SPEAKEASY-STYLE bars with secret entrances and Prohibition themes may be popular, but their illegality is only an illusion. That wasn’t the case when 100 guests gathered in a Los Angeles loft for a party celebrating April 20, which has emerged as a national holiday for marijuana users. During dinner, the host offered a selection of innovative cocktails: one featured moonshine and a shiso leaf dipped in marijuana-laced sesame oil, and another was a Gibson infused with cannabis smoke. “When you put THC in alcohol, you feel it immediately,” said Daniel K. Nelson, the designer of the cocktails and an owner of Writer’s Room (a Hollywood bar), referring to tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. “I definitely got mega-high. I had to tone it down for ... Continue reading →
Rachel Dodes on Lunch Break has a guide to the upcoming guide to this year's batch of summer movies: Amid the superheroes and sequels, there are other, quieter choices. Photo: Focus Features. "Moonrise Kingdom," the latest feature from offbeat indie director Wes Anderson, tracks the adventures of two precocious tweens—he smokes a pipe; she wears eye shadow. When it opens May 25, it will go head-to-head with "Men in Black 3," a big-budget, effects-laden spectacle starring Will Smith and Josh Brolin as secret agents battling 3-D aliens to save the universe from imminent ruin. Summer has been prime moviegoing time since the days when theaters touted their new air conditioning systems with signs that read "Come In, It's Cool Inside" as icicles dripped from the ... Continue reading →
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker. Video courtesy of The Weinstein Company. To avoid misunderstanding, a French film called "Les Intouchables"—meaning, of course, "The Untouchables"—comes to us with a hybrid title: "The Intouchables." It's not quite English, but neither does it evoke crime fighters in 1930s Chicago. This hugely likable comedy, a box-office phenomenon in France, takes place in contemporary Paris. Loosely based on a true story, it finds unlikely uplift, along with tenderness, in a friendship between two men who are untouchables in different ways: Philippe, a wealthy white aristocrat left quadriplegic by a parasailing accident; and Driss, a black ex-con from the projects who becomes Philippe's caretaker. ... Continue reading →
