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johnboothus · 4 years

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VinePair Podcast: America Is Running Out of Time to Save Its Bars and Restaurants

American restaurants and bars are in grave peril. Already battered by months of Covid-19-related restrictions, most are now facing a long winter with little or no options for in-person dining and drinking — as in much of the country, outdoor dining is at best a feat of bravery, if not outright lunacy. The end of government assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program in September, coupled with Republican resistance to any sort of full-scale aid for independent restaurants, has led the National Restaurant Association to describe the industry as “in free fall.”

On this week’s episode of the VinePair Podcast, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe discuss why fighting to save independent restaurants and bars is in the interests of all Americans. Not only do they add cultural value, diversity, and entertainment options to communities of all sizes, but they also employ millions of Americans, and their collapse would prove a long-term drag on the country’s economy. For more information about contacting your senators, click here.

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And Zach, before we enjoy your drinking this week, I’m going to give us a word from our sponsor, which happens to be a tequila I love, Tequila Ocho. Tequila Ocho is the world’s first single-estate tequila. Growing and harvesting only the very ripest of agave’s from their family owned fields in the highlands of Jalisco. One field harvested for each of their annual vintages. Where some take shortcuts, Ocho is made in the old-fashioned way and takes care to ensure maximum agave flavor in your glass. It’s true, man. This tequila is pure agave. Every expression is certified 100 percent additive-free, which is also interesting because I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of tequilas do have additives in them. And this underlies the purity and nobility of this magical tequila. Have you had Ocho before? It’s delicious.

Z: Yeah. Agreed.

A: It’s delicious.

Z: This ad reminds me of one of my great regrets in this industry in that I have never been to Mexico, period. But I’ve certainly never been to Jalisco or similarly to Oaxaca, because I also am super interested in mezcal. Agave in general is this category of spirit that I understand purely as a drinker, and I certainly one day hope to learn a little more about it in person. But yeah, no, it’s delicious. And, if it wasn’t the morning here in Seattle, I might well be drinking some.

A: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I’ve never been, either, and I’d love to go. I’ve been to Mexico City, which is one of my most memorable vacations ever. Just a really awesome place, but I’ve never been outside of Mexico City. I’ve actually never been even, you know, the stereotypical American, “well, I’ve been to the beaches.” I’ve never even been to the beaches in Mexico. Literally only been to Mexico city. But I would love to go to Jalisco. The history there in Oaxaca, especially in Oaxaca with the food, would just be a really, really awesome thing to do. So speaking of food and drinks, what are some food and drinks you’ve been enjoying over the last week? I mean, it was Thanksgiving last week, so there had to be some crazy stuff you popped.

Z: Yeah. Well, I think it’s funny, it’s been a weird sequence of quasi- or real holidays and sort-of holidays. For Thanksgiving, we had a very small gathering. So, normally for me, that weekend, I have a large family gathering on Saturday at my dad’s house. And then that’s when there’s usually 15 or 20 people and a few people in my family besides me are pretty into wine. So that’s when we’ll bring out some interesting wines. Obviously it didn’t happen this year. So for Thanksgiving itself, we haven’t done a Thanksgiving wine podcast in a while. We’ve done it before you can go back and listen to the archives, but yeah, I really only drink white wine on Thanksgiving. Those of you who listen regularly know this is true for most things. And my wife and I had brought back a Magnum of 2003 grand cru Pinot Gris from Alsace a couple of years ago. So that’s what we opened. And it was interesting, really, quite good once it, we had to decant it, ’cause it was so closed off. This is apparently a recurring theme, where Zach decants wine. But you know, that was, that was one thing. And actually, the more interesting thing of late was, as we’re recording this, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. I got a number of things for her, but a couple of things in the beverage realm that we tasted last night. One was a 1985 Kopke Colheita port. So a tawny port, not a vintage port, but from ‘85. Man, port is super cool. I love that stuff. I totally get why, even for us, it’s a 375 (milliliter) and we each drank a couple of ounces, and we will drink the rest of it over the next few days. I get why it’s not, the British culture of having port every night seems insane to me.

A: It was definitely for sure.

Z: But when you get a chance to have something like that, it’s pretty cool. Something that is as old as my wife and almost as old as me is pretty cool. And then coming back to something that you talked about on a Next Round episode, we got a bottle of Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon, which is aged at sea. I had never had it before, and it wasn’t until I listened and edited that episode that I was even aware that it existed. And so after that I was, “Oh, sure, put it on a boat. I’ll go buy it.” And so I did, and that it was delicious, and it was briny bourbon. It was cool. I didn’t know what to expect from it, but enjoyed it. So I guess, thanks Adam.

A: You’re welcome. Yeah, I actually haven’t tried it yet. I need to, it’s weird. I have a bottle of it sitting on my bar, but I haven’t opened it. And now when, when you sent me the picture of it, I was like maybe I’ll open it this weekend and try a little taste of it just because I’m super curious. I try not to have a ton of bourbon bottles open at one time, because I feel I’ll go between them. You know what I mean? But yeah, I’m super curious. So you gave me the encouragement I needed to maybe try it. So, basically around Thanksgiving, I had a few wines I really liked. I had a Kir-Yianni. They had a new Xinomavro that’s out on the market that I really liked. It was really delicious with Thanksgiving. And then I also had a bottle of Chardonnay from Eden Rift. That was really delicious, their Reserve Chardonnay. It was an absolutely amazing Chardonnay and really great with the turkey. That was really surprising, you know, California Chardonnay, but not like that California Chardonnay that we, maybe gets a bad rap, if you know what I’m saying? It was really delicious. Yeah. And then after Thanksgiving, I took some time off. So I didn’t really drink throughout the weekend. And then last night was our Bubbly Bash, so I had some sparkling wines and things like that. The only other thing that I had that was really amazing this week was, it was a few of the spirits that we tasted on Wednesday on the roof of VinePair with a few of us socially distanced, for the Top 50 Spirits of the Year list. But I’m not going to tell you what any of those spirits were, as to not give away the list, which is publishing on Tuesday. And this podcast comes out on Monday. So I don’t want to do that. But those were pretty amazing. I think that list is going to be just as interesting as our Top 50 Wines list or Top 50 Beer list. So you should definitely check it out on Tuesday when it publishes. ‘Cause I think, there’s a lot of spirits on that list that are very worth your time if you are anyone who likes whiskeys, tequilas, bourbons, well bourbon is a whiskey, gin, it’s all there. And there were some really incredible spirits that we tasted this year. So some names, you know, some names you may not know. So yeah, so I encourage everyone to, to check that it lists out on Tuesday. And then this weekend, dude, I’m looking forward to, making good food and drinking some wines. Tim and I are getting together on Sunday to do the annual Champagne tasting. I know it was gonna be tough. I was the only time we could find, right? Like that’s, that’s where, that’s how Covid is really up-ended all of this. It’s this thing where you got to figure out how you can get together with someone to discuss, because look, I understand on the part of the producers, they still are only going to send a bottle or two of each thing they’re submitting for review consideration, et cetera. So I still have to somehow figure out how I have more than one or two people taste that. And we’re not going to do it inside. Because doing it indoors is not safe. Everyone understands that. So then you’ve got to figure out, OK, well then when is it? When can we get together outside? And when can we get together outside when it’s not supposed to be terrible weather. So today was supposed to be that day. And as of 30 minutes ago, the forecast is calling, this is supposed to start pouring at noon. Well, if we’re supposed to start pouring at noon, then we need to move it to a different day. So, Sunday now is clear, but going to be super cold out.

Z: Perfect Champagne weather.

A: Seriously, adventures in trying to do anything, which I think brings us to today’s topic a little bit. We talked about this a bunch since Covid happened. But, both you and I were talking about the episode we went through today, and felt it was really important to have this conversation one more time before the end of the year. And that is a conversation about restaurant relief. I think the reason we want to have this conversation is twofold. One, to articulate what we’ve been hearing from the people we know in the industry. You know, and to share that with the people who are listening. And also to really implore the people that are listening to act, especially if you live in a state that has Republican senators, because that’s where we really see the bottleneck right now in terms of relief. Look, we still don’t know if the president will sign the bill. But if we can at least get the Congress and Senate in the next week, before they decide to leave for the holiday break, to pass some relief, I think it’s more likely that the president signs it. So let’s talk about this. So, you know, it’s hard times out there. Everyone knows that dining in restaurants is not safe. The restaurateurs know that. And I think that’s what’s important that you and I chatted out before we start this podcast: Our friends who own restaurants know that it’s not safe to be open. And a lot of them don’t want to be open. They don’t want to get sick. They don’t want their employees to get sick. They don’t like to have to have indoor dining open. But if they don’t have any other choice, the government is not giving them any other choice. And obviously, also human beings are social animals. Right. And so we obviously do want to go out. And so if a place is open, a lot of us are going to go, because we just can’t sit in our houses anymore. But we all have read the news. It’s going to get bad in these next few months before it gets a lot better, right? The vaccine is coming. We all know that now. Great Britain has already approved Pfizer’s vaccine. Fauci says our standards are higher, which I appreciate. Thank you, Fauci. But I think we’re very close to approving the vaccine as well. And that’s only the first one. But you know, December, January, February are gonna be really tough. And there are some restaurants that have the luxury of being able to close. And those restaurants, I know a lot of people in the business are very envious of. Whether they have financial backing or they’ve made a lot of money in the past and have saved really well or whatever. But most restaurants, that’s not how they’re run. They’re run on the thinnest of margins. And a month of bad sales can tank the business. That’s just the nature of a restaurant. And so these places, if they don’t have relief, are going to close. Their closure is not just a sad thing because you and I love restaurants. They’re closure is a sad thing because a lot of people are going to be out of work, and it’s going to be a much bigger issue for us to have to deal with in 2021 and 2022 in terms of how it’s going to impact the economy than just that we lost some of the amazing, you know, wine lists and cocktail programs that we love.

Z: And I think a couple of important things to add here. So, the first is that it’s also not just that you and I are sad about this because we’re gonna lose out on the experiences we like to have. That’s obviously part of it. And I think it’s important to note that, it’s enough to say that having a diverse and interesting set of restaurants in bars in your city or town is in and of itself a thing to want. It’s a thing to advocate for. We can and will make arguments that are more “practical or pragmatic or economic based,” that don’t necessarily appeal to other sensibilities. But I want to firmly say that wanting to have those things in your community is, in and of itself, enough reason to support these things. It’s the same reason why all kinds of other businesses that are being affected, like the arts, also need to be supported because we don’t want our society, at least I certainly don’t want our society, I don’t want Seattle, I don’t want New York, I don’t want wherever you are to be a place where there are no interesting things, where our culture is even more homogenized and corporatized than it already is. And I think that that is one of the things that has not been fully grappled with is that it’s not like other situations. I think about this a lot, because I’ve worked in restaurants for a long time. Restaurants close all the time, and inevitably, a restaurant closes and sooner or later someone else comes along and says, “Hey, I have an idea. I have some money. I have a concept, and I’m going to put it in this place.” But we’ve never dealt with 30, 40, 50 percent more of restaurants closing or being so crippled by this year-plus of a pandemic and economic situation, that there are not going to be restaurants to replace many of these things. I walked through downtown Seattle not that long ago, a week ago, and it’s empty because there’s no one working down there or there aren’t that many people, there’s no one shopping down there. There’s no one dining down there. And that is the future for all of our cities for the foreseeable future, because there are not going to be tenants to take back over those ground-floor storefronts. This is, again, a broader conversation than just restaurants, but restaurants are a huge part of that. Restaurants and bars are a big part of what makes our cities places that people want to be. And so I just would say that the first and foremost, you’re totally right. Restaurants and bars are not prepared, they don’t have deep pockets, with few exceptions. And the other piece of this that’s important is remembering that we don’t only just need support so that people can continue to get through this period of time, so that restaurant owners can be solvent, but we also need, as you mentioned, there’s an employment crisis in this industry, and we are forcing people to make incredibly difficult choices about what they do. I am incredibly fortunate that I was laid off and did not have to for a variety of reasons, including doing this podcast — thanks, Adam — that I did not have to immediately try and find one of the very few restaurant jobs in Seattle that would have put me in contact with people on a daily basis or on a minute-by-minute basis and endanger potentially my health and the health of those around me. And we are asking millions of people to still make that choice, basically, not just because we want food and need food. I think that’s something that we are obviously going to have to deal with. But also because, as you said, restaurateurs and owners, their options were: give up, close, and say we are not doing this. Or, unless you are well positioned for takeout, and not everyone is, you have to open up and even outdoor dining is still not perfectly safe, especially for the people working who have much more contact than the average individual diner, but it’s also not safe for anyone. Our inability as a country to just fully reckon with that and grapple with that and face that is a big part of this. And obviously, you and I are not political commentators, really, but it’s clear why a lot of this is, and it’s quite clear that the opinions and the beliefs around Covid and what’s safe and what’s responsible and how we should behave are pretty clearly divided to some extent along partisan lines. And so, if you like restaurants and you like bars and you’re someone who votes Republican, those are two things that, at this point, seem irreconcilable to me, because your party does not support these entities existing except at the large-scale corporate level. And if that’s what you want for the future of the restaurant industry in this country, then man, you’re doing your job. But if it’s not what you want, if you like going to your neighborhood bar or going to a restaurant that serves more than frozen food from Cisco or whatever, you need to think about what you’re doing, and we as a country certainly do.

A: I know. The thing that really struck me last week, ’cause I talked to a bunch of friends who own bars and restaurants around the country was this mantra, that’s the slogan that kept saying, closed restaurants, open schools. And a lot of the people who I talked to are like, do you think we want to be vilified? They don’t want it like this. They don’t want to be the villains here. They all know that this is a problem. And most of them are reading the news as well and are listening to the experts, because they are trying very hard to keep their staffs safe. And they are disinfecting as much as possible. I would argue that in some cases, right, restaurants are some of the cleanest places right now. But they don’t have a choice for a variety of reasons. Either have a landlord that is unwilling to allow them to not pay rent for the next five to six months if they have to close. So that means they, they risk literally just having to walk away from a space that they’ve completely built out. That they’ve paid to build out. I mean, think about that as a listener, if you don’t own a business, right. You put money that you earned into. The booths that, the tables, the decorations, the high-end kitchen equipment and the back, the bar, all of that. If you get evicted, the landlord, her landlord takes possession of, right. So it’s thinking about you moving into an apartment and instead of just bringing in your furniture, you also did full renovations, you bought a brand new fridge, you bought a brand new stove, you wallpapered and, look, some people maybe do that, but that’s pretty rare for renters. We usually move into a rental unit and we bring our furniture and if we get evicted, usually we still, a lot of people can get their s*** out. Right. So if you, all of a sudden, you show up to your restaurant one day and the landlord is taking possession of it. And there is a lock on the door. So all that money that you put in to ensure that the vibe is exactly what, you know, your customers want and what you’re to be fair judged on by all the restaurant reviewers, the independent Yelp critics, all of that. You lose. So they’re being told by their landlord that they don’t care, they want their rent paid. You may be told by vendors that they don’t care, they want their bills paid. And if, you know, you were to reopen in the next three to four months there, you’re going to be put on some sort of payment plan, or they’re not going to deliver to you anymore. So maybe you had an amazing vendor of wine, maybe, one of the distributors you worked with, produce, et cetera, saying, look, we’re not going to deliver because you couldn’t pay your bills. Even though that’s not your fault right now. And then you also have employees that rely on you to be able to pay their own rent, because they’re also not getting any relief. So it’s this really crazy system. And I think for a lot of us, especially who are listening to the podcast who are lucky enough to have jobs where we’ve been able to work from home, this is something that we have to try to understand better because it’s not a choice. I was able to easily make the choice to say as much as I love the VinePair office, and we had done the exact same thing I’m talking about where we had just renovated the office and we had moved in only two and a half months prior to the Covid lockdown. I can handle the entire staff working from home. I don’t love being on Zoom meetings every day. It’s not ideal, but I can handle it. I think if you’re one of those people who listened to the podcast regularly, then you also have been able to do that. There’s a lot of things about working from home you probably don’t love, either. There’s a lot of things that you probably also do enjoy. But if you work in a restaurant, there’s no way to work from home. Also, we don’t allow it. Could you imagine the chef saying, “Oh, I’m going to go work from home and do delivery from home.” And all of a sudden that health department’s, “Ah, that’s not OK.” So, it’s not something that anyone wants to be vilified for, and they all want to close. I think that interview that I did with Ruffian two weeks ago, you hear them all talking about that. They want to close. They just want support to do it. That’s why they’re being so loud about it, is they really want our elected officials to support them in the closure. They don’t want to just have to close and take the risk themselves and potentially lose everything, just because they know that that’s for the good of society. And I think that’s, what’s so, so frustrating for me. And I think for you, too, Zach is, everyone who I know that is in the restaurant and bar industry, they know this is for the good of all of us, for the health of all of us — for not only people that they love, but for everyone else. But we can’t just leave them high and dry because they want to help. We have to help them, too.

Z: Well, and I think it’s also important to note that we also don’t want to create a system where the people who are benefiting most are the ones who are being most irresponsible. One of the problems that we’ve seen in a lot of places is that the people who are being really diligent about protocols, about safety, about limiting capacity, about observing proper distancing, are the ones who are … in the end, restaurants are designed around being full. Bars are designed around being full, and no one’s business model is designed to be successful at 25 percent capacity, even with takeout, even with whatever else. And it’s the unscrupulous operators, the ones who say, “You know what? I’m willing to risk a fine, I’m willing to pack people in.” And as you said at the top, you know, there’s a lot of people who are willing to take the risk or ignore it. So, for one again, it’s a bad system that encourages that kind of behavior. That’s just not good governance. The incentives should not be such that the people who are being most irresponsible are also the ones who are in some cases being more profitable. But the other piece of this is, you made the point and I just want to reiterate it is, it’s not just that restaurateurs and owners and operators are looking out for themselves. But it is really true that for a lot of people there, because we no longer have unemployment support beyond whatever your state currently provides and because we don’t have any other, certainly in this country, health care for almost everyone is connected to their employment. And if you lose your health care, it can be very hard to find care or a program outside of your employer. It’s not impossible these days, but it’s still not easy in a lot of cases. And restaurateurs and businesses that rely on people being there in person have had to make the decision, they’ve had to try and keep people on, and I think in some cases that’s been really noble to try and keep people gainfully employed, because as you said, people that work in restaurants have bills to pay, too. And they can’t work from home for the most part. We talked a bunch on this podcast and in our Next Round episodes about how there have been, we want to be able to have, as consumers, we want to be able to still get good food delivered to our door. We want to be able to have cool drinks made for us and delivered to our door. We want to enjoy these things, and we want to enjoy them now, when the only way to safely enjoy them in most cases is at home. But also, projecting forward, the last piece of this that I think is important is not only is there an issue with keeping these places open now, but the other reason why it’s so important to keep them open in some fashion and solvent in a fashion now is that when we do get a vaccine or vaccines, fully approved and distributed and life can go back to something that looks like what it did before Covid came, those restaurants will not be able to spring back to life magically. There’s going to be a ton of costs involved there. Hiring people is expensive, rehiring or hiring new staff and training them is expensive. I’ve been doing a bunch of interviews with wine directors around the country, and so many people have sold off so much of their inventory because one of the first mandates from ownership and probably rightly so, it was like, look, we’re not buying any more booze. You’re selling exactly what we have on hand, whether you’re retail channels, on- premise, if you’re open in some capacity, and so many of these places, it’s funny to think about in some sense, but it’s also kind of sad. Talking to James from Popina, he’s sold through most of his inventory and if you want to go back to that place in next summer or fall and enjoy a great wine list, where’s he getting the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace those wines? He’s probably not sitting on that. So if you want those experiences back, we want to rush back and have the restaurant experiences and bar experiences that we’ve all dreamed of and missed, those places need to not just be technically open, but they need to have capital to go back out because otherwise, where’s all that going? Where’s all that wine going? Where’s all that beer going? Where’s all those spirits going? They’re going to the huge corporate players that are already lined up — whether they’re existing restaurant conglomerates or they’re so-called vulture capital firms and stuff like that. People are going to go to restaurants. We all know this, as soon as it’s possible. And the question is, are we all going to be going to restaurants that are owned by people who actually live in our communities who operate one or a few restaurants? Or they can be owned by massive national chains that, whether they are operating under brand names that we recognize, or just have bought up a ton of distressed properties and are operating. This is going to fundamentally change a lot about restaurants and bars and, and that is maybe let’s say neutral at this point. But it doesn’t take a lot for it to go bad. And I’m deeply concerned that the owner-operator is going to be a thing of the past. And a lot of places are very rare because opening restaurants is capital-intensive and who’s going to have the capital? It’s going to be the people who’ve been just fine during all this.

A: So I mean, you know, look, all this is to say, if you’ve made it through the last, you know, 20 minutes with us, please, this week, please reach out to your elected officials. Write them a note. You can find their emails easily. You don’t have to call, although calling is great. And just say, hi, I’m your constituent, and I’m asking you to pass Covid relief. That’s what it is sitting right now in Congress. There are negotiations ongoing, and I’m asking you to pass this relief before you leave for the holidays. I just am asking you to pass coronavirus relief before you leave for the holidays, please. It’s not as much as we need, but it’s a start, right? It’s around $900 billion. We need trillions, but this is billions, but it’s a start. Right? So please call and just say, “I’m asking you to support coronavirus relief. And we would very much appreciate it.” And with that, Zach, I’ll be back next week. We’ll talk a lot about tequila and other really fun things. But we felt like this was, with one more week left to go before really a lot of the elected officials are going to leave and really only come back for a true lame-duck session before the new administration comes into office, we thought it was really important to put out this podcast and remind everyone that, elected leaders work for us. The best way to remind them they work for us is to contact them, so please do that. And Zach, I’ll talk to you next week.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: America Is Running Out of Time to Save Its Bars and Restaurants appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/restaurant-relief-podcast-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-america-is-running-out-of-time-to-save-its-bars-and-restaurants

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years

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VinePair Podcast: America Is Running Out of Time to Save Its Bars and Restaurants

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

Z: Yeah. Agreed.

A: It’s delicious.

A: It was definitely for sure.

Z: Perfect Champagne weather.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: America Is Running Out of Time to Save Its Bars and Restaurants appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/restaurant-relief-podcast-2020/

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twopointthreeninetoone · 7 years

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The Dark Knight (2008)

Batman Begins caught my heart as soon as I saw it, and so I followed news of its sequel pretty religiously when they announced plans to make a second film. I paid attention when they decided to title it The Dark Knight, I threw in my two cents when all the casting was announced (I was all for Aaron Eckhart when he was chosen to play Harvey Dent, believed that the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker had possibilities, and although I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal, I at least preferred her over Katie Holmes to play Rachel Dawes). I went over the moon with the viral ad campaign, although I didn’t partake in it. I checked Batman on Film (the website for Dark Knight updates) incessantly. And I was worried about the impact Heath Ledger’s death would have on the response to the film, and on the film itself (all while being genuinely saddened by the death of a very, very talented and charismatic actor). I didn’t, however, read the reviews when they came out—I didn’t want to be in the slightest bit spoiled, although I got enough out of them to know that The Dark Knight wasn’t so much a film as it was an experience. People were saying that it was even better than Batman Begins. I would have seen it if the reviews had been god-awful, heaven knows. But by the time the premiere date rolled around, I was holding my breath in anticipation. And, luckily enough, my cousin was equally excited about seeing it, and so we saw it together, discussing the first film and what we anticipated for the sequel hours before actually entering the theater.

And, really, it was an experience before the film even started. We were gunning for tickets to a 5:45 showing on Friday, opening night. At about five my cousin called to say that he was sure that we wouldn’t make it in time, and so we decided to try for 6:30. At 5:45 my cousin called again to say that he’d just seen a news report about how much business the film was doing, and judging by the video of people standing in line and the mention of shows selling out (hell, some theaters were selling out two or three weeks before opening night), he doubted we’d get into a 6:30 showing. So at 7 o’clock we went to the theater and got tickets for the 9:00 showing and hung out until 8 o’clock. We stood in a line that grew and grew until 8:30, when we were all allowed into the theater. There was a semi-desperate shuffling for good seats, and at 9:15 the film started.

That is, it should have started. In what well could be every theater manager’s worst nightmare, the packed theater sat in anticipation as the previews began and…there was no sound. That is, the sound was lousy, fading in and out and wobbling about when you could actually hear it. The fear really began to kick in when the film actually started and all we could hear was a very low-pitched drumming. We couldn’t hear the dialogue. I could make out that there were guys in clown masks, and they were preparing to rob a bank, apparently, but by the time they had assembled to rob said bank, people were already yelling “Fix the sound!” and “I hate this theater!” and “This sucks!” and standing up and glaring their meanest glares at the projection room. The film was turned off, and for the next thirty minutes people shouted random comments (all along the same line—The theater sucks. We want our money back. This sucks.) Some went home. My cousin and I decided that they would have to come out and tell us that the thing would never be fixed before we left. We’d waited years to see this. I think I was relatively calm throughout the entire thing. I simply didn’t want to believe that I wouldn’t see it that night. Not when I’d told myself that I would see it, and not after I’d gone to the theater to see it, and not when I’d seen the first three minutes of it. I wasn’t going to leave with only the first three minutes of it. No bloody way. I refused to consider the possibility.

At 9:30 they finally got the film running. They skipped the previews and headed straight into the film. And then…I don’t think I blinked for the next 150 minutes. There have been extraordinary cinematic moments in my life, and I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing a few of them in actual movie theaters, but I can’t recall the last time I was this riveted by a film. Honestly. I can’t even properly explain what made this movie so amazing, but I suppose I can try.

Obviously Heath Ledger had something to do with it. I remember Michael Caine gushing over Ledger’s performance before Ledger had even died—but I knew that Michael Caine often heaps praise upon his costar’s performances, so I only gave it so much thought. When critics began circulating Oscar buzz for his performance—well, my ears perked up, but I thought that they just might be in love with the idea of a second posthumous Oscar in the history of the Academy Awards. After all, an Oscar for playing the Joker? Really? I didn’t doubt that Ledger was going to put in an amazing performance (I’d liked him even before he’d been considered a “serious” actor), but…an Oscar? But then you see it and, yeah, the dude definitely deserved an Oscar for this. I didn’t once think, “Wow, that’s Heath Ledger in Joker makeup,” in the same way that you think, “Wow, that’s Jack Nicholson…playing a psychotic Jack Nicholson…but in Joker makeup.” This was an amazingly orchestrated performance—although “orchestrated” might not be the greatest word, because it could suggest some sort of superficiality to it. There’s nothing superficial about Ledger’s Joker. There’s a darkness to his performance that is rooted way down, past the funny makeup and stringy green hair, and even past the creepy mannerisms—the licking of the lips and the high-pitched voice. Ledger’s Joker is more than a bad-ass—he’s a startling psycho. He’s horrific, but you can’t turn away from him, and you hang onto his every word. If there’s a downside to Ledger’s performance, it’s the sad knowledge that he won’t be able to reprise the role.

Really, the Joker is the culmination of every reason why Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are so great in the first place (and why they’re shoulders above any of the previous Batman films, and why, in my opinion, Batman is the greatest superhero of all time). There’s nothing bright and cartoonish about Gotham City. Gotham City is a scary place, an anarchic place; as exciting as it and the Joker and Batman are, there’s a sorrow and genuine menace about them. Batman Begins recognized the utter strangeness of a guy who dresses up as a bat to fight crime, and The Dark Knight illustrated the level of depravity that a villain—and the limit of desperation that a city—would have to reach for a persona like Batman to be required. There’s a great line spoken by Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon at the end of the film, about how Batman has to become hated by Gotham because that’s the type of hero the city needs. It’s reached the point where not even the whitest knight could save it. An idolized hero can’t make it there, because there are hundreds of villains ready to either pull him down to their level, or to kill him because they’re prepared to break the rules he feels obligated to uphold. These are the sort of ideas that the earlier Batman movies never could have conceived—or at least didn’t have the guts to convey—because the psychology behind Batman (his dead parents, his fear of bats, his obsession with justice) were merely plot points to explain the action sequences, the cars and weaponry, and the bizarre costumes.

The “white knight”, in this case, is Harvey Dent, an idealistic but strong-willed district attorney who ultimately becomes the scarred villain Two-Face. That he spends most of the movie as Harvey Dent instead of Two-Face is an example, I think, of the trust that Chris and Jonathan Nolan had in the central theme of the film, and the mature stance they take on the character. While Joel Schumacher’s Two-Face (played in Batman Forever by Tommy Lee Jones) bounded about with costumes and accessories expressing the contradictions of his physical appearance, Nolan’s Harvey Dent is one of the few leaders of Gotham City with real principles that he can readily uphold—until the Joker takes everything away from him, and he simply can’t hold up under the pressure. What makes the character of Harvey Dent work is that he’s so well-written and likable, as well as the fact that Aaron Eckhart does such a good job in what can easily be considered a thankless role. To be honest, Two-Face is overshadowed by the gleeful anarchy that is Ledger’s Joker; we’ve had about two hours of the Joker, with his array of knives and bombs and countless insane henchmen, and only thirty minutes of Two-Face with…a gun…and a scarred coin. But to focus completely on Two-Face as a villain would be to ignore the tragedy of Harvey Dent as a hero. Two-Face isn’t so much a central villain as he is the horrific product of the Joker and the corruption that eats away at Gotham City. This is what happens to white knights in Gotham. It’s easy to watch Heath Ledger’s performance and say it’s brilliant because—well, firstly, because it is, but also because he didn’t need to reign himself in as a performer. The opposite has to be said of Eckhart’s Harvey Dent. A lesser actor could have easily played Dent as being insufferably milquetoast. But Eckhart tones it down—you genuinely like Harvey Dent and you believe that he wants to save Gotham, even though you know what’s to become of him.

It’s easier for me to count the number of times I wasn’t surprised by scenes in this movie than the number of times things absolutely shocked and/or floored me. I wasn’t surprised when the Judge’s car blew up—I knew she was going to catch her lunch at some point, and when she got into her car…well, I’ve seen enough movies about organized crime to know that’s a bad sign. I wasn’t surprised when the Joker and his henchmen stole the police officers’ uniforms and hid among the genuine cops to (seemingly) try to assassinate the mayor. That being said, I shouldn’t have been surprised when it was revealed that Gordon hadn’t been killed earlier in the film—I spent a good deal of time after the scene where he’s apparently gunned down while trying to save the mayor’s life thinking, “How could they kill Commissioner Gordon? They can’t kill Commissioner Gordon!” But I never thought, “Nah, they couldn’t have killed Commissioner Gordon.” Because I knew that this film hadn’t been following every aspect of the Batman canon. And I simply assumed the masked driver of the armed car holding Harvey Dent was one of the Joker’s men, who would ultimately reveal himself and…do whatever with Dent. So when the driver revealed himself to be Gordon—well, I and a lot of other people audibly gasped, and many applauded. That reveal capped off an utterly amazing chase sequence. I was surprised, however, when Dent died, because I thought he would play a big part of the next film. Although the scene where Dent and Rachel are strapped to bombs and dozens of barrels of gasoline did initially invite flashbacks to the Saw movies, it was really just par for the course for the Joker, and was actually a really effective scene dramatically. I wasn’t surprised that Batman would decide to save Dent rather than Rachel, but I was surprised when Rachel was killed, because I’m used to the movie formula where the hero is faced with a choice that should inevitably lead to the death of a character, but is able to save everyone just in the nick of time. But this isn’t the sort of movie that gives us that comfort; anything goes. I should have realized that. And while I never really liked the character of Rachel, I thought that Maggie Gyllenhaal was a step up from Katie Holmes, and was starting to accept the fact that she would be Batman’s love interest. I even liked the fact that she chose Harvey Dent over Bruce Wayne because I probably would have chosen him over Bruce Wayne in the long run too. And then she died. Ultimately, it played as a good reason for Batman to briefly reconsider his “no killing” policy, while sending Dent over the deep end (and to the dark side). Two-Face’s speech while holding Gordon’s son hostage (“Lie to him—tell him that he’s going to be okay.”) was unnerving and heartbreaking because it was believable.

Also, Rachel’s death set the stage for the inclusion of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Of course.

As for Batman? What’s interesting about Batman is the (repeated) declaration that he isn’t a hero. While superheroes like Spider Man and Super Man are celebrations of the fight against evil, Batman exposes the dangers and the anguish that are presented in that struggle. Batman is physically and mentally punished for being a hero. He’s beaten up, has scars all over his body to show for it, and he loses people he cares about, like Rachel and Dent. Batman Begins chronicled the partial loss of Bruce Wayne as a person (facilitated by the death of his parents and the ruination of Gotham) and the creation of Batman as a weapon against evil. It was thrilling to see Bruce Wayne become Batman, but you also realized the sense of darkness that accompanied it. Bruce Wayne hated having to tarnish his own character (and, in effect, the whole Wayne legacy) in order to prolong his obsession with revenge and his compulsion to fight crime, but in the end, inner demons won out and Batman carried on. In The Dark Knight, Batman continues to struggle with the darker aspects of his character—how far he would allow himself to go and how much would he have to sacrifice to keep the public safe, to stop the bad guys, to restore faith and humanity to Gotham City, and to avenge his friends and family. He not only continues to ruin Bruce Wayne’s character (he’s still a spoiled brat) but also ultimately sacrifices Batman’s heroic persona as well, for the sake of Harvey Dent’s (and, by proxy, for the sake of Gotham City). It’s not readily apparent whether things are going to end well for Batman. The very act of being a superhero is a sacrifice for him, and the story that has been constructed doesn’t necessarily allow a happy ending. That’s what gives Batman an edge that other superheroes lack.

In addition to all the psychological stuff, there’s also a heap of great action sequences and fight scenes. It’s just a great movie. Nearly perfect.

#The Dark Knight #Christopher Nolan #Heath Ledger #movie review

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bethliveblogsmovies · 7 years

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Man of Steel... not my Superman

1. Very muted colors and weathered look for the Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, DC Comics, and Syncopy logos. I take it this is not going to be a lighthearted flick. Is this Batman? Did I click on the wrong link?

2. Ah, childbirth. Just what I want to see in my superhero films. I mean, what were they thinking? The first image we see is a lady Kryptonian's face scrunched up in pain. Maybe start with anything else? The Kryptonian tax code. Anything.

3. No blood on that baby. Gotta keep the PG-13 rating. I would have accepted a throw-away line like "yo, Ma-El is popping out a kid". Didn't need to see it.

4. Russell Crowe is now lecturing to the aliens (sorry. "interdimensional beings") from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and discount Judi Dench.

5. Oh, man. I kind of was warming up to discount Judi Dench.

6. Zod has Friar Tuck's haircut. From now on he shall be known as Friar Zod.

7. 5 minutes in and I'm already sick of Krypton.

8. Now Russell Crowe is riding a gargoyle-dragonfly. Ugh. I'm having Obi-Wan riding a lizard (apparently, a varactyl named Boga. Thanks Wookieepedia!) on Utapau in Revenge of the Sith flashbacks. Stop reminding me of bad movies!!!

9. Ok. The creepy underwater baby factory was a pretty cool visual. You get points for that, movie.

10. Russell Crowe is a bit careless with that codex. Is it indestructible or something? He leverages himself out of the water by placing his weight on his hand holding the codex. Doesn't get crushed or broken? Ok...

11. Is this supposed to be emotional? We don't know these people. They're shipping their kid off while their planet's falling apart. Fine. A bit sad? Whatever. I don't care about them so their pain isn't compelling. Move on, movie. You're wasting my time.

12. What is happening? They're making a flash drive from information that was in the codex. I think? Also, that flash drive looks cool. Gimme.

13. Why didn't Friar Zod just shoot the ship with Superbaby in it? Nothing like unnecessary dialogue to give the plot room to continue. Also, why not have Friar Zod FULLY RESTRAINED? Superman's dad is not very smart.

14. So Friar Zod gets captured and brought before the Council of Unfortunate Headdresses and sentenced to 300 cycles of somatic reconditioning. You could do that... or KILL HIM. Idiots. The entire population of Krypton must be either stupid or insane or both.

15. Michael Shannon is better than this. My god. The overacting reeks of poor direction. Watch him in Midnight Special. He's much better.

16. Why are we still on Krypton? This is all unnecessary. This should not have taken more than 5 minutes and we're approaching 20. All we needed from Krypton was to know Superman was born, establish Zod as a bad dude, ship off Superbaby, and blow up the planet. We're never going to see this planet again. We don't care about anyone on it. The prolonged destruction sequence is just runtime bloat. Blow it up. Move on. 5 seconds would do fine. Pacing is ATROCIOUS.

17. The oil rig scene was kind of cool. Superman was acting heroic. Mark that down.

18. I like the scene where he gets overwhelmed by stimuli. Been there. Kind of. Although I'm wondering why he had that sort of reaction right then. Is it his first day of school? His powers show up at different ages maybe? He should be used to his X-ray vision seeing humans from being around his parents, right?

19. Helloooo. Putting a shirt on that should be illegal.

20. Superteen saves the bus after deflating the tires under the weight of his angst!

21. "What was I supposed to do? Let them die?" "...Maybe" Screw the many to protect the powers of the one? Cold, Pa Kent. Real cold.

22. Mayyyybe dumping on your teenager the fact that he's a space alien is not going to help with the ANGST? Should have told him as a young boy that he was different and introduced the space alien angle as soon as he was old enough to keep secrets. Would have given him time to acclimate to the idea.

23. Also, no way a scientist gives back a piece of metal that didn't originate on Earth. 0% chance. Have the writers of this movie ever met a scientist?!?

24. I would have made that jackass's skull concave, but that's why I'd be a bad Superman.

25. Also, that mangled truck belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.

26. Amy Adams! The real reason I subject myself to this movie. She's great in everything.

27. Why is Lois Lane there? Why aren't other reporters there too?

28. I hope that photo develops. Yikes. Internal hemorrhaging and cauterization via laser eyes? Kind of badass just to get a photo.

29. "I'm not printing a story about aliens walking among us." The Lone Gunmen would. Superman/X-Files crossover? Yes, please.

30. Not going to lie, I miss the underwear on the outside of the suit.

31. That monologue by Pa El is great for a trailer, but doesn't work so well in the movie.

32. Cool flying scene.

33. Yeah. Overpasses are TERRIBLE places to go during a tornado. Bad idea. Irresponsible of the movie to perpetuate that myth.

34. That whole scene with the tornado was stupid. I don't even know where to begin.

35. I like that Lois was able to track down Clark by being a good reporter. You get a point for that too, movie.

36. More quiet character moments please. Even if Henry Cavill has the acting range of a 2x4.

37. Teenage Clark reads Plato. He should be more popular.

38. Subtle, Zack Snyder. Verrrry subtle. Stained glass Jesus next to Superman's head... what could that POSSIBLY mean?

39. Clark is 33. Really, Zack? More messianic allusions? I'm not going to list them all.

40. Why would they want Lois? Makes no sense.

41. Friar Zod delivers the exposition. Boring.

42. They haven't done anything with Lois. Again I ask: why is she there? Plot contrivance so far.

43. IHOP! They must have paid for something.

44. The scene where Pa El helps Lois through the ship is cool, but still doesn't justify her being there.

45. Leave Ma Kent alone. Not cool throwing the truck into her house, Friar Zod.

46. Yeah, threatening a farm boy's mom isn't going to end well. Especially a farm boy with super powers.

47. 7-11 must have paid for something as well.

48. That street got destroyed. And that IHOP. Is this a Superman movie? Doesn't feel like it.

49. Watching supercreatures toss each other around is boring.

50. Sears paid for something too. Ma Kent had a Sears shirt on and the building just popped up.

51. Way too much destruction. And we haven't even gotten to the major stuff yet. "Realism" is sucking the heroism out of this movie. Tonally inappropriate.

52. 9-11 imagery. Wonderful. It's officially not a Superman movie.

53. Why is Lois on that plane? She's not military.

54. Oh great. Kryptonians throwing each other through buildings.

55. Did I just watch Superman casually jump over a truck that blew up a parking garage? Out of character.

56. This is so bad. I remember laughing hysterically in the theater during this sequence.

57. Some people got mad about Superman breaking Zod's neck. I'm not. It would be out of character for the Superman we knew before this film. For this Superman it is entirely within his character.

58. Destroying a military drone? Whatever. I'm too exhausted by this movie to care.

59. And now he's at the Daily Planet. The end. Thank God.

60. So Goyer and Nolan along with Snyder are responsible for this mess. Ugh. It's obvious they tried to go The Dark Knight route with Man of Steel and it doesn't mesh at all with the character of Superman. We have Kryptonian Batman. It sucks. Wonder Woman has the sort of tone Man of Steel should have had. I'd go as far as to say Man of Steel should have been even more lighthearted than Wonder Woman. To sum up Man of Steel: no, no, no, no, no. Maybe I'll do this for Wonder Woman next. Contrast a big mistake with a big triumph.

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