Green Onion Pesto and Better Than Chocolate

A few weeks ago I found myself staring into a refrigerator full of a vegetable I had never used before.
Similarly, some years ago I realized I was gay.
In both instances, as I often do when I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I turned to the internet.

Today we will be reviewing the movie Better than Chocolate (one of my original 5 lesbian movie discoveries) and Green Onion Pesto (the most delicious thing I found to make with green onions.)



Here is the recipe
Start by chopping up the following:
2 bunches of green onion stalks (about 10 onions)
1/2 cup of almonds
2-3 garlic cloves (you can play with this depending on how garlic-y you like things)

Blend them all together, adding:
lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon's worth)
3 Tablespoons of parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
and a dash of olive oil

Cook the pasta of your choice (we used linguine) to your preferred degree of "al dente,"
strain, and mix in the pesto. Serve into bowls and enjoy!

You shouldn't have trouble with the blending, unless you're using my blender.
-Lore

Better Than Chocolate (1999)
Directed by Anne Wheeler
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Trailer

Not to be confused with the documentary on bouldering in Switzerland of the same name, this movie is about lady-gays in quite a variety of forms doing typical gay things. A one-night stand turned into living together lesbians, working at a queer bookstore, drag/cabaret acts, having parent troubles, having hate crime troubles, etc.

Having this sort of "scrapbook" of 90s lesbians is both what makes and detracts from the film. The 'central' (I used this world loosely) plot line following Maggie and Kim (pictured) has a pretty unrealistic beginning and is not that interesting. Even their "sexy sex scene" I was promised was kind of weird and awkward.* However as the story progressed and we got to meet people like Francis, the snarky bookstore owner, Carla, a hyper-sexual bisexual, and Judy, an outgoing lesbian trans woman, the movie does improve. Maggie's mother, who comes to live with her, is also quite a character

Over-all the movie is an ok watch—it ends quite happily and does have a story somewhere in there. It won numerous awards at film festivals and is one of Canada's highest grossing films, so clearly it was very impressive for its time…plus you've got great 90s outfits to check out. I was particularly impressed with how they handled Judy's storyline and the existence of transphobia within the gay community. It does kind of posit that "once she get's the surgery she'll be a real woman," which is clearly problematic, but people still struggle with that idea today so I'm not going to bash on it for that too much. A simple, straight-forward movie for when you want something a little silly.

Over-all Rating: unanimously, ⅓ bowl of pesto pasta

Queer Rating: unanimously, full bowl of pesto pasta

Well, thanks for joining us on our second dinner date! If you've seen the movie feel free to comment with your thoughts and we can get a discussion going (just maybe put 'spoiler alert' incase others want to comment about something else). Next week we're planning to watch a rather more mature and serious (and recent) movie to mix things up. -Syd


*I am totally ok with this. I am one of those people kind of awkwarded out by overdrawn sex scenes. I'd rather do it than watch it y'know?