Movie Review: Nightcrawler ****

Jake Gyllenhaal is gaunt as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, and suitably creepy as a sort of autistic, idiot savant who happens upon a new career path as a news videographer, and takes it to new levels.
He's a fast learner, he's fond of telling people, and he is, reciting research robot-like off the Internet, and learning his new craft as if he's gone through the Evelyn Woods School of Videography.
Rene Russo is the director of the lowest-rated news show on TV and when Bloom brings her some particularly gory footage she knows this is the key to her contract that's coming up for renewal, though it's going to cost more than she expects.
The movie amps up and amps up, and toward the end my stomach churned as I waited to see what icky thing would happen next.
Nightcrawler is sleazy and sordid, and great fun to watch.
Four out of five stars for Nightcrawler.

Recipe: Broccoli Soup

This soup is beautiful, and it makes the house smell heavenly. Okay, so there's a little cream in it. The broccoli cancels that out, right? Make this soup. You can thank me later.

Broccoli Soup
3-4 servings

4 T butter
1 1/2 lbs broccoli
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
salt and pepper
3 T flour
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cups half and half
1 tsp ground nutmeg
Parmesan rind

Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.
Add broccoli, onion, carrot, s & p, and saute until onion is translucent, about 6 min.
Add the flour and cook for 1 min.
Add stock and Parmesan rind, and bring to a boil.
Simmer covered until broccoli is tender, about 15 min.
Add cream and nutmeg. Simmer 5 min.
Remove parmesan rind.
With an immersible blender (my favorite kitchen gadget!), puree the soup a little - leave it a little chunky. Add s & p to taste. Heat through.
Enjoy!

I'm Obsessed with Savory Cookies

What do you do on a snowy Super Bowl Sunday in Chicago?

View from the 22nd floor

Watch CBS Sunday Morning.
Check.
Read the Sunday paper.
Check.
Work on the revision of your novel.
Check.
Take a nap.
Check.
Take extreme close-up of Sophie Tucker as she lays on your chest. 
Check.
Bake. 
Check. 



I'm obsessed with appetizer cookies. A couple weeks ago I made cheddar thumbprints with roasted onion and garlic jam (yum). Last week I made jalapeno cheddar cookies. Today I made appetizer cookies with red pepper flakes and Piave Vecchio cheese. They are all delicious - a perfect accompaniment for soup or chili or a nice cold Guinness. 

Appetizer Cookies

Handy dandy cheese-grating
attachment to my
immersible blender.

Makes about 3 dozen

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp baking powder

Indulge

1 ¾ sticks cold unsalted butter, ½” dice

5 oz. cheese, grated - sharp cheddar or any firm, strong cheese - I used Piave Vecchio and they were delicious 

1 T chili powder

3 T ice water

1 egg beaten with 1 T milk for egg wash

Fleur de sel

• Put flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor with the steel blade. Pulse to mix.
• Add butter and pulse until it resembles coarse meal.
• Add cheese, jalapeno and chili powder and pulse again.
• With processor running, add ice water all at once.
• Continue pulsing until the mixture begins to form a ball.
• Dump dough onto a floured board and roll into a 14” log.
• Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Cut dough into 3/8” thick slices. Put on sheet pan, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with fleur de sel.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
• Unbaked rolls keep for 2 weeks in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer. Defrost before baking.

Movie Review: A Most Violent Year**

A Most Violent Year in a Most Boring Two Hours.
Oscar Isaac drew me into his character, Jessica Chastain not so much, but it wasn't the performances I had a problem with, it was the writing. I couldn't wait for this film to end. Too many holes, too long, too contrived, characters I didn't care about. Need I say more?
Two out of Five Stars for A Most Violent Year.

Movie Review: American Sniper *****

I sat with my hand over my mouth for this entire film, wanting to see what was happening and not wanting to see. Bradley Cooper's performance is riveting, and the film feels like a documentary.
I'm about 50/50 on Clint Eastwood's films but this is a big five for me. There's a lot of controversy surrounding this movie but for my money a film works if I'm engrossed from beginning to end, if I'm not checking my watch, if I have feelings about the characters, if I feel I have a stake in what happens. Yes, yes, yes and yes.
American Sniper works for me. Big time.
5 out of 5 stars for American Sniper.

Movie Review: Still Alice ****1/2

Isn't it everyone's nightmare to have Alzheimer's disease? I'm too old for early onset, so that's a relief of sorts, but who knows what's to come?
Still Alice is the story of a 50-year-old woman; an intellectual, a world-renowned linguist, someone whose intelligence is her identity, and she's diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's; the ultimate irony.
I unfortunately didn't like the book the movie is based on but I loved the play that was done by Lookingglass Theatre. And I loved the film.
Julianne Moore, who's not one of my favorite actors (she doesn't seem to melt into the characters she plays) is very moving in this film. Alec Baldwin's part is not big but his performance is poignant and authentic.
Still Alice is tough to watch - it hits too close to home - but it's worth the tears, and the tissues you'll need during this movie.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars for Still Alice.

Movie Review: Big Eyes **

Big Eyes would have been a much better film if it had been less heavy-handed. If you read my reviews, tho, you know I'm a big fan of subtlety, and there's nothing subtle here.
Amy Adams is excellent but Christoph Waltz, who was great in films like Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, is completely miscast in this part. I could see someone like Mark Wahlberg or Mark Ruffalo in the roll, someone likable who would be charming in the beginning (Waltz never is) and then sympathetic, even when perpetrating a hoax on the art world and the public.
Waltz's performance is a more of a caricature - much too broad for me. In order to buy in to the whole scenario (based on real-life events of the woman who painted those icky, but ubiquitous paintings of the big-eyed waifs in the 60s) you need to see what Margaret (Adams) sees in Walter (Waltz) in the beginning, and we never do, because Waltz's performance is too kitschy.
So, re-do the film with less melodrama and recast the part of Walter and it would be better, but you'd also have to cut about 20 minutes. It's way too long - the courtroom scene goes on forever - and had me checking my watch about 80 minutes in.
Nits to pick:
1. Why does the daughter sit in the back seat of the car? Answer: so Tim Burton (director) could put in the theme of Mom reaching across the seat to grab the daughter's hand in times of stress. And then again, in the courtroom. A nice device if it's subtle, but of course it's not, in Big Eyes.
2. Walter Keane was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, so why, in the movie, does he have a German accent?
Two stars out of five for Big Eyes, because I didn't walk out. Although I considered it.