The Rivals of Amziah King

 

In Oklahoma, beekeeper/honey producer/bluegrass musician Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) is called upon to solve a variety of problems in his community, including helping law enforcement to identify the source of some stolen honey. He is soon joined by Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), his now-grown former foster daughter who has returned to the area after the death of her mother. Just as Kateri begins to find a sense of belonging, tragedy strikes, and she's left to right a terrible wrong.

Writer-director Andrew Patterson's sophomore effort is an ambitious hodgepodge of genres and tones. At different times, The Rivals of Amziah King is a heartfelt family drama, a black comedy farce, and a crime/revenge thriller. There are moments of shocking gore, moments of serene stillness, and even a  school sequence that plays like a live-action King of the Hill (right down to Scott Shepherd's turn as Amziah's heavily accented, Boomhaueresque colleague). This kitchen sink approach can be disorienting, and the film is not without other flaws. At its worst, it's gratingly sentimental, and it delivers its message with patronizing obviousness. That said, the parts that work work really well.

The movie's acting is a study in contrasts. McConaughey brings an intense upbeat charisma to Amziah. It's a quirky, showy performance that he somehow still pulls off. LookingGlass, a relative newcomer opposite McConaughey's industry vet, more than holds her own. Kateri has a steely resolve, but even at her most vengeful, she never loses her humanity. Kurt Russell makes the most of his minimal screentime, imbuing cutthroat crooked businessman Dob McCoy with folksy charm. The rest of the cast includes Jake Horowitz and Cole Sprouse as Kateri's shady-but-well-meaning allies.

Aesthetically, The Rivals of Amziah King is almost as uneven as it is tonally. The sun-and-soil visuals help to establish sense of place (even though the movie was not filmed in Oklahoma), but the editing features some rather jarring cuts. The score includes bluegrass and folk tunes as expected alongside heavy classical pieces. While the latter give certain moments some dramatic heft, they do feel overused to the point of intrusion.

The Rivals of Amziah King is nothing if not ambitious. Even if Patterson arguably stretched himself too thin here, he showed enough vision to suggest that viable alternatives to cookie cutter fanservice are still alive and well.

Grandpa Joe's Slaberia

 

Located in the Salem Bottleworks at 845 South Poplar Street in Winston-Salem, Grandpa Joe’sSlaberia specializes in focaccia pizza. It is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 to 10 Friday and Saturday, and closed Sunday and Monday. There are multiple seating areas.

The owners of Bobby Boy Bakeshop opened this pizzeria a year ago, and I regret that it took me this long to check it out. Housed in a former Coca-Cola bottling plant, Grandpa Joe’s pays homage to the site’s history through its red and black décor. The menu offers salads, floats, and soft serve though pizza is the star attraction. It is served by the rectangular slab (about $8 per). Order at the counter, grab a number for your table, and wait for the oven to work its magic.

For our first visit, my wife and I split a trio of slabs — an Italian sausage, a mushroom, and a tomato and burrata — with a side of marinara. All three were excellent. The focaccia crusts were crispy while still retaining airiness. From melty mozzarella to savory, fennel-forward sausage, Grandpa Joe’s uses high-quality ingredients. The marinara was good: bright, fresh, and just a bit sweet. The mushroom slab came topped with arugula and shaved parmesan. Despite seeming like a gimmick (pizza? Salad? Why not both?), it proved an effective combination: the arugula’s bitterness played well with the mushrooms’ earthy flavors.

 

There will be a certain type of pizza connoisseur for whom anything that isn’t New York style is, by definition, fraudulent. For those with horizons broad enough to enjoy a thicker crust, Grandpa Joe’s is the best of that kind that I’ve found in the Triad.

Wallstreet Deli

 

Located at 7327 West Friendly Avenue in Greensboro, Wallstreet Deli offers sandwiches and Mediterranean fare from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. Online ordering and catering are available.

The hours are limited and the location small, dated, and easy to miss – it’s in an industrial park set back from the road – but Wallstreet Deli seems to do brisk business nevertheless. Part of that is due to its proximity to area businesses although the friendliness of the folks working here certainly helps too. The same family that owned Jack’s Corner near UNCG owns this place. In light of that and of how long they’ve been around, I really wanted to like Wallstreet Deli. Ultimately, I found it to be solid if not impressive.

Though Wallstreet bills itself as a New York-style deli, it really isn’t much of one, and if you head in expecting that experience, you’ll leave disappointed. Approach it as a sandwich shop with some Mediterranean/Middle Eastern offerings, however, and it acquits itself much better. The menu features hot and cold sandwiches, burgers, salads, plus souvlakis, gyros, kababs, and falafel.

I was craving a cheesesteak, and the steak and cheese combo with fries fit the bill nicely. Even after adding mushrooms (an upcharge), it still came out under $15 pre-tax. I took it to go and found it satisfying. The sandwich offered a decent amount of meat and plenty of flavor. The fries were OK – not as crisp as they could be but not underdone or undersalted – though I would probably skip them on a future visit.

Wallstreet Deli is a fast, friendly, fairly tasty lunch option for anyone in the vicinity of the airport, but take proximity out of the equation, and you can find better Mediterranean and better sandwiches elsewhere in town.

 

 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

 

After causing his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) to forget all about him in order to keep them safe, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) dedicates himself to protecting New York City as Spider-Man. He earns admiration and respect but also feels the pain of loneliness. It isn’t long before a pair of new challenges find him. First, his body begins to mutate in response to stress, granting him new abilities that he can’t fully control. Next, a powerful telepath (Sadie Sink) is determined to break into the Department of Damage Control, no matter how many minds she has to hijack to do it.

 

Despite the success of Tom Holland’s previous three Spider-Man films, a fourth was still a risky proposition. 2021’s No Way Home is a tough act to follow, and the actor had previously talked about stepping away from the role. Other Marvel movies to get a fourth installment – Thor: Love and Thunder and Captain America: Brave New World failed to impress. While occasionally burdened with story and pacing problems, Brand New Day does more than enough to justify its existence.

Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously helmed Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, takes over for Jon Watts behind the camera and generally shows a good feel for the material. Early scenes of Spider-Man swinging past buildings feel plucked from the hero’s popular Playstation game. While there is a paucity of dazzling moments (a battle involving Hand ninjas notwithstanding), the film’s action still feels fluid.

Holland does some of his best work yet in the title role. He delivers a more somber take on Peter, who is grappling with literal and figurative growing pains. However, he avoids the angsty excesses of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield at their worst, and still musters the occasional wisecrack. Zendaya and Holland married shortly before the film’s release, and she imbues MJ with everything from bewilderment to scorn to empathy as she learns the truth of what happens to her and Peter. Their Odessey co-star Jon Bernthal brings the Punisher to the big screen, and while the character feels a bit softened for this go-around, Bernthal plays Frank well enough for it to not seem like a betrayal. Sink, to the surprise of no one, plays Jean Grey, in one of the darker versions of the character that isn’t possessed by an alien entity. Though positioned as an adversary, her motives render her sympathetic and complex.

Unfortunately, Brand New Day suffers from attempting to accommodate so many different characters and flattens quite a few of them in the process. Trammell Tillman is largely forgettable as Damage Control’s new director despite having a sizeable role. And though Michael Mando waited nearly a decade to don the Scorpion suit – he debuted as criminal Mac Gargan in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming – he gets little in the way of screen time or characterization here. This, sadly, recalls the way that Homecoming squandered Bokeem Woodbine, another actor acclaimed for his television work, in an underdeveloped role as the Shocker.

Narratively, Brand New Day is inconsistent. The emotional stakes are high, and the presence of a threat that Peter, at first, cannot seem to find adds a refreshing new dimension. However, the conflict’s resolution feels overly reminiscent of Thunderbolts, and the film plays fast and loose with its own mythology (namely, relative to its depiction of the Hulk). Whereas previous Spider-Man movies also clocked in over two hours, Brand New Day, unlike its predecessors, felt as if it could have been a good fifteen minutes shorter.

Though buoyed by Holland’s performance and a mature look at the toll of heroism, Brand New Day is still more episodic than transcendent. However, it points to a franchise that is trying to regain its bearings rather than one that is creatively dead.

Down Home Deli Spot

 

Located at 1102 West Fairfield Road in High Point, Down Home Deli Spot serves soups, sandwiches, and salads. It is open 11-8 on weekdays, 11-12 on Saturday, and closed on Sunday. Online ordering is available. Soups change daily.

This quaint family-owned spot gets a lot of mileage out of personability. It occupies a small space that is equal parts casual and colorful. The menu offers a mix of hot and cold sandwiches, soups, salads, wings, and a few desserts. While the meats are Boar’s Head, the soups are homemade.

Craving an Italian sandwich, I went with Down Home’s rendition: the Heart Attack (salami, capicola, pepperoni, and provolone with all the toppings). The folks here are friendly, and my sandwich was ready for pickup after only a few minutes.

I’d be lying if I said this was one of the better Italian sandwiches I’ve had – the bread and the cheese were pretty pedestrian – but it was well-dressed, tasty, and filling. At $10 for an eight-inch sub, it was also priced right.

Down Home Deli Spot isn’t the kind of place I’ll go out of my way to return to, but for anyone looking for an alternative to a chain eatery in southern High Point, it’s worth looking into.

Motor City

 

In 1977 Detroit, blue-collar ex-con John Miller (Alan Ritchson) looks forward to starting a new life with Sophia (Shailene Woodley), but her jealous gangster ex-boyfriend Reynolds (Ben Foster) has other ideas. To get Sophia back, he frames Miller for a crime, sending him to prison and on a quest for revenge.

Director Potsy Ponciroli’s stylish action film weds a standard revenge plot to an approach that is anything but. Motor City’s dialogue is minimal to the point of near-nonexistence while its soundtrack – mostly 70s rock – is omnipresent. This calls to mind Walter Hill’s “rock opera” Streets of Fire, but it’s a grittier, bloodier affair. To be certain, it’s gimmicky, and some of the pantomiming does get to be a bit much. However, for two thirds of the movie, it works surprisingly well.

A lot of that success comes down to some smart choices. The music aids the visual storytelling as do the period details (retro clothes, retro cars, everybody smokes). It also helps that the cast’s prior work helps to shade their characters in the absence of dialogue. Foster has played plenty of twitchy, vicious lowlifes while Ben McKenzie, notable as James Gordon in Gotham, again takes up the mantle of an honest cop on a corrupt force. For his part, Ritchson sells both anguish and cold fury. There's also the added amusement of Detroit native Jack White playing Christmas music on a piano. 

Unfortunately, Motor City’s magic does not last forever. The final third devolves into excess and cliché. As the stakes escalate, so too does the mayhem, albeit in a cartoonish, pull out all the stops way that undermines the more grounded drama that preceded it. A time-skip ending featuring dubious old-age makeup doesn’t help matters.

While Motor City’s premise and unevenness limit its appeal, when it works, it’s pulpy, propulsive fun.

Rustic Barn Restaurant

Located at 10372 Martinsville Highway in Danville, Rustic Barn Restaurant serves Asian fusion cuisine. It is open from 12-9 on weekends, 3-9 Tuesday-Friday, and closed Mondays. Online ordering is available.

Housed at the end of a highway strip mall outside of Danville, Rustic Barn is neither rustic nor a barn. It is, improbably, a fantastic Asian fusion restaurant. Yes, you read that right.

The idiosyncrasies do not stop with the name. Inside, The Rustic Barn offers an intimate space with low lighting and some interesting décor: random photos of locomotives adorn the wall. The menu skews Thai albeit with some Japanese dishes (gyoza, teriyaki, yaki udon) and a few (a burger, a steak and potatoes) that fit the establishment’s rurally suggestive name.

The proprietor, Jeb, is gracious and accommodating as well as a showman who likes to joke with his guests. His promise of “everything fresh, everything homemade” is a lot to live up to, but the kitchen here has the chops to deliver on that promise.

Our group went with a pair of starters (crab rangoons and gyoza), a pair of curries (roadhouse and green), and a pair of noodle dishes (yaki udon and pad Thai). Everything was attractively plated and delicious. The rangoons were hand-formed into delicate shapes and contained plenty of filling while the gyoza were nice and crisp. My entrée was the roadhouse curry: the house version of Massaman. A hearty dish, it boasted thick-cut vegetables and a rich sauce done to the desired (a little bit spicy) level of heat. Prices are moderate (entrees start in the upper teens), but portions are plenty filling.

 

Given how many Danville restaurants were closed on a Sunday evening, I count myself lucky that The Rustic Barn was not among them. If you come here seeking country cooking, you’ll be confused and perhaps disappointed. But if you know what you’re getting yourself into, the combination of personable service and tasty food in an offbeat location makes this the epitome of a hidden gem.