Jakelyn's mother is a movie buff. There is nothing she likes better than settling in with a giant buttered popcorn and a large soft drink to watch an early-bird matinee at one of the local theaters. Her tastes lean to romantic comedies and mainstream popular movies although lately she's got a jones for old English-period television series.
Jake Lorenzo also loves movies, but I'm a bit more eclectic with my choices. The advent of Netflix is a delightful challenge for this movie-loving detective. Netflix allows me to use all of my investigative talents to uncover treasures from all sorts of genres. Whenever we'd find a particular special film, we'd invite Chuy or Iggy or some other friends over to watch it with us. We'd cook some food, drink some wine and settle in for a couple hours of entertainment. This has quickly turned into a regular occurrence known as Monday Night Movies, and the beverage considerations now carry almost as much weight as the cinematic ones.
"Memory of a Killer (De Zaak Alzheimer)" was the selection for our first-ever Monday night movie. This Belgian movie was a wonderful surprise: an exhilarating, dark, twisted thriller. The plot accelerates off the starting line like greased lightning and picks up velocity as it goes, yet somehow takes the time to explore scary nooks and crannies of character without slowing the full-speed-ahead storyline. From the opening, which has to be the creepiest scene regarding pedophilia on film, to the killer's conversation with his client as he refuses to complete his job, to the chief's horrific confession during an interrogation, "Memory of a Killer" surprises and entertains.
The acting is top-notch throughout, especially Jan Decleir as the hit man and Koen De Bouw and Werner De Smeldt as the police detectives. The scenes are staged beautifully, in spite of the often dreary weather portrayed in Antwerp. And the technique used to refer to Alzheimer's is stunning although a bit confusing. Not only that, but the movie is funny as hell. You'll never walk by a parked BMW without laughing again. I served a brooding Madiran (the tannic wine that demanded the invention of micro-oxygenation) with this movie, and the astringent mouth-filling tannins went with the movie almost as well as it went with my short ribs.
Classic movies are always of interest, but all too often we find they have become dated. Maybe that's why I resisted watching "All About Eve" for years. Now that I've seen it, I could kick myself for waiting. The story of an aging actress dealing with an adoring, scheming ingénue has been told many times, but Joseph L. Mankiewicz writes a script full of brilliantly funny one-liners that are more caustic and are flung faster than anything in a Marx brothers movie.
I haven't been a big fan of Bette Davis, but she is brilliant here as the famous, aging Broadway actress terrified of getting old. She exudes an aged glamour but isn't afraid to wallow in looking old, even opening the movie with her face slathered with cold cream. The entire cast is great, from Thelma Ritter to an exceptionally droll George Sanders to a sparkling, scene-stealing turn by a young Marilyn Monroe. Only Ann Baxter's performance disappoints. She's good as the conniving ingénue but sometimes seems too mannered to believe.
"All About Eve" won deserving Academy Awards for screenplay, director, supporting actor and nominations for Davis and Baxter. This is a great, funny movie with bite that reveals a lot about the theater and actors. Now, 50 years later, it is definitely a period piece--but an indelible one. This is also the perfect picture for caviar and champagne. We had our favorite Choupiquet caviar from Louisiana along with a bubbly tasting, starting with a Montsarra Cava Brut ($16), moving to a Lucien Albrecht Cremant de Alsace Brut Rosè ($22) and finishing with a Mumm NV Cordon Rouge Brut Champagne ($30).
Sometimes we just feel like a barbecue and some Zinfandel. We like Joe Votek's Bald Mountain Zins and Antoine Favero's Mazzocco Zins, which provide plenty of choices for under $30. The relaxed frivolity of the meal and wine called out for some music. If you like music from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties, then you know Tom Dowd, even if you don't recognize his name. "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music" is a rousing biographical tale about one of the most influential men in the music business…ever. Dowd not only invented much of modern recording equipment, he pioneered its use with everyone from Ray Charles to the Allman Brothers and from Otis Redding to Eric Clapton. Do yourself a favor and rent this DVD, then sit back and prepare to be amazed.
Jakelyn's mom and I went to see Russell Crowe in "State of Play" because it was based on a British series we loved. The new version paled in comparison. "The Politician's Wife" is a marvelous series that sucks you into a completely foreign world. It makes you care about the characters, builds all kinds of suspense and continuously surprises. The acting is uniformly excellent. What I liked the most was how, in telling the story, we got to see the inner workings of English politics as well as the workings of the English press. It's easy to see how both politicians and news reporters are forced to make decisions, and how those decisions force them down certain roads that can prove disastrous. Watching the story develop from both points of view immerses the viewer deeply into the lives of the characters.
This was the perfect movie to have with roast beef, mashed potatoes and peas. Some old Bordeaux dug out from the cellar was perfect as was my last bottle of 1983 Dow Port paired with a lovely Stilton cheese. Stiff upper lip and all that you know.
Around Cinco de Mayo we switched to an evening of margaritas. Jake's recipe is simplicity itself. I take two ounces of my favorite 100 percent blue agave tequila, one ounce of fresh-squeezed lime juice and one ounce of Tres Agaves Cocktail-Ready Agave Nectar. Shake it over ice and then pour it into a glass filled with ice. Mix up a couple of those and get ready for one of my favorite movies.
"Zoot Suit" is one of the most inventive, entertaining, spectacular movies ever made. It details the very real events of U.S. sailors attacking Mexicano Zoot-suiters, revealing many of the prejudices against Chicanos still at work today. It's funny as hell, shows typical Mexicano life at the time, and it is a terrific musical with drop-dead dance numbers. The movie incorporates fantastical Mexicano representations of good and evil as Edward James Olmos gives an Oscar-worthy performance. Not only that but all of the court testimony, as whacko as it sounds, comes from actual trial transcripts. Finally, it contains some of the most innovative scene changes ever seen in a film. When you realize that this movie is almost 30 years old and you see how cutting-edge it is, you have to give kudos to Luis Valdez and wonder why he hasn't been able to pursue this challenging, surreal style of film making.
Being a movie critic is tough. One man's funny is another man's stupid. One thing we've learned at our Monday Night Movie sessions is that drinking can't hurt when watching movies. If you watch any of these recommended movies and don't like them, then you are just not drinking enough. wbm
