Slow Cinema Anime, Feminism in Rural Iran, Thanksgiving Prep, November Movie Diaries

At the Movies & In the Kitchen: November 23

At the Movies & In the Kitchen is my occasional column for more casually written movie takes, cooking logs, and general life updates.

Seasonal affective disorder was never really a thing for me until moving into my current apartment, which I love except there’s zero insulation and the north facing windows make it a particularly dark cavern during these winter months. Combined with doing way too much writing in October, it’s no wonder I kind of burnt out as far as this newsletter is concerned. (I still need to send out that NYFF post-mortem, and can you believe I’ve attended two film festivals since then?) Anyways, I’ll write more about what I want to do with Buttered Popcorn later this week, when this newsletter turns two years old (!!!!!)

For now, some notes about two new movies, quick takes on other recent watches, and game-planning for Thanksgiving, aka Home Chef Super Bowl.

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Angel’s Egg

Now playing in select theaters.

“Slow cinema” and “animation” are two terms you don’t usually see together. For one, it takes a lot more effort and money to produce an additional frame of animation than it does with live action (where you’d just keep the camera rolling). For another, the typical viewer of animated films (child or adult) tends to have short attention spans. So it’s quite remarkable that in just 70 minutes, Angel’s Egg reproduces the feeling of Tarkovsky films more than twice that length. A collaboration between Ghost in the Shell creator Mamoru Oshii and Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano, this sublime oddball anime feature marks an early work for the pair. It was originally released in 1985, predating Final Fantasy by two years and Ghost in the Shell by ten; a new 4K restoration now comes to theaters after having played at Cannes and NYFF.

As with all slow cinema, there is a legible plot, but it largely takes a backseat to atmospheric immersion. (The first substantial line of dialogue comes 24 minutes in.) The film’s titular egg is protected by a young girl, who believes that it will hatch into an angel. As she wanders the devastated ruins of an underwater city, she meets a pessimistic boy who sees their forsaken world as one where the Great Flood never ended. The comparisons to Tarkovsky extend beyond cinematic form: faith and deliverance are this film’s primary thematic concerns. There are not many anime like Angel’s Egg, which has become a cult object for the specific kind of cinephile who talks up Stalker and Neon Genesis Evangelion in the same breath. For the rest of us, it is a confounding but rewarding experience.

Tasting Notes

The culinary counterpart that immediately comes to mind are devilled eggs. At receptions and potlucks, you will find me popping the ubiquitous hors d’oeuvre into my mouth at a frighteningly rapid clip, but I’ve never actually made them myself. (I don’t like peeling eggshells.) If there was to be an “angelled egg” counterpart, perhaps the fertilized eggs known as balut would be a stand-in for an Angel’s Egg (if you know you know).

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Cutting Through Rocks

Now playing in NY at the Film Forum. Other cities to follow.

Filmed over the course of seven years, Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s observational documentary tracks the societal trials and quiet triumphs of Sara Shahverdi, a midwife in a rural corner of Iran who becomes the first woman elected to her village council. (One constituent remarks that the women she delivered as a midwife are now old enough to deliver her votes.) As if riding a motorcycle and being a divorcée weren’t already enough to stand out in this patriarchal society, her feminist aims and actions—to push young girls away from marriage and towards education and ensure property rights are split between husbands and wives—place her so far outside of the region’s tightly proscribed gender roles that she becomes the subject of a legal inquisition that questions her very identity.

The directors avoid overt references to the protest movements that engulfed the country, perhaps to avoid further legal trouble both for their subject and themselves: at one point, Khaki and Eyni were interrogated and temporarily banned from leaving Iran. (The filmmakers do get a remarkable amount of access, taking us inside an Iranian courtroom and a smoke-filled, males-only hookah lounge where village politics are discussed.) Shahverdi, an inspiration to the girls in her village, is no fiery iconoclast. When a group of girls land into trouble for daring to learn how to ride motorcycles, she plaintively remarks that “to do something unconventional, sometimes there are consequences.”

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Thanksgiving Prep

Who else is hosting Thanksgiving this year? I’ve hosted many Friendsgivings in recent years, but I haven’t actually hosted a day-of gathering in my home since 2019.

One of the first things I wrote for this newsletter was about how I converted a skeptical friend that turkeys could be good, actually, if you treat them right. (Dry brine and spatchcock!)

This time around, I’m gonna break down the birds entirely. (Yes, I have enough people coming over to warrant two turkeys.) Showing off a whole turkey doesn’t matter if you’re just gonna carve it anyway. I’ll be slathering the roasted parts with Andy Baraghani’s pomegranate glaze, the recipe for which just got published in the Times.

Since the glaze will be decently salty, I’m going to moderate how much salt I use in the dry brine, because last year I gave my turkey hella salt, then slathered in a salty, herby mayonnaise and then it was way too salty lol You can read a bit more about that below:

One Year of Buttered Popcorn

Also on my cooking agenda:

• Gravy!!

• Roasted veggie sidecar: onions, carrots, and lemons roasted under the poultry, and some duck fat potatoes.

• A couple duck breasts because I need carcasses, fat, and legs for other cooking projects.

• Cornbread and andouille stuffing, in waffle form (trust me, this is the only way to eat stuffing. It works with pretty much any stuffing recipe; instead of baking you just put it in the waffle iron)

• My sourdough, natch.

• Fluffy Brown Butter Miso Mashed Sweet Potatoes

• Marinated Rancho Gordo runner beans

Everything else I’m leaving to my guests to contribute. A mac and cheese has already been promised, as were brownies. Hopefully no pies because I hate pie.

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Odds and Ends

The Pope’s Speech

By now you’ve probably heard that the Pope delivered an impassioned apologia of cinema as an artform and the value of collectively experiencing film:

Entering a cinema is like crossing a threshold. In the darkness and silence, vision becomes sharper, the heart opens up and the mind becomes receptive to things not yet imagined. …cinema is much more than just a screen; it is an intersection of desires, memories and questions. It is a sensory journey in which light pierces the darkness and words meet silence. As the plot unfolds, our mind is educated, our imagination broadens and even pain can find new meaning.

Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this. The whole speech is worth reading.

Hardcore Parm

A film & food news item: “Parmigiano Reggiano Reportedly Signed By UTA for Film and TV Placement.” I didn’t think this cheese needed any advertising, but it’s not like the trade group is unfamiliar with spon-con: remember those viral photos of Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa posing with wheels and wheels of Parm?

Photo: Gabriele Seghizzi

I will repeat the common advice regarding this cheese: buy the real-deal stuff labelled “Parmigiano Reggiano,” and always a wedge. The pre-grated dust deserves only scorn. It lasts for a few months in the fridge, wrapped in parchment paper in an opened plastic baggie. And when it comes to pasta, there is no such thing as too much parm!

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More Movies I’ve Seen Recently

A diary of miscellaneous movie experiences that don’t otherwise fit in my previous & forthcoming coverage. Maybe I should write on a regular basis?

I’ve experienced many loud movies, but I never saw the screen actually ripple until a particular moment in Bāhubali: The Epic. The truncated re-edit of RRR director S.S. Rajamouli’s two-part mythical epic took full advantage of the Dolby Cinema sound system. I had a great time with the Telugu Lion King.

Ears still ringing, I made a pit stop at the excellent Santo Taco before my evening screening. I heeded Ryan Sutton’s advice to get the trompo and mushroom tacos (and quite enjoyed the carne asada and carnitas as well). Cannot recommend this place enough, and the line at the Union Square location wasn’t bad; your tacos come out pretty quickly after you order. In lieu of freely available tortilla chips, there are bowls of chicharrónes sitting around—a more than fair trade in my book.

After knocking back those tacos I saw One Battle After Another for a second time, this time in VistaVision. I’m not a format fetishist… it was great on a 70mm print, and even projected digitally I’m sure it’s still the same movie. But the taller aspect ratio of VistaVision positively adds to the immersion, especially on a screen that fills your field of vision. The only downside was that the volume in this Regal was a full point lower than at the Walter Reade, where I first saw this. Later that night, the Dodgers won the World Series 🙁and the East Village bars were way too full to have a few small beers, so my friends and I landed at Accidental Bar, a saké den on the far reaches of Alphabet City. (Highly recommend.)

Ironic that The Running Man was released by a studio whose new owners are helping to usher in the very dystopia depicted within. Some elements were uncomfortable to watch due to their resonance to present times; not even Edgar Wright can make light of corporate fascism. But much more uncomfortable was Die My Love. Love will tear us apart, again. (Or, if you prefer, fall in love again and again.) The casting of JLaw and RPatz has lured unsuspecting filmgoers into a Lynne Ramsay movie. People at my showing were NOT happy and one guy kind of had a breakdown three-fourths of the way through. It is prime cinéma du offal.

FILM301: INTRO TO CINÉMA DU OFFAL

Bugonia is a good movie on its own merits, but it’s more fascinating as a case study in adaptation. Compared to the original Korean movie, the screenplay Americanizes the politics while reducing the extreme violence that made some scenes in Save the Green Planet! (2003) feel as if they were ripped from the Saw franchise. Some subplots are greatly reduced as well, given the Anglo-American proclivity for simpler storylines. Yorgos Lanthimos also drains out the exuberance of the original, transforming black comedy into bleak comedy. It’s meant to be taken seriously, much to its detriment.

Far more insane was Regretting You, adapted from a romance novel by the inexplicably popular Colleen Hoover. Terrific example of “bad movie, good time.” Bilge Ebiri put it perfectly: it is “absolutely psychotic.” There’s so much product placement, including AMC Theatres. I half expected Nicole Kidman to walk into the frame. It boasts a perfectly fitting if obvious soundtrack. It mixes mid-aughts alt rock (The Killers, Frightened Rabbit, Stereophonics) with zoomercore pop (Role Model, Noah Kahan, Phoebe Bridgers). And there’s an inexplicable sadgirl cover of “How’s It Gonna Be” by Third Eye Blind that plays while Alison Williams buys two bottles of Decoy Cab Sauv in the supermarket.

Speaking of incredible soundtracks: ultimately, I was only able to make it to one showing during the MoMA’s Sofia Coppola retrospective but it was a goodie. Somewhere (2010) is a quietly influential entry in the director’s catalog: it’s clearly made its way into Aftersun (languid daddy-daughter bonding time) and Jay Kelly (in Hollywood it’s impossible to be famous and a father at the same time). Not sure I buy Stephen Dorff as an international celebrity (sorry to this man) but baby Elle Fanning was already a star as far back as this picture.

Oh, and I finally saw Michael Clayton (2007) for the first time. Perfect movie, and I say this with a straight face: this is true kino. It was great to see this at a sold-out room, at the BAM on a Friday night, with an audience that was amped up but respectful. No one pulled up with a bag containing 17 baguettes which was a missed opportunity.

I was at the movie with a couple friends. Afterwards we walked around the corner to Rockwell Place, my favorite bar, to cap off a couple days of small birthday celebrations. I’ve had birthday parties with 100 people before (it was a joint bday!!!), and this year was far more intimate: 16 people came over for a potluck dinner. I cooked, drank good wine, watched hockey, and sang karaoke. That’s four of my seven hobbies. The day after, I biked to the BAM, saw the movie, then got a negroni. There’s the other three.