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Erik Madigan Heck asked to pose with the set designer's assistant because heloved her tattoos.Photo by Jeff Brown -
Heck enjoyed working with designer Mary Katrantzou for the Neiman Marcus Art ofFashion spread.Photo by Erik Madigan Heck -
Heck donated Iris in Red, 2012 to Two x Two.Photo by Erik Madigan Heck -
Heck shot author Philip Roth for the cover of Le Monde's Sunday magazine.Photo courtesy of Erik Madigan Heck
Longtime comedy writer/director Peter Farrelly duped a lot of people – though not this critic – with his first attempt at drama, 2018’s Green Book, for which he won Oscars for both Best Original Screenplay and, astoundingly, Best Picture. His follow-up film, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, is another film based on little-known history, with much stronger results.
Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) is kind of a ne’er-do-well in a 1967 Manhattan neighborhood, living at home and going down to his local bar on a daily basis to drink with his friends. There, he, his friends, and bar owner Doc Fiddler (Bill Murray) commiserate over the fate of the local men who are getting injured or dying in the Vietnam War. Though they hate what the men face, they mostly agree that the soldiers are doing their patriotic duty.
On a drunken whim, Chickie – who has job as a merchant mariner – says he’s going to pay tribute to their friends by bringing them beer from back home. By hook or by crook, he actually manages to get over to Vietnam on a supply ship. But what starts out as a fun lark for the genial Chickie turns into an education about what war is actually like, how his friends are handling their deployments, and that governments may not be always telling the truth.
Co-written with Farrelly by Brian Hayes Currie and Pete Jones, the film is a tale of two halves. The first 45 minutes or so is pretty goofy, as it sets up the story by showing the growing divide about the war, a serious topic that’s undercut by almost every character utilizing an over-the-top New York accent. Chickie’s apparent lack of concern about heading into a war zone also rubs the wrong way.
But the film’s shift in tone once he gets to Vietnam is a welcome one, and helps to make sense of what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish in the beginning of the movie. As Chickie tries to track down the various guys from his neighborhood, his eyes are opened about the experience on the ground in a war. Chickie traveling in plain clothes gets him mistaken for a CIA agent, a falsehood he willingly goes along with until an encounter with a real CIA agent pulls the wool off his eyes once and for all.
Farrelly appears to have matured as a filmmaker in the past four years. While he went for overly simplistic conflict and just as facile resolution in Green Book, he gets down and dirty in this film. He and his co-writers don’t pay lip service to the bad parts of war; they put Chickie right there in the middle of it all, witnessing atrocities firsthand. He’s not a soldier, so they don’t try to overplay their hand, but they give the film just enough intensity that the changes he experiences don’t feel tossed off.
Of course, the film is “based on a true story,” so you know liberties were taken – would the number of beers he brought really last? – but they do an effective job of making eye-rolling moments relatively believable. Chickie’s interactions with his soldier friends have a good arc to them, as do his run-ins with in-country reporters like Coates (Russell Crowe). A late film sequence that finds the two of them running around Saigon while the city is under siege is one of the best the film has to offer.
Efron, save perhaps for his turn as Ted Bundy in a Netflix film, has never been known for his dramatic chops. This role gives him the best of both worlds, allowing him to let loose and dig deep in equal measures, and he makes the most of it. Relative unknowns play his various friends, with the ones playing soldiers coming off the best. Murray and Crowe provide contrasting color to the film, and each is effective in their small amount of screentime.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a nice step up for Farrelly and proof that there are still interesting ways to demonstrate that war is hell. The funny premise behind the film belies the seriousness with which it treats the larger issue at hand, a bait-and-switch that gives the story a gravitas you might not expect.
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever is now playing in theaters and streaming on Apple TV+.
Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
Zac Efron in The Greatest Beer Run Ever
This roundup of dining news around Dallas has exciting openings, seasonal menus, new dishes and specials, loads of pasta, and spooky cocktails — some local, some chains, culled from press releases and other sources, a little tasty something for everyone.
Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:
Trompo, the beloved taco shop from Luis Olvera, officially opened on September 26. It's at Jefferson Tower in Oak Cliff at 337 Jefferson Blvd., in the former Kookie Haven, which closed in July. The space looks cool with cheery yellow and white chairs, a rustic cement floor, and appealing patches of drywall chipped away to reveal brick underneath. There's a parking lot out back, accessible via Sunset Avenue, plus right on Jefferson Boulevard. Trompo is famous for its tacos, quesadillas, and corn tortillas made in-house — sufficiently famous that it earned a spot on a list of the 50 best new restaurants in America in 2016 by Bon Appetit magazine. They'll be adding alcohol, as well, that's a first.
Latham Bakery, a small family-owned chain founded in 2017, just opened a location in downtown Garland at 700 Main St., where it's serving not just housemade desserts like pecan sticky buns and lemon cake, but also breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with tempting fare such as a turkey sandwich with apple slices, roasted poblano soup, and grilled cheese with artichoke & spinach. This is the fourth location; they opened the first in Forney, followed by locations in Kaufman and Canton.
Black Bear Diner, which serves home-style comfort food and breakfast all day, is opening a location in Mesquite, at 3730 Towne Crossing Blvd. on October 4. Founded in California in 1995, it's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a vast, enticing menu anchored in hearty portions and value. They also have a cute little bear theme such as black bear insignias on the coffee cups. They currently have nine locations in Texas, most in the suburbs of Houston, but they're opening one in Fort Worth later in 2022.
Brasão Brazilian Steakhouse is opening a location in Las Colinas, at 855 W. John Carpenter Fwy. This will be its second DFW location following Plano's Shops at Legacy which opened in 2021. It's a churrascuria-style restaurant founded in San Antonio, with all-you-can-eat meat from a selection of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, and shrimp. OR you could skip the meat and do the salad bar with steamed asparagus, wedge, deviled eggs, grilled eggplant, and even meat things if you must, like bacon and cold salmon, because god forbid there be one thing in this restaurant not laced with meat. More than a dozen desserts include cheesecakes, cakes and Brazilian flan. It's $48 at lunch/$32 for the salad bar, and $62 at dinner/$46 for the salad bar. Seriously, get the salad bar.
Bulla Gastrobar the tapas-style restaurant has new fall items include Yukon gold potato leek soup, duck breast with butternut squash purée, shrimp in curry cream with artichoke confit & rice, grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, squash, tomato, scallions, asparagus, with romesco sauce), fried eggplant with Manchego cheese, and pumpkin crème brûlée with vanilla ice cream.
Good Graces, the brasserie at Marriott Dallas Uptown has a new menu by Executive Chef Johney Han inspired by fall and winter ingredients, starting October 1. Options include squash salad with arugula & figs, cod with shellfish vadouvan, chicken breast with Brussel sprouts & sweet potato puree, truffled mushroom fricassee and polenta, brown butter cauliflower, and braised short rib. Han assumed leadership of the kitchen in early 2022.
Ida Claire, the Southern restaurant, has a new rainbow trout on spring pea salad with Benton's country ham; a new summer squash and zucchini side dish; and a new steak & eggs brunch dish with NY strip, sunny side eggs, biscuits, black pepper gravy, and skillet potatoes.
Cowboy Chicken has a new two-piece dark special with two sides, a regular drink, and a roll for $10, and a family special that feeds four with dark meat chicken, three Texas-size sides, and rolls for $29. Sides include ranchero beans, mac & cheese, green beans, sweet potato, roasted broccoli, Mexican street corn, fried okra, and creamed spinach.
Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar has eight new handcrafted bowls including blackened chicken burrito bowl, curry chicken, chilled salmon, Korean ribeye bibimbap, chili ahi tuna, Mediterranean chicken, roasted veggie & butternut squash, and cheeseburger FryBowl. They're calling the whole thing a virtual restaurant named Road Trip Bowls which seems like a fancy post-millennial way of saying it's to-go only? It can be ordered online and through third-party apps at 40-plus Lazy Dog Restaurant locations across eight states.
Cantina Laredo is celebrating Dia de los Muertos with special cocktails the Sweet Heat Sipper and Sandia Revier ‘Rita, served in Cantarito clay cups for guests to take home.
There are four Cantarito designs: Ramon the Rooster, Calavera on Unicycle, Calavera with Machete, and Skull & Crossbones. The cocktails become an experience through augmented reality images that spring to life when guests visit espolon.glass and scan the Cantarito graphic on their smartphone. They're at the Addison and Plano locations October 4-November 2 or while supplies last.
Bonefish Grill has a new seasonal menu with kung pao Brussels sprouts, kung pao noodles with shrimp, cedar plank salmon, swordfish & pumpkin ravioli, and pumpkin lava cake with a cream cheese molten center.
Olive Garden is bringing back fan-favorite Never Ending Pasta Bowl October 3-November 20, following a two-year hiatus. Diners get unlimited servings of pasta, soup or salad, and breadsticks, starting at $14. Pastas include fettucine, spaghetti, rigatoni, and angel hair. Sauces include creamy mushroom, marinara, five cheese marinara, meat sauce, and alfredo. An additional $5 gets you never-ending toppings such as meatballs, Italian sausage, and chicken.
Buca di Beppo has three pasta specials, available October 1-31: roasted mushroom ravioli in Alfredo sauce with garlic mushrooms; bacon & sausage shells; and campanelle Rustic, with sausage, fingerling potato, and broccoli rabe in a creamy sauce, all $30 for small and $42 for large.
Bravo! Italian Kitchen and Brio Italian Grill are both featuring two pasta specials from October 1-31: campanelle carbonara with garlic egg sauce, fennel & sausage, and pancetta for $25; and frutti di mare with spaghetti, shrimp, scallops, mussels, tomato, and Arrabiata sauce.
Luckys, the Oak Lawn diner, is channeling Fletcher's and doing a State Fair homage with its own rendition of corn dogs and a special beer. Two corn dogs with fries are $11, perfect with Cotton Candy Pilsner from Texas Ale Project for $6. It'll be served throughout the run of the State Fair, from September 30-October 23.