El Bulli: Cooking in Progress 2011

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: We're made to marvel at slow-cooked, freeze-dried, unappetizingly bagged food, the way some mushrooms, when delicately sliced, evoke fruit and some crustaceans resemble side-sleeping snooze-bar slappers. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: If you're passionate (and open-minded) about food, you'll be fascinated. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Anyone looking for the lowdown on haute cuisine will be sorely disappointed: devoid of emotion, context or narrative, the baffling avant-garde techniques and extreme politesse of the lab become oppressively dull. Read more

Mari Uyehara, Time Out: It's a sluggish portrait that neither captures nor replicates the dazzle, pacing and polish of an El Bulli meal. Check, please. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: You leave "Cooking in Progress" with respect for a man who followed his vision, and with fascination at the idea of food as artistic expression. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: For hardcore foodies, El Bulli offers a clear, unvarnished look at the master at work. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: If your idea of fine dining is pumpkin meringue sandwiches, bone marrow tartare with oysters, tea shrimp with caviar anemones, and ice vinaigrette with tangerines and green olive, then by all means make haste to El Bulli. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: El Bulli becomes a haunting celebration of the human desire to turn food into art - even if the results are consciously insane. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: A fascinating observational doc about the most famous restaurant in the world. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at the Spanish restaurant hailed as the most influential eatery in the world. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: A tasty documentary by Gereon Wetzel. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: El Bulli barely registers a pulse stronger than a book's. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: For those of us who don't have an deep interest in freeze-drying, 'El Bulli' is astonishingly, sub-'Masterchef' dull. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The flat camerawork and lack of a story beyond the framework of six months in the city lab and six months at El Bulli gives us little to sink our teeth into. Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: Immaculately crafted. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: "What matters is that it's magical, that it opens up a new path," Adria reminds. Cooking in Progress is, in fact, all magic and no path Read more