" whose vocals come from two sibling teams: brothers K-Ci and Jo-Jo Hailey of Jodeci, and Babyface with his brothers Kevon and Melvin Edmonds of After 7.
- The film earned $43,700,855 during its original theatrical run, opening at number three with $11,197,897 behind The Peacemaker's opening weekend and In & Out's second.
