Did we crawl into each other's brains and give both the film and the popcorn the exact same score? Reader, we did.
Dave: One of our friends asked if we were watching something more lighthearted than the movie about the Chowchilla case and I joked we’d be watching Judgment at Nuremberg. I tried to find something lighthearted, but settled on another crime film instead. One the one hand, this was at least a semi-fictionalized version of the Boston Strangler murders, but on the other, the several seen-but-not-heard killings and recreated crime scene photos were a bit gruesome for my taste. The acting in the film was generally good - Knightley and Coons in the two female leads were fun to watch - but the movie took on so much: a murder spree, gender discrimination in the workplace, gendered expectations in the home, the pitfalls of contemporary police procedure. Heck, there was even a hint of a class subplot towards the end. In taking on so much, the ending feels a bit empty. If the screenwriters could pick and choose freely from the original story, surely they could have made more of a movie-sized morsel out of it. (⭐️⭐️️1/2)
Despite the popcorn being bright purple and having gobs of dried blueberries mixed in, I’d have been hard pressed to tell you this was blueberry popcorn if I was blindfolded. The lemony sweet drizzle was delicious, but somehow the freeze dried blueberries added color but no flavor. Despite being a tiny bit soggy, this was delicious and oddly light - a perfect popcorn for a heat wave! (⭐️⭐⭐️️️️)
Joe: It must take extraordinary effort to make a move about a famous serial killer and have that movie lack tone and mood throughout. Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon smoke endless cigarettes and toss back whiskey whilst researching and investigating and looking very concerned about information they come across; their brows furrow as they read incriminating evidence, they walk briskly and with importance. Knightley finds herself in peril a couple times. But all this acting, good though it may be, amounts to nothing. No sense of danger, no pervasive feeling of dread. It's hard not to compare this film to David Fincher's superlative (and fucking terrifying) Zodiac, even down to the moody lighting - but Boston Strangler can't hold a candle to it. Disappointing. (⭐️⭐1/2)
I have never made a successful caramel, and tonight's effort was no exception. I started to worry early in the process that I was going to burn the mixture and thereby waste the fairly expensive ingredients that would be added to it (who knew freeze-dried blueberries and sweetened dried blueberries fetched such exorbitant prices in the marketplace?). I added the butter to soon, and the result was more a syrup than a caramel... which meant the popcorn got soggy. However, blueberry and lemon are a delicious combination, and if you ignored the texture, it was really quite tasty. As much as I'd like to attempt this again, I think I'll ask Dave to make a poundcake with the leftover blueberries. (⭐️⭐⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: The Popcorn Board
Boston Strangler on IMDB.
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