vip in the city

La Misma Luna

Our film tonight was Patricia Riggen’s feature debut, Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)… it’s unclear to me why the English title adds the preposition. The press materials prominently note that the film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it received a standing ovation. On the strength of that audience buzz, Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company purchased the rights for $5 million, making it the second largest sale at the festival that year.

Under the Same Moon is the story of a young boy (Adrian Alonso) making a perilous journey across the U.S./Mexico border to be reunited with his mother (Kate del Castillo), who is working as a maid in Los Angeles. The film also features brief cameos by America Ferrara of ABC’s Ugly Betty and Grammy Award-winning Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte.

I was reminded of another film set against the thorny backdrop of illegal immigration: Gregory Nava’s excellent El Norte, which I first watched in Sra. Slavin’s sophomore Spanish class. There, it was a brother and sister fleeing war-torn Guatemala for a “better” life in California (“Take me! I’m a strong pair of arms!”); Under the Same Moon broadcasts similar messages about the plight of undocumented Mexican workers struggling to survive in the United States.

The main focus, though, is about the love between mother and son. Despite an all-too-predictable trajectory and deliberately heart-tugging melodrama, this film managed a few surprisingly effective emotional moments, thanks in large part to Alonso’s performance as Carlitos. The 14-year old Mexico City-born actor (who plays a 9-year old, believably) is familiar to American movie goers for his role as Antonio Banderas’ precocious son in 2005’s The Legend of Zorro.

Reviews have been mixed: The New York Times dismissed the film for its mawkishness and lazy caricatures (“It has bad white people, hard-working brown people and morally ambivalent people of mixed race.“); The Washington Post praised the film for its “affecting story, indelible characters, urgent topical relevance and superbly calibrated sentimentality.”

The post-screening discussion was with William Wolf (left, in the photo above), author and former film critic for Canada’s Cue Magazine, New York magazine, Gannet newspapers and the New York Observer, and current member of New York Film Critics Online, an organization of 26 Internet film critics based in New York City. Wolf was charmed by Under the Same Moon… and though I’m probably one of those he describes who “rebel against manipulation,” darned if I didn’t get a little misty-eyed at the ending, too.

Tags: films, Times Square, Town Hall

Springing forward to Fatty Crab

Spring forward! It felt strange meeting MLF and LW for dinner with the sun still shining brightly overhead, but our respective evening commitments pushed the early dinner even earlier. In their case: a sexy cooking class. (Please direct all follow-up queries about the class particulars to them, thank you.)

No matter, I can eat at any time. I can also sleep at any time, in just about any place — ambient noise and lack of bed, notwithstanding: an ability honed through sleep-deprived years of riding the subway to and from school. But I digress. When in her old ‘hood, MLF likes to visit Mexicana Mama, so we were all looking forward to settling in for some salsa and margaritas on a lazy Sunday.

But alas, it was not to be.

And that is how we ended up at Fatty Crab, farther up on Hudson.

At that early hour, we easily scored a table at the popular MePa spot. The pungent, delicious smells assaulted us as soon we stepped inside — that signature fishy funk American chef Zak Pelaccio came to crave during his time in Kuala Lumpur. Pelaccio is a proponent of Asian flavors in general, and his menu reflects that. Critics and diners alike have embraced his low-key, but sophisticated take on Malaysian cuisine.

“Fatty Duck,” Jalan Alor Chicken Wings, Heritage Foods Pork Ribs…. it all sounded divine. I don’t think I’ve been sadder to be off of meat than I was this evening. The Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork salad was tempting; Robert Sietsema recently revealed it to be one of his favorite foods. I settled instead for a glass of watermelon lime juice, which was bright and refreshing, but not the same.

MLF’s Short Rib Rendang, however, nearly did me in; fellow vegetarian LW and I hovered over the platter, taking in the heady perfume of meat, kaffir lime, coconut and chili. (The dish made an appearance at the Village Voice’s Choice Eats event at the Puck Building a couple days later.)

The three of us split an order of Lent-approved Veggie Steamed Buns and the Malay Fish Fry (finger-sized fillets of tumeric tempura, crab curry, green chili, tamaki) over shrimp-scented sticky rice.

The dishes emerged from the kitchen as they were ready (we were forewarned), and half an hour later, the pièce de résistance: the Chili Crab, a whole imposing Dungeness crab, served in a deep bowl of murky, red chili sauce. Mmm… dungeness crab. Framing the edge were points of smoky white toast, grilled over hardwood charcoal — all the better to sop up the run-off of chili crab juices pooled at the bottom. It is not a delicate affair, but entirely worth the mess.

Can’t wait for the UWS spinoff…

Tags: Fatty Crab, Malaysian, MePa, Mexicana Mama, Zak Pelaccio

Windswept way up the West Side

The arduous, detour-ridden trip up to Washington Heights almost derailed the entire evening, bringing our coterie through Herald Square, into the wine store inside Penn Station, onto the A, windblown along 168th Street, aboard an MTA shuttle bus and finally, finally to the Hudson View Gardens.

We lost one member of our party long the way, but the hardy four that made it to JD’s birthday celebration were rewarded with a spirited party among Kiwis and medical researchers, and slices of astoundingly decadent birthday cake.

David Glass‘s aptly named “Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake” truly is like a giant bourbon-infused truffle in cake form: richly dense, it manages to pack in more dark chocolate flavor per bite than just about anything I’ve ever tasted. Locally, the cake is available at Zabar’s — by the slice, too — but for non-locals, the Bloomfield, CT factory ships nationwide. Fine Living named it among the ten best desserts available by mail order.

There’s also an “Incredible Delicious All-Natural Reduced Fat Chocolate Truffle Cake” with 77% less fat than the original version… but tonight’s was not that cake. A slim, fat-packed wedge was all we could manage before the swift, but strange cab ride home.

Tags: birthdays, chocolate, UWS, Washington Heights