Dopesick

 

In the 1990s, Purdue Pharma executive Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg) aggressively pushes OxyContin as a miracle pain management cure, seeking to downplay or bury reports of its addictive properties. Salesman Billy Cutler (Will Poulter) is at first enthusiastic about marketing Purdue to doctors, but he has second thoughts when higher and higher doses are recommended. One of Billy’s clients, rural Virginia doctor Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton) experiences a similar disillusionment, especially after he begins taking OxyContin himself. Meanwhile, deputy U.S. Attorneys Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard) and Randy Ramseyer (John Hoogenakker) begin investigating Purdue Pharma as does DEA official Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson).

 

Beth Macy’s comprehensive exploration of America’s opioid crisis would have made for a fine docuseries. Instead, Danny Strong adapted it as a dramatic miniseries. It’s a dumbed-down distillation with an overly narrow focus even if it does touch on relevant themes and offer potent performances.

 

One of the more salient features of Macy’s book is showing how addiction cuts across race, class, and geographic lines. While the miniseries acknowledges the opioid crisis’s national scope, the characters shown affected by it are largely Appalachian whites. Similarly, the book pointed to plenty of bad actors, unscrupulous Purdue Pharma among them. Here, the “get Purdue” focus obscures the involvement of others.

 

This simplification of a complex issue may make for more manageable storytelling, but it also leads to predictability and one-note characterization. Stuhlbarg plays Richard Sackler as a black hole of amoral greed, and both Poulter (wide-eyed go-getter who develops a conscience) and Dawson (dogged agent whose devotion affects her personal life) play composite characters who function less as people and more as types. Keaton’s Finnix (another composite) acquits himself better. Rather that simply playing the doc as a naïve-but-well-intentioned man led astray, he’s shown as angry and desperate before committing himself to helping others as best he can. The best performance, however, belongs to Kaitlyn Dever as Betsy Mallum, one of Finnix’s Oxy-prescribed patients. The queer daughter of conservative churchgoers who works a dangerous mining job while battling chronic pain, she inspires empathy even at her worst.

 

While Dopesick’s narrative choices are frustrating, it still brings gravity and attention to a worthwhile issue, and if it inspires viewers to read Macy’s more informative telling, all the better.

Bamboo Grille

 

Located at 112 East Parris Avenue in High Point, Bamboo Grille offers Chinese and Japanese cuisine. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner every day except Tuesday. Online ordering is available via QMenu.

 

In the works for quite some time, Bamboo Grille’s High Point location recently opened to enthusiastic reviews from the local Facebook contingent. The photos accompanying said reviews were perplexing to say the least as they suggested standard Americanized Chinese takeout fare. Of course, food can often taste much better than it looks. Sadly, however, that was not the case here.

 

Bamboo Grille boasts a large menu featuring most of the classic takeout staples: apps, soups, lo mein, fried rice, and so on (but sadly no cold sesame noodles). The restaurant also offers hibachi/teriyaki dishes and a sushi menu, albeit with no surprises among either the Chinese or Japanese offerings.

 

I stuck to the Chinese side for my first order. Anticipating several meals’ worth of leftovers for the two of us, I went with crab rangoons, wonton soup, mapo tofu with beef lo mein in place of rice, honey chicken, and house special fried rice for takeout. Prices are a bit higher here relative to other takeout places, but you get plenty of food for your money.

 

Pickup went without a hitch – everything was ready to go and still hot when I got there – but the food was largely a disappointment. Much of it was bland, and even the advertised-as-spicy mapo tofu brought little heat. Textures were another issue: the rangoons were thick and doughy and the fried rice was slightly mushy with large chunks of meat. The one standout dish was the least authentic of the lot. Reminiscent of a chicken donut, the honey chicken was addictively good.

 

That dish aside, Bamboo Grille offers nothing that can’t be found better elsewhere. Unless the kitchen steps up its game, this place is a one-and-done for me.

Eternals

 

Thousands of years ago, the god-like Celestial Arishem (voiced by David Kaye) sent the super-powered Eternals to earth to wipe out the predatory Deviants and watch over humanity without interfering in human affairs. Over the years, the Eternals drifted apart, but a new Deviant threat has caused former lovers Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Ikaris (Richard Madden) along with the perpetually pubescent Sprite (Lia McHugh) to reunite. Together, they seek out the others despite debates over their mission and purpose that divided them years ago.

 

The newest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of its riskiest ventures, but not for the reasons you might think. In comic book lore, the Eternals were born from Jack Kirby’s desire to keep exploring mythological epics. He created what amounted to bootleg versions of the Greek Pantheon rebranded as an alien race that inspired the myths, a nonsensical proposition given that the “actual” Pantheon existed in Marvel’s world as well. Even after attempts at streamlining and modernization by Neil Gaiman and others, the team seemed an unlikely candidate for the big screen and an even unlikelier film for director/writer Chloe Zhao, best known for more low-key, personal, naturalistic fare. Then again, these same criticisms could have been levied against Guardians of the Galaxy – obscure characters and idiosyncratic director – and that proved to be one of Marvel’s biggest successes. This was not the risk, nor was it the film’s inclusion of deaf and gay heroes: Marvel has not exactly been a stranger to diversity. Rather, the gamble here was in trying to make a film that is the inverse of everything in its shared universe yet still fits within it.

 

Marvel movies are often derided by critics for being predictable entertainment. This falsely presumes a homogeneity and shallowness that several films within the oeuvre can easily challenge, but let’s take the criticism at face value for now. Its antithesis, therefore, would be a provocative slog, and that is largely what the Eternals amounts to, something that would be considerably more forgivable were not the writing so poor.

 

To the film’s credit, Eternals boasts visual panache and handsome production design. While some of the cosmic visuals are goofy and the rendering of Deviants as generic monsters disappointing, the film makes good use of its globe-spanning settings, depicting everything from ancient Babylon to the contemporary Amazon. Ramin Djawadi’s score isn’t terribly memorable, but it’s certainly not a liability here.

 

Beyond that, Eternals at least grasps – even if it doesn’t always hit – at a number of weighty issues. The film’s central conflict is a familiar one of ends vs. means, but there are a number of other ideas raised and grappled with. The engineer/inventor Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) is confronted with the horrors of the technological progress that he enabled while Sprite’s angst at not being able to age and being stuck in a body that doesn’t suit her can be read as a trans allegory.

 

However, these virtues come at a considerable cost. The film is slow and poorly paced, bloated with an excess of exposition early on and marred by a nonsensical conclusion that allows for previously unexplained abilities to manifest as the plot demands. Along the way, there isn’t much characterization to speak of. Chan has plenty of screen time, but her character feels underwritten, especially outside the context of her past (Ikaris) and present (work colleague Dane Whitman, played by Kit Harrington) relationships, a sharp contrast to the extrovert of the source material. The talents of big-name stars Salma Hayak and Angelina Jolie are largely squandered as their characters, the thoughtful leader Ajak and the fearsome but damaged warrior Thena, simply aren’t given much to do. Druig, a cunning manipulator in the comics, is toned down and played by a miscast Barry Keoghan as a petulant cynic. Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, who has used his agelessness to start a successful Bollywood dynasty, has a few amusing moments, but the film goes out of its way to treat him and his valet Karun (Harish Patel) as designated comic relief, cheapening the performance. Even Madden, who delivers one of the better performances as an anguished and detached quasi-Superman, is undermined by his character’s predictable trajectory.

 

While not a failure on all fronts, Eternals is a disappointment. In a way, it is more of a DCEU film than an MCU one, sacrificing pacing and character development at the altar of stylish myth-making.

Woke Up This Morning: A Definitive History of The Sopranos

 

In this season-by-season behind-the-scenes account, Sopranos actors and Talking Sopranos podcast hosts Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa compile a collection of interviews with the actors, crew members, and creators who made the show one of television’s greatest successes.

 

Woke Up This Morning might be more accurately titled Talking Sopranos: The Book for it distills and rehashes the podcast’s anecdotes. For those who never listened to the podcast, you get (most of) the best of it without Michael and Steve’s bickering, inane tangents, and product shilling, and there are definitely some amusing and eye-opening insights regarding casting decisions, creative inspirations and influences, and near disasters. However, those who have been keeping up with the podcast will likely be let down, especially in light of the hosts’ claim that the book contains never previously revealed material. Like Chrissy pushing Webistics, their hype for this book isn’t exactly on the level.

Kernersville Bagel

 

Located at 931F South Main Street in Kernersville, Kernersville Bagel serves up bagels, bagel sandwiches, coffee, and desserts. It is open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

 

The sister store to Greensboro’s venerable New Garden Bagels, Kernersville Bagel upholds the same high standards…and offers more seating. My wife and I went during opening weekend expecting to find the selection picked over, but we were pleasantly surprised to encounter plenty of availability. On a good day, expect to find a dozen or so varieties with plenty of spreads to go with them. While business was brisk this Saturday morning, the hard-working staff was hustling and able to keep pace.

 

We ordered a pair of bagel sandwiches to eat in and a half-dozen bagels to go. The Taylor ham/egg/cheese combo, a New Jersey staple, is done justice here. As with the New Garden store, the bagels offered at Kernersville Bagel are some of the best in the Triad. Transplanted Yankees (especially fellow members of the tribe) will feel right at home here (grab a black and white cookie to round out the experience) while Southerners may find themselves culinarily converted. Only bad luck (i.e. they run out of your favorite type of bagel) can let you down here: the bagels certainly won’t.

Earl's

 

Located at 121 West 9^th Street in Winston-Salem, Earl’s offers Nashville-inspired cuisine for lunch and dinner. The establishment is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily with dinner entrees available after 4 p.m. and brunch on weekends. There is a full bar, outdoor seating is available, and live music (country) plays on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

A whiskey kitchen is becoming de rigueur for North Carolina cities of a certain size, and Earl’s is Winston-Salem’s take on the concept. While it can’t hold a candle to either 913 in Greensboro or Whiskey Kitchen in Raleigh, it fares well enough on its own merits.

 

Conveniently located near Wise Man and Radar breweries and the Ramkat, Earl’s is spacious and comfortable. Though I’m definitely not a country music fan, “What am I doing here?” never entered my mind.

 

Earl’s specializes in chicken, but the menu offers everything from burgers, sandwiches, and salads to meatloaf to tomato pie. For our first visit, my wife and I opted for a fried pickles starter, a Winston Hot Chicken sandwich, and chicken and dumplings. While the app arrived relatively quickly, we faced a considerably longer wait for the entrees. Granted, fried chicken takes time, but the kitchen’s pace could best be described as leisurely. However, Portia, our server, was warm and friendly and did a great job.

 

When it did arrive, the food was more satisfying than not. The fried pickles were a definite hit. They do them as chips rather than spears here. They were very thin, very crisp, and packed a good bit of dill flavor. The accompanying ranch tasted homemade. That same crispiness extended to the tots and the chicken sandwich as well. The latter packed a welcome kick from the dry rub, and creamy slaw in the sandwich was a nice touch. That said, I found myself missing the sauciness of a “Nashville Hot,” and this did not feel like $14 worth of sandwich. At least it was easy to eat. The chicken and dumplings, on the other hand, were worth the $16 charged and then some. The gravy was rich and herby, savory without being too salty. The dumplings were delectable, and chicken is a house specialty here for a reason.

 

Overall, Earl’s falls short of great (except for, perhaps, in chicken), and the kitchen is slow, but it offers good service, solidly tasty food, and an inviting atmosphere.