The Peached Tortilla team is keeping busy. What started as a fusion food truck has evolved into a local success story with multiple trucks, brick-and-mortar restaurant, catering service, and now, Peached Social House, a new boutique venue in North Central Austin.
"Our goal was to create a venue space that had an identity of its own but could also be transformed into something further by our clients," said founder Eric Silverstein in a statement.
The 4,400-square-foot space is designed to host everything from pop-up dinners and mixers to art shows and weddings.
The versatile downstairs area holds 100-175 guests, depending on the setup. An open, modern aesthetic courtesy of Kevin Stewart Architect is accentuated by renovated shipping containers and a second-floor mezzanine. There's a state-of-the-art sound system and projector for business meetings and movie screenings. Other amenities available to rent include a bridal suit, funky furniture, and elegant dishware.
A fully equipped commercial kitchen means all of Peached Tortilla's delicious bites are made fresh onsite. In addition to in-house catering, the flexible Social House team connects clients with top vendors to make planning an event as easy — and affordable — as possible.
Peached Social House is now booking events. Look for the space at 6500 N. Lamar Blvd.
In this Hollywood era of franchises, finding one to call their own is a priority for many movie stars. Over 30 years into his career, Ben Affleck had yet to find one; he did star as Batman in multiple movies, but that role has been interchangeable. He seemed to get a prime action hero role with 2016’s The Accountant, but somehow it’s taken nine years for The Accountant 2 to come out.
Affleck’s character of Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man whose abilities to quickly and efficiently comb through mounds of data are matched only by his fighting skills. When Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a former Treasury agent who had previously hunted Christian, is murdered, King’s replacement, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls on Christian to help figure out what happened and track down his killer.
The search quickly finds multiple criminal conspiracies, including a hitman ring, a scheme to abduct migrants, and more. Naturally, Wolff claims to need help in the endeavor, so his mercenary brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) soon joins in on the quest. The two brothers work together to figure out the puzzle while also stopping to have some fun every now and then.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (both returning from the original), the film feels like it is missing many connective scenes. It often starts down one road and seems to be making good progress when it suddenly veers into another storytelling lane with no explanation. This happens multiple times throughout the film, to the point that it becomes almost impossible to tell what the main story is supposed to be.
In the first film, the oddity of having an autistic math genius also being a world-class marksman and fighter somehow made sense. This film leans much more into Christian’s physical skills, with the autistic side of things showing up in his (mostly) emotionless demeanor. While that works to a certain degree, the choppiness of the story undercuts the character traits that Affleck does his best to impart.
The best examples of the messiness of the film come in the multiple scenes that serve as nothing more than comic relief, with not even an attempt at connecting them to the main plot, such as it is. Two of them involve Christian proving himself to be a ladies man despite his lack of conversational skills, both of which fall flat as they seem to be making fun of his autism rather than highlighting positive aspects of it. Each of the comic scenes is so disparate in tone from the rest of the film that they essentially bring the story to a screeching halt.
Affleck is fine in the part, although he’s much better when Christian turns toward action hero mode than when he has to display the character’s autistic traits. Bernthal is great at being an over-the-top macho guy, and he gets to indulge that side of him throughout the film. Addai-Robinson is disserved by a role that doesn’t give her character any autonomy despite her high-powered position.
Affleck’s career has been one of the most up-and-down ones of any supposed A-list actor, and The Accountant 2 marks another down moment for him. He may have finally gotten his first sequel for a film in which he’s the main character, but don’t expect there to be a third installment.
