THEY SHOULD HAVE A MOTHER'S DAY FOR FATHERS

Last Sunday was Mother's Day and my son Sam spent the day with me. I didn't tell him to, it was his idea. I made sure he cleared it with his mom and she said it was okay.

I asked him if he wanted me to cook or if we should go out to eat and he asked if I would make Chicken with Peanut Sauce, a thing I've been making since he was little and couldn't tell the difference between chicken or pork or beef. It's an easy recipe, just chicken and green pepper and onion over rice.  

I'll tell you a secret. I throw a little Chinese Five Spice and some ground ginger and a little sesame oil in the rice water and you can really taste the difference.

We watched In Bruges (McDonagh, 2008) while we ate.  I've seen it five or six times but Sammy has never seen it.  What a great, brilliant movie. Hilariously funny, terribly sad. 

Brendan Gleeson is always terrific, as is Ralph Fiennes, but I feel like the real discovery is Colin Ferrell.  I had no idea of the kind of range he's capable of until I saw this movie. He just does everything right from the light comic touches to the heavy emotional scenes. It's a smart, funny script with all kinds of payoffs. 

I particularly love the way McDonagh and cinematographer Eigil Bryld introduce the dazzling Clémence Poésy as Chloe, on the set of the movie within the movie.  Her first date with Colin Farrell's Ray is nothing you've ever seen before. 

I liked McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths (2012) and I'll never forget seeing Christopher Walken onstage in McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (thanks to David and Ben), but everything comes together in this movie. It's a perfect little fairy tale of a film.