8A - Monday, November 19, 2012

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

8A - Monday, November 19, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

FILM REIEW
Legendary 'Lincoln'

Mulling over mashed
potatoes and gravy

Spielberg flawlessly
captures humanity
in politics, war
By CARLY KEYES
Daily Arts Writer
More often than not, ruining.
the end of a film will ruin the rea-
son to watch it. But in "Lincoln,"
the surprise is
certainly not*
in the ending
- it's in every -incoln
thing that takes
place before it. At Qualityl6
There's much and Rave
more to the life
of the sixteenth Dreamworks
President of the
United States than what's written
in American history textbooks.
It's time to get "honest" about
Abe.
Steven Spielberg ("War Horse")
directs this poignant period piece
that takes place at the end of the
Civil War, as Lincoln strives for
a peace treaty and the abolish-
ment of slavery. The film opens
with a muddy battle of bayonettes
and boots, gruesome close-ups of
spearing and stomping on faces
n the murky water. But Spiel-
berg takes the viewer behind the
scenes of the government rather
than enemy lines with two rivet-
ing, interwoven storylines: Lin-
coln's perspective as both a family
man and commander-in-chief,
and the House of Representatives
as it debates the fervently contest-
ed Thirteenth Amendment.
Spielberg recreates the era
using simple cinematography,
so the film functions more like a
documentary than a Hollywood
production. But his most impres-
sive achievement -proving why
he's one of the best at his craft - is
doingthe impossible: He portrays
politicians as human.
Despite power and rever-
ence, Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis,
"Nine") is also a tall man in a top

DREAMWORKs

"Twilight' made how much at the box office?! Fetch my axe!"

hat who lies on the floor with
his youngest son, helps his wife
(Sally Field, "The Amazing Spi-
der-Man") out of her corset and
forbidshis eldest son (Joseph Gor-
don-Levitt, "Looper") to enlist in
the Union army. Coated in affabil-
ity, he shares touching, personal,
thought-provoking anecdotes
with everyone from his cabinet to
Negro soldiers - awesome exam-
ples of the inventive dialogue
by Tony Kushner ("Munich"),
partially adapted from the book
"Team of Rivals: The Political
Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by
Donna Kearns Goodwin. At one
point, the Union battle strategist
runs out of the room screaming
because he just can't handle yet
another "Lincoln Lesson."
Day-Lewis's performance is
like a cinematic resurrection. He
doesn't act like Lincoln - he is
Lincoln.
But it's not just Lincoln carry-
ing the film - he's flanked by an
uncensored mob of unruly politi-
cians. If government proceedings
today were anything like this,
C-SPAN could televise pay-per-
view specials and make a killing.
These stately scholars behave like
schoolyard boys as they spend as
much time tossing crass insults
and embarrassing epithets around
the room as they do productively

debating.
Tommy Lee Jones ("Emperor")
as the radical Republican congres-
sional leader is naturally one of
the worst offenders. Comedy con-
tinues when the secretary of state
(David Straitharn, "The Bourne
Legacy") recruits three men to
bribe Democrats to support the
bill. James Spader ("Shorts") plays
ringleader as the conniving trio
both succeeds and fails in a series
of hilarious scenes. Jokes and plot
thicken as Democrats must now
combat their own kind who have
hopped the fence. The brimming
buffoonery in the narrative pro-
vides refreshing relief from the
gravity of the overarching subject
matter.
The best film is the kind that
ends way too soon, and when
this one does come to a close,
Lincoln's death consumes less
than five minutes of screen time.
The brilliance of "Lincoln" is in
the journey, not the destination.
It sets itself apart from the aver-
age war biopic by showcasing the
human elements of its characters.
A soldier is also a son, a politician
is also a husband and a president
is also a father. There's a lot more
to people than their title and what
they do - it's far more important,
and cinematically gripping, to
manifest who they are.

Though praising and
bashing the eats in Ann
Arbor is my customary
modus operandi, I'm shifting
course a bit this time around
in honor of
Turkey Day.
Join me as I
mix together
a few family
favorites, a
blue-ribbon
culinary
technique or NATHAN
two and some WOOD
real-deal tips
and tricks
that - served with a pinch of
sarcasm -,will have you cook-
ing up the perfect Thanksgiving
dinner in no time. In this third
installment of my five-part
Thanksgiving series, we're
whipping together every kid's
favorite: mashed potatoes and
gravy.
No Thanksgiving meal is
complete without a pulvinate
portion of potatoes and a gener-
ous glug of gravy. I would know.
I still remember - like an
unrelenting nightmare - the
wretched Thanksgiving when
my family decided pan drip-
pings from the roasted turkey
would suffice as gravy. My
favorite part of Thanksgiving
dinner ... gone. I think I cried
myself to sleep that night.
But worry not! By following
these simple recipes (and not in
the footsteps of my lazy family
members), you'll be well on your
way to a table of smiling faces.
and satisfied stomachs.
Mashed Potatoes Ingredients:
5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
4 ounces softened cream
cheese
4 ounces sour cream
1/a cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus
more, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
Directions:
Peel the potatoes and chop

them into rough, two-inch
cubes. Better yet, find some-
one else to do this for you.
Throw them into a large pot
and cover with cold water. The
reason we're using cold water -
besides it being unnecessarily
dangerous to kerplunk chunks
of potato into boiling water - is
that they cook more evenly this
way. Bring the water to a boil,
reduce the heat to a simmer
and cook for approximately 30
minutes.
Check that your potatoes are
fully cooked by poking them

cup flour
1 cup skimmed turkey drip-
pings
1 cup homemade turkey broth
1 can (2 cups) store-bought
turkey broth
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
sauce
2 teaspoons poultry season-
ing
1/a teaspoon garlic powder
Kosher salt and freshly
ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:

01

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fork. If you can achieve Set a two-quart saucepan
at without meeting any over medium heat. Add the but-
ance from the potatoes, ter and turkey fat. To obtain the
hey're ready to be mashed. turkey fat, pour all pan drip-
ain the spuds in a colander pings into a bowl and let rest
romptly transfer them until the turkey fat rises to the
o the empty pot. Use a top. Skim off a quarter of a cup
masher for no more than and discard the remaining fat.
seconds to get a prelimi- Add the flour, and mix to thor-
mash. Add the rest of the oughly combine. Cook this paste,
dients and go to town. known as a "roux," for a minute
gh we're trying to elimi- or so until lightly browned. This
ill major chunks, we're gets that raw taste out of the roux
ooting for wheatpaste, so so that bythe time we're finished,
responsibly. it may look like paste, but it won't
taste like it.
This part requires alot of
m ee n concentration and a strong
arm: Add the cup of homemade
Day without turkey broth - which we made
in last week's column-to the
the gravy saucepanlittle by little while
Jr y whisking vigorously. Do not stop
whisking or you'll get lumpy
gravy. Continue whisking vigor-
ve in one of those big china ously while adding the remain-
you only get to use on ing wet ingredients.
ksgiving with your nic- Season with poultry season-
ving spoon and apat of ing, garlic powder, salt and pep-
utter. Voilk! Silky, dense, per. Crank the heat up high and
y, rich potatoes guaranteed continue stirring until bubbles
ase everyone (except calo- begin to form. It's at this time
unting Cousin Connie). that you've achieved peak gravy
w, onto that gravy. thickness. Cooking the gravy
e secret to making a large for much longer will cause the
ity of high-quality gravy thickening power of the roux
ng clever. Since there are to break down, yielding runny
enough pan drippings gravy, so set the heat to low and
ke a sufficient amount of keep the gravy uncovered on
,we're going to have to get the stove until ready to serve.
help from the store. But, With a subtle kick from the
re tasteful about it, no one garlic powder, complexity from
know. the Worcestershire sauce, deep
flavor from the slow-roasted
Gravy Ingredients: turkey and richness from the
butter, no one will ever guess
1 cup ( you used store-bought broth.
stick) butter But just to prove my point, pull
1/4 cup out a spoonful of the velvety
tur- gravy every time someone
RT keywas by, blow on it and - while
Sfat cupping your hand beneath the
3o 5 steaming spoon - say: "Here,
try this." Watch their faces light
up, accept their compliments
and take pride in the fact you've
made gravy fit for the gods.

I

Wood will lead you to the
perfect sweet potatoes and
dressing in the next installment.
HOME TWEET HOME

6

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