Review: Elizabethtown Thursday, Mar 2 2006

This afternoon, we watched Elizabethtown, the 2005 movie starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. I selected this movie from Netflix based solely on the trailer, without having read any reviews. From now on I will at least run a quick rottontomatoes check, and if the film is more than 70% rotten, I will remove it from my queue.

This film tries really hard to deliver an understated, quirky tale of self-realization. The plot centers around a young west coast business man whose career goes up in flames the day before he receives news that his father has died while visiting family in Elizabethtown. He goes to Elizabethtown on a mission to bring his father’s body home, and on the way meets a quirky flight attendant with diarrhea of the mouth who occasionally and, it seems, by complete accident, spits up something poignant. In Elizabethtown, the west coast guy gradually learns important life lessons from his big, quirky, long-lost family, while the flight attendant hangs around to tug at his heartstrings with her quirky dimples.

The movie seems to have been made by taking elements from Garden State (an excellent movie) and In Good Company (a decent movie) and mashing them blindly together without the key ability to tread delicately and with irony on the subject of human pain. To make matters worse, the dialogue was apparently written by someone who never had an actual conversation with another human being. The result is a film that goes from mediocre to unbalanced to just plain cringe-worthy in the last 15 minutes.

Score: 42/100

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More Family Cookbook Reviews Sunday, Feb 12 2006

1. Hamburger Stuffed Bread, courtesy of Jared’s mom. This recipe was easy to make and sooooo good. We got a parbaked frozen loaf from FreshDirect and baked it during the afternoon so that we had nice fresh bread to use in the recipe. Although we had a bit of trouble stuffing all the innards back into the hollowed loaf, we persevered, and the result was delicious!
2. Baked Potato Soup, also courtesy of Jared’s mom. This recipe made a ton of soup, but kept well in the fridge- we were still having it for lunch 5 days later! The only change we made to the recipe was to leave the skins on, since we both like baked potato skins. It gave a bit of texture to the soup that I thought worked well. Another delicious recipe!
3. Savory Squash Casserole, courtesy of Aunt Jan. While making this recipe, it wasn’t clear to us whether we were using the right kind of squash (we used winter squash). However, it turned out so yummy, that even if it was wrong, we will probably make it again this way! On the reheat, we made cornbread to go along with it for a filling and warming meal on this snowy day in NYC.

Another three winners from the family cookbook. 🙂

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Review: Angels in America Saturday, Feb 11 2006

For my last two Netflix choices, I picked the HBO 6-part mini-series Angels in America. This mini-series is an adaptation of playwright Tony Kushner’s two-part play. Set in NYC in the mid 80s, the series focuses on a group of people, tied together by a series of strange coincidences. Death (in the form of the AIDS epidemic) stalks the group, and each person is confronted with the nature of humanity- frail with evil, power, greed, and regret. The group also finds generosity and acceptance in unexpected places, and tries to reconcile this with the bleakness the future seems to hold. Throughout the movie, members of the group have encounters with the supernatural, and it remains unsettled whether these are drug-induced hallucinations, delusions caused by impending death, or something else altogether. The series has a message, no doubt, which comes across without much subtlely in the final scene, but it is a message of strength that stays with you long after you’ve finished watching.
Rating: 87/100

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Review: Cowgirl Thursday, Feb 9 2006

Well, today not being Valentine’s Day, I took Jared out for a surprise non-Valentine’s-Day lunch. A while back, we were watching the Food Network, as we are wont to do, and saw a show that featured chicken-fried steak. As you may know, chicken-fried steak is not a common food item in the northeast. In fact, I had never heard the term chicken-fried steak, nor the term cream gravy, until I met Jared. So it’s not exactly a staple of our diet here in NYC. Well, watching the show made Jared remember how much he likes chicken-fried steak and misses having it. So I set out on a quest to find chicken-fried steak in NYC. And I found it in Cowgirl, a little restaurant in the west village decorated in country kitsch, antlers, and checkered tablecloths.

Jared may have been a little confused this morning when I yelled at him for eating breakfast, but he came to understand my motivation when I got him downtown for our lunchtime reservations. We decided to skip the appetizers in the hopes of having room for dessert (we didn’t). The waitress offered us coffee when we got in from the cold, and then took our order. Jared didn’t even have to look at the menu, of course (although he did glance at it long enough to note that the place has about 30 types of tequila shooters on the menu). His chicken-fried steak came with a mountain of mashed potatoes and what looked like an entire head of broccoli. He reports that the steak itself was a bit thicker than the Southern variety, and cooked more like a normal steak than a vehicle for fried batter. The cream gravy met with his complete approval, and he enjoyed the novelty of having non-fried sides. All in all, he thinks that he would like to return when the craving for chicken-fried steak hits in the future.

I had the “All Chopped Up” salad and a side of corn bread. The salad consisted of greens, green apple, avacado, grilled chicken, bacon, pecans, monterey jack, and a lemon poppy dressing. It was a very good mix of sweet and savory flavors, and came in a bowl big enough to feed about 5 of me–but I managed to get about 2/3 of it down. The corn bread had chunks of corn and bacon in it, and was freshly baked and delicious.

As I mentioned above, we had intended to get dessert but found ourselves nearly too full to move after our entrees. However, Cowgirl is known for its ice cream ‘baked potato’– an oblong of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate sauce, pistachio ‘chives’ and whipped cream ‘sour cream’–and we intend to go back for dinner some night to try it out.

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Review: Vong Thursday, Feb 2 2006

For week two of NYC’s Restaurant Week, we had lunch today at Vong, one of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s several New York spots. This Midtown-East restaurant focuses on French-Thai fusion served up in a dining space done in deep reds and golds. After last week’s debacle at Kittichai, neither of us had terribly high expectations of what would await us on the Restaurant Week menu. But, we were pleasantly surprised by rich, flavorful food and prompt, courteous service.

I started with the butternut squash soup, though memories of Kittichai’s tepid orange slop lurked in the back of my mind. I was thrilled to receive, instead, a thick creamy soup that let some of the flavor of the squash seep into the spices of the traditional tom kah gai. A handful of buttery croutons and chopped green onions made this soup complex and delicious. Jared’s appetizer was a salad of cucumbers and carrot topped with slices of lamb. He reports that the lamb was well-cooked, offset by the tartness of the spiced vinegar dressing, and he enjoyed the dish.

For entrees, I had the duck a la orange, while Jared had the miso-glazed salmon. My duck was served with a vegetable spring roll, both crisp and full of fresh, sharp flavor. This was definitely the most I have ever enjoyed duck, which I usually find greasy and heavy. But this duck was rich and offset by a light orange sauce. Jared’s salmon was served with stir-fried mushrooms, Chinese broccoli, and wasabi mashed potatoes, which were disconcertingly green. Jared reports that he very much enjoyed the salmon, and was surprised that he didn’t get bored with it as he ate, as he usually does with salmon.

For dessert, we both had the sorbet selection, which came with a generous serving of apricot, cherry, and pineapple sorbets, topped with a thin wafer crisp. These sorbets were light and sweet, the perfect way to end the meal.

We’re both happy that we tried out Vong. It was just the sort of experience that Restaurant Week should be.

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Review: Cold Mountain Saturday, Jan 28 2006

Two nights ago, while our casserole cooked, we watched the 2003 film Cold Mountain. This Civil War movie, while quite long, maintained its pacing and balanced its gore against some heartfelt pondering about the nature of love and war. The plot centers around a southern soldier who, having deserted the front lines after an injury, tries to make his way back to the love he left at home. Along the way, he encounters the private tragedies of the many nameless people whose lives the war has disrupted. Meanwhile, his love is forced to learn to care for herself and the farm with the help of a drifter family of sorts. The movie pulls you along with its current of emotions, and you barely have a moment to stop and wonder at how gorgeous all these Civil War-era folk are (Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman) before the final credits are rolling.

Rating: 80/100

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Review: Ella Enchanted Saturday, Dec 17 2005

Yesterday evening, after my exam was over, and Jared was done working for the day (he is currently in the middle of a 72-hour exam), we watched one of our netflix movies. The selection for the evening was Ella Enchanted, a stumbling and suffocating adaptation of the book by the same name. The book, a Newbery Honor winner by Gail Carson Levine, is an intelligent and fresh take on the Cinderella fairy tale, recommended to anyone who doesn’t mind reading the occasional well-realized young adult fiction. The movie, however, is quite a different story (pun intended). As you may have realized from my review of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I tend to take offense when a movie blatantly and uapologetically ruins a book. The better the book, the bigger the offense when the director turns it into tripe. While Ella Enchanted isn’t quite the pool of swill that Hitchhiker’s Guide managed to be, it is not by any stretch of imagination acceptable, given the lovely source material the screen writers (all five of the idiots) had to work with.

The movie makes a half-hearted attempt to duplicate the anachronistic quirkiness of A Knight’s Tale but misses on nearly all of its swings. It’s strangely reminiscent of a straight-to-video Disney sequel, complete with the not-quite-funny jokes and not-quite-finished special effects. It’s boring and lifeless despite the good looks of the two leads and the honest attempts of the other actors. It will warm your heart only if your heart is warmed by formulaic hollywood crap.

Score: 46/100

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Review: the Awesomely Terrific Dell Regifting Game Wednesday, Dec 7 2005

So, last week, I was playing the online sweepstakes being hosted by Dell this holiday season, when lo and behold, I won a TV. Not just any TV, my friends, but a 37 inch high def LCD TV. Yes, and Dell has confirmed my winnings after I sent them a notarized affidavit that I really am me, will comply with the rules, etc. So in 8 to 10 weeks, our new TV will be here, and we will be able to watch terrible TV shows in all their high def glory. I consider it an early wedding present from corporate America.

Now you may be saying, “But wait, Leah, I never win anything! Tell me how you won this marvelous prize!” And I say to you, I never used to win anything, either. So I will tell you the secret to my success. (Jared can confirm that this was my actual method leading to the win.) When you are choosing which stocking to click on, you must sing a little song about hoping the stocking contains a prize, while moving the mouse in time with the song. Unfortunately, in the excitement of discovering that I had won, I promptly forgot the song. So you shall have to try and rediscover the correct song for yourselves. I can tell you that the song was set to a tune from a Shakespeare play that I had heard on the radio that morning. So good luck, dear readers!

Score: 100/100

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Review: Talk to Her Saturday, Dec 3 2005

Last night, we watched the Spanish film Talk to Her (2002). This movie centers around two men who meet and develop something of a friendship while each is in the hospital caring for the woman he loves. Both women are in a coma, and the men watching over them spend time discussing their relationships, their pasts, and their hopes for the future. As the movie unfolds, we discover that love is not always the emotion that we assume it is, and that sometimes it hides disturbing truths. Though the story is odd, it is told in a sweet and compelling way, and draws the watcher with it as it melds flights of fancy with uncomfortable reality. This movie might not be for everyone, but it wins points in my book for being far more interesting than most movies you encounter in the usual course of things.

Score: 86/100

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Reviews: Raising Helen / Like Water for Chocolate Saturday, Nov 19 2005

I have been getting behind in my movie reviews lately. So here are a couple to catch me up.

Raising Helen: There are exactly two reasons you might want to see this movie. The first is that Kate Hudson continues to be one of the cutest actresses out there. The other is that Pastor Dan Parker utters the sentence, “I’m a sexy man of god,� which is good for a five-minute laugh (or a spot of nausea if you’re not in the laughing mood). But other than that, if you’ve seen Jersey Girl, you might as well not bother with Raising Helen, because it’s the same movie.

Rating: eh, who cares?

Like Water for Chocolate: This odd and somewhat stilted movie is set at the turn of the 20th century in Mexico. It tells the tale of Tita, a girl fated to a lonely lifetime of caring for her harsh, selfish mother, while dealing with the ramifications of being in love with her sister’s husband. Elements of fairy tales are woven into the story, with magical feasts and ghosts of the dead making several appearances. The movie does feel a little schizophrenic at times as it swings between extolling the virtues of mature restraint and unbound emotion, but though its path is meandering, it finds a strangely satisfying end.

Rating: 60/100

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