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Netflix's latest comedy drama film Nonnas released on May 9, 2025. Stephen Chbosky directed the film from a screenplay written by his wife, Liz Maccie. It's produced by Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane and Jack Turner.
The film stars Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire and Lorraine Bracco as four grandmothers working as chefs at the Staten Island restaurant, Enoteca Maria. Nonnas has received an overwhelmingly positive response, holding an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 37 critic reviews.
Chbosky, speaking to Tudum by Netflix on May 9, 2025, shared how the film's focus on food resonated with his own family's Eastern European background:
"What I found most profound about the story of the food itself is something that I actually recognized in my own family, having an Eastern European background. When they got here, they wanted to be Americans. And so a lot of the customs went away."
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He continued:
"But what stayed was the food, and I always think: That’s the last thing to go in any immigrant story. And since I see Nonnas partly as a story of the descendants of immigrants, that was a very profound linchpin for me."
What is Nonnas about?
After the death of his mother and grandmother, Joe Scaravella leaves his job at the MTA to open an Italian restaurant, Enoteca Maria, in Staten Island. He hires four nonnas, or grandmothers, from different Italian cities as chefs to prepare their families' generations-old recipes.
Among them is Roberta, Joe's mom’s best friend, a spirited Sicilian living in a retirement home. She's in constant competition with fellow chef Antonella, who hails from Bologna. Gia, Joe's mom's hairdresser, becomes the restaurant's pastry chef. Teresa, a former nun with a romantic past, rounds out the restaurant's main chefs.
The women struggle to recreate Joe's grandmother's signature Sunday Gravy. At the start of the film, Roberta hands Joe an envelope left behind by his mother but is reluctant to open it, as it's the last memory of his mother. He opens the envelope in the film's climax to find all of the family's cherished recipes, including the Sunday Gravy.
Joe's childhood best friend, Bruno, and his wife, Stella, help him out by rebuilding and designing the restaurant. He also reconnects with his high school love Olivia, now a widow, who helps Joe out with her legal expertise.
Joe and the grandmothers face significant challenges along the way. The restaurant struggles to get a certificate of occupancy; the kitchen catches fire, and customers fail to show up for the grand opening. But they persevere through it all, finding a common purpose and sense of family with each other.
Also Read: Nonnas soundtrack: A list of every song in the Netflix movie
Nonnas is inspired by a true story
The heartfelt drama is based on the true story of Joe Scaravella, a 69-year-old Brooklyn native. The deaths of his grandmother, Domenica, and mother, Maria, inspired him to open Enoteca Maria in Staten Island in 2007. He described the restaurant as a "cultural exchange" in an interview with Time Magazine, published on May 9, 2025.
Joe started off by working exclusively with Italian grandmothers who specialized in home-cooked Italian dishes. However, in 2011, he expanded the menu by hiring grandmothers from different parts of the world, including Japan, Greece, Ukraine, Paraguay, Peru and Dominican Republic.
Viewers can watch Nonnas exclusively on Netflix.
