It’s warming up out there! Yesterday was sunny but cool, down in the low seventies. One thing about being a thinner version of myself: it was jeans and sweatshirt weather for me. Today’s a much warmer affair, and I’m about to step out for a Mother’s Day dinner with the fam, and I’m in linen head to toe. Happy Mother’s Day!

Marvel’s Thunderbolts

We were Marvel cinematic completionists for a while, seeing all of the films when they came out. As the kids have gotten older, we’ve been less insistent about seeing each film in the theater. From that list, we have Captain America: Brave New World and The Marvels that we didn’t see in the theater, neither of which I’ve even seen.

Rhonda and I have developed a habit of hitting a winery on Saturdays, which has also limited our movie-going to some degree. Part of the theater diet includes our particular way of seeing them, which is: hit a matinée at our favorite theater in Northfield, NJ (it’s an independently owned venue), then roll back to a nearby shopping area so the boys can check Target and GameStop while Rhonda and I stock up on bagels. We learned that by going in the late afternoon, just before closing, they will often throw in some extra bagels if they’re piling up.

For a while, we’d make a night out of it, taking in the movie and housing some popcorn and sugary stuff we smuggle in from Dollar General (aka Desserts General), hitting the stores, and then having dinner out. But popcorn belly is a thing, and we don’t like to force dinner just because we’re nearby. Plus, I make better cocktails than just about every place we go. So we head home after shopping and I make cocktails, and then it’s out for dinner somewhere.

We stopped at the usual Dollar General, which is on the way to the theater, and I looked at my phone while we were waiting in line and realized that, due to the availability of showtimes on Saturday, I had chosen a different theater in the complete opposite direction of where we were. I went into fight or flight mode to figure out how to fix this problem, using the Fandango app from the parking lot of Dollar General to cancel the tickets (you can get a credit if you know you’re going to see another film). We looked at a few other show times and Rhonda made the brilliant suggestion that we shop first and hit the 3 pm show, which is a perfectly serviceable way to do it, but I wasn’t thinking flexibly in the moment.

So we got vermouth, bagels, Aaron got an album, and we even managed to browse Old Navy before heading back to the theater. We loaded up on popcorn (by this point, all I’d eaten all day was a banana and some watermelon) and took our seats.

I had seen some good reviews of Thunderbolts, so I was looking forward to the film. I had high hopes, because in the same way that some offbeat titles in the comic-book-inspired moviesphere have yielded great films (Guardians of the Galaxy is an easy example, but I’d include the second Suicide Squad and Rogue One in that list, too.) I never read any Thunderbolts comics, but I was familiar with the title and broader ragtag team trope.

I thought it was a good flick, but not great. Sentry is a great character. Red Guardian is once again a big bowl of comic relief. I was surprised to see Taskmaster taken out of the story so early, but not terribly disappointed. I just didn’t like that take on Tasky in Black Widow. I can see why they didn’t want to make another Deadpool-style character with taskmaster, but whew that was a dry character.

It was a rushed near the end–but captivating. Sentry is a complex character, driven to cure his own mental illness in the same way that Deadpool underwent experimentation to cure his cancer, and emerged more powerful but still not of a piece. Julia Louis Dreyfus as de Fontaine is a good riff on her Veep character: unabashedly opportunistic, on the verge of exile from government service, duplicitous, riveting on screen.

Thunderbolts was not, as I expected, a standalone title in the universe. Mussing from the ending and the obligatory post credits roll, Marvel is undoubtedly planning to replace the iconic Avengers with something. I’m not going to say too much about the plot in case you haven’t seen it yet. But it was fun and the compromised heroes who make up the team are sympathetic in their way.

Veal Milanese at Savoy Bistro

As with Vineland’s longstanding Maplewood restaurant, the Savoy has long stood at the intersections of Landis Avenue and Union Road. It’s a venue for events, with the Bistro at the front of the building serving as a mid-tier dining experience. (Outside they’ve added Luna’s, which is a more casual outdoor dining experience.)

All of the storied eateries in Vineland have largely remained the same over their long lives. Savoy has iterated on their menu a fair bit of the years, and we like it most of the time for a local bite out.

Aaron revealed that last night, after the movie, we would be treating him to a night out with his squad (they went to Applebees or some similar Darden property in our local shopping zone), so Rhonda and I hopped over to the Savoy.

I’ve had their Veal Milanese at least a half-dozen times, and it’s always good (one time I had a chewy piece). It’s a paillard of veal, breaded and fried, topped with tomatoes and arugula. They always serve their dinners with very banquet-looking sides, including mixed vegetables and a disturbingly composed scoop of mashed potatoes. (I did’t eat the potatoes.) It was going to be this or their Veal Saltimboca, which I also enjoy at the Bistro. We split the clams casino first; theirs feature Cooper Sharp, which I really like. Clams, bacon, and Cooper: like a salt-lick for boozy adults.

Mothers

Human beings make strange fauna and flora; fathers, husbands, and sons are blessed to have these women in their lives, a force of love and nurturance. Whether you are a mother, have a mother, or simply appreciate the love and dedication this day represents, let this weekend bring you moments of joy and connection.