YOUNG ADULT

This movie is a black comedy, a satire, a comment about single life and making it on your own and feeling fulfilled, about friendships and about loneliness. And all of this is put together with great whip smart dialogue and a brisk running time of about 90 minutes and terrific acting by charlize theron, Patton Oswalt and Patrick Wilson.

Charlize is Mavis, a disorganized and aimless ghost writer of books who drinks her way through encounters with men; her unhappiness is poignantly revealed by brief shots of her pulling out her hair in tiny patches. When she finds out that her high school beau, Buddy, is celebrating the birth of his child she fantasizes about going back to Mercury, the small town she grew up in, (she now lives in Minneapolis) and rescuing Buddy from his rigid and constrained husband and father role so they can pick up where their romance ended.

This sounds like a stupid plot but Theron's acting is so believable and authentic that I really liked her and cared about her and could empathize  with her acerbic comments and her rudeness and her sadness and her disconnect from other people and her huge sense of inadequacy which came out in cutting often cruel remarks, Some of the best lobbed at Beth, Buddy's wife. Some scenes were uncomfortable to watch, in fact.

Anyway, so the story line is watching this disaster production titled Mavis try to win Buddy back in spite of the fact that he's happily married. Patton Oswalt is a guy who had the locker right next to hers all through high school and she accidentally meets him in a bar but can't remember him till she sees his cane and realizes he's the "hate crime guy". evidently in high school he was beaten up by some jocks who said he was homosexual and the fact that the small town of Mercury still believes he's gay  (he's not) and the fact that his mobility is severely compromised from the beating means that he is also an outsider and not part of the social life of town.

He spends his days painting action figures and running a distillery in his garage.

One of the final scenes in which Mavis psychologically crumbles during Buddys' baby's naming party and lashes out at people is cringingly wonderful.

I gave this movie a 9 and Bill gave it an 8.

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE

really enjoyable movie. It had a simple plot; long time married couple starts divorce proceedings and Cal the husband played by Steve Carrel gets advice on how to get back into the dating game by Jacob; played sauvely and with debonair charm and a tad of snark by Ryan Gosling (this is really the role he excels in; he doesn't have to say a lot; he gets to do that sexy half-smile, and he shows off his (to use one of the movie lines) "photoshop'd body".)

And Cal has a precocious but not annoyingly so son who gives him advice about finding and keeping and fighting for one's soul-mate. The son has a crush on the babysitter and she has a crush on Cal which leads to some amusing scenes.

Eventually - this was a predictable turn - Jacob meets a gal who he falls in love with and she takes him to meet her parents who turn out to be Cal and Julianne Moore. Oh, Julianne confesses at the beginning of the movie as she's asking Cal for a divorce that she's slept with David, a co-worker who is played by kevin Bacon. He is totally wasted in his wimpy role. Wow- he looked so emaciated in the film; like he needed a fattening meal of mac n'cheese.

There were no belly laughs in the movie but the dialogue was good and it was a fast paced film and all the acting was good and i did giggle a lot plus get teary eyed during Cal's speech about how he met his wife.

ZIVAZ MEXICAN BISTRO - TUCSON, AZ

We ate here on my birthday coupon; order one entree and get another entree free. A good deal. we haven't tried this restaurant before since their entrees run about $14 making it really difficult - if not impossible - to keep our total bill with tax and tip at $20 or below. This is the general guideline we use which allows us to eat out as much as we do.

The food was fabulous. The menu is on large boards right by the front door and you order at the counter. Even though the place was sort of empty it was noisy due to all the tile and metal. so i can imagine the din when the restaurant is packed.

The chips were multi-colored and i swear the red ones taste better than the usual non-color ones. They were warm and fresh and came with 2 salsas; a red and green. Very tasty.

Bill had pollo pibil which was mounds of tender chicken marinated in an orange and achiote sauce and it had grilled pineapple slices and pickled onions. I had shrimp vallarta; 8 huge delicious shrimp in a spicy red sauce with onions, pepper, and tomatoes. Both of our entrees came with rice and black beans and a salad with a zippy dressing.

The service was great and we won't wait till my next birthday to visit this restaurant again.