Sophie's Revenge

Rom-Com time! ASIAN ROM-COM TIME! Sophie's Revenge is a super-cute, watch with a cocktail/glass of wine, chuckle, feel-good type of film that really hits the spot. I was about to watch it in bed next to the husb, while he was sleeping, but as soon as I hit play on my laptop (yeah bro, it's available instantly on Netflix) I knew it was going to be special and I should go watch it out in the living room with a fresh cocktail and a blanket and snuggling with Dave (our kitty). Good times!

The film stars Ziyi Zhang, whom you may recognize from: Memoirs of a Geisha (a must-see!);  Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon (I must watch through); Hero (again, I must watch through); House of Flying Daggers (I must watch again); and Rush Hour 2. Ziyi is adorably gorgeous, a great actress, and has won way more awards and nominations than I could ever dream of!

The script is fairly typical rom com, with a little extra zany and imaginative-fantasy flairs thrown in. The film is obviously Asian, but, if you can read subtitles, it's got a familiarly enough American feel; it doesn't alienate. The script can be a bit goofy at times, as rom coms often are, but it's mostly genuine, with pretty good acting, gorgeous and fun set design, cinematography, and entertaining computer graphics. The editing was again, playful, but not overly so. My only complaint is an extremely long shot of Sophie's character  turning to CG ice, and then... finally, cracking. But hey, I've seen much worse. The whole style of the movie is a very playful, fun thing. Sophie is a comic book writer (perhaps manga, but not translated as so because most Americans don't know what that is?) and the film often shows her internalized thoughts and emotions externalized through CG. It's mostly very cute and well done.

I'll give it a 4.5. I'd happily watch it again with a female friend, or my lifetime boy friend/husband (if I could get him to agree to another rom com).

Recipe: Artichoke lover's pizza! Or: my new favorite pizza!

For the Zesty ricotta:

1/2 cup raw cashews

juice from 1 1/2 lemons

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb tofu

10 leaves of basil (or more if you want it really basil-y)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Other ingredients:

whole wheat pizza dough (you could use any type, but the whole wheat really compliments this pie; I use Trader Joe's)

Wildwood aioli (you could probably use a homemade aioli or even Veganaise, but if you can use Wildwood's I'd recommend it)

Artichoke Antipasto (Trader Joe's)

marinated artichoke hearts (again, I used Trader Joe's)

onion (one or two slices, chopped)

black olives (sliced)

1 strip Yves Canadian Bacon, chopped into little pieces

olive oil for pan

flour for rolling out dough

Preheat oven to 450. Spread a THIN coat of oil over your pan. Roll out dough on floured surface. Move dough to pan, and set it aside to rise while you make the ricotta.

In a food processor, blend the cashew, lemon juice, garlic, and oil until it is smooth. Add tofu, and blend again. Add basil, flakes, and salt, and blend a final time. OMG, so good already! (You will probably have a bit left over which can be used on baked ziti or any other pasta dish, toast, or as a sandwich spread.)

Spread a THIN layer of aioli on the dough (I used under 1/4 of a cup). Next spread another thin layer of Artichoke Antipasto on top. Gently spread about 1/4 to 1/2 of the ricotta on top (careful, it gets kinda tricky!) and sprinkle on remaining ingredients to desired amount. Less is more with toppings, because the sauce and cheese have a very rich savory flavor on their own, plus, too many toppings will weigh down your pizza and effect how it cooks. Bake for about 20 minutes, checking after 12 or 15 (it will vary on your dough, amount of toppings, and oven; the dough I used said 8-10 minutes, but I needed 20).

Slice, and enjoy!

A Knight's Tale

I forgot how much I love this movie! Zach was blasting Golden Years while in the shower this evening, and I burst in on him excitedly yelling "Let's watch A Knight's Tale tonight!" We both love David Bowie, but I think that song will always remind me of this movie. It's terrible and wonderful at the same time. Here's my favorite thing about the movie: the characters! They're all very well thought out, and most are really fun and/or likable. My least favorite is Jocelyn; I kinda wish that Heath Ledger's character had fallen in love with Kate (the Blacksmith, played by Laura Fraser), but other than that I can't complain. They do some fun things with the camera here and there, but it's nothing too flashy or overdone. The editing is great. The script is fantastic: I laugh, I cry, I feel happiness, anger, sadness, triumph, am swept away by romance, and shake my fists along with Kate (she's so cute!) whenever her worth is being challenged because she's a woman. In the beginning, Shannyn Sossamon (Jocelyn)'s acting sounds a bit too rehearsed, but I think she settles into the role soon enough that it can be forgiven. She is Zach's least favorite in this film, too. It's funny watching it now, because Zach kept making cracks about her looking like Lady Gaga (maybe that's where LG's inspiration came from?) and in one part where William/Sir Oreck writes Jocelyn a love letter and asks her to send something in return, Zach blurts out "Please don't send your hair stylist." Gotta love him. Yeah, I have to agree that while the hair and makeup and costumes were good everywhere else, I think they tried a bit too hard with her. They took a bit too much artistic liberties. I get that they want her to stand out, but she sticks out like a sore thumb in my opinion. Anyway, that banquet where they dance to Golden Years makes me want to be a part of it so badly; it looks so fun! Now I need to throw a David Bowie party! Oh man, how cool would that be? Ah, and I want to go back to another Renaissance Faire! I'm a dork! I embrace it! 5 stars! I'm in  a fantastic mood after watching this one!

New Addition

I've finally found the perfect picture to go with my blog. Check her out, on the right.
She sure is one hungry vegan femme fatale!

Kissing Cousins - movie review

Hey you guys! Long time no post! But I can explain: see, my computer screen is messed up more than usual in a way that I can only see the screen if I am poking the side of it, so anytime I try to type with two hands, I can't see what I'm doing. That plus I worked everyday last week and didn't feel like doing much else. And this week I was sick. And my dog ate my homework. No, just kidding: no dog!
Anyway, tonight Zach and I watched this movie called Kissing Cousins. If you can't tell by the title, it's an independent rom com. It was actually pretty cute. The main character, Amir, is a professional relationship terminator (people hire him to break up with their partners for them) whose friends are all settling down. He  begins to feel lonely, and even his family thinks he's a joke. His cousin Zara comes to stay with him and she ends up introducing herself to Amir's friends as his girlfriend. As you can imagine, this gets complicated, and it has a lot of potential to be amusing. It delivers. There were a few LOLs from both Zach and I. The camera isn't all that great, but it's really not too bad, and I think they did the best with what they could. Don't let Amir's neighbors in the beginning throw you off... they're awful, but the rest of the characters are interesting enough, and the acting is quite good! Guess who's in this movie?! Steve Urkel! I mean Jaleel White! I mean Stefan Urquelle, as he is more like in this film, except that he thinks he's just the cat's pajamas and isn't trying to hide it. I think he's trying to overcompensate for his role as Urkel by trying his hardest to be super cool and funny and tough like "no one had better dare to mess with me! I'm going to stab this pancake right under your nose and make bad jokes but act like I'm a genius when I spout them out!" Surprisingly Urkel's Jaleel's acting was the worst. But it's still fun to be like "Haha, it's Urkel!" and makes jokes about his lame character. You know, maybe he just knew how absurd his character was and decided to have fun with it? I don't know. But enough about Urkel! Overall the writing was good for an indy comedy. It's not too smart to alienate today's American viewers, but it's not so stupid that I couldn't enjoy it. It's a nice blend somewhere in the middle. And you may be thinking the whole time "Eww, how can they pretend to be dating? They're first cousins!" but did you know that it's totally legal to marry your first cousin in most US states? It is! (I'm pretty sure the people who made the movie didn't even know this.) It seems to be a major taboo with anyone you talk to, and I had been under the impression that it was a major cultural taboo here for all of my life, up until recently, when I read about it on Facebook and was about to be all like "nuh uh!" and school an acquaintance about it until I checked my facts and found out that yeah, it's totes legal in most US states! Boy, I sure am glad I usually check my facts before talking smack about a subject I think I know. Sidetracked again! Anyway, check out Kissing Cousins one night when you're in the mood for a comedy (available instantly on Netflix). I'd totally watch it again. We'll give it 3.5 stars or bullets or $ or popcorn kernels or whatever it is I decide to use on here for movie reviews in the future.


****Update****
Going with cocktails!