Tuesday, February 13, 2024

2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - American Fiction

 


Cathy's Review: Years ago, I admired a lovely piece of pottery with vivid blue glaze, and my (then) boyfriend (who was a ceramic art student, among other things) looked at it and scoffed, "whore glaze." 

"What's whore glaze?"

"It's what Bede Clarke calls the glaze potters use when they only care about selling pottery ... and not making art," Chris answered.

It seems that all art forms fall prey to some form of whore glaze, and American Fiction is all about creating the literary version of it - in this case it's a black author who writes a novel that caters to the white liberal establishment, and then he's horrified by its success while his better works go ignored.

Jeffrey Wright's acting was nothing short of masterful, playing both the humorless damaged author, and also the stereotypical version of himself when he pretends to be his own pseudonym. He manages to be just convincing enough while letting the movie audience see his discomfort.  

I particularly loved the scene that showed him writing the book - his characters came to life and acted out the scene in front of him, even interacting with him in a very live-theater-sort-of-way.

It was also beautifully filmed, mesmerizing, and never boring.  Best yet, it's funny as hell, while delivering a message with a bite.

The movie - even its title - is packed with meaning and layers of irony, which the filmmakers use like a scalpel to comment on race relations, stereotypes, and artistic pandering for monetary gain. 

Here's another bit of irony - this probably-more-fragile-than-I-ought-to-be white woman loved it.  Was it a work of black literature that pandered to me, and did I fall for its pandering?

But it almost felt like it was made for me on a very personal level.  It was about a novelist, which I myself very much want to be, compromising his craft (even as a joke), and it delves into the meaning of art, a discussion I'm always up for. It's also about someone who is tired of being defined by what society says he is, something I've been thinking about for years, as I research the antisemitism of WW2.  My grandfather resented being considered Jewish first and a man second, so Wright's character really resonated with me.

Chris's review: American Fiction was a ray of sunshine on a gray day. As a white liberal, I'm both the intended audience and the butt of the joke, and being targeted that way was delightful. The surface story was relatable and easy to like. There were also maybe dozens of little jokes layered onto it, some of them pretty 'meta' that I think viewers run the risk of missing, but each one you perceive and understand adds a juicy frisson of pleasure to the experience as an 'insider who got the joke'. I barked out an uncontainable laugh three or four times at those and now wonder how many I missed! I'm still mulling the ending over, trying to decide where I stand on its quality. I will absolutely watch this again.



(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 3 out of 10 nominees):

  • American Fiction (Brilliantly ironic smart comedy; Cathy: 1, Chris 1)
  • Anatomy of a Fall (Beautiful courtroom drama; Cathy: 2, Chris: 2)
  • Maestro (Gorgeous, well-acted boring slog; Cathy: 3, Chris: 3)
Currently unranked:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Maestro

 


Chris's review: Maestro was a miserable slog. The characters and situations were frequently pregnant with possibility but then not developed enough to make me really care. On the occasion that I did find myself starting to care, the movie would invariably jump five years forward and abandon my engagement. For more than half the movie I found myself wishing he'd just get on with it and die of lung cancer. I don't normally think that I know enough about filmmaking to credit the director vs. other elements of the film, but in this case, it felt like the acting was all marvelous, and the direction, or maybe the writing, let the actors down.

Cathy's review: I think a conductor is an artist who paints music with the brush of his baton, using other musicians as the paint and canvas. Bradley Cooper played both a great conductor and he directed and wrote the movie. He succeeded at the former but failed to utilize his filmmakers to tell a good story. There is a reason "birth of a superhero" is a (sub)genre of its own, but "superhero gets even better" isn't ... because the latter is BORING. This slice-of-life movie STARTED with his big break and went from there, but left all kinds of big weird gaps in it, and there were serious pacing issues.  

The Good: The movie was beautiful to watch, and lovely to listen to. The acting was great, and I found myself completely unbothered by the prosthetic nose, though the main character was a little more nasally than the real person (Cooper otherwise captured the cadences of Bernstein's voice pretty well). Like Oppenheimer, the movie uses color and black-and-white to indicate different time periods, and it does that very well.

The Bad (and it's a doozy):  There was no STORY. It strings together one conflict in his life after another but denies us the resolutions, shying away from important stuff - the very things that make his life interesting, the problems to be solved, the things that make scenes come together as a story. Like how did Bernstein come to terms with his bisexuality in an era when it wasn't accepted?  How did Bernstein's unhappy wife reconcile herself to her husband's infidelity? (In one scene, she is desperately unhappy with him, then in the next, she is content ... and it never shows her acceptance or their reconciliation. She forbids him from telling their daughter about his affairs with other men, and he lies to his daughter's face about it, but later, the daughter somehow knows, without showing us how she found out, though it does hint at her feelings of betrayal.  Then his wife gets sick and it skips over the immediate aftermath of her death.

Interestingly, I also hated last year's Tár, another best picture nominee about a conductor. And I loathed that main character so much, I couldn't even finish the movie.  I was able to finish Maestro (if nothing else, Bernstein was a likable man and I grew up listening to his Peter and the Wolf) but I was glad when it was done.  In the end, I hated how Maestro wasted itself. So much potential to be a GREAT movie, and I resent it more than I probably should for having failed.




(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 2 out of 10 nominees):

  • Anatomy of a Fall (Beautiful courtroom drama; Cathy:1. Chris: 1)
  • Maestro (Gorgeous, well-acted boring slog; Cathy: 2, Chris: 2)
Currently unranked:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Anatomy of a Fall

 



Chris's review: Anatomy of a Fall was really captivating, and I think it's probably a better film than my attention span will give it credit for -- not speaking French, I had to watch with subtitles, and that's a lot more work than just letting the experience wash over me. I think I liked it better than Cathy did.

The characters were all believable and interesting. I was frustrated that the trial central to the story took place with nothing but circumstantial evidence. I think that were I the prosecutor, I wouldn't have brought it to trial.

Cathy's review: I have mixed feelings about this one: On one hand, it's a BEAUTIFULLY-made courtroom drama. On the other hand, it's a lot of work to watch because only half of it is in my native language, and the other half is in French which I don't really speak.  Because of that, we had the subtitles turned on, and of course, it subtitled BOTH the English and French sections, and I found myself reading all of it, even the English sections. Ideally, only the French would have been subtitled, but oh well.

However, the very thing that made it a lot of work, was also a strength. It played with language in a way that I really value - because I did something similar in my book - people speak different languages at different times for different reasons. The premise behind the language play here is that a German woman is married to a Frenchman, and they speak English together because that's the language they share.  So sometimes they speak English and sometimes French (though surprisingly, never German).  

The movie was beautifully filmed (holy shit - the mountains near Grenoble, France are BREATHTAKING - no wonder my grandfather loved the mountains so much) and beautifully acted, and the story was very well told. I also enjoyed seeing the inside of a French courtroom and seeing how they do things differently (there are more fluid interactions between the witnesses, defendant, lawyers, and the judge) than here.  I also saw a little bit of those differences in the TV show Un village français. Kind of neat - the actor Samuel Theis plays a minor though important supporting character in that TV show, and he also plays the husband in this movie.  

The ending also managed to surprise me - in that it didn't go the way I expected (don't want to give too much away!).  So, highly recommended.  




(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 1 out of 10 nominees):

Currently unranked:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, February 12, 2024

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Bi-Rite Creamery's Vanilla Ice Cream

“Vanilla Ice Cream” on page 35 of Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker and Dabney Gough. 

  • The online recipe can be found here. 
  • My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This is the first ice cream recipe I've made in many years that has neither a sweet syrup (which helps keep the ice cream a little softer when fully frozen), nor a texture agent such as corn starch (which grabs free water molecules and helps prevents the ice cream from getting icy).  But ice cream never used to include those things, so I suspect it will be fine. I might have to let it sit longer at room temp before serving, and it may have a slightly shorter shelf-life in the freezer.  

It also has more vanilla than most - it calls for both a vanilla bean and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  I suspect that I will like the more intense flavor.  I used a Madagascar Vanilla bean (my last one from Vanilla Bean Kings which are by far my favorites. I'll order more from VBK when I use up some other beans I have on hand). Because my own homemade vanilla extracts are months away from being ready, I researched vanilla extracts, and splurged on two fancy ones reviewed by Saveur: Organic Pure Vanilla Bean Extract “Crush” by Sonoma Syrup Company (which I used in this recipe) and a Mexican vanilla bean extract Pure Vanilla Extract Elixir by Villa Vainilla, that I purchased for a ice cream recipe that calls for extract made with Mexican vanilla. 

July 25, 2024 update: Finally got around to trying this again.  

Substitutions and Techniques:

  • Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
  • I brought the dairy/sugar/vanilla bean combination to boil, then turned off the heat, and immediately tempered the eggs.  Once I added the egg mixture and it thickened, I let it steep for 30 minutes before transferring the custard to my mini milk can for chilling prior to churning. In retrospect, I probably should have done it the way the recipe called for because I suspect the hot dairy is a more effective solvent for the bean than the thickened custard is. 
  • The recipe doesn't say when to remove the vanilla bean. I fished it out just before churning.
  • I used my tedious egg-tempering method (which is basically like theirs but in smaller amounts, and pouring from high up)
  • I didn't churn right away - I chilled the custard in my mini milk can in a sink of cold water, then transferred the can to the fridge to chill all day. I churned in the evening.
  • 2024-07-25: Did the no-temper technique. Except for the vanilla extract (which I added at the end) I put all the ingredients (cold) into the pan, and whisked regularly until the temperature reached 175F. 


Results:

  • Same day: I made a rookie mistake - I stopped the churn in the middle of churning, and then the paddle froze to the sides, and I could NOT get it going again. I am annoyed with myself- I KNEW this would happen (because it's happened before). So I hand mixed the harder sheets of ice cream frozen onto the sides of the bowl into the softer custard as well as I could but I fear the texture won't be representative of the recipe. The soft-serve stage seems OK, but it's hard to say what the end result will be once fully frozen.
  • Next day: The flavor is good, but the texture is definitely lacking, and that is probably my fault. I think I'm going to have to make this one again to give it a fair churn.  
  • One week later: I tried again, and that's when I discovered that I'd actually broken the hub assembly on my ice cream maker (a part that is well-known for breaking, though mine lasted for 7 years). I ordered an after-market replacement. In the meantime I froze the unchurned custard. 
  • 10 days later: When the part arrived, I thawed the custard, and finally churned it. It seems fine, but I don't think it's a fair representation of the recipe, so I will try one more time.
  • The recipe is small - it barely makes a quart.  
  • 2024-07-25:

Uses:

  • I made a new caramel sauce from the Salt and Straw ice cream book though I substituted glucose for the light corn syrup. I failed (again!) to get it dark enough during the cooking, so it's not as richly flavored as it should be, but it was much better than last time. I amended it with a little bourbon, a little black strap rum (very dark) and some orange extract, and it's quite good. And it stayed much softer when frozen, so it made a much better ripple to fold into the ice cream after churning. My last batch was hard like stiff taffy when frozen.
  • I layered in some caramel sauce (see uses section below) when I was packing the ice cream away, to make a ripple.
  • 2024-07-25: Layered in strawberry sauce and chunks of shortbread cookies to make a strawberry shortcake ice cream. 



Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, February 10, 2024

2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Triangle of Sadness




This piece of garbage has been nominated for best picture?!?

Triangle of Sadness is boring, weird, and gross. And it’s mostly about a bunch of particularly gross rich people not one of whom I liked, nor could identify with.

Added in 2024: I quit watching about halfway through, and couldn't bring myself to finish it. Chris thought it was worth finishing (and did), but he still rated it last among that year's nominees.

Seriously though - the freeze frame the trailer uses is of a woman vomiting (see below).  






(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 4 out of 10 nominees):

Unranked:
    - Originally written January 25, 2023
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Tár


Cathy's Comments: Boring. Quit at the 1:40 mark. 🙁 

Added in 2024: This movie is about an absolutely loathsome individual. Interesting subject matter (I love discussions about the nature of art) but it's just so boring.

Chris's Comments: I wish we could be watching this with my mom for extra analysis.

Then: Halfway through, still waiting for something to happen!

Then: We made it 101.6 minutes into the movie before quitting. I guess it’s better than Triangle of Sadness.



(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 4 out of 10 nominees):

Unranked:
    - Originally written February 4, 2023
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - All Quiet on the Western Front


This one doesn't rate highly on the list of best picture nominees, for either Chris or myself.  In fact, Chris's comment was, "This movie was much more terrible than I expected. I connected most strongly with the goose."

To my happy surprise, the movie was dubbed in English, and I didn’t have to deal with subtitles. One nice thing is that with English being a Germanic language, the dubbing works extraordinarily well. As I've aged, I've grown to prefer dubbing over subtitles (I used to strongly prefer subtitles, wishing to hear the actor's original voices), but subtitles make the movie a lot more work for me.

Both of us hated the score. It was like a typical score most of the time, interspersed with a jarring discordant synthesizer - clearly intended to tell the viewer, “This is a dramatic, horrifying moment.”

It was beautifully filmed - the cinematography was simply outstanding, but it focused too much on the horror of war (which it captured well) and too little about the characters (though the actors did an excellent job with what little they had to work with). The story, which is already a little weak in the novel, was barely present in this movie.

I went into this new movie kind of excited about it. I taught the novel during one of my brief stints as an English teacher, and while it's not my favorite novel of all time, I like it OK, well enough in fact that after we completed that unit at school, I read it to Chris, who remembers it being slow, but not the worst book he's ever read (high praise!).  We've both seen the 1979 version with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine (and we agree that it was OK but a little boring). That version had one thing going for it that this movie didn't - it focused on the characters of Paul and Kat enough that you cared more about them and connected with them. 

With this version, we didn't really care about the characters, because it took a step back and felt like an art-house film whose sole purpose was to show the horrors of war (and it did that very very effectively - there were many horrifying, powerful scenes, but they were separated by many boring ones), and because it stepped away from Paul and Kat, neither Chris nor I connected with them at all.  The only human character Chris felt strongly about he wanted dead (the German commander who sent the soldiers on a suicide mission at the end so they wouldn't be dishonored, a senseless attack that resulted in many dead soldiers for no gain whatsoever).  Chris's main comment (and it will only make sense if you watch the movie) was, "The goose was the protagonist." 

I cared slightly more for Paul Baumer than Chris did, but I, too, felt a lack of connection.  So, it was a beautiful movie that showed the ugliness of WW1, but in the end was an epic failure because nobody cared about the people living (or dying) because of that ugliness.



    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 9 out of 10 nominees):
    Unranked:
    - Originally written March 1, 2023
    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: ,
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)