![]() ![]() His narcissism is mind boggling His mustache itself could be the subject of a terrific short, but his life would make a compelling exploration of need. His battle mentality and his need for validation is both troubling and touching. His fanaticism to Employees Only seems lunatic. Carpentieri's house is in foreclosure, that he's recently divorced and his business is failing. Schneider was once a Marine but was injured in what he describes as an accident and fell into a coma for eight days. Tirola has included just the right amount of personal details to intrigue but not enough to satisfy. Carpentieri converted into the brave new world.īut it all falls flat. Schneider victorious, enthroned as a bartender at the world's best cocktail bar (which EO was that year) and Mr. The two worlds meet at 2011's Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, a conclave of cocktail's kings and queens, with Mr. Carpentieri represents the older bar mentality: a blue-collar, hard-scrabble, hard-drinking watering hole, powered by shots and draft beers. Schneider is the emissary of the new cocktail world: He's young, tattooed, obsessed with ingredients and technique, and based in New York. On the storyboard, at least, it sounds good. Instead, he loosely focuses on two main characters: Steve Schneider, an intriguing young mustachioed apprentice at Employees Only in New York City, and Steve Carpentieri, the owner and bartender of a locals bar called Dunville's in Westport, CT. Tirola, and his countless talking heads, is silent.įine. But of what constitutes a quality cocktail, Mr. Note: A bartender sliding his cocktail in slow motion across the bar is a bartender who looks like an asshole. Tirola favors countless slow-mo shots of bartenders pushing their cocktails toward the camera. There is absolutely no technical discussion here and only a couple half-assed history lessons with bullshit stock footage. For a documentary purportedly dedicated to shining a light on the poorly understood world of artisanal cocktails there is a shocking lack of specifics. the role cocktails have played in America, our nostalgia for the early 20th century, how well the reality compares with our conceptions of it, etc.) - or find really compelling characters through which you can tell the story of the modern cocktail. Either be really specific - exploring either the technique (for instance, the mania for glassware or the pursuit of the perfect ice cube) or the underpinnings (viz. ![]() Since I actually am a big fan of this world, despite the requisite snark, I was extremely excited to hear of Hey, Bartender!, which purported to tell "the story of how the renaissance of the bartender comes to be in the era of the craft cocktail."īut to craft a compelling documentary about that, as opposed to a PBS special on it, a film must take one of two approaches, or, if you can pull it off, both. ![]() Whether or not you are a fan of the cocktail world, that nocturnal demimonde of suspenders and homemade bitters, mustaches and Manhattans, tattoos and pretension, there is a really interesting story somewhere to be told about how and why cocktails have become "a thing." Part of the trend seems to be nostalgia for the 1920s, part of it seems in line with a recent devotion to craft and part of it seems just run-of-the-mill nightlife trendiness, but there is something intriguing there. It's the Fuzzy Navel of documentaries, a red hot boozy mess. Alas, Hey Bartender, a documentary by Doug Tirola about the new age of the cocktail, follows none of these rules. Both cocktails and movies should have a singular point of view and both should whet rather than dull the appetite. ![]() In both cocktails and movies, the constituent ingredients should make sense together, should cohere. Both cocktails and movies should admit only good-quality high-proof characters. Do you like food? Do you like movies? Do you like movies about food? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you might enjoy Eater at the Movies, a new column by Joshua David Stein which examines eating and drinking on screen.Ī good cocktail seems to be made following a few of the same principles of successful movie making. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |