If You Can't Stand the Heat...Get Out of the Kitchen
Finding a gem of a film from a Google search, taking the team from the Little Apple at MSG, and the hometown heroes to cut down the nets in Houston
Tim’s Reviews and Winners is back and better than ever after a long hiatus. Thanks for sticking around despite the long wait.
Boiling Point Directed by: Philip Barantini
Watched: 3/14/23
Rating: 9/10
I’m not very familiar with the UK cinema scene. I had never watched anything from this director or starring these actors before. For the last several weeks, my movie viewing selections were dictated by trying to watch the nominees for the Academy Awards before the big show.
Despite my Letterboxd to-watch list containing all kinds of movies, I decided to do a Google search for the best movies currently on Kanopy (the streaming service I’m able to watch up to 7 selections from each month for free with my library card). Since I wanted to get to bed early and it was only 90 minutes long, I settled on the film ranked ninth on A Good Movie to Watch’s list of films on Kanopy (https://agoodmovietowatch.com/best-movies-on-kanopy/4/). I couldn’t have hoped for a better selection.
Boiling Point is the story of a single night at a high-end restaurant in London. We begin the film with head chef Andy running late and, on the phone, promising to call his son later after missing another important event in his life. As he enters the restaurant, he is confronted by the first major headache of the evening as the health and safety inspector has found many violations of code (several of them of Andy’s doing) and forces them to throw out some turbot and downgrades their rating from 5 to 3 stars.
That’s only the beginning of a long night at the restaurant. The coming trials and tribulations would see a problem with a nut allergy, influencers wanting to go “off-menu”, racist diners, conflict between the kitchen and front-of-house staff, and Andy’s mentor and celebrity chef (to whom Andy owes a significant amount of money) bringing an influential food critic to the restaurant. All of this compounds the personal turmoil in Andy’s life as he tries to make it through the night.
Stephen Graham as Andy leads an amazing cast (special shout out to Vinette Robinson as sous chef Carly) that could not have been any better. The movie is filmed in a single shot (they only did four takes as the Covid pandemic shut down shooting before more could be done) but done tastefully and it felt to flow well with the story. The only thing keeping this from a perfect 10 rating for me was the ending left me a little disappointed after such a great work.
The film is far from a relaxing ride. It’s 90 minutes of high stress, but it’s worth it.
Kansas State moneyline (+105 at DraftKings) vs Michigan State
I’m not a big college basketball watcher. The season is fully contained within the NBA season, and since I find The Association a better entertainment product, I only watch the occasional Iowa State game or a matchup of top 10 teams until the tournament starts in March.
Since I don’t follow the sport, this might be a good pick to fade, but I’ll try my best to make a case for the Wildcats under first-year head coach Jerome Tang facing the elder statesman Tom Izzo’s Spartans in the round of 16 at Madison Square Garden.
The big reason I’m taking K-State is because they are narrowly rated higher in adjusted efficiency at KenPom. Unlike me, Ken Pomeroy watches a ton of college hoops and his team efficiency rankings are studied by everyone in the game. His rankings have Kansas State as the 21st best team in the nation, slightly ahead of Michigan State at 24th.
With Keyontae Johnson (a great story coming back to basketball after collapsing on the court as a Florida player two seasons ago), the Wildcats have the best talent on the court. Another thing I like about Kansas State, is undersized point guard Markquis Nowell. Nowell is as experienced as anyone, but will be getting his first chance to play at the Garden in front of his friends and family in his hometown of New York. Undersized guards from NYC fall through the cracks of the blue bloods during recruiting. It’s an inefficiency a program with a lesser profile like K-State can benefit from.
Izzo always has his teams ready for March and no one is surprised they are playing in the second weekend despite only earning a 7 seed. The Big Ten is historically down on talent and achievement, but the Spartans remain a tough out for anyone they draw in March. From what I’ve watched, the officials have allowed defenses to be pretty physical and are allowing a lot of contact before calling fouls. This will play into the Spartans’ hands, but not as much as one might think. The Wildcats showed throughout the Big 12 season (the best conference in the country) that they can hang with anybody and play any style necessary to win on the day. The game is close to a toss-up, but I think Kansas State has enough of an edge to make this bet worth your time.
Houston to win NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (+410 at Fanduel)
College basketball might be the toughest championship to win. A team needs to win six games in a row against good teams with no margin for error. If you have one bad game, you’re more than likely done. If you run into a team that has a hot shooting night, you probably aren’t advancing to the next round. Even with the field whittled down from 68 to 16, it’s tough to say which team will be good enough and have enough luck to cut down the nets on Championship Night.
Once again, the best argument for taking Houston to win the championship is Ken Pomeroy ranking them as the best team by his efficiency metric. They are 9th in adjusted offense and 4th in adjusted defense. They have a mix of tough, experienced veteran players and a one-and-done lottery pick in Jarace Walker. Kelvin Sampson is an excellent strategist and will ensure the Cougars are ready for anyone they might face.
Their path to the championship goes through Miami (FL) in the round of 16 and then the winner of Texas and Xavier in the Midwest Regional final. They will be large favorites in both of these games.
If they make it to the Final Four, they will have the benefit of playing in front of favorable crowds in Houston. Going 4-0 over two weeks against four very good teams is a daunting task, but I think Houston is up for the challenge. At four-to-one odds, I don’t think there’s a better value in the tournament.