Parables about cults combined with "hot" popcorn make for a confusing evening at The Nerdery™️
Dave: Perhaps I’ve been lulled into some complacency by watching screwball comedies for the past four years because it seemed like the world was constantly on the verge of ending, but The Wolf House, although beautiful, felt disjointed - it lacked a clear center. The miasma of disturbing images was the point, since it depicted the psychological aftermath of a brutal Chilean cult known as the Colonia Dignidad, whose residents endured torture and molestation. Still, this felt like a short film that somehow got stretched into a feature - an allegorical retelling of "The Three Little Pigs", in which the themes and ideas were repeated constantly, but not to great effect. Paired with the eerie ebb and flow of the constantly-evolving animation, where people, rooms, furniture, animals flow easily into one another and dissolve and reform before our eyes, the overall effect heightens the blur of time and claustrophobia that many of us have felt living in quarantine for the past 10 months. Even if it’s a visually beautiful film, at least for an American audience unfamiliar with the Colonia, it feels unfinished, since there’s a bit of reading and study required to make logical, if not emotional, sense of the film. (⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
“Some Like It Hot” popcorn might well have changed its name to “You’ll Only Think This Is Hot If Your Idea Of Spicy Is the Bland, Dry Chicken Wings at Hooters.” Despite accidentally (oops!) putting in almost two times more pepper flakes than the recipe called for, the final popcorn came out tasty, but not at all spicy. From the introduction of his book, I see that Kirk Castle, creator of “Some Like It Hot” popcorn, also has an e-cookbook called “Juicy Caribbean Recipes.” I shudder to think what he thinks “juicy” or “Caribbean” mean if he thinks this is spicy. Perhaps this recipe is meant for incredibly unadventurous people, somewhere solidly in the upper Midwest, who are used to waving the bottle of Tabasco sauce in the general direction of their latest hot dish so that it’s “oop! Just spicy enough for me, doncha know!” If it weren’t for the name, though, I’d have rated it highly - to was flavorful, and the addition of Italian seasoning tempered the cumin, so this didn’t feel like yet another southwest-style cumin-and-chile popcorn. Because of false advertising, though, I have to give this a pretty low score overall. (⭐️⭐️1/2)
Joe: I have so much to say, and I don't know where to begin. Let's see... The Wolf House came to my attention about a year ago when I read about it on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic or something. It sounded eerie and dark and right up my alley. When my brother-in-law mentioned it tonight, I thought, "Oh, yeah! That movie!" and rented it on Fandango. I'm glad I only paid $6. Fellow Gen-Xers: remember those Tool videos from the early 90s? They were so cool and dark and inscrutable? There's a reason they were only five minutes long. Everyone else: you know how when you go to installations at art museums and there are these weird, impenetrable artsy films that kinda-sorta make sense, but you're scared to admit you don't get them because you don't want to seem dumb? The Wolf House is 75 minutes of this. It also gave me a headache with its nonstop herky-jerkiness. My brain is neither designed to withstand this level of stop-motion nor spend more than ten minutes decoding something obtuse. I admire and marvel at the technical wizardry - it's truly stellar - but at the end of the day: I am not the audience for this film. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [Sorry, Daniel. I still love ya.] (⭐️⭐️)
Many years ago, when Dave and I were concerned that we'd run out of popcorn recipes, he stumbled upon a book on Amazon that boasted 100 popcorn recipes. When it arrived, we realized it was self-published. [Sidebar: don't buy books (or anything, really) from Amazon. Go to your local independent bookstore.] We made one batshit recipe about two years, but Dave consulted it again for tonight's recipe. It wasn't bad, but it mostly tasted like buttery, salty popcorn with the occasional hit of a red pepper flake. I like it hot, but this was not even remotely hot enough. (⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: 100 Popcorn Recipes by "Kirk Castle"
The Wolf House on IMDB.
I enjoyed the popcorn critique as much as the movie review.