The Belcourt's tapped into a grapevine goldmine with its monthly "Wine, Food & Film" events, which pair food-themed films with a pre-screening reception of wines from Village Wines and heavy snacks from Whole Foods. At $25 a ticket, the screenings tend to sell out well in advance of show time.
Here's Emily Bartlett Hines in this week's Scene discussing tonight's entry, the documentary Blood into Wine:
Metal fans and wine snobs have reputations as self-important, humorless demographics. So when a documentary follows Tool / A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan on his Arizona winemaking venture, you might expect a perfect storm of self-indulgent hubris. On the contrary: the trailer for Blood into Wine makes it look like the Spinal Tap of chardonnay. Directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, it makes good use of Keenan's friends in the comedy world by casting them as absurd fictional characters — Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Awesome Show, Great Job fame), and Keenan's sometime Puscifer bandmate Milla Jovovich. The trailer is hilarious, but Wine also has a real story to tell about Keenan's decision to abandon his music career in order to play head winemaker, and his struggle to get some respect for his small desert vineyard. Recommended even if you don't like Tool. See www.belcourt.org to buy tickets. 7 p.m. at The Belcourt.
