Hello Friends,

A great part of the relative freedom of Los Angeles culture is how many of us have created family with people who aren't blood relations. Coming from an only-child, single-parent household, I've created "family" units all my life. I imagined you getting together for Thanksgiving in every way possible. From an extended family gathering with elaborate table-scape and traditional foods to slightly unmoored youth in sweatpants enjoying takeout with a bestie in human and/or animal form. Sweetness is what you create and often feels different than what it looks from the outside. Don't let anyone tell you what your life should look like. I chose to spend Thanksgiving with two friends, one I've known for forty years and the other closing in on thirty. We were a comforting, low-stress group. I made apple pie because the aromas make me happy. And it's the leftover breakfast of champions.

What are you doing this weekend? Are you going out to the movies? There's a lot to see. If you can find a theater playing Emilia Perez, it's one that will be even better in the theaters than on the small screen. But if you're committed to small-screen viewing while wrapped in a robe, eating leftovers, we have several suggestions for you in this week's reprise of cinema-focused conversations. They run the gamut from the cinematically gorgeous to a gritty economic-political saga to the hilarity of two wine bros out for a road trip. We also feature two documentaries focusing on fascinating wine people and unique stories.

As for. me, I'll be tasting tortillas for Gustavo's Tournament, which is virtual this year. If you want to follow along, check out Gustavo's Substack. You know there's nothing better than hard-shell turkey tacos for leftovers. Yes, I've snuck some stuffing in there.

Meanwhile, I've settled on a stove. It's a Thor 24" which is backordered everywhere. My goals were no digital and actual knobs. Maybe I'll upgrade to a 30". But after cooking on a single burner and tabletop oven for five years even a 24" range seems like an upgrade to me. 

Thank you for listening!
Evan

For those of us who love lushly cinematic historical food movies, The Taste of Things was a lovely surprise earlier this year. The intense love story of a nobleman and his cook stars Juliet Binoche and Benoît Magimel. One might say about it that “cooking is love made visible could not be more true.” I was so fortunate to talk to both the director Tran Anh Hung and noted actor Juliette Binoche. When Mr. Hung isn't making films he makes ceramics.

Sideways, a buddy, road trip movie with notes of sophistication and self-doubt, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It follows Jack (Thomas Hayden Church) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) as they tool around the Santa Ynez Valley in a wine-colored Saab before Jack's wedding. In this edition of In The Weeds, Hitching Post owner Frank Ostini looks back at the last two decades of the legendary California wine region. This is one of my favorite interviews of the year. 

In Cup of Salvation, filmmaker Jason Wise follows winemaker Vahe Keushguerian as he hunts down an ancient Iranian wine varietal. Bulletproof vests and wine cellars aren't generally standard winemaking equipment. But for Vehe, they sometimes come with the territory. He has resurrected winemaking in Armenia with the support of his business partner and daughter, Aimee.

Tinashe Nyamoduka is one of the subjects of Robert Coe and Warwick Ross's film Blind Ambition. The winemaker's tale of immigrating from Zimbabwe to South Africa is similar to the stories of countless others who have left everything behind for a chance at a more stable life. But something unusual happened once he tasted wine for the first time. He fell in love. He ended up climbing the oenology ladder to become one of South Africa's most respected sommeliers and a winemaker in his own right with Kumusha Wines. 

Director Bong Joon-ho's commentary on poverty and class disparity runs deep in his Academy Award-winning 2019 film Parasite. Nathan Park points out its curious connection to fried chicken in a story for Foreign Policy magazine.