‘Burnt’ Trailer: Bradley Cooper Is Your Unfriendly Neighborhood Self-Destructive Chef

You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. A decade ago, Bradley Cooper was playing smarmy villains in lowbrow comedies. Now, he’s one of the biggest movie stars in the world. You don’t get there by accident – you get there by being smart about the films you take on. So if Bradley Cooper wants to play a disgraced chef attempting a comeback, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. The Burnt trailer looks fine enough.

Formerly titled Adam Jones (it even got this hilariously boring poster with that name), Burnt finds Cooper playing a celebrity chef who attempts a return to the dining scene after falling down a massive pit of drugs and poor behavior. Like many movie chefs, he’s crazily talented, with an emphasis on the crazily. This trailer features Cooper yelling and screaming and smashing plates and being the kind of charming rogue who wins our heart in the movies but would be totally unbearable in real life.

For better or worse, Burnt looks like the anti-Chef, Jon Favreau’s charming, lighthearted dramedy about a cook who rediscovers himself on a food truck road trip. This movie appears to be less about how cooking brings people together and more about how cutthroat and agonizing the business of food can be. Double feature, anyone?

Burnt, which boasts a supporting cast that includes Alicia Vikander, Uma Thurman, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Emma Thompson, and Daniel Bruhl, opens on October 23, 2015.