Chow Bella is a 1998 American comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written, directed and produced by Gavin Grazer

Gavin Grazer

Gavin Grazer is an American film actor and director. Grazer is the brother of Academy Award-winning film producer Brian Grazer...

 who also plays a minor role in the film as Cheppy. Starring Caroleen Feeney and Paulie DiCocco, the film tells the story of a wannabe crime writer turned substitute food critic

Food critic

The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used interchangeably, at least in some circumstances...

 who writes a very unfavourable review of a restaurant. Unknown to the critic, the restaurant is owned by the Mafia and, upon learning of the negative review, the mobsters decide to exact revenge and they abduct the critic.

Chow Bella premièred at the 1998 Austin Film Festival

Austin Film Festival

The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries"...

 where it finished as the second runner-up to the festival winning film La Cucaracha

La Cucaracha (1998 film)

La Cucaracha is a 1998 American film directed by Jack Perez and starring Eric Roberts and Joaquim de Almeida. The film follows the story of Walter Pool , a down on his luck wannabe novelist, who receives an offer of $100,000 to kill an alleged child killer...

.