We both describe Nicholas Cage as "over-emoting", but that's the only negative of the evening.
Dave: What an amazing movie this would have been without Nicholas Cage. Olympia Dukakis was fierce and witty, Cher was believably Italian and captivating to watch, and the rest of the cast was a delight. Then there was Nicholas Cage, yelling and over-emoting his way through his scenes - and he was over-emoting amid a cast acting the parts of a 1980s working-class Italian-American family, which really says something. His overacting is tempered a bit by Cher’s deadpan subtlety, though. Even with the slightly kitschy, tacked-on rom-com ending, this film ends up being far more than a simple rom-com. There’s a dark pallor over the whole thing, starting with the curse cast on the departing plane in an early scene, and a sweet, sad brokenness to all the characters that shifted the emotional needle from treacly to poignant. (️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
I picked this popcorn kind of on a whim - I didn’t want to leave the house, so I googled “popcorn” plus several random ingredients in the house. This technique can be terrifying - they’ll put anything on the Internet these days - but this time it led to a surefire winner. Making the “caramel” for this recipe was a cinch, since it just involved boiling maple syrup for a few minutes, and the tahini thickened the sauce and gave it a lovely nutty flavor. The cinnamon and salt were just icing on the cake. Moreover, the proportion of caramel sauce to popcorn was almost balanced (though I used a tad more popcorn than the recipe called for), and the popcorn crisped up beautifully after a few minutes in the oven. This is one of the few sweet popcorns where we’d have been safe doubling the recipe and skipping “real” dinner beforehand. (️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Joe: I vaguely remember seeing this film in college and being not-so-impressed. Youth is wasted on the young, though. This is filmmaking at its finest. Subtract Nicolas Cage's shouty over-emoting, and what you have is a finely acted, romantic, very funny comedy with just the right balance of pathos. Dukakis is phenomenal (I can't believe that this was her only Academy Award nomination and win!), and she is matched stride for stride by Cher. Cher. Glory. She communicates so much with her facial expressions and razor-sharp line interpretations. It's nothing short of genius. The script, too, is sharp and witty, old-fashioned to a fault, but impossible not to fall for. The repartee made me yearn for pre-smart phone/internet days. Everything was so deeply human, transmitted from another dimension. God, I loved this film, and oh, how fun it would have been to live in New York City in the 1980s. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Tonight was a banner night. Dave may have found this recipe on some blog run by the archetypal big-haired white woman with a blinding smile, but I'm here to say: she knows what she's doing, even if it does look like she grabs a chunky scarf and beelines to Starbucks the nanosecond PSLs are on the menu. Tahini is one of my favorite flavors, and here it's combined with maple syrup that heightens the umami and sweet notes. A peanut brittle-like crunch adds the sort of je ne sais quoi that hits every pleasure center in my body. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: Some mommy blogger Dave stumbled upon
Moonstruck on IMDB.
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