RAVE - A Most Violent Year

Set in New York, 1981 - a year that by all accounts was one of the most violent years in history - Oscar Isaac plays a Latino immigrant who has developed his heating oil company to the point where he's being targeted by his competitors and the law alike.

While the means of targeting do involve highjacking his oil trucks, and wielding the odd pistol or two, this isn't a particularly violent film, and its title is somewhat irrelevant to the movie and the excellent story that's told.

I'm also unsure why so many movies set in the 70s and 80s have to be shot through a grey lens. It's true that graphics were only 8-bit during the 80s, but I distinctly remember the sun shining, even in England.

Be that as it may, this was a very solid film more than making up for an audience in the tiny Opera Plaza Theater who must've brought along a couple of horses to eat from paper bags - YOU BLOODY NOISY LOT!!!!

RANT - Osteria Cucina Toscana

I thought about this review overnight. I was tempted to just give it a REVIEW - definitely not a RAVE. However, I dwelt on the full ordinariness of this place and now have decided it's worth a RANT.

Saying this was Old School would be a disservice to the many excellent O.S Italian places in and around North Beach. No, Osteria Cucina Toscana was just like my old school - dreary. Unlike my old school however, this place was over-populated by the ancient, a few of whom were sat there reading books as they nibbled on whatever they had chosen from the dreary menu.

My darling date chose much better than me. Her Caprese salad looked good, and she finished it. Her Carbonara pasta looked and tasted equally good, and she finished that too. I'm intentionally covering the amount Mrs. P consumed, because I couldn't bring myself to eat more than half of my tasteless Bruschetta, or a third of my equally tasteless Tortelloni Panna al Prosciutto e Piselli.

To cap it all, the wine list was tiny and all but bereft of anything Italian.

In summary: dull and dreary, and very definitely not going to see my miserable face again.

RAVE - Mason Pacific

Another Nob Hill outing that required the services of Uber - there are more parking spots on the main route during Carnival - but once there we really enjoyed the food.

Mason Pacific has a less than glamorous main room, being full of a bar and wooden tables and - on the night we visited - a group of sailing fans sporting their despicable Oracle shirts. But once ushered through to the other dining room it showed that, at least for that room, they'd had a decorator.

We were divided on the appetizers: Mrs P had the Kale Salad, with Meyer lemon, anchovy, crouton, and parmesan; I had my predictable Foie Gras Torchon, with Perigord truffle, Moscatel, and toast - or as the menu pretentiously proclaims "Toasted Bread".

Then we were in communion over the entrees, both choosing the Papardelle, lamb meatball, sugo, and Castelvetrano olive. This dish was t.a.s.t.y.

Washed down with a few glasses of unremarkable but refreshing Sauvignon Blanc the meal was pronounced a success by the Page party. We'll probably return.

RAVE - Nick Hornby at The Nourse Theater

A departure for us, seeing a writer on stage, reading from one of his essays and in conversation with his editor.

Not that his writings are that foreign to me: I've read Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, A Long Way Down, and The Polysyllabic Spree; just bought his latest book Funny Girl, and at least seen a few of his books that were turned into films: Fever Pitch - both the UK original starring Colin Firth, and the inferior US version starring Jimmy Fallon; About a Boy, An Education, and Wild (for which he wrote the screenplay).

He turns out to be a well-educated and intelligent man, albeit with few of the snooty trimmings that often go with those characteristics. He's surprisingly humble, down-to-earth, and unsurprisingly very funny.

The essay he read from was one of his earliest submissions to The Believer magazine, described his early work as a "Can't do" teacher and odd-but-sometimes-difficult-jobber at a Korean trading company in London.

The only negative I could spot is his love of Arsenal Football Club. Still, you can't have everything.

REVIEW - Cocotte

In our quest to eat our way across San Francisco, we tried for the first time a restaurant that had some positive reviews for its French cooking.

The ambiance, while seeming at first positive as we waited for our table, swung 180 degrees as we were sat at a tiny table in what transpired to be a rather shoddily-decorated restaurant. Not that I normally rate a place based on its toilet facilities, but the ramshackle smallest room at Cocotte almost beggars belief. It was perversely funny to find a French restaurant that chose 1960s France as its toilette inspiration.

The food was so-so - my Fois Gras (yes, it's currently back on the list of legally available foods, for the time being) was as rich and tasty as it ought to be, while my Coq Au Vin was also rich - probably a little too rich if I'm pressed - and tiny-ish. My belle Pavey chose the Goat Cheese and Pistachio Fritter followed by the Duck Confit. She pronounced her choices as good, then dry.

With 3 glasses of decent but not flashy wine, and the required Uber both ways - it's downright impossible to park anywhere on Nob Hill - the outing reminded us there are plenty of more accessible French restaurants in town, serving more reasonably priced food in much more agreeable surroundings.

RAVE - Black Sea

Jude Law plays another rough, tough type. Perhaps not as rough, or tough as his previous incarnation as Dom the recent ex-prisoner, but certainly rougher and tougher than most of his earlier roles.

In Dead Sea, he's laid off from his job as a submarine engineer employed to salvage wrecks. He hears of a sunken WW2 German submarine that was carrying tens of millions of pounds-worth of Russian gold bound for Hitler's coffers. He therefore recruits a group of old and shifty British and Russian submarine experts, gets the financial backing of an equally shifty millionaire and heads for the Black Sea where he buys a war-time Russian sub and heads down into the deep.

This is a taught, atmospheric buried (sunken) treasure hunting thriller that boasts a plot with plenty of tension and just enough twists to keep us captivated for the duration.