The Kids Are All Right

This year’s Oscar dinner

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Every year, The Movie Gourmet watches the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. You can read more at Oscar Dinner.

Planning this year’s Oscar Dinner proved challenging (despite being a great year for movie Food Porn).  Fortunately I received some great suggestions from my readers.

Here is my menu for Oscar Dinner 2011.

COCKTAILS AND STARTERS

First, the pièce de résistance:  Severed Hand Ice Sculpture for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone.

We will be floating the ice sculpture in an Appletini Punch for The Social Network. I read that, after seeing the film, Mark Zuckerberg made the Appletini the official cocktail of Facebook.

Pistachios from Inception. It looks like the guys are sharing a bowlful of pistachios while assembling the team in Mombasa.

Beer Nuts from The Fighter.  Amy Adams’ bar looks like a beer nut kind of place.  I am told by a New Englander that the Eklund-Ward clan would be drinking Narragansett, but I can’t find ‘Gansetts in California, so a MGD or PBR will have to do.

Tortilla Roll Ups from Toy Story 3. This is inspired by the all-time funniest movie scene involving a tortilla: Mr. Potato Head executes a prison escape by putting his facial features on a tortilla that can slide under a door.

DINNER

Cowboy beans from True Grit. Obvious and right out of the movie.

Steak and Organic Roast Vegetable Salad served with a Petite Syrah from The Kids Are All Right. The Mark Ruffalo character serves steak (he mists it with truffle oil)  while hosting the family at his house.  Earlier, he brings a bottle of Petite Syrah to dinner, which impresses the Annette Bening character (before she drinks too much of it too fast).  We see organic strawberries from his restaurant’s garden, but I can see his menu featuring a nice salad of roasted veggies.

DESSERT

Coffee from Inception.  From the Parisian cafe scene.

Sheet cake from Black Swan. (We will not vomit it back up.)

English toffees for The King’s Speech.  They’re English and we will have difficulty speaking when we are chewing them.

(I decided not to skin my own squirrel for Winter’s Bone and not to recycle my urine for 127 Hours.)

I need some help with this year's Oscar Dinner

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Every year, The Movie Gourmet watches the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees.  For example, last year’s highlight was Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man. We also had airplane bottles of liquor for Up in the Air, fastfood chicken for Precious and Middle Eastern fare for The Hurt Locker.  I particularly relished having prawns for District 9; (“prawn” is the South African slur for the aliens).  You get the idea and you can read more at Oscar Dinner.

But this year, the elements of my Oscar Dinner are not so obvious (despite being a great year for movie Food Porn). Now, I do know what I’m going to serve for True Grit, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Social Network and The Kids Are All Right.

But I’m stumped on 127 Hours The King’s Speech and The Fighter.  I need to find food and/or beverages found in these movies or inspired by the movies (typical of the movie’s setting, a pun on the movie, etc.)  Any ideas?  I welcome your suggestions.

My take on the Oscar nominees

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I’m pretty pleased with this year’s Oscar nominees.  The Academy did better than usual and avoided its frequent horribly undeserving nominations and inexplicably unjust missed nominations.

I’m downright giddy that my pick for the year’s best movie, the underdog indie Winter’s Bone, earned four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Director Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini).

Of the ten nominees for Best Picture, eight are on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – all except  127 Hours (which I have not seen) and The Kids Are Alright (which was OK but not great in my book).  The one-year old format of ten Best Picture nominees made it pretty obvious that True Grit, The Social Network, Black Swan, The King’s Speech and Inception would make the list along with the deserving Pixar entry Toy Story 3. The question was about the other four, and, fortunately, Winter’s Bone and The Fighter slipped in.

I’m also delighted that Australian veteran actress Jacki Weaver was nominated for her role in Animal Kingdom as an impossibly upbeat gal who can effortlessly put out a contract on her own grandson.

Christopher Nolan should have gotten a Best Director nod for his Best Picture nominee Inception.  I wish that Winter’s Bone‘s Debra Granik had been nominated for Best Director.  And I did find it odd that GasLand rated an Oscar nod for Best Documentary, but not The Tillman Story or Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.  But those are just quibbles relative to my complaints in other years.  Here’s to the Oscars!

FINALLY! New Movies to See This Week

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Vincent Cassell in Mesrine: Killer Instinct

 

The good autumn movies have started to roll out, and it’s time to go back to the theaters.  This week I’m recommending Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Animal Kingdom, The American and The Tillman Story.  I’ll be seeing Soul Kitchen soon and will have a recommendation on that, too.  And Inception, Toy Story 3, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Get Low and The Kids Are All Right are all still playing in theaters.   For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Rebel Without a Cause, The Graduate and Touch of Evil, all coming up on TCM.

Movies to See Right Now (very late August Edition)

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The Kids Are All Right

Now we’re really down to the August dregs in theaters. Here’s your chance to see some better movies from earlier in the year.

Inception, Toy Story 3, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Get Low and The Kids Are All Right are all good and still playing in theaters.   For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

You can also catch up a good movie with my DVD of the week, Sweetgrass, or last week’s Fish Tank.  For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include A Face in the Crowd, Anatomy of a Murder, The Stunt Man and The Outlaw Josey Wales, all coming up on TCM.

Movies to See Right Now (late August edition)

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The Girl Who Played with Fire

As my friend Keith always advises me, movie distributors send out their weakest material in August.  Make lemonade out of the lemons by catching up on the better movies from earlier in the year.

Inception and Toy Story 3 are two of the year’s best. If you want a thriller, go with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  Robert Duvall gives another masterful performance in Get Low.  For an indie dramedy, try The Kids Are All Right.   For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the week is a British coming of age drama from earlier this year, Fish Tank.  For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun

Movies on TV include Cool Hand Luke, A Place in the Sun, A Face in the Crowd, Anatomy of a Murder, and The Stunt Man, all coming up on TCM.

New Movies to See This Week

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Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek in Get Low

Inception and Toy Story 3 are two of the year’s best. If you want a thriller, go with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  Robert Duvall gives another masterful performance in Get Low.  For an indie dramedy, try The Kids Are All Right.   For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the week is the great 1995 documentary, Crumb.  For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include The Set-Up, Leave Her to Heaven and The Fallen Sparrow, all coming up on TCM.

Updated Movies to See Right Now

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Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception

I recommend the summer’s one high quality blockbuster, Inception.  If you have followed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will want to continue the trilogy with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  The indie dramedy The Kids Are All Right is enjoyable, too.  One of the year’s best, Toy Story 3,  is still playing.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the week is one of 2010’s best:  A Prophet (Un Prophete).   For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven

Movies on TV include The Set-Up and Leave Her to Heaven, coming up on TCM.

ALL NEW (mostly) Movies To See

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Joseph Gordon Levitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

 

I recommend the summer’s one high quality blockbuster, Inception.  If you have followed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will want to continue the trilogy with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  The indie dramedy The Kids Are All Right is enjoyable, too.  One of the year’s best, Toy Story 3,  is still playing, but the equally great Winter’s Bone has become difficult to find. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVDs of the week are the gnarly Step into Liquid and the way awesome Riding Giants.   For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include The Searchers and Bad Day at Black Rock, coming up on TCM.   Before Sunrise is still playing on IFC.

The Kids Are All Right

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Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple with teen kids.  The kids find their sperm donor sire (Mark Ruffalo), who invites himself into the family.  This is not what the moms had in mind.  Laughs and tears ensue.  It’s a smart dramedy with excellent performances, especially from Bening and Moore.  Bening certainly deserves an Oscar nod.  Mia Wasikowska is great as the daughter; she starred as Alice in Wonderland earlier this year and looks to have a great career ahead.

Because this was the most anticipated indie of the year. I had been expecting something more profound – and it’s not.  It’s a crowd pleaser and a good date movie that’s worth seeing, but not the game changer that I had been expecting.