Deborah Hyland

​Watching David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method can leave the viewer feeling dangerously complacent. Look how far we've come from those uptight Victorian and Edwardian women with their long, rigid corsets; their impossibly white shirtwaists; and their yards and yards of lace.

Why, those women were literally driven mad by repression!

The heroine, Sabina Spielrein (played by Keira Knightley) arrives at Carl Jung's sanatorium manifesting what previous generations would have termed "hysteria of the womb." She writhes, twitches and screams, jutting her jaw so far forward that Knightley's normal underbite begins to resemble the creature from Alien. Jung (Michael Fassbender) helps Sabina first voice and then accept her forbidden desires, which turn out to be masochistic. Finally, he joins in, becoming not just her therapist but her lover. Freedom through being tied to the headboard.

Why, she even earns a doctorate!

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Kholood Eid

A platter of the Captain's finest?

​Captain D's locations are not easy to come by. In fact, they're almost as elusive as the mole in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Almost.

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Kholood Eid

The entrance to Picasso's Bistro.

​At Picasso's Bistro (138 Chesterfield Towne Center, Chesterfield; 636-532-5353), very little of the art hanging on the walls resembles Picasso's signature style, distorted and dark despite splashes of vibrant color. Instead, you'll find hearts in almost every painting here. Is this because Valentine's Day is fast approaching? Or is it because the owner of Picasso's is a SLU cardiologist whose touts heart-healthy meals?

Whatever the reason for the heart fixation, love wasn't the word that sprung to mind after Gut Check, looking to put ourselves in the mood for a late showing of The Artist, dined here.

The best part of the meal was the focaccia bread at its outset -- and that was merely OK. It was warm and fluffy, but a little on the dry side. It came with chopped tomato and red onion on the side -- though there was so little of this that we had to use it sparingly -- but something was missing.

Something...creamy...and golden...and frequently spread on bread.

And thus a sort of theme for the meal was established.

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Deborah Hyland

​With the spate of recent comic book adaptations, it's not surprising to finally see a Tintin movie. The real surprise is how long it took. Christopher Reeve reestablished the Superman franchise in 1978; Spiderman swung across the screen in 2002. Even the uber-imperialist Phantom, the ghost who walks, got his own film back in 1996.

Unlike Clark Kent, Peter Parker or Kit Walker, however, Tintin isn't an American hero but a boy journalist from Belgium. His adventures take him to Africa, the Middle and Far East, under the sea, to the moon. To his illustrator, Hergé, the Western Hemisphere was as exotic as Tibet or Egypt. He peopled the United States with "red Indians" complete with feathered headdresses, teepees and tomahawks; He populated Mexico and South America with Mayans and Aztecs.

America largely ignored Tintin, and he has relatively limited, cult status here. Nonetheless, when the trailers for the Steven Spielberg film first aired in July, Gut Check marked the release date on our calendar and got busy re-reading our complete collection of The Adventures of Tintin comics.

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​Yesterday Gut Check acquired this massive, regal tub of Wehrenberg Theatres popcorn. A tub that can be refilled at any Wehrenberg Theatre for only $6.

We're eating healthily now so that we can feast on comfort food when St. Louis winter actually hits. Please, help us get these delicious, 28 servings of faux-butter-and-carb temptation out of this office.

Rules: To make this popcorn yours, paste the link to your favorite Dinner and a Movie post in the comment section with your valid e-mail address, Facebook profile URL or Twitter handle. We'll choose a winner randomly and announce it on Monday.

Kristie McClanahan

And I want, and I need, and I lust, (Fozzie's) Animal.

​Walter grew up in Smalltown, USA, the kind of place whose population number (literally) flips every time a vehicle rolls into or out of town. He's the adorable felt brother and best friend of Gary (Jason Segel) who, after stumbling across old episodes of The Muppet Show, becomes enchanted with those creatures big and small who look curiously like him. His biggest dream is to meet Kermit and Co. After all, growing up not-quite-human presents its own challenges in Smallville. But "as long as there are Muppets," Walter says, "there's still hope."

In Gary, fans of How I Met Your Mother will recognize Segel's aw-shucks personality, frequent use of the words "buddy" and "awesome," and penchant for dating red-headed schoolteachers. Mary is his sugary-sweet (yet practical and put-upon) girlfriend who wants nothing more than their ten-year anniversary trip to Los Angeles to include a one-on-one (erm, Muppet-free) romantic dinner.

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Kristie McClanahan

Half & Half's salmon BLT.

​
Here's a joke: What's the difference between dogs and cancer? People actually want to talk about dogs.

That's an original, by the way, not one culled from 50/50, the recently released Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt dramedy (brocom?) about cancer. The storyline wasn't much of a stretch for writer Will Reiser, who was diagnosed with spinal cancer when he was in his twenties. In the film Rogen plays his best bro ― also not a far stretch from real life.

The movie's title, 50/50, is a reference to the odds of Adam's (Gordon-Levitt) chance of surviving neurofibrosarcoma. "The more syllables, the worse it is," opines a fellow cancer patient. Glioblastoma, squamous cell carcinoma, neurofibrosarcoma: Awful strings of vowels and consonants, all.

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Warner Brothers

​We usually forgo animal movies. Too often they turn into snuff films.

Go ahead. Try to remember the last animal movie you saw that didn't end with the poor creature's death.More >>

IMBD.com

​Walking into Moneyball, it's hard not to anticipate the stereotypical baseball movie: chewing tobacco, player enlightenment, inspirational pep talks from the coach before the big game, maybe even some angels in the outfield. But above all, you expect a show, a tense series of games that eventually results in the inevitable win by the home team.

Unfortunately for eager movie-goers feeding off St. Louis Cardinals' hysteria, this is not that movie. Moneyball makes its audience work for a grand victory. With its focus on Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the film is about one man's determination to save a losing team. It sticks firmly to statistics and how they build a successful team. It gives its audience a glimpse to the business behind the game. We even see players get laid off.

After a request for an increase in recruitment funding is shot down by his boss, Beane hires recent Yale graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to help recruit a new all-star team. Together, they shake up the league with a new style based purely on statistics. Is it possible for an injured catcher to successfully play first base? Can a pitcher work around his physical defect to contribute to the team's success? Those are some of the many questions Beane and Brand explore as they put their theory into action.

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Sarah Baraba

​After the first scene of Drive, you'll be left thinking three things: this is not going to be your standard car flick; does Ryan Gosling have any lines?; Urban Outfitters is going to start selling a lot of driving gloves.

Those scattered thoughts aside, the first scene will have you on the edge of your seat after watching Gosling (whose character is only listed as "Driver" in the credits) not escape cops in a high-speed, spark-flying, bullet-dodging pursuit, but rather in a smooth, almost too relaxed manner that has you more satisfied than witnessing a souped-up Mazda get crushed like a beer can. That's because Drive is less about pumping adrenaline than it is about re-stylizing a genre with quality performances from a talented cast.

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