The Perfect Host: Roast Duck
/Almost too clever by half, this Netflix streamer featuring Frasier's David Hyde Pierce strives for a David Mamet cross/double cross complexity. And it almost achieves it.
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Often been surprised by a movie after what a film critic said about it? Ever felt cheated out of big bucks on the recommendations of a punk 24-year-old? Or really loved the ones they panned? Well, you no longer need to feel out of step with the current movie review band. Different Drummer is for you. Read more about our take on the film world. And get ready to relive your favorite movies with the recipes that follow each review. You can find many other great recipes in Different Drummer’s own Appetite for Murder: a Mystery Lover’s Cookbook, too.
There Will Be Blood: Bite Sized Walnut Cheesecake Recipe
/Though I can’t quite echo the hyperbolic praise lavished on this film, it is, nevertheless, a superb character study that is powerful, well crafted, and subtle. The amoral misanthrope at its center is complex, yet as elemental as the harsh landscape that cradles his beloved black gold.
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Wonder Woman: Greek Green Goddess Crudité Recipe
/This cocktail of a film is a heady brew to start your summer off just right. Start with equal parts patriotism and feminism, add a dash of romance, and splash with equal parts blue seas and cloudless skies. Finally, sprinkle in just a dash of London fog and German menace to give it some zesty heft, and there you have it.
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Mission: Impossible III: Vatican Capers and Crostini
/Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III is as credible and grounded as the sometimes loopy star is not. So, forget his public persona and catch this testosterone-charged heart-stopper that explodes onto the screen.
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Guardians of the Galaxy 2: The Gamora Cocktail Recipe
/It’s hard not to have fun when the cast seems to having such a great time, even if the rag tag crew of a “thief, two thugs, an assassin, and a maniac” is quite a bit better at getting into trouble than out of it.
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Guardians of the Galaxy: Light Seven Layer Dip Recipe
/It’s a campy derivative of Star Wars with a touch of Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure. Bold unconventional hero with father issues; check. Female lead at odds with him; check. Fury nonhuman companion good with a gun; check. A plot that resonates long after you leave the theater; I’m afraid not.
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Personal Shopper: Quiche Lorraine Recipe
/She’s no longer lusting after vampires. This time she’s into ghosts. Kristen Stewart stars in this indie psychological thriller as a twin seeking to contact the spirit of her recently deceased brother.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: English Summer Pudding
/Darker and deeper than the young wizard’s earlier film excursions, this Potter outing is less concerned with whimsical magic than the ominous reality of evil. So, instead of a respite from the chilling events of our times, it is a reminder of them.
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The Brave One: Ultimate Greek Salad 🥁🥁🥁1/2
/This is the thinking man’s vigilante film, peppered with artsy NPR radio monologue as well as quotes by D. H. Lawrence and Emily Dickinson. But there’s plenty of badass, too, and Jodie Foster wears her compulsive vengeance like a second skin, blowing away bad guys with a lethal fury as cold as it is addictive.
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La La Land: LA Moscow Mule Cocktail Recipe
/This sweet little film is certainly a pleasant 2 plus hour diversion. But is it deserving of its gushing praise and frenetic Oscar buzz? That’s a definite no from this film critic.
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Dr. Strange: London Corpse Reviver Cocktail Recipe
/Luke Skywalker meets Sherlock Holmes, or maybe better yet, Dr. House. The latest Marvel rollout is a sparkling package of fast-paced adventure that never stops for a breath. It doesn’t so much introduce its titular hero as propel him toward us like a fastball careening through time and space.
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Changeling: Hearty Bean Soup Recipe
/Director Clint Eastwood resurrects a winning formula that seems to have been forgotten in recent Hollywood. Miraculously free of gratuitous plot twists, ear-splitting explosions, cartoon inspired characters, or incipient nihilism, his film is about real people, real events, and real human emotions.
Read MoreAnna Karenina: Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe 🥁🥁🥁
/Over-stylized and artificial, the tail wags the dog in this pretentious reinvention of this Russian classic. Tolstoy’s story of the “doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky” should have been enough to carry the film.
Read MorePhilomena: Authentic Irish Coffee Recipe
/For 50 years Philomena has kept the secret. Now she wonders what has happened to the son she was forced to give up for adoption. It’s a heart-wrenching true story, one that could easily turn sentimental, maudlin, or preachy. But Judi Dench does not allow that to happen.
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Trash: Brazilian Black Bean Stew Recipe
/Three slum dwellers in Rio de Janeiro find a wallet in the mountain of trash they dig through daily. It is a Pandora’s box, belching up a rancid mess of evil and corruption, but they cling to one remaining ingredient – hope.
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Babel: Mexican Wedding Cakes
/While its title predisposes us to think that language and culture divide us, a closer look at Babel reveals the most profound chasms are between those linked closest in blood and intimacy. Whether it is the barren deserts of Morocco, the stark skies and steely towers of Tokyo, or the warm night air that wraps itself around a boisterous Tijuana wedding, the struggle to connect continues to plague us.
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Jason Bourne: Greek Chicken Pasta Recipe
/This is the blockbuster action and thrills we’ve come to expect each summer just as certainly as cookouts and a day at the beach. But this year we had to wait almost until August to get it.
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Before the Rains: Indian Lime Rice Recipe
/Charged with that oppressive atmosphere that is only released with a torrential downpour, this period piece is awash in seething tensions and passions. Set in Colonial India of the1930s, the ostensible focus is the torrid and doubly adulterous love affair between a British spice master and his Indian servant girl, but its real beauty is how it affects his second in command, Indian born but British educated.
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Independence Day: Resurgence: Red, White, and Blue Cocktail Recipe
/It’s a somewhat decent popcorn movie, but it isn’t the extra butter deluxe item we remember from 20 years ago.
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Captain America: The First Avenger: Brooklyn Cocktail Recipe
/We have to travel back to World War II to do it, but this action film reminds us of our better angels. Captain America, a 98-pound weakling transformed into a super soldier hunk, wows us more with his character than his exploits, a red, white and blue package of courage, patriotism, and innocence as invincible as his Vibranium shield.
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