The Nerdery Movie Night #264: Tuesday and Nigella Lawson's Party Popcorn

In this house, we believe Julia Louis-Dreyfus is perfection even if the film she's starring in is not.

Nigella Lawson's Party Popcorn (allegedly)

Dave: This film wanted to be a cross between Contact and The Fault in Our Stars: something moving about death, life, and Whatever Is Beyond. I couldn’t get over the parrot as Death, though - the moments when he mimicked the main characters were heart-wrenching, but otherwise the giant parrot was just goofy. Still, the film had its share of heart-rending moments, though they could have happened just as easily (and maybe as successfully) without the giant demonic parrot hanging around. Julia Louis-Dreyfus can do no wrong and Lola Petticrew is solid as her terminally ill daughter. But the parrot hangs like the proverbial albatross around the film’s neck: is it campy, ominous, or downright macabre? It can’t decide, so the film exists in a perpetual purgatory. (⭐️⭐️️️1/2)

If this is Nigella’s party popcorn, I want to go to Nigella’s parties. Joe swears there wasn’t curry in this , but I am almost sure I tasted it. Whatever the spicy, pungent note (cumin?) this hits all of our popcorn pleasure centers: spicy, sweet, crunchy, salty, and buttery. This is definitely a winner (️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Joe: The librarian Nancy Pearl once stated (and I'm paraphrasing here), that she gave up on a book if it didn't grab her attention in the first 40 pages. I can't do that. Once I start a book, I finish it. Several (not a lot, but several) books that I initially abhorred, I either liked or loved by their final act. So I'm glad I gave those books the chance. Most of them remain stinkers, though. Tuesday straddles those extremes, but is still, subjectively, not a great movie. For most of its running time, Tuesday feels like a tonally inconsistent art school project that just so happened to land an A-list actress. The script is clunky, often laughably hokey, serving up platitudes left and right. It is Julia Louis-Dreyfus' performance that saves the film. Her acting chops are sheer perfection, giving the film the pathos it so desperately needs. So convincing is her performance that I actually cried while actively hating what I was watching. Zero stars for the script and directing, five stars for JL-D = ⭐️⭐️1/2, rounded down because it's really bad, so... (⭐️⭐️)

As I said a couple weeks ago, we're running out of ideas for popcorns. Aside from making them up or just Googling shit, it feels like we've exhausted most popcorn recipes. Today I came across this Mommy blog that purportedly adapted a Nigella Lawson recipe for this popcorn. The ratios seemed way off to me: three tablespoons of melted butter with what felt like seven tablespoons of spices. The combination sounded gritty, but I plowed ahead. The results: good, but not great. The flavor was solid, but it overwhelmed the experience. I should have gone with my instincts (which are admittedly not great when it comes to cooking) and increased the butter ratio. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Popcorn: some goddamned Mommy blog (seriously, her photo makes me want to punch a baby)

Tuesday on IMDb