Movie Tagline: Shoot first. Sightsee later.
The beer of choice for this pairing is a quadrupel from Brouwerij De Halve Maan in Bruges. A quadrupel, or quad, is a Belgian style ale with a deep, dark color and a rich malty palate. They are particularly strong beers; this one comes in at 11% ABV. It is a complex beer. It smells of candied fruits and toasted caramel, and tastes malty and robust. There is a lot going on with this beer, just as there is a lot going on in Martin McDonagh's directorial debut, In Bruges. The movie can be summed up rather easily. From IMDb: "Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, that last place in the world Ray wants to be." That all seems pretty straightforward. But the beauty of In Bruges lies in the nuanced performances of its three main actors and in how the story manages to be heartbreakingly sad, riotously funny, and genuinely moving throughout. And it does all this without feeling like disparate scenes pieced together. The movie melds all these tonal elements together into one cohesive and compelling story. A story with the breathtaking city of Bruges as its backdrop. So, it is not just the city of Bruges that links these two things together. They share a complexity and a craftsmanship that are both refreshingly unexpected and thoroughly welcomed. All in all, this beer and movie pairing works so well because you will be surprised and delighted by each of them in turn, over and over again.
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Movie Tagline: The one... The only... The FABULOUS
I don't think I need to explain what Dumbo is about. Everyone has seen Dumbo, right? Goofy-looking elephant with giant ears. Uses giant ears to fly and shut down all the haters out there. Super racist depiction of crows. We're all on the same page here. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs to withdraw from. Delirium tremens is a hallucinogenic state caused by intense alcohol withdrawal. It is sometimes referred to as seeing pink elephants, which is so much more whimsical sounding than it actually is. Delirium Tremens, the beer, has numerous pink elephants on its label. If you want to scar your kids for life, have them watch the "Pink Elephants on Parade" bit from Dumbo. Nightmare fuel, that's what you call that. But that's what's great about those old Disney cartoons from the 40s: they don't shy away from showing kids how dark the world can be. It's not to scare them. Not really. It's just being honest and saying that sometimes things are hard, but you shouldn't let that get you down. There's a dark sense of humor in those movies that you don't get nowadays. If you think Disney was dark, you should check out some of the Bimbo the Dog cartoons from the 30s. Bimbo was a Fleischer Studios creation, the same studio that gave us Betty Boop. In fact, Betty was once Bimbo's girlfriend (she was a dog back then, too). Fleischer Studios rivaled anything Disney put out in terms of being weird and dark. That same dark humor is present in the Delirium series of beers from Brouwerij Huyghe. Sure, alcohol can be dangerous and addictive, but that doesn't mean we can't use it for entertainment purposes, too. Life is too short to be taken seriously all the time. So calm your own crippling DTs with some Delirium Tremens and join us in watching a goofy cartoon elephant have his spirit crushed for 60 minutes or so before rising above it all to achieve his full potential. Around here, we call that a normal Thursday night. |
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