Eve of destruction

The Search for General Tso

Crit

The biggest nonsurprise in this ethnoculinary documentary is that I left the theater contemplating a one-meal moratorium from vegetarianism (though if I succumbed to the temptation to order the titular dish [and I won't], I'd ask for a sugar-free version).

The second-biggest surprise (spoiler alert) is that the filmmakers actually find not just General Tso himself (a real-life Hunanese patriot or reactionary, depending on your perspective) but the origin of the dish.

The biggest surprise (do I have to repeat this? BIG freakin' spoiler alert!) is that the dish actually originated in China . . . sort of.

An excellent hungrymaking examination of America, assimilation, and red Hunan peppers.

Selma

Crit

A pasty-white liberal could not have asked for a better viewing context: the vast majority of seats in the theater were bought up by a predominantly black cultural club, such that (1) the place was packed and (2) I was in a tiny complective minority.

I could quibble that the portrait of Dr. King (David Oyelowo) is unabashed hagiography (he womanizes; end of human frailty) or that there's nothing remotely subtle or ambiguous in the film; I could complain that two of the three Brits cast in central roles fail to conjure the vivid recollections of my youth (Oyelowo is Dr. King for me, but Tom Wilkinson and Tim Roth are two fine actors pretending to be Lyndon Johnson and George Wallace, respectively; neither comes close to an accurate accent, and Wilkinson occasionally drifts into the anodyne vocal patterns he has adopted in the past for American roles--though one thing is does get right is Johnson's exploitation of his stature to invade shorter men's airspace)--I could quibble, and I have.

I could even say that the most transporting sequence is the original footage from the final, successful crossing of the Pettus Bridge. What I cannot do is deny the transport. It is manipulative, deck-stacking propaganda, but it is manipulative, deck-stacking propaganda at its finest.

Trailers

• Project Almanac--Teens fuck with past, thereby fucking up present.
• Terminator Genisys--He's baaack, seriously, in an alternate-history (notice a common theme?) reboot.