Shlesinger and Cho's formidable talents can't quite save this film, and popcorn + rosemary + parmesan + garlic is a combination created by the gods. Again and again and again.
Dave: Stand-up comedy and film don’t always translate well: making people laugh and acting adeptly enough to carry a 90-minute film are similar, but not identical, skill sets. I adore Margaret Cho - her Asian chicken salad bit is still pure gold - and Iliza Shlesinger is amazing, but the two of them together are bland in this film. Top the only okay performances off with a plot that is onomatopoetic - PLOT - and you get an aggressively mediocre film. Bonus points, though, for letting anyone watching - including me! - to reminisce about the ridiculous stories amorous men have spun in the past. These stories allowed guys to date me when I was either a frustrated teacher or under-employable graduate student, so you wonder why they went to the trouble of making up untenable stories like: “I don’t smoke,” “You can’t come over because I have roommates,” or “I don’t date that guy I live with even though there’s only one bedroom in the apartment and it’s patently obvious we share a double bed.” Suffice to say, Iliza isn’t the only person who’s been duped by cartoonishly self-important idiots, and this story is one that needs to be told again and again. But perhaps this film isn’t the optimal vehicle. (⭐️⭐️1/2) J
Joe adds, after reading Dave's review: we've talked plenty, - early in our courtship, our dating days, and then again after watching this film - about the shysters we dated in our 20s (and 30s!). Christ, we both dodged major bullets.
Anyway, here's Dave's popcorn review:
Joe seemed to love this popcorn. I took one bite and thought “this tastes weirdly like dressing.” If y’all grew up somewhere outside of the southeast, you might know it as “stuffing,” but either way it’s that bready stuff you eat at Thanksgiving (and if you aren’t a fan of salmonella, you don’t cook it in the damn turkey cavity). But regional food differences aside, the popcorn gives enough of a cornbread flavor that the rosemary and garlic combine to make you taste Thanksgiving. The Parmesan gets lost, aside from adding salt to the whole thing. Still, it’s good; just pick fights with your relatives, dash out to the store last minute to get some canned gravy, and haul out the Turkey Lurkey episode of Golden Girls to get yourself in the right frame of mind (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
Joe: Let the record show that I love Iliza Shlesinger. Let the record also show that I only love Shlesinger's stand-up. Her sketch comedy show on Netflix was deeply average at best. Knowing this, I went into Good on Paper with moderate to low expectations. Turns out this was the good frame of mind with which to enter. The comedy is pretty hit-or-miss, with most of the humor coming from the excruciating dramatic irony. We know what's on the horizon, but Shlesinger doesn't. This conceit can only carry the film so far, though. Luckily, Margaret Cho (I will forever stan Cho - fight me) is added to the mix, which makes some of the more awkward moments more palpable. All told, this isn't a total miss. Similarly, it ain't a total hit. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Remember last week when I lamented that Dave used a recipe from an unvetted (by our metrics) source? Well, friends, based on the success that accompanied that recipe, I decided to soldier forth with another concoction from the same source. Though the Nerdery Movie Night has had similar iterations of the rosemary/garlic/parmesan trope in its history (seriously, just do a CTRL-F of any of those descriptors - I'm not overstating anything here), this one might be the version to beat. It's scrumptious. There's a fairly time-consuming process of infusing olive oil with garlic and rosemary that's well worth the time, and the saltiness of the parmesan more than makes up for the lack of salted butter. Friends, slide into our DMs if you want this recipe. Hat tip to the "Samuel Miller" responsible for it. Christ, I hope it's not the same Samuel Miller who wrote this shitstain. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: photocopy of something called 15 Amazing Popcorn Recipes by Samuel Miller
Good on Paper on IMDB.
コメント