Black Narcissus

November 6, 2023November 3, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

If you like your nuns with a side of murderous melodrama, then strap in for the Technicolor fantasy of Black Narcissus (Disc/Download). A movie brought to my attention by Jenny Hammerton of Silver Screen Suppers, this was my first introduction into the world of Powell & Pressburger. After sinking into their completely immersive setting of a 1940s Himalayan monastery, consider me hooked.

Starring Deborah Kerr as the leader of a group of nuns tasked with setting up a convent on a remote mountaintop, Black Narcissus feels at times like a science fiction film (sample tagline: Trapped in isolation, the inhabitants of a spaceship go a little mad…). Maybe there’s a mysterious illness slowly claiming the lives of the these inhabitants, or maybe it’s all in their heads. Swap in wimples for spacesuits, and you’ve got the general vibe of Black Narcissus. These women are lonely, and it doesn’t help that there’s a handsome caretaker (David Farrar) coming around in his short-shorts to flirt and rile them up. He makes the nuns remember what their lives were like before joining the order, and eventually it all becomes too much for Sister Ruth, played marvelously by Kathleen Byron. Ditching her dreary robes for a smart new dress and dark red lipstick, she is your worst nightmare—a woman pushed to the brink, with nothing to lose.

Because color is such an important element to the production design of this movie, it seems fitting to drink one of the most colorful gins on the market, Empress 1908. The nuns make a big show of dropping a purple powder into some water in an effort to wow the locals at the new infirmary (I’m still not sure what the powder was—quinine?), but you can do the same at home with either your Empress Gin, or a pinch of Butterfly Pea Powder. This is definitely a floral-inspired cocktail because on this depressing mountaintop, we need flowers more than food. While watching Black Narcissus, I recommend drinking a Floral Gin & Tonic.

Floral Gin & Tonic

2 oz Empress 1908 Gin (OR 2 oz London Dry Gin w/ ¼ Teaspoon Butterfly Pea Powder)

4 oz Elderflower Tonic

Dried lime and flower garnish

Build drink over ice, stirring slowly to combine (if using the powder, stir a little more to fully mix). Garnish with a dried lime + flowers.

I’m thrilled to be collaborating this week with Jenny Hammerton over at Silver Screen Suppers because she actually puts together a full meal for her pairings! If you want to craft your own dinner party for Black Narcissus, be sure to subscribe to the Dinner and a Movie Substack and come prepared with an appetite, plus your moodiest purple gin. Cheers!

Classic Films

Cat People

October 30, 2023October 25, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

I confess: I am not a cat person. Frankly, they terrify me. So when I heard about Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 B-horror film Cat People (Disc/Download), I assumed I’d have to close my eyes through most of it. However, I was delighted to discover that it’s actually the perfect level of spooky, supernatural fun during this Halloween season. Really, the only scary thing is how long I waited to watch this charming classic!

Starring Simone Simon as a Serbian illustrator who believes she’s descended from a line of “cat people”, the movie takes place in a bustling Manhattan where the female characters have a surprising amount of agency for the time period. We see career gals instead of housewives, and indeed, even after Irena marries a nautical engineer, she’s still a fairly independent person (albeit a troubled one, under the care of a psychiatrist). You see, Irena believes that if she becomes aroused with strong emotion, she’ll turn into a jungle cat and attack. This becomes inconvenient for her husband, and it isn’t long before he’s looking at his female co-worker with straying eyes. Here is where the film becomes more domestic soap opera than supernatural horror, and probably why I enjoy it so much. Although we see plenty of zoo cats pacing in their cages, and hear frightening hisses from the shadows, the audience is spared any encounters with gore. The horror is achieved by building tension and fear, much like Rosemary’s Baby would do decades later.

One of my favorite lines is when Irena gets hissed at by a kitten and laments, “Cats just don’t like me.” Same girl, same. However, one “cat” I do get along with is of the cocktail variety! While watching Cat People, I recommend drinking a Black Cat.

Black Cat

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Cherry Brandy

3 oz Cranberry Juice

3 oz Cola

Maraschino cherry (garnish)

Fill a glass with ice, and top with vodka, cherry brandy, cranberry juice, and cola. Stir well to combine, and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

If you’re looking for sexy supernatural fun this week, I’d suggest doing a double feature of Cat People and I Married a Witch, the Veronica Lake classic from the same year. Both feature strong female leads, ancient curses, and glamorous costumes, and as an added bonus, neither one is frightening enough to keep you up at night. Cheers!

Dramas

Don’t Look Now

October 16, 2023October 11, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

I thought I was through with being scared by Nicolas Roeg after watching Anjelica Huston peel her face off in The Witches, but it turns out, there was one more bit of nightmare fodder waiting for me. Don’t Look Now (Disc/Download) is a gorgeous, moody thriller based on the story by Daphne du Maurier, and perfect for those times when you want a dash of sexy sophistication with your horror.

Although I love the Venice of David Lean’s Summertime, Roeg’s Venice in Don’t Look Now feels much more authentic to the Venice I’ve personally encountered. This is a decaying city, full of narrow dark alleys, crumbling mosaics, and murky water. It’s also the perfect place to stage a horror film because one never knows what’s hiding in the shadows, or what you’ll find around the next corner. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are fantastic together, playing a married couple still grieving the death of their young daughter, living in Venice while Sutherland works to restore a church. During a lunch break, they encounter a blind clairvoyant who informs them their dead daughter’s spirit is still with them. Also… danger is imminent. Roeg plays with time in a really interesting way, flashing backwards and forwards to knock the viewer off balance. You aren’t really sure where you are until the thrilling climax makes everything clear. In one second, this ghost story becomes something much more sinister.

Don’t Look Now is filled with flashes of red, usually in the form of a little girl’s raincoat. Let’s make an appropriately macabre Italian cocktail with a splash of Campari and a few grapefruit bitters. While watching Don’t Look Now, I recommend drinking this Death in Venice cocktail.

Death in Venice

½ oz Campari

3-4 dashes Grapefruit Bitters

5 oz Prosecco

Pour Campari and grapefruit bitters into a chilled flute and top with Prosecco.

This film caused a lot of controversy at the time of its release because of its very “aerobic” sex scene, a scene I actually thought was well-constructed. Roeg cuts back and forth from wild passion to the mundane task of getting dressed for a night on the town, from biting and clawing to putting on socks. This scene represents a lot of what I like about this movie—it mixes the terror of death with the everyday business of living. Maybe that makes it even scarier, for that flash of red can appear on even the most ordinary of days. Cheers!

Children's

The Little Mermaid

October 9, 2023October 4, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Strong enough to reduce a middle-aged woman to tears, as an animated crab sings “Kiss the Girl” to two beautiful people in a rowboat. Tears were also shed during Halle Bailey’s rendition of “Part of Your World”, even though I personally want to be where the people aren’t. The 2023 version of The Little Mermaid (Download) may be billed as an updated “live-action” spin on the 1989 cartoon that captured my 6-year-old heart, but the elements that made the original great are still there: a room full of gadgets and gizmos, a cute dog, and a Rubenesque sea witch.

Let’s get my two critiques out of the way before we get to cocktails:

This movie is far too long. Are children able to sit through two-and-a-half-hour runtimes? I have trouble, and I’m forty.
I don’t consider this to be live-action, but rather, “more realistically animated”. Actual, live humans account for about 20% of what’s happening onscreen. Splash was live-action, and The Little Mermaid is not Splash. Unfortunately.

As for what the film is, I would say it’s still a fun, romantic fantasy about following one’s heart. This new iteration gives us a better sense of the time period and geography than the original cartoon did, and it allows for a bit more character development. Turns out Ursula is Ariel’s evil aunt, and Prince Eric is an adopted wannabe Magellan. I like that he has more of a goal than “Prince”, and I also like the snarling sibling relationship between Ursula and King Triton. Turns out, families are complicated messes, even in a Disney movie.

With the film’s Caribbean setting, it seems appropriate to make a Rum-based cocktail. While watching The Little Mermaid, I recommend drinking this classic Fish House Punch.

Fish House Punch

¾ oz Dark Rum

¾ oz Cognac

¾ oz Peach Brandy

½ oz Simple Syrup

¼ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Lemon Juice

Lime Slice

Maraschino Cherry

Fill a shaker with ice. Add all the liquid ingredients and shake until chilled. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice and garnish with a lime slice and cherry.

You might be tempted to make something colorful and sugary for this movie, but I prefer to stay true to the time period in which it’s set. This seems like the kind of drink that would be passed around by sailors as they’re telling tall tales of sirens and shipwrecks, while ladies struggle with their corsets. As for me, I’m content to drink it in my living room with my very cute dog, surrounded by my thingamabobs. Cheers!

Comedies

The Player

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

With the historic 2023 Hollywood writer’s strike thankfully coming to an end, it seems fitting to watch a movie where a screenwriter comes to an “arrangement” with a Hollywood studio exec, and in effect gets the final word. Robert Altman’s The Player (Disc/Download) is a fun satire of the industry, where pitches get made on the fly, stars wander in and out of the frame, and power is fleeting. What did it take to get a movie greenlit in 1992? Apparently, Julia Roberts and a happy ending.

I always love movies and television shows where stars play a version of themselves, and The Player is chock full of cameos from people like Burt Reynolds, Cher, Jack Lemmon, and Buck Henry (just to name a few of the 60+ celebrities parading through, both major and minor). This speaks to the idea that Los Angeles is a “company town”, and even though the Classic Hollywood studio system may be long gone, there’s still a lingering hierarchy in place. Actors are close to the top of the food chain, while screenwriters are unfortunately down at the bottom. Producers and execs? They’re at the very top. Tim Robbins is fantastic as hotshot studio exec Griffin Mill, playing the role with a pitch-perfect note of smarmy insincerity. The plot transitions into a comedic noir when Griffin inadvertently murders a screenwriter he thinks has been sending him death threats (a twist straight out of the classic film posters lining his office walls), and he quickly has to pivot from a man who has everything, to a man who has everything to lose.

With so many Hollywood locations used in the filming of this, it shocked me that The Ivy wasn’t one of them. Growing up in the ’90s, I thought this restaurant behind the white picket fence was where all the big deals happened. At least, that’s what People magazine led me to believe! Altman may have skipped it, but that doesn’t mean we have to. While watching The Player, I recommend drinking The Ivy Gimlet.

The Ivy Gimlet

3 oz Vodka

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

6-8 fresh mint leaves

Lime Wheel

Prepare glass by rubbing a lime wheel around the rim, then dip in sugar. Fill with crushed ice, then set aside. In a metal shaker, muddle mint with lime juice and simple syrup. Add vodka and a few ice cubes, and shake until chilled. Pour entire contents of shaker into prepared glass. Garnish with lime wheel and more fresh mint.

When Griffin says at one point, “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process,” one wonders if today’s execs saw this film as a roadmap to where the industry might be headed next. As ludicrous as some of these pitches in The Player are, I’d give anything to see these types of original movies on offer at the local cineplex. Without existing IP, how does anything get greenlit now? The sad fact is, most of the time, it doesn’t. Movies: now, more than ever… a repackaging of something you’ve already seen before.

Uncategorized

Cinema Sips 10-Year Anniversary

September 25, 2023 LizLocke2 Comments

To quote Barry Manilow, “Looks like we made it!”

This week marks the 10-year anniversary of Cinema Sips, and what a decade it’s been. I’m proud that the blog still feels every bit as fresh as it did back in September 2013 with my very first post, A League of Their Own (paired with a Rockford Peach Fizz), while the pictures and recipes have only gotten better with each passing year. I will probably always struggle to use WordPress, but working on my writing and mixology skills has always taken priority over working on my web design skills. I may not know what SEO is, but I have a decent grasp on commas and Campari.

When I decided to start blogging, I knew I had to pick a topic that excited me; one that didn’t feel like work each week. Enter: movies and cocktails. Writing Cinema Sips has never been a chore because I love watching movies, I love experimenting with new cocktails, and I love sharing my thoughts about the things that excite me. To create a low-pressure, fun community, I’ve purposely never tried to monetize the blog in a major way, or create a paywall, or try to get sponsors. That would make it feel like work. My Amazon Affiliate links are mostly just a helpful way to guide readers toward the movies I’m talking about. Maybe I’m doing blogging wrong in terms of the greater influencer sphere out there, but I’m doing it right for me. Hopefully, it’s right for you too.

When I was doing author events and interviews this summer in support of my debut novel Follow the Sun, I got a couple of questions over and over. Maybe you’ve wondered about them too, so I’ll address them here:

Will you continue the blog now that you’re a published author?
Will there ever be a Cinema Sips book?

To answer the first question, there would be no Follow the Sun without Cinema Sips. Exercising my writing and editing muscle each week on this blog has made me a better novelist, and the community I built helped in a million different ways when it came to getting published. I still love coming here this week, so I’m going to keep it up as long as I still feel that way. That being said, there might be a skipped week or two if I’m particularly busy with other things or need a break.

As for a Cinema Sips book, well… it’s complicated. I spent the last ten years trying to sell a fiction manuscript. Non-fiction book proposals are a whole different beast. Right now, I’m more interested in putting my energy toward the next fiction manuscript and maintaining this blog for all to enjoy. That’s not to say that if a book editor approached me about doing something I’d dismiss it automatically; it just means I’m not actively seeking that opportunity out. In short, I’m open, but my phone is not ringing off the hook like Julie Powell’s in Julie & Julia. And I’m okay with that. Que sera, sera, as Doris Day would say.

Instead of a new movie/cocktail post this week, I thought it would be more fun to share some of my previous favorites. These are posts where I felt like the pairing was spot-on, and they’re recipes I’ve made again and again. Maybe you want to mix one and join the celebration! Be sure and let me know in the comments if you have a favorite Cinema Sips pairing, or thoughts on where you’d like to see the blog go from here. I’m excited about what the next ten years will bring, and as always, from the bottom of my heart, cheers.

10 Things I Hate About You w/ “Prickly Pair” Margarita

Classic Films · Comedies

It Happened to Jane

September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

In times of uncertainty, I often ask myself—What Would Doris Do? Brought low by the summer doldrums, I recently embarked on a complete Doris Day re-watch, starting with Romance on the High Seas, ending with With Six You Get Eggroll, and covering everything in between. The hope is that her smile will make me smile. Maybe seeing her pluck and tenacity in the workplace will get me back to work. After the publication of my novel Follow the Sun, I’ve been at loose ends, not sure where I go from here. I climbed the mountain, came back down, and… now what? I just start over from scratch? Climb another mountain? Climb every mountain?

In this week’s pick It Happened to Jane (Disc/Download), Doris does just that. Her husband has died, leaving her with two small children and a lobster business to run. She has her best friend Jack Lemmon on hand to lend support, but he’s too scared to admit he harbors romantic feelings for her, and she’s too busy trying to restart her life to see what’s been right in front of her all along. There’s a great David & Goliath storyline as Lemmon and Day battle the big bad railroad tycoon (Ernie Kovacs) whose budget cuts have resulted in a train full of rotten lobsters, and in our current era of workers facing off against greedy CEOs, the plot feels quite contemporary. As usual, Doris triumphs with her signature mix of talent, strength, and vulnerability, making us believe that everything’s going to be okay in the end. That’s why her movies and her star persona endure—because we’re all looking for that brand of hope. If she can make it through the Warner Brothers years, with terrible parts in terrible movies (ahem, Tea for Two), to get to It Happened to Jane and Pillow Talk, maybe I can make it through this weird time of having a published book on the shelf (admittedly, a book not many have heard of), coupled with a tremendous amount of anxiety about whether there will be a second one someday. If Doris Day can find love with Jack Lemmon and save her lobster business, maybe I can pull myself out of bed and write something bigger than a blog post.

Speaking of Jack Lemmon, I’m very grateful that his last name lends itself so well to citrus cocktail puns. Plus, I can always count on him to lift my spirits in much the same way Doris does. However bad my day is, however many lemons the universe has served up, Jack can turn it around. Well, Jack Lemmon and a cocktail. While watching It Happened to Jane, I recommend drinking this Lemmon-Drop.

Lemmon-Drop

2 oz Luxardo Limoncello

2 oz Vodka

1 oz Simple Syrup

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Lemon twist for garnish

Combine limoncello, vodka, simple syrup, and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

By my calculations, I’ll be done with the Doris Day re-watch around January 2024. Hopefully by then, I’ll have absorbed her wisdom and possess a clearer idea about where I’m headed next. Maybe I’ll begin to view starting over as an exciting thing instead of a scary thing. Lord knows, Doris had to do it plenty of times both in her personal life and on the screen. In the end, she was okay. She had a great life full of laughter and dogs and bicycle rides through Beverly Hills. Those early Warner Brothers films were merely a blip in her autobiography. So for now I’ll just say, “Que sera, sera.” What will be, will be.

Classic Films · Comedies

Here Comes Mr. Jordan / Heaven Can Wait / Down to Earth

September 12, 2023September 12, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

This week, I’d like to tell you a story about a really special movie that got remade over and over again. Once upon a time, there was a play called “Heaven Can Wait”. Columbia Pictures decided they wanted to turn this comedy about the afterlife into a feature-length film, but they didn’t have the rights to the title. Those were already snapped up by Twentieth Century-Fox. So they made a picture called Here Comes Mr. Jordan in 1941. Then in 1943, Fox released a movie called Heaven Can Wait (covered here on Cinema Sips), unrelated to the play, but still a comedy about the afterlife. Still with me? Okay, good. Then we skip ahead to 1978, when Warren Beatty decided to make his version for Paramount Pictures, and lucky Warren, he got to use the original play’s title Heaven Can Wait. Fast forward to 2001, when the Weitz Bros. made their version as a vehicle for Chris Rock, giving it the title Down to Earth (which was actually the name of Columbia’s 1947 sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but let’s not even go there). This week, I’m watching all three movies: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Down to Earth (2001). What is it about this story that has Hollywood reincarnating it every thirty years or so? Let’s pour a drink and find out.

The basic plot shared by all three films is that a guy on the cusp of success suddenly dies in a freak accident. When he gets to Heaven, he protests, saying his time wasn’t up yet. The angels check their records, and… yeah- he’s right! His time wasn’t up! The grim reaper made a mistake. So, they send the soul back down, but unfortunately his body has already been destroyed. That means he has to find a new body, one that hasn’t been discovered as deceased yet. The best candidate they find is a wealthy jerk, notorious for screwing over the less-fortunate. At first the soul wants nothing to do with this body, but then he sees a beautiful woman who’s been harmed by the millionaire. By taking this body, he can help her. Hilarity ensues when the millionaire suddenly turns into a kindhearted philanthropist and decides to pivot his career toward the original soul’s chosen one. In Here Comes Mr. Jordan it’s a boxer, in Heaven Can Wait it’s an NFL quarterback, and in Down to Earth it’s a comedian. The only problem is that this millionaire has a target on his back, so the original soul has to jump again into another body, after he’s already made the girl of his dreams fall in love with body #2. Will she still know him? Will destiny prevail? Can this soul have the future it was always meant to have, in whatever body it inhabits? Are the loved ones we’ve lost still out there somewhere, even though it seems impossible? These are the big questions being posed by this story, and they’re questions I personally find fascinating. It’s no wonder Hollywood does too.

In Here Comes Mr. Jordan, boxer Joe Pendleton complains about being taken out right when he was “in the pink”. Meaning, his physical form was tip-top, and exactly where it needed to be for him to win a championship. This seems like as good an excuse as any to crack open a bottle of my new favorite gin, Beefeater Pink Strawberry. I’m not normally a fan of fruity flavored spirits, but this one is something special. I love it mixed with grapefruit tonic and a splash of grapefruit juice, which actually pairs pretty well with the “Gin and Juice” scene in Down to Earth! While watching these “Heaven Can Wait” adaptations, I recommend drinking this In the Pink cocktail.

In the Pink

2 oz Beefeater Pink Strawberry Gin

4 oz Pink Grapefruit Tonic (I like Fentimans)

1 oz Grapefruit Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

Fresh Strawberry, Mint, Lime Twist for garnish

Build drink in a tumbler with ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with fresh mint, strawberry, and lime twist.

Research tells me this story was adapted again into a made-for-TV movie starring Tara Lipinski, but sadly Ice Angel seems to have vanished into the television ether. If I had to pick my favorite version, it’s an extremely tough choice, but I supposed I’d go with 1978’s Heaven Can Wait. The cast is a who’s who of beloved stars (Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, even screenwriter Buck Henry!), and the understated comedic script co-written by Elaine May speaks to me slightly more than the others. However, you really can’t go wrong with any of these movies. If you worry we’ve come to the end of the road, don’t be scared—I’m sure we’ll get another version in approximately five to ten years. Cheers!

*If you feel like going on your own movie binge, here’s a link to all three on Amazon:

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Disc/Download)

Heaven Can Wait (Disc/Download)

Down to Earth (Disc/Download)

Action/Adventure/Heist · Comedies

Ocean’s Thirteen

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

If you’re in the mood to watch a greedy, orange-tinted thug finally experience some consequences, you could certainly watch the evening news, OR you could watch the delightful finale to Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen (Disc/Download). Campy and colorful with plenty of late-1960s style cues, this movie takes a lot of twists and turns but pulls it together by the end. From this crew, I’d expect nothing less.

After taking Europe by storm, Ocean’s guys head back to Las Vegas for a job that’s less about profit, and more about revenge. King of the Strip—aka King of Big Glasses—Reuben (Elliott Gould) has suffered a heart attack brought on by the evil dealings of rival casino boss Willy Bank (Al Pacino), and the group is on a mission to make sure Willy’s big opening is an epic fail. Utilizing their entire arsenal of tools (scent gags, fake noses, fake mustaches, bed bugs, food poisoning, earthquakes, loaded dice, minor explosions, slot machine-hacking, etc.), Ocean’s team pulls off both an elaborate heist and a giant f-you to Bank. It’s probably no coincidence that the film also features a labor dispute at a Mexican plastics factory because this entire trilogy has always been about redistribution of wealth. Whether it’s Terry Benedict, or The Night Fox, or Willy Bank, the common villain is a man with too much money and power who needs to be taken down a notch. Or, millions of notches.

Speaking of the plastics factory, I hate to see a perfectly good bottle of tequila sacrificed as a Molotov cocktail, when it could have been used in a real cocktail! Let’s get that gold cocktail glitter back out this week to mix up a drink that’s perfect for Bank’s gilded palace. While watching Ocean’s Thirteen, I recommend drinking a No Dice cocktail.

No Dice*

1 oz Blanco Tequila

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1/4 oz Cointreau

1 oz Lime Juice

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

1 egg white

Edible Glitter (for garnish)

Combine Tequila, Yellow Chartreuse, Cointreau, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg white in a shaker without ice. Shake well to combine, then add ice. Shake again for another 15-20 seconds, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Dust with edible glitter.

_{*Adapted from a recipe in Tequila Cocktails by Brian Van Flandern}

These Ocean’s movies are so satisfying because the good guys always come out on top, and they always take care of the people who helped them along the way. There are major and minor players, but each of them gets a fair cut. And the bad guys? Well, they never really suffer too much, but they’re certainly unhappy and inconvenienced by the end. I’d still count that as a win. Cheers!

Comedies

Raising Arizona

August 28, 2023August 27, 2023 LizLocke2 Comments

If this unrelenting summer has you down, then pour a drink and prepare to laugh yourself silly at Raising Arizona (Disc/Download). A movie I didn’t initially “get”, it’s gotten funnier with each successive re-watch, particularly once I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen. There are some films that benefit from zero distractions and real-time audience reactions, and this screwball heist comedy is one of them.

Starring Nicolas Cage as convicted felon Hi, and Holly Hunter as his beloved wife (and booking officer) Ed, Raising Arizona is among the many Coen Brothers films with clear Preston Sturges influences. The plot follows the “ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances” archetype when an infertile Hi and Ed get the harebrained idea to kidnap one of the Arizona Quintuplets and raise him as their own. This is followed by some impressive camerawork by cinematographer (and future Men In Black director) Barry Sonnenfeld in the nursery, as Hi juggles babies and tries to choose “the best one”. While I normally find babies in movies (and in life) to be pretty tedious, clever editing endears the Arizona quints to my cold heart. Plus, they give Nicolas Cage an excuse to run through a grocery store with a pack of Huggies under one arm and a pair of panty-hose compressing his Woody Woodpecker hairstyle, and for that I am truly grateful.

When the weather gets so hot that you start to feel like you live in a tin can plopped into the desert, that’s when you know it’s time to cool off with a cocktail. While watching Raising Arizona, I recommend drinking this riff on a classic, the “Hi” & Dry.

“Hi” & Dry

2 oz Whiskey

3 oz Canada Dry Ginger Ale

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Rosemary Sprig & Dried Orange for garnish

Combine whiskey, ginger ale, and bitters in a glass filled with a large ice cube. Stir gently to combine, and garnish with a rosemary sprig and dried orange wheel.

With a memorable score that features plenty of yodeling, plus over-the-top line deliveries from Cage and Hunter, plus a mulleted Frances McDormand pushing childhood immunization (yay vaccines!), Raising Arizona has crawled its way up the ladder of my favorite Coen Brothers movies. Before you make the mistake of thinking this is just another ridiculous movie about ridiculous people, I suggest you sleep on it. Cheers!

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