SnackBar

Located at 336 S. Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro, SnackBar offers breakfast foods, sandwiches, salads, entrees, and sides in a casual environment. There is a full bar, and delivery is available.

Restaurants too often struggle with issues of identity. The décor may not suit the menu or the quality of the food may not match the pricing. Thankfully, SnackBar does not suffer from this conundrum. It is what it says it is, and that is perfectly adequate.

Like many Elm Street eateries, Snackbar’s confines are long but narrow. Tables line one side, a counter covers the other, and there standing room for maybe a person or two between them. The interior is somewhere between retro and industrial and not a particularly striking example of either (the stools suggest a defunct barbershop), but does it really need to be? The bar, the food, and the TV screens will likely be enough to get people in the doors.

SnackBar’s menu goes above and beyond bar food staples. You’ll still find your wings, chicken, and burgers (including the aptly named 10 oz. Big Ass Burger) here, but you can also partake of po boys, chicken and waffles, and made-to-order omelets. The added variety is a welcome touch.

During my lone visit, I opted for a grilled shrimp wrap with slaw. The sandwich was healthily dosed with Cajun mayo that provided a nice kick, and the shrimp tasted fine. The slaw, on the other hand, was appropriately creamy albeit somewhat bland. At $8 for the sandwich and a side, the price was fair.

Given the slew of restaurants on Elm, it would seem that this one would have to do a lot more to distinguish itself. But if you’re simply looking for a satisfying bite to eat downtown at minimal cost, SnackBar won’t disappoint.

7.5/10

The Wolf of Wall Street

When the Black Monday crash of 1987 costs young Wall Street stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) his job, he takes to selling penny stocks in a boiler room. After realizing that these stocks have less regulation and allow for a higher commission, Jordan starts his own firm, Stratton Oakmont, to court upscale investors. Aided by unscrupulous salesman Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), Jordan skirts laws and regulations to turn Stratton Oakmont into a massive money-maker. As his ambition grows, so do his addictions, which threaten his marriage to Naomi (Margot Robbie) and attract the attention of FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler).

Scripted by Terrance Winter from Belfort’s memoir of the same name and directed by Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street, like many fixtures of the financial world it portrays, seems too big to fail. A-list talents can be found on both sides of the camera, and no one is slacking here. Despite this and the lure of its premise (Goodfellas meets Wall Street), this film about excess is often excessive and nearly collapses under its own weight.

The Wolf of Wall Street pulls no punches in depicting the decadent, amoral, misogynistic world of Stratton Oakmont. The hookers-and-blow cliché is present here, but cranked up past eleven. As a tour guide for this spectacle, DiCaprio is elastic, springing from king-of-the-world financial huckster to hopeless, out-of-control addict on the turn of a dime. Hill, usually known for playing the nice guy or the comic relief, convincingly portrays a character with almost no redeeming qualities. Robbie, an Australian newcomer, hides her native accent well, but her role marks Scorsese’s sad descent into self-plagiarism. As a blonde siren turned wronged spouse, Robbie’s character is Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull and Sharon Stone in Casino all over again.

Some have accused The Wolf of Wall Street of glamorizing the lifestyle it is meant to harpoon. At first glance, it’s a hard charge to deny. The on-screen opulence shows that Scorsese hasn’t lost his sense of style, the soundtrack is engagingly eclectic (everything from Etta James and Bo Diddley to Billy Joel and The Lemonheads), and the profane script is often hilarious. Funny eye candy or not, however, the film makes it clear that Jordan’s non-stop hedonism comes at a high – and inevitable – cost. If his arrogance in literally throwing away money is hard to take, then so too is his desperate, feeble attempts to get himself home while incapacitated by Quaaludes.

If the film’s general coarseness is an inextricable part of its morality play, its length certainly is not. At 179 minutes, The Wolf of Wall Street is at least a half hour longer than it needs to be. The problem lies in neither in Belfort’s rise (which features a memorable Matthew McConaughey cameo as a slick, shameless mentor) nor his fall (sudden enough to be jarring, but not short enough to leave us feeling shortchanged) but rather in the plateau in between. We can tell, relatively early on in Stratton Oakmont’s ascension, what kind of person Belfort has become. The piling of extravagance upon extravagance is, at best, redundant.

When a director has done as much ground-breaking work as Scorsese has, his legacy becomes a burden. Were The Wolf of Wall Street a debut effort, it would be hailed for its audacity. Instead, it is easy to see it as a sign that an old master has lost a step. Either way, it’s a flawed film, but one with significant merits.

8/10

American Hustle

Con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) are coerced by ambitious FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) into procuring additional arrests. They concoct a scheme to bribe Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), the good-natured mayor of Camden, NJ, using a fake Arab sheikh (Michael Pena). As the scheme grows to involve more money and the involvement of congressmen and mobsters, Irving and Richie feud over Sydney, and Irving’s jealous wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) threatens to ruin everything.

Directed by David O. Russell and scripted by Eric Singer, this freewheeling take on the ABSCAM scandal boasts an impressive cast and an irrepressible sense of fun. Despite this, its bombast too often gets the better of it.

At its core, American Hustle is a study in contrasts. Irving may be an adulterous conman, but he operates with prudence and concern for those around him while DiMaso the crusading lawman is arrogant and unfettered. Both characters are done justice by their actors, especially Bale (who is nearly unrecognizable as a heavyset, balding New Yorker). Contrasts exist too among the female leads: the faux-English Sydney manipulates with class while wife and mother Rosalyn is ignorant and uncouth. While Adams’ accent is hit-or-miss, Lawrence continues to showcase her range, playing Rosalyn as abrasive and ditzy but not without sympathy. Other acting highlights include Robert DeNiro as a high-ranking Mafioso and Louis CK as DiMaso’s beleaguered boss.

While the banter between these combustible, diametrically opposed personalities is frequently funny, it also proves to be a distraction. ABSCAM was a complex scandal with massive ramifications. Amid the bickering and relationship drama, however, it occasionally comes across here as a mere background event. This makes the film’s infrequent moments of tense drama – such as Irving coming to grips with a broken friendship and marriage or DiMaso finally realizing just how badly he’s screwed up – tough to take seriously.

All told, American Hustle is a fun ride, but neither as well-crafted nor as memorable as its prodigious hype suggests.

7.75/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

After waking from a 50-year deep freeze and helping to fend off an alien invasion, super-soldier Cpt. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is still adapting to the modern world. He finds himself increasingly at odds with his employer, security agency SHIELD, and its secretive director, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). But when SHIELD is dealt a blow by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier, Rogers is willing to put his life on the line to discover the truth and right some wrongs. Along the way, he enlists the help of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), an elite SHIELD agent with a checkered past, and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a military para-rescue veteran turned PTSD counselor.

Success can sometimes be as much a burden as a blessing. For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the triumph that was The Avengers created a question of “Where do we go from here?” It’s a question that Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World each attempted to address, and it’s one that Captain America: The Winter Solider confronts head-on. Whereas its forebear, Captain America: The First Avenger, was an old-school war/adventure film, this latest installment is a political thriller dripping with contemporary relevance. Without giving too much away, SHIELD’s aggressive and ethically dubious approach to keeping the world safe functions as both a stakes-raiser for the entire MCU and, hyperbolic as it may be, a cautionary tale for a country that inches closer toward a surveillance state.

What’s most shocking about this maturation and change in tone is the creative force behind it. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are best known for comedy (namely, Arrested Development and Community) while screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely gave us the Chronicles of Narnia films. Despite being unconventional choices, all four men acquit themselves well. The Russo brothers give the film a taut, hardnosed sensibility with room to breathe, mixing combat and car chases with quieter moments that allow for character growth. Meanwhile, the script manages to pay homage to several comic book storylines while still throwing in surprises here and there. It also allows the film to function equally well as a stand-alone adventure and a bridge to the next Avengers installment.

The acting too is above par for comic book action fare. Owing to his old-fashioned heroism, it’s easy for Captain America to come across as one-dimensional, but Evans is able to tap into Rogers’ inner conflict and humanize him. The same goes for Johansson’s portrayal of Romanoff. Though she continues to operate as a one-woman wrecking crew, watching her contemplate her place in the world makes her infinitely less cartoonish. Jackson is gold as Nick Fury, but why would anyone expect anything less? Among the newcomers, Mackie overachieves in an underwritten role: Wilson seems to only exist to lend a helping hand. And Robert Redford, as a SHIELD high honcho, is noticeably lacking in intensity.

Despite the seeming absurdity of having a comic book movie tap into the political zeitgeist, The Winter Solider succeeds in doing just that. There is a current running through the film, embodied by its hero, that reminds us that freedom is worth fighting for even if the cost is high. That notion may strike some as facile or stale, but in an era of drone strikes and domestic spying, it’s well-worth remembering. It just so happens that a spandex-clad shield-tossing octogenarian gets the point across more lucidly and more entertainingly than legions of self-serving ham-handed pundits ever will.

8.25/10