A taut thriller and a salty popcorn are the order of the evening here at The Nerdery™.
Dave: It’s been awhile since we watched an actual, honest-to-goodness quality movie. The pandemic has driven us to mostly mindless drivel, so watching a movie with believable acting, palpable tension, and impeccable costume and set design was a revelation. Argo was the gripping, kind-of-true-to-life story about the handful of Americans who escaped the embassy before the Iranian hostage crisis. Even with all the embedded tensions, the film becomes most magical during the end credits when you see how much makeup and costumes made the main characters look like their real-life counterparts. The movie falters for me, though, by making Iranians into almost faceless bad guys and Americans into default blameless good guys; there was some how-did-we-get-here backstory, but mostly the filmmakers were fine letting the Iranians be Men With Beards Who Yelled With Guns. We might as well have been watching Indiana Jones or G.I. Joe, the bad guys were so irredeemable and interchangeable. Still, it was riveting, even if you knew how it ended, and watching it all happen in tacky 1970s surroundings was especially delicious. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Full disclosure: the proportions are all out of whack in the popcorn we ate. I tried to follow the recipe, but the curse of the soggy popcorn struck again! I made the requisite amounts of both popcorn and butter/honey goo. When I mixed them together the popcorn basically melted in the bowl. It was like cooking spinach - you start out with a big-ass vat of it; then you cook it and end up with maybe enough for a side serving. So then I had to make more, fresh, non-melted popcorn to add to the melted popcorn-goo so we wouldn’t starve half to death tonight. Despite those slight problems, the popcorn ended up tasting pretty good, though maybe a bit too salty (see the earlier comments about user error). Still, it took care of my sweet tooth without being absolutely treacly! (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Joe: I recently read All Thirteen, a young adult nonfiction book about the Thai boys' soccer team that was trapped in a cave. Despite knowing precisely how the ordeal would end, I still was on the edge of my seat for the entire book. It was gripping and terrifying. At one point, I wasn't certain that the boys would survive. This, to me, is indicative of supremely talented writer - a person who, through some magical sleight of hand, can hold an audience captive even if the endgame is known. Argo is that script. Anyone who knows anything about the Iran Hostage Crisis knows about the six Americans harbored in the Canadian embassy who somehow, miraculously, found their way stateside. Argo manages to be unbearably tense throughout. The production design is unreal in its replication of the events. The acting is uniformly solid, with Arkin and Goodman being the comic relief that is so desperately needed. Also, I love Clea DuVall. I'm glad she's still getting work after all these decades. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
This popcorn was absurdly salty. I didn't even know a food could be so damn salty. About a third of the way through, though, there was a fair amount of honey that balanced out the sweetness. In fact, the combination was the heady mix of sweet-salt that usually wins me over. It didn't last long. The salt kicked back in until we were at the bottom of the bowl. And there, my friends, was the rest of the honey. This is a problem that pervades our concoctions: the goodness sinks to the bottom, and there doesn't seem to be a surefire way to deal with it. Until we find a way forward, this popcorn will remain (⭐️⭐️1/2) from me.
Popcorn recipe from: Party Popcorn by Ashton Epps Swank (2014)
Argo on IMDB.
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