The Guest

After its oldest son, Caleb, dies in combat in Afghanistan, the Peterson family receives a visit from David Collins (Dan Stevens), one of Caleb’s brothers-in-arms. The family takes David in and at first finds him to be helpful and polite. However, it later becomes clear that David harbors several secrets and may not be all that he claims to be.

Directed by Adam Wingard and scripted by Simon Barrett, The Guest is both a throwback to 1980s-style thrillers (think The Stepfather with a dash of The Terminator thrown in for good measure) and one that fully engages more contemporary concerns. Neither of these things make it a truly good movie, but for the cheap thrills that it provides, it’s a lot better than it needs to be.

There are a number of elements present here that work to elevate The Guest above the B-movie fray. First, it uses what would have otherwise been an overly convenient plot point (David’s military background) to make a fairly effective statement about the dehumanizing nature of war. Next, it boasts a memorably idiosyncratic goth and indie-rock dominated soundtrack. Synths a la Clan of Xymox form an ironic counterweight to the onscreen carnage. Lastly, it benefits from some unexpectedly solid performances. Stevens’ seeming sincerity and well-mannered charisma make his eventual course of action all the more disconcerting while the always-reliable Lance Reddick exudes authority and competence as a military officer with connections to his past.

Despite these perks, The Guest also manages to fall prey to the worst conventions of the genre. When the danger increases, several characters display a naiveté and a lack of self-preservation that is annoying as it is predictable. The ambiguous final scene may have been intended as a Halloween homage, but it comes across as a dull surprise. In addition, some of the other performances – such as Maika Monroe’s flat rendition of the eldest Peterson daughter – simply aren’t good.

The Guest doesn’t shine enough to win over non-horror fans, but it is far more accomplished than the average time-filler.

7.25/10

Matthew's Chocolates

Located at 107 North Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough, Matthew’s Chocolates offers chocolates, confectionaries, gelato, coffee drinks, and more. A customer loyalty program allows for purchases to accrue toward free products.

For anyone with a sweet tooth, this place is a must. One look at the display cases is enough to inspire Homer Simpson-style drooling. Barks, truffles, and other blissful bites come in different shapes, colors, and chocolates dark and milk and white. All are homemade, and those sampled have tasted every bit as good as they looked. The clusters, for instance, have a good nut-to-chocolate ratio while spicier offerings pair ginger and Asian seasonings to bring a little heat to the sweet. Such is the quality that it absolutely justifies what seems at first to be overly ambitious pricing. You may balk at spending $2 to $3 for something that disappears in two bites, but when said bites are through, you’ll be glad that you did so.

If Matthew’s Chocolates has one Achilles’ heel, it isn’t the layout (the brightly marked chalkboards are easy to read) or the staff (quirky and typically friendly if occasionally harried) but rather the establishment’s own success. This isn’t a big space, and when it fills, lines will form, your view of the goods will be obstructed or blocked, and your patience may wear thin. Remind yourself that the chocolate is worth the wait, and you’ll appreciate it even more when that wait is through.

9/10

La Place Louisiana Cookery

Located at 111 North Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough, La Place offers Cajun cuisine for lunch and dinner. There is a brunch on weekends, limited outdoor seating, and a full-service bar. Food, drink, and dessert specials change regularly.

I have a weakness for Cajun and thus tend to be more forgiving of an establishment’s flaws if it delivers the right flavors. In La Place’s case, no such pardon is needed. Named for the Andouille Capital of the World, this restaurant not only nails the food but also gives ample motivation to keep coming back.

Owner/chef Joe Tullos, a native of the region, succeeded in capturing the look and feel of a New Orleans-area establishment. The long wooden bar, the photos on the walls, and the specials written on chalkboards all preserve a certain vintage charm. However, this classic presentation should not be taken for an unwillingness to experiment as La Place’s menu is deceptively varied. Yes, you will find po boys, gumbo, and other traditional fixtures here, but you will also encounter novel twists on biscuits and gravy (with green onion sausage) and the BLT (with smoked chicken) as well as a whole slew of creative cocktails (including one with cereal, milk, and bourbon).

Whether your tastes run experimental or conservative, you are likely to be satisfied no matter what you order. For a late brunch, my fiancée and I went with the meat bol and the crawfish etouffee. The former – various house-made sausages served over two eggs, grits, and a biscuit – featured smoky meats and grits that were good enough to be a meal on their own. The latter was creamy, well-seasoned, and no less enjoyable.

Add to this a team of outgoing and knowledgeable bartenders, and it’s hard to find fault with La Place. The pricing ($15 for the meat bol, $12 for the etouffee) is moderate, but it’s fair given the quality of the ingredients – though I do wish the portion size on the latter ran larger. And while our Saturday afternoon visit was a comfortable experience, La Place’s relatively small size makes me wonder if dining during a dinner rush would tell a different tale.

With a pleasingly vintage aesthetic and terrific food, La Place is a worthwhile destination for anyone in the area, Cajun-phile or not.

8.5/10

nOma Food & Co

Located at 2403 Battleground Avenue in Greensboro, nOma Food & Co offers Vietnamese and Thai soups, sandwiches, curries, rolls, and bowls for lunch and dinner. Online ordering is available.

nOma’s motto is “Fresh. Asian. Fast.” and that is a good indicator of what you can expect here: Viet/Thai-inspired dishes made to order in a fast casual setting. It’s an appealing concept, and one that the owners (one of whom, Kieuanh, also owns Boba House) are determined to make work. While there is definitely room for continued improvement, there is also enough promise here to suggest staying power.

Nestled in a shopping plaza near Maxie B’s and Krispy Kreme, nOma tries to make the most out of limited physical space. The green-hued interior is bright and clean with descriptive, easy to read menus and a bird’s eye view of food preparation. It is, however, still quite small, and despite the decorative touches, it may be better suited for take-out than dine-in.

The menu here is limited: don’t expect more than banh mi, pho, rolls, bowls, curry, and bubble teas. However, keeping it simple allows for some measure of quality control, and many of the dishes are customizable. Not only are vegan fillings available (as well as beef, pork, and chicken), but larger and smaller portion sizes are also among the options. Even the larger (32 ounce) phos and bowls top out at $7.95, which makes for a fairly decent value.

Further, nOma lives up to its promise of freshness: dishes are prepared in front of you, and the ingredients appear to be quality. The creamy Thai curry is a standout: try it with chicken and jasmine rice. Unfortunately, other dishes simply fail to eclipse the competition. Pho Hien Vuong has better pho, Saigon Bakery has better sandwiches, and both have better rolls. Nothing here was unpleasant, but the flavors came across as somewhat muted.

Though nOma would not be my first choice for Vietnamese or Thai, it has all the makings of a solid option for quick, cheap, healthy eats.

7.75/10

Vida Pour Tea

Located at 412 State Street in Greensboro, Vida Pour Tea offers house-blended teas and other beverages as well as a selection of baked goods from local sources. There is a wellness lounge that can be reserved for groups and events. Vida Pour also offers custom blends, tea accessories, and shipping across the country.

Let’s cut to the chase: this whole review is a build-up to the punishingly punny pronouncement that Vida Pour is tea-riffic. Of course, it would be hard to get away with such a crime against language if this establishment didn’t have so much going for it. Among Vida Pour’s many virtues are an expansive selection (greens, whites, reds, herbals, and everything in between), reasonable pricing ($2 to $2.25 depending on the size for a cup of tea), a helpful and passionate owner in Sarah Chapman, and some high-quality products. An apple pie tea sweetened with local honey was the best hot beverage of recent memory while an apple pumpkin chai muffin managed to satisfy despite “organic” and “vegan” hitting my brain like toxic waste warning labels.

You don’t have to be a tea connoisseur to appreciate this place though it definitely won’t hurt. One certain-tea is that you will have a hard time finding fault with Vida Pour.

9/10

Mizumi Hibachi & Sushi

Located at 309 State Street in Greensboro, Mizumi Hibachi and Sushi offers Japanese fare seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Wine, beer, and sake are available, and there are daily drink specials. The establishment also offers an all-you-can-eat sushi dine-in special.

Subpar Chinese buffets have made me an avowed skeptic of all-you-can-eat anything, but some fonder memories of AYCE sushi in New Jersey (and the availability of a discounted Groupon) made me willing to give Mizumi’s rendition a go. Though nothing about the experience blew me away, it was by no means a leave-Matt-Harvey-in-the-game-level blunder.

Nestled in the State Street-Golden Gate area of shops, Mizumi has an odd ambiance. There are a few tables near the front door and a separate dining area behind and up a short flight of stairs. The front area is lacking in décor (you can see a surge protector awkwardly taped to a wall), but the rear/upper area is classier and better appointed.

These sorts of contradictions pepper the rest of the dining experience here. For instance, if you should partake of the AYCE sushi option, be prepared to finish within two hours and pay for any leftovers. While these aren’t unreasonable measures, they do create an expectation of uptight fastidiousness that was belied by our generally friendly and helpful servers. Just when we thought we could expect that to be a constant, however, a few larger groups walked in, and the service slowed accordingly. Again, this wasn’t unreasonable, but it made it hard to get a read on what to expect from this place.

The food here is similarly uneven. Since the AYCE special grants you access to certain apps as well as sushi, my fiancée and I got to try quite a bit. The tempura dishes (heavily battered but decidedly not greasy) and the teriyaki snapper were delicious while the edamame were served hot and well-salted. The gyoza and shumai, on the other hand, were so-so, not unappealing, but lacking in depth of flavor. Among the sushi, anything with crunch and spicy sauce delivered on texture (especially when balanced by creamy avocado) and taste, but rolls with pink seaweed (a strange sight) and fish on the outside (slippery) were not the best choices.

Mizumi does not rate among the best sushi or overall Japanese cuisine in town. If I’m craving a great roll or rice bowl, I’ll set my bearings for Tate rather than State. However, the AYCE option is absolutely worth it. You don’t need to be ravenous or gluttonous to get your money’s worth, and there is enough culinary competence to elevate this above the level of mere fill-up food.

7.5/10

Jurassic World

In the years following John Hammond’s death, billionaire Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) has continued his vision by transforming Jurassic Park into Jurassic World, a highly successful theme park off the coast of Central America. The day-to-day operations are overseen by Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is too preoccupied to spend much time with her visiting nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins). Meanwhile, InGen security chief Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) envisions a military application for the park’s raptors, an idea that Navy veteran-turned-raptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) resists. When the park’s newest attraction, the genetically modified Indominus rex, shows high levels of aggression, Masrani brings Owen in to consult, much to the chagrin of Claire. However, it isn’t long before a security breach forces them to work together to save lives.

Reboots are all the rage these days, so the decision to follow up 2001’s dreadful Jurassic Park III with a sequel instead inspired nothing if not curiosity. That curiosity then turned to equal parts skepticism (indie film helmsman Colin Trevorrow was tapped to direct while almost none of the original cast returns) and promise (Planet of the Apes reboot veterans Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver wrote the script and Pratt, fresh off his Guardians of the Galaxy momentum, took one of the leads). Add to that the long production cycle, the budget, and the inevitable tie-in/marketing blitz, and Jurassic World had a lot riding on it. While the end result has some noticeable weak spots, it is far from the Apatosaurus-sized disaster that it could have been.

By far, Jurassic World’s biggest strength is its dexterity. It capably balances knowingness and nostalgia and it appeals to a modern audience while still evoking the grand sense of adventure (think old-school Spielberg) of a prior era. The film is both a product of and a response to its own mythology. IT specialist Lowery (Jake Johnson) is blasted for insensitively wearing a Jurassic Park t-shirt, chief geneticist Henry Wu (BD Wong, the lone holdover from the previous films) admits to genetic tampering to explain away the dinosaurs’ lack of feathers and other inauthenticities, and there is a whole Asset Containment Unit trained to deal with the inevitable rampaging dinos on the loose. Despite this, Jurassic World still delivers plenty of audience-pleasing action. The visually-arresting set pieces (featuring both competent camerawork and fairly convincing effects) include vehicle chases, dino-on-dino combat, and plenty of people placed in precariously perilous situations. In short, this is a movie that acknowledges the grievances of the jaded among us and still gives reason to say “Hey, that was cool.”

On the other hand, the characterization very nearly kills whatever fun is to be had. Many of the roles are both underdeveloped and unoriginal. Pratt acquits himself as best he can, but his character, a cross between Alan Grant and Robert Muldoon, is dulled by a lack of major flaws. Benevolent boss Masrani all too easily evokes Hammond before him, fat and untrustworthy Hoskins channels fat and untrustworthy Nedry, and the kids once again nearly doom everyone with their impetuous stupidity only to gain some measure of usefulness much later on. The only character who comes across as both fully formed and not a mere rehash is Claire. Howard plays her as decent-but-harried and though she convincingly projects terror at the opportune time, she also keeps her wits under pressure. If someone in this film had to be more than just a type, it’s a good thing that it ended up being the true protagonist.

Some franchise films that have big shoes to fill try to sidestep comparisons by offering a clean break with the past. Jurassic World not only addresses its origins head-on; it makes acknowledging all that came before a central part of the experience. While this approach has its limits – and while the sequel hook here is cloyingly transparent – the fourth film in this series did more than enough to win back anyone put off by the prior two. If box office returns are anything to go by, it isn’t just the dinosaurs that are returning to theaters; it’s the fans.

8/10