Rebecca review

REBECCA (2020)

Director: Ben Wheatley

Stars: Armie Hammer, Lily James, Kristen Scott Thomas

Runtime: 121 min

 

"Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again". Again.

I was excited when I heard that Ben Wheatley was going to direct a remake of Rebecca. His last film, High-Rise showed that he has at least an unusual approach to adaptation, even if that film was ultimately a bit of a mess.

The question is which Ben Wheatley would show up? The one of early spooky ambiguity Kill List? Or the mushroom-popping psychedelic weirdness of A Field In England? Or who made the low-key blackly funny The Sightseers? Or the completely over-the-top shoot-'em-up Free Fire?

Well, none of those really. What is most striking about this new take on the Hitchcock classic is how relatively straight and safe it is. 

The story is of a naive young woman who meets and marries and older dominating man and upon being taken back to his extravagent ancestral home, Manderley, finds he is still mourning for his dead first wife (the titular Rebecca) and there is a very creepy housekeeper determined to make her life miserable and even drive her to suicide.   

This production is certainly lavish but by stripping back a lot of the exaggerated melodrama of the Hitchcock film the result here comes across rather like a slightly flat TV movie.

It doesn't help that both Armie Hammer and Lily James seem to lack whatever it takes to make their characters interesting. He is Maxim De Winter, just as brusque and dominating as Olivier was in the original but here it comes across as brooding boorishness. He also, to my eyes, never actually comes across as English, which is something Englishman Wheatley must have been on the lookout for. Was his casting more than a commercial decision?

As to James' unnamed narrator, she starts the film suitably simpering and uncertain but as she becomes more active (this film gives her more to do when she learns Maxim's secret) the development in her character is poorly flagged and gets lost in the drama. 

Kirsten Scott Thomas on the other hand is very English as the evil housekeeper Mrs Danvers, though her convincing take is less unsettling than the weird supernatural stillness that Judith Anderson previously brought to the role.

I found this unsatisfying in many ways. The major change – reflecting the book – is actually relatively unimportant in the great scheme of things and there seems little emphasis placed on the dubious nature of Maxim's character. To get the mix of danger and appeal required for Maxim is a hard balance and one not found here. Meanwhile, a tacked-on ending for Mrs Danvers just adds an extra scene without bringing any extra tension.

Actually, I might watch this again because I feel I must have missed something. There should be something more, something better, lurking in this film. Or was Ben Wheatley just acting as director for hire? I see his upcoming slate of movies includes Tomb Raider 2 and Meg 2: The Trench, something of a change from his strikingly original early English films.

(I actually watched the Hitchcock original again afterwards. It is clearly the least "Hitchcock" of all his films, owing more to producer David Selznick's influence, but it's still - despite being clearly an artifact of its time, particularly in its attitude towards women - a whole lot more fun than the remake. It has a class and poise about it that rises above the innate silliness and still engages. (And the dresses are much better in the original!)

On The Rocks review

ON THE ROCKS (2020)

Director: Sofia Coppola

Stars: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans

Runtime: 96mins 

 

On the rocks is a sweet little movie which has two distinct attractions.

The first is the general sensitivity and intelligence with which director Sofia Coppola examines this low-key tale of infidelity and fears of infidelity in what initially seems like a settled happy marriage. The second is Bill Murray, who gets to go full Bill Murray.

Jones is Laura and Wayans is Dean. They are a happily married couple with two kids. She is a writer but has become blocked after becoming obsessed by the idea that he has cheated on her. He may have. He is a workaholic and has at least one very attractive and vivacious female work colleague.

Bill Murray is her irresponsible unrepentant father, the life of every party, always hitting on an inappropriately younger woman with a drink in his hand and a bucketload of charm. Their relationship is a tad strained, particularly from the fallout of his carefree past.

But together they rather bunglingly follow Dean around Manhattan and later have a brief sojourn at a resort. If you ever doubted Bill Murray's compulsive charisma, watch him talking his way out of a police ticket after being pulled over, but then also persuading the cop and his partner to help Laura and him start his car.

This is the sort of low-key gem that people say doesn't get made any more: sharply observed, of its time, and generous and humane towards its characters. Great stuff. It's a small film, not too long, a lovely little miniature; for a change you may well be left wanting a little more.

Oh, and give Bill Murray some awards. Anything really. It seems like these days he can do this sort of shtick in his sleep but, as in those early Hugh Grant comedies, it's worth remembering that projecting effortless charm and good humour is harder than it looks... 

                    

A Little Sichuan Food

SADLY THE TAURANGA BRANCH OF SICHUAN STYLE HAS NOW CLOSED. THERE ARE STILL OUTLETS IN HAMILTON (2) AND ROTORUA.

SICHUAN STYLE
Cuisine: Chinese, Sichuan
Address: 81 Devonport Rd, Tauranga
Phone: 07 571 3198
Website 
Drinks: Unlicensed
Reservations: Perhaps at nights

Chinese restaurants fall into two categories: those that serve a Westernised version of Hong Kong-style Chinese food and those who remain authentic to a particular Chinese regional cuisine. 

Actually, that's not exactly true. In broad strokes it is but, ultimately, nearly all Chinese restaurants are somewhere on the spectrum between those two poles. Outside the larger cities - where it is possible to be pretty specialised and authentic - most Chinese restaurants include a few, or more than a few, "crowd-pleasing" dishes, Western(ised) favourites you would be unlikely to see on original Chinese menus.  

Established in Hamilton in 2010, Sichuan Style now has two branches there plus another in Rotorua. The Tauranga offering, presumably because of the conservative nature of this city, features the "safest" of the various menus. If you look on-line at the full menu you will find that in Tauranga nearly all of the "weird" dishes - those involving tripe, other innards, and more unusual Chinese ingredients - are missing.

It a shame (for us unrepentant lovers of authentic Sichuan food) but you can't really argue with commercial reality. On the other hand, this isn't one of those restaurants where they ask you how hot you want the food. It comes as it comes. Though one time when I ordered a particularly hot dish (and it was blazing) they brought a complimentary cucumber dish to cool down our mouths which was a classy bit of service!

Three of us popped in for a quick dinner the other night and had:

 

Stir fry striped pork with Yu-Shiang sauce        $25.80

Sweet sour chicken in tomato sauce                   $25.80

Sour and spicy beef soup with rice vermicelli    $12.80

Shallow fry vege buns (6) with sesame seeds     $15.80 

Wonton soup with spicy sauce                            $12.80 (ordered to takeaway)

One of the regular features of a pretty authentic Chinese restaurant is that there are often a number of oddities on the menu in terms of the descriptions: many things simply do not translate well. 

For instance, instead of "striped" read "shredded" (that's how the pork and everything else - primarily wood-ear fungus and bamboo shoots - in that dish is cut). It is a dish with many names. Sichuan food expert Fucsia Dunlop calls it "Fish-Fragrant Pork Slivers" and it can also be spelled Yu-Xiang sauce. It is a unique and wonderful taste but difficult to describe. Even the menu has a subtitle - "Sweet, sour and spicy taste". Bottom line, Sichuan Style do an absolutely excellent version.

(BTW, just talking of Sichuan classics, they also do the only authentic and  - by some distance - best Kung-Pao Chicken in Tauranga.)

The Sweet and Sour Chicken I could take or leave. It is just fine but very much a Cantonese take. Sichuan sweet and sour dishes are a little different and I can imagine them possibly not finding favour with people expecting the usual bright "Westernised" sweet and sour style (which this was).

The dumplings were chive-dominated and very good, a really unusual and excellent texture with the sesame seeds adding a groovy crunch. The beef soup was rather wonderful. Those are chunks of bamboo shoot and peanuts on top and it was redolent with ginger, garlic and all sorts of spicy notes. The beef itself was succulent pieces of brisket.

There'll be more reviews of Sichuan Style coming up as we eat there fairly often and they do have a lot of interesting and worthwhile dishes. Just a couple of notes to finish up...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: There are many price options here. There are some very reasonable noodle soups for around $12 - $16 which make a meal in themselves. The dumplings are damn good. The homemade noodles are very authentic and worth the extra $3 you pay for them (rather than the "regular" noodles). The main dishes are a little more expensive than some Chinese restaurants but they are sized to share and are quite large. To back this up, we actually ended up taking home half the beef and three of the dumplings as well as the wonton soup. There was just too much food...

ANOTHER NOTE: The manager, even to me, comes across as a little stern, but she has a real care for her customers. When we collected the takeaway Wonton Soup at the end, which we'd mentioned was for Jan's lunch the next day, she had packaged the wontons and soup separately so they wouldn't stick together overnight, a measure of service that we didn't expect and really appreciated!

A "Breakfast" G&T

You know what it's like - some days you just feel like nothing more than a Gin & Tonic. But then you realise it's only 8.00am. 

 

Good news! Today I've got yet another of the great things you can do with gin: a "Breakfast" G&T or as it's more commonly known, a Marmalade G&T. Not to be confused with a "Breakfast" Martini...

The great thing about this is that you're, once again, likely to have all the ingredients kicking around somewhere in the kitchen. I've used a specific gin and tonic here but that's not essential. And the marmalade? Well I'm lucky that I make my own so always have a few jars around. Just use your favourite marmalade. Mine is that bitter-sweet Seville marmalade in the English style but anything is good. For the adventurous, grapefruit marmalade - which medication denies me access to - might be sensational!

It's a really easy one to make and you'll be surprised at how subtle it is. The marmalade doesn't take over and dominate, it's actually a very 3-dimensional drink. Proceed like this...

THE ORANGE MARMALADE GIN & TONIC

Ingredients

• 40ml Gin
• 10ml marmalade
• 5ml fresh lemon juice
• 120ml Fever Tree Elderflower tonic (or other tonic)
  
• Orange slice to garnish
  

Method

• Shake gin, marmalade and lemon juice with ice.
• Strain into a ice cube filled glass
• 
  Add tonic
• Garnish with an orange slice

There we go. I told you it was easy. It's also delicious and refreshing. I used The National Distillery Company Verdigris Dry Gin from Hawkes Bay and Fever Tree Elderflower tonic. I reckon that tonic is best with marmalade as the elderflower brings out the orange but it really doesn't matter - any tonic will make a lovely drink.   

 

The Trial Of The Chicago 7 review

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (2020)

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch

Running Time: 129 mins

 

This is the fourth filmed version of the sensational trial where Richard Nixon and his corrupt Attorney General John  Mitchell (later found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury and sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison) tried to punish anti-Nixon activists for causing a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention, a case that the previous President's department of Justice had investigated and found groundless.

1968 was a turbulent year, seeing both the assassination of Martin Luther King and murder of Bobby Kennedy as he stood for the Democratic party during the Presidential primaries. The convention turned into a series of violent riots, mainly it is now agreed caused by and exacerbated by the brutal police response.

So the trial featured a grab-bag of protest leaders, from pacifist leader David Dellinger (Lynch) to Tom Hayden (Redmane), one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (and later a Senator), the notorious Yippies activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a leader of the Black Panther Party.

And Sorkin, who also wrote the script of course, as assembled a fine cast to play these legendary figures, the highpoints being Sacha Baron Cohen's Abbie Hoffman and an unrecognisable Jeremy Strong - eldest son Kendal in TV's Succession - as the joker of the pack Jerry Rubin. Add in Frank Langella as the jaw-droppingly biased judge, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the conflicted chief prosecutor and most importantly Mark Rylance, brilliant as defense lawyer William Kunstler, and you have quite a cast. Oh yes, and Michael Keaton shows up late on...

But how does this all play? Well it plays very well because this is Aaron Sorkin writing the dialogue. It's very zingy, quotable one-liners at every turn. Think West Wing or any other Sorkin drama. Fast, smart, dialogue. 

But in a way, that's a problem. There were so many almost unbelievable occurrences at the trial that you don't really need made up dialogue to dramatise them. Where Sorkin is particularly good is in delineating the different defendants' philosophies and approaches to their defense. The straight Tom Hayden clashing with Abbie Hoffman. But there are also court scenes that seem contrived when they really aren't. 

The treatment of Black Panther Bobby Seale is front and centre here. It seems unbelievable but is true to life - how to convey this when other details have been changed for dramatic purposes? The worst of this is the ending, as the defendants' closing statements are engulfed in applause and celebration, the joyous "uplifting" finale that presumably the drama required.

There is so much that is so good here that I'd recommend anyone with an interest to watch it. There are - obviously - modern resonances. But there are also the regular things that make you grate your teeth at Sorkin productions, and that ending is just awful.     

Hoffman / Cohen / Rubin / Strong

Dinner at Clarence Bistro

CLARENCE BISTRO
Cuisine: Fine dining, modern New Zealand
Address: 51 Willow Street, Tauranga 
Phone: 07 574 8200
Website 
Drinks: Fully licensed
Reservations: Recommended

I went for lunch at Clarence Bistro a few weeks back but I've never been there for dinner. Until a friend had a surprise birthday party a couple of weeks ago. There were fourteen of us in the group so this was a good test of the restaurant's ability to cope with larger parties while retaining standards.

The Bistro has somewhat changed since I was last here and had the Express Lunch. That option is no longer available. Lunch is now a la carte or an option of degustation menus, while the dinner menu has options for 2 or 3 courses from the a la carte menu, or a 5 or 7 course degustation. I'll get back to these and the prices later.

Unusually, the restaurant was happy for people to mix and match at the table: most places require an entire table to have the same option with degustation menus so this was an impressive display of control, or would have been if any of us had taken the option. As it was we all selected from the a la carte menu, which has three choices for each course. 

Let's have a look at the food. Here are two of the starters...

BBQ Oyster Mushroom, Macadamia, Sea Succulents, Mushroom XO

Seared Venison, Beetroot Variations, Bitter Chocolate, Raspberry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mushrooms were the winner here, meaty with deep rich flavours a beautiful charred edge and lots of flavourful umami - it was a taste of autumn on a plate (even if it happens to be spring!). 

The venison dish was a study in beetroot and as such was very good, the dried raspberry providing a welcome zing and the light dusting of chocolate a lovely grace note. The only issue I had is that with the vension cut so thinly - pretty much like carpaccio - it was completely lost against the beetroot. I had a similar dish for lunch at Clarence and the venison was cut much more thickly. That was more a venison dish, this was essentially just a beetroot one. 

On to the main courses and people had all three, which were:

 

55 Day Aged Beef Tenderloin, Onion Soubise, Bone Marrow, Wild Garlic, Pickled Onion

Open Lasagne Confit Tomato, Silken Tofu, Salsa Verde, Cavolo Nero

Roasted Local Fish, Charred Cos Lettuce, Peas & Feves, Smoked Yoghurt, Guanciale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't try the vegetarian option, though reports are that the open lasagne was very good, as was the fish, which I seem to remember was snapper. I tried a bit of that and it was moist and worked well with the yoghurt and various greens.

But I had the beef and it was simply fantastic! After being aged that long it really is quite special and demands respectful cooking. This was done perfectly (that's a medium rare in the picture - the several steaks around the table were all exactly as requested) with the bone marrow cream filling the tangy onion shells and a sweet rich soubise (hidden underneath). There was also a little meaty jus - it was a top class dish and all the steak-eaters agreed. 10/10.

 

And so to dessert. There was also a cheese and a Petit Fours option. But the two pretty much everyone had were:

Milk & Honey Local Honey, Honey Mascapone Ice Cream, Lavender

Chocolate Dark Mousse, Milk Aero, Salted Ganache, Creme Fraiche

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, again, there was one clear favourite, which was the chocolate. I don't think the pictures do it justice as there were more layers and textural variations than it shows. It was a great dessert.

The Milk & Honey was also fine if just a little plain. The sponge was sponge and there was some honey but there really wasn't enough variety to make it interesting. Pleasant rather than knockout (which is what the chocolate was!).

All in all it was an excellent night and the restaurant and staff did a really good job with a table that had a tendency to move around a bit and do all the things waiters hate. To drink we had two wines throughout, the Squealing Pig Rose and Takapoto Pinot Noir (RIP Andy Anderson, we still miss you). They were both very good and once again I forgot to check the prices.

 

And I should say something about prices. The ones here might cause some consternation. Now I absolutely believe a restaurant can charge whatever they want - you can choose to eat there or not. But many people when going to Clarence may be unaware of their current minimum pricing. Which is $69.

 

There are two degustation options: 5 courses - $95; 7 course $115. 

But there's also the "a la carte". It is priced at $69 for 2 courses, $79 for 3 courses. Which means that the cheapest dining option at Clarence is $69. This is not a place you can go and check out by trying  couple of entrees. And it means the 2-course option is a tad pricey. The 3-course option seems perfectly reasonable to me for fine dining - it comes out at $20 entree, $40 main, $20 dessert, but that 2-course one might give people pause. Having said that the restaurant was completely full from start to finish, and we came in early.

Foodwise I had slightly mixed feelings. Overall everything was very good. A couple of dishes were a little underwhelming. Not in any way bad, just not knock yer socks off good. On the other hand the beef main (and the mushroom entree and chocolate dessert) were overwhelmingly wonderful. You pays your money you takes your chances...

There's also one thing I might just point out before closing that I did find particularly strange. You might have spotted it. The menu contained none of the following: chicken, duck, lamb, pork. That in itself is something quite unusual.

Braised Potatoes in Wine - 3 ways

This is really a method rather than a recipe and I offer three options. They can be mixed and matched and altered at will. Everything about this cooking method for potatoes is very forgiving. You could even leave out the wine if you have other liquid. There should be a combination to suit whatever you happen to have in the store cupboard of an evening: be creative - herbs, spices, whatever takes your fancy!

The big advantage of this method is that the potatoes cook in the oven for about an hour without any interventions so they're great for entertaining as all the prep - 5 minutes tops - can be done in advance. They can be served directly from the cooking dish and will quite happily stand and stay hot for at least half an hour.

While other dishes may cause stress these are simply the easiest potatoes ever invented. And they taste good and look flash. What more can you ask?  

Before...

INGREDIENTS:

6 to 8 BABY POTATOES - no need to peel them

BRAISE #1 

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup chicken/vegetable stock

50g butter

4 garlic cloves, peeled, lightly crushed

1/2 small red onion chopped

salt & pepper

 

BRAISE #2 

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup orange juice

50g butter

4 garlic cloves, peeled, lightly crushed

2 spring onions, white parts and a little green in 2 inch pieces

salt & pepper

 

BRAISE #3 

1/2 cup white wine

2 Tbs instant onion or mushroom instant soup mix

(any or none of the other things - onions, butter, garlic - mentioned above)

salt (less because of the soup mix) & pepper

METHOD:

Pre-heat oven to 160/320 degrees  Put all the ingredients in a covered oven-safe dish, preferably one that you can put on the table. Cook for roughly 50 minutes, till potatoes are done. Poke them - it's easy to tell. Serve directly from the dish after lifting the lid at the table - if you've used garlic it will smell wonderful - and warning everyone it's hot...

After...

NOTE: This is a good amount for the 2 of us. Scale it up for more people or for folk with a bigger appetite for potatoes (we're trying to be pretty modest on the carbs right now, though I can't see it lasting...).

The Rotorua Blues Festival 2020 - Labour Weekend

The Rotorua Blues Festival is usually held mid-winter but this year due to the same bloody reason as every other event that has been postponed it has moved to Labour Weekend. And all I can do is cheer. Lovely as Rotorua is in July it is really really cold. This will be a huge improvement on what was already a great weekend of music.

The unplugged incarnation of our band Kokomo is heading over for a couple of shows on the Saturday and one more on the Sunday. For the Saturday night show we will be joined by the wonderful Robbie Laven on fiddle, mandolin and more...

Robbie Laven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a brief guide to what's happening over the weekend. 

The Blues Club there have put together a fantastic programme, with blues from all over New Zealand and a special Australian guest in the form of Sydney's Boogie-Woogie Queen Jan Preston. As well as his Kokomo duties Nigel will be playing bass with Jan.

Jan Preston

(NOTE: If you want to skip these descriptions and go straight to the programme, it's at the bottom of the page...)

(ANOTHER NOTE: Most of the events I'm about to mention are free or require a only gold coin donation.)

The Festival starts in a low-key manner on Thursday 22nd October, 5pm at the Rotorua Night Market with Hammer On and Nikau and the Natives. Friday 23rd sees The Rotorua Social Club host a meet and greet with 6 bands from Rotorua and Tauranga from 5pm till 11pm.

The full festival kicks off on Saturday 24th October in Eat Streat and will be officially opened by Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick at 12pm. There will be 5 bands playing from 12:30pm until 5:30pm, including Kokomo (unplugged) at 3.30pm. We're following The Flaming Mudcats and will be before Hybrid Blues, so it should be a great afternoon.

At the same time The Social Club will also see a full line-up of bands from midday until midnight, spotlighting bands from across the Waikato at The Hamilton Blues Society, including Shotgun, Roger McLay, Conmen, Hillmen Hunters, Agnostic Contrarians, Magic & 3am Blues, and Velvet Bulldozer.

The hub of the Festival is the Rotorua Citizens Club on Saturday and Sunday with 1-day and 2-day passes available: $60 for a 1-day pass or $100 for a 2-day pass (Kids under 18 are Free).

The Flaming Mudcats

There will be 3 stages running each day within the Citizens Club from 12pm until midnight, with “Bumper Concerts” on both nights featuring various headline acts. As I mentioned Kokomo (with Robbie) are part of the Saturday night concert along with Dirty Tones, Fiona & The Holy Pocket, Brown Dog & the Muttleys, and The Flaming Mudcats. Sunday features Jan Preston, Hybrid Blues, The Michael Barker Experience and more.

And there'll also be a Blues Cruise on the Lakeland Queen paddle steamer on Lake Rotorua on Sunday afternoon from 3pm till 5:30pm. Our friends in the Mike Garner Band will be playing that one.

All in all a terrific line-up and it has all the making of a really fun weekend. If you see us over there come and say hello!

Tickets for all events will be available at the registration desk at the entrance to the Rotorua Citizens Club, 1146 Rangiuru St, Rotorua or get them in advance on-line.

 

Spontaneous review

SPONTANEOUS (2020) 

Directors: Brian Duffield

Starring: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Haley Law

Runtime: 101 min

 

Spontaneous is a high school rites of passage story as Mara and Dylan fall in love during their final school term. Of course it is a modern love story so there is much absurdly precocious dialogue, getting high and breaking of the fourth wall. It's all very smart-assed teen cool.

But there is a twist. Students in their school year are randomly spontaoneously combusting. In a bursting-like-a-balloon, blood everywhere sort of way. As you might expect this lends a certain uncertainty to day to day life. Knowing one might explosively pop at any moment does tend to focus the mind.

That leaves our central couple with the desire to live in the present and a lot of the charm here comes from the very quirky yet believable relationship they develop. Charlie Plummer (the kidnapped hier in All The Money In The World) is an unusual presence, perhaps a male equivalent of the now-cliched "pixie dream girl", and makes a good match with Langford's cynically-shelled Mara.

But this all happens fairly early. Can such a premise really stretch to 100 minutes? On the evidence here I'll say yes. While the blowing up at first seems like a blackly comic gimmick, the second act doubles down on both the real and the metaphorical and its really hard not to draw parallels with the current pandemic. But since this was filmed in 2018 that's clearly coincidental but it is striking. Perhaps the allegory is for school shootings? 

But by halfway through I had no idea quite where we were heading, and the film blindsided me again at the hour mark. 

Many things help make Spontaneous stand out, one being the treatment of adult characters who are actually allowed to be three dimensional. Particularly impressive are Mara's parents, Yvonne Orji as the rather ineffectual FBI agent and Laura Di Cicco who has a mere single scene as Dylan's mother and is simply sensational. 

You could criticise the ending for being a bit contrived but there is so much to like about this film that by that slight disappointment you'll probably be willing to forgive it. Good stuff.  

The Wolf Of Snow Hollow review

THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (2020) 

Directors: Jim Cummings

Starring: Jim Cummings, Riki Lindhome, Robert Forster

Runtime: 83 min

 

 

Writer/director/actor Jim Cummings has a very distinct style of filmmaking. It was on vivid display in Thunder Road (2018) where he played a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown and it is again evident here, where he plays a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

However, this is a different cop and a very different film, even if the peculiar stylistic ticks that distinguish it remain. This time the cop, Jim Marshall, is a slightly more sympathetic creation.

 

And how to describe the style? It's in the same general ballpark as director Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame - a strange slight amateurism edge pervades proceedings with an oddly stylised edge to the performances and dialogue. But this lacks the essential sweetness of Hess' work. 

 

It's more like a left-field take on Jim Carey's character in Me, Myself & Irene, with childish anger threatening to break through at any moment. Throughout the film characters get into childish arguments, often in the middle of serious events, bickering when they really shouldn't be.

 

And all this stylistic weirdness is tacked onto a werewolf plot. Or maybe not. Townsfolk in the small titular snow-bound location are being killed by something that certainly resembles a werewolf. The deaths sit somewhere between funny and disturbing; it's that sort of film. Officer Marshall doesn't believe the stories but as bodies keep piling up...

 

Robert Forster, sadly in his last role, plays Marshall's father, the proper chief of police, ailing and refusing to go to hospital. That and Marshall's battle with alcohol, and the rising death count all add pressure and by the end, despite his childish and often pretty irritating behaviour, you genuinely begin to feel for Cummings' put-upon cop.

 

Ultimately I kinda liked this film despite itself. I frequently looked at the screen in disbelief at some of the amateur tropes on display - frequently actors look straight at the camera - but that constant aura of unexpectedness keeps you on your toes and does hold your attention. The film is often slightly funny. Or perhaps that's "very funny" if you're in the right slightly demented frame of mind.

 

Think Fargo crossed with Napoleon Dynamite and you won't be too far off.   

Sunday Roast at Oscar & Otto

Oscar & Otto

Cuisine: Cafe breakfast/brunch/lunch at Otto; contemporary New Zealand at Oscar

Address: 51 The Strand, Tauranga

Phone: 07 282 7879

Website

Drinks: Licensed

Reservations: Recommended

 

Oscar & Otto was a cool idea when it started a couple of years ago and so it remains. Otto is the cafe, serving breakfasts brunches and lunches, then Oscar is the evening restaurant, right next door. It is the creation of Catherine MacLoughlin and Hamish Carter, both of whom have longterm history on the Tauranga food scene having first set up Alimento back in 2002 and running catering companies and other ventures since.

I've only been to Oscar once, sometime last year, but Jan has been to Otto a couple of times for lunch and has good things to say about their Duck Risotto ($19) and Fish & Chips ($19.50). But I keep hearing people say that their "Sunday Roast Night" is the best food deal in town at the moment so when some friends invited us to join them for roast pork last week we jumped at the chance. $28 for the roast plus a glass of house wine or beer.

And I'm so glad we did. I like the look of Oscar and Hamish provides a friendly welcome (it seems sometimes like he knows every single person coming into the restaurant). We stuck to the absolute basics and had a fantastic night: first a cocktail outside, then the roast pork with its accompanying glass of wine. It was a lovely evening. These were our opening drinks:

The Hugo

Hugo: elderflower, prosecco, gin, mint, soda water $14

Martini: classic $14

Moa Apple Cider $10

Heineken zero $9

One more (I forget)

The one that struck me most was the Hugo (I had the cider which was a bit boring but I was thirsty). It was a lovely refreshing combination and surprisingly intensely-flavoured. Good drink - good price.

Then it was on to the roast pork. The five of us all had that, along with a glass of wine each. One of the things that make this such a good deal is that Oscar has a pretty good wine list so their "house wine" is excellent.

(They also use the Corovin wine system, which pumps a protective layer of inert gas into the wine bottle to keep their wines fresh, enabling them to feature more by the glass than you might expect.) The wines we had:

 

Black Cottage Reserve Pinot Noir, Central Otago    usually $12.5

Esk Valley Pinot Gris, Hawkes Bay     usually $12

And the pork? It was absolutely delicious. Everyone agreed. There was also serious love at the table for the roasted beetroot that came with it. You could certainly be picky and point out that the five pieces of pork at the table were all different sizes and shapes. But even the smallest was generously large so that's not really a complaint, just an observation. (Please note that the dish looked rather better than this picture but I still keep forgetting to photograph before tucking in...)

Sorry, I started eating again before the photo - bad blogger!

All in all I pretty much agree with this being about this being one of the best deals in town right now. Take off the price of the wine and that plate of moist, fatty, porky roast pork costs about $16. Fantastic! I suspect we will be back to check out the chicken, lamb, beef and whatever else they decide to roast on a Sunday... bon appetite! 

 

 

And, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention again that my son Cohen has recently started work at Oscar. He was the one mixing the cocktails. Sadly this hasn't resulted in any discount for his ever-supportive father...

2nd Annual Pinot Noir Challenge ("Terroir be damned!")

"It was strange that all ten wines seemed to be more similar than far apart in all their attributes, regardless of which continent they were from, so "terroir" be damned!"  Jim Bartee

OK. It was 13 months since our first Pinot Noir bash, so on a rainy Sunday the same gang plus my son Cohen gathered for the 2^nd Annual Pinot Noir Challenge. Everyone brought a bottle of Pinot. Jim Bartee from Finer Wines in Katikati brought an extra one and I couldn't decide what to put in so I added an extra one too. So that was eight of us and ten Pinot Noirs.

And it's obviously a punt, what exactly we end up with, but since everyone wants bragging rights for bringing the top wine there's not a lot of duds. This year it turned out to be a more international showing and the Kiwi wines all came from Central Otago. But since we were tasting everything blind we didn't know beforehand what particular treats we had in store... 

I'm not going to go into detailed tasting notes here, just general impressions, otherwise this would be a ridiculously lengthy post; it was a lovely afternoon and a fascinating tasting, and the wines - even those scoring fewest points - were all well worthwhile.

This is what we ended up tasting:

Burn Cottage Burn Cottage Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

Archangel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

Lowburn Ferry Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

Rippon Mature Vine Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010 (NZ)

Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

Mure Clos Saint Landelin Pinot Noir 2014 (FR)

Domaine Michelle & Patrice Rion Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2005 (FR)

Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

Masut Da Rive Pinot Nero Maurus 2012 (IT)

(Of course, I didn't know it at the time but Hot Damn!... An old Felton Rd Pinot! A Pinot - the Beaux Freres - made by legendary wine writer Robert Parker! A French 1er Cru! An Italian Pinot?! A Pinot from Alsace, a new thing for me. Two Pinots from the most excellent Central Otago 2017 vintage... oh, and that Rippon, which received a rare 100 points from James Suckling!)

The wines were divided into two flights of 5 wines each and after tasting each flight we collected scores and opinions and then retasted the top wine from each flight. As one flight had tied "winners" we ended up retasting three wines, to find an eventual Grand Champion.

These were the two flights and how we rated them...

FLIGHT 1

1. Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

2. Domaine Michelle & Patrice Rion Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2005 (FR)

3. Masut Da Rive Pinot Nero Maurus 2012 (IT)

4. Lowburn Ferry Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

5. Rippon Mature Vine Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010 (NZ)

What I found most unexpected about this flight was that the French and Italian wines did not especially stick out. 

Looking at my notes I'm slightly surprised that I judged the Rockburn the top wine of the flight, particularly since this is their $40 "entry level" Pinot, but it showed the best bouquet and most complex flavours (they do also make the cheaper Devil's Staircase Pinot Noir, but this is their entry level under the Rockburn name). It was ahead for me by some distance and obviously someone agreed given its top placement.

(I should point out that the "lowly" 2017 Rockburn actually won two gold and two trophies at the 2019 New Zealand International Wine Show - for Best Pinot and Best Red Wine. So it's not all that lowly...)

But it was overall a very close-run thing between the top two Pinots and it seems quite possible that the Rockburn made it through because it opened up more quickly than the Chambolle-Musigny (we did allow 15 minutes for the wines to open in glasses before tasting but, as became apparent from later changes in wines, that might not have been long enough for some of them...). 

In fact all the wines in this flight were judged to be very close together. In retrospect I'm surprised the Rippon didn't stand out more. It was beautifully balanced but slightly less weighty than the other wines, which might have caused it to be passed over.

FLIGHT 2

1.= Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

1.= Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

3. Burn Cottage Burn Cottage Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

4. Archangel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

5. Mure Clos Saint Landelin Pinot Noir 2014 (FR)

And this was even closer, the top three wines all within a whisker of each other. At this point I personally ranked the Felton Road third. The Burn Cottage, which showed huge potential to grow over time, was very unlucky to miss out here.

I rated the Robert Parker Beaux Freres at the top - it was an absolutely lovely wine to drink, with great charm, still very fresh despite its age. If you told me it came from New Zealand I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. The same with the Alsace wine, amazingly enough, though that didn't find favour with anyone. I found it a little light and one-dimensional alongside the Central Otago wines.

And I placed the Burn Cottage second, just a little less welcoming on the nose than the Beaux Freres. Actually, it was the bouquet that sank the Felton Road for me at this point: it still seemed very closed and wasn't giving much away. 

THE TASTE-OFF

1. Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

2. Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

3. Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

This is where the Felton Road really came into its own. It had opened up and was simply magnificent - rich, full, with endless layers of complex flavour. All of us rated it top with no disagreement. 

And the Parker came second. It was a much more interesting wine than the Rockburn which, lovely though it was, seemed a little simple in this company. Mind you, the fact that it probably cost a quarter of the amount and was several years younger than the other two - which were both indisputably great great wines - makes its showing more than creditable.

A big "thank you" to Jan and Debbie who poured the wines and kept everything running smoothly while we nattered on and on about tiny differences in bouquet and such minutiae. It was a brilliant day. 

I was also in touch with Jim and he had some thoughts, which echo mine but are much more well-informed and knowledgable!

It was lots of fun, with a full spectrum of wines young and old, French Pinot Noir from both Alsace and Burgundy, as well Robert Parker's own vineyard in Oregon, plus James Suckling's 100-pointer as well!

Can't say enough about the Felton Road, just superior in all ways to all the other wines. And for sure that Felton Road was radically different at the end compared to the beginning of the tasting. Of all the wines we tried, the one wine I think will continue to improve is the Beaux Freres. It just seemed so young, and it did garner second place. 

And I concur with you on the 2005 Patrick Rion Burgundy, but I think it will ultimately become a race between the fruit and the closed nature of that specific bottle, so don't really think we missed out. It seems to have structure, but not finesse. 2005 is known for its structure, akin to 1993, but just too "clunkish" for my preference.

BTW, I rated the Alsatian Pinot Noir at 92/100 as during the initial flight I thought it was quite elegant and expressive, though it diminished in breadth over the course of the day.

 

It was strange that all ten wines seemed to be more similar than far apart in all their attributes, regardless of which continent they were from, so "terroir" be damned!