Comedies

Shaun of the Dead

October 27, 2014October 27, 2014 LizLocke3 Comments

This Friday is Halloween- that great American holiday where I get to eat candy, drink, and watch scary movies with the lights off in an attempt to fool the trick-or-treaters outside into thinking I’m not home. Since I’m not really one for scary movies, I’m opting for a funny-scary movie this year. Shaun of the Dead (DVD/Download) is one of my favorite movies to watch on Halloween, mainly because it celebrates drinking in a big way and doesn’t go too gross-out with the zombie makeup (I’m looking at you, Walking Dead). I get nervous when I hear hordes of teenage children running up and down the street, plastic pumpkin buckets in hand, so I can think of no better place than my living room to sit and have a nice cold drink and wait for the whole thing to blow over.

Shaun of the Dead is about man-child Shaun (Simon Pegg), who still lives with his roommate Ed (Nick Frost) in London, plays video games, gets wasted on the weekends, and forgets to call his girlfriend. Suddenly a zombie epidemic hits London, and Shaun has to get his friends and family to safety. What is the safest place he can think of? Well the local pub of course! An endless supply of beer, pub snacks, a jukebox, and plenty of seating- sounds pretty good to me. As they hole up at the Winchester, Shaun and his crew have to fend off zombie attacks, set to the tune of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, and armed only with a cricket bat and an old rifle. I love this film because it doesn’t take itself or the horror genre too seriously. When faced with a zombie in the backyard, Shaun and Ed don’t cower in terror, but instead debate over which record they will fling to kill it (sorry, Dire Straits). Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s script is so brilliant, and I find myself laughing time and time again at the pop culture references and send-ups of typical male behavior. Shaun cares about his mates, his beer, his mum, and his girlfriend, in that order. Based on single guys I know, that sounds about right.

My drink this week is inspired by the zombies populating this film. No, it’s not a Zombie, that delicious fruity tiki drink that knocked me down and out one night on a trip to Pittsburgh. Instead, I’m going back a bit further to the Savoy Cocktail Handbook to find something more appropriate for the autumn season. When watching Shaun of the Dead, I recommend drinking a Corpse Reviver #1.

Corpse Reviver #1

2 parts Cognac

1 part apple brandy or Calvados

1 part sweet vermouth

Mix all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake vigorously, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. How’s that for a slice of fried gold?

This drink got its name from being touted as a “hair of the dog” hangover cure. I’m not sure how much I believe in that concept, as having too much of this drink seems more likely to give me a hangover than to take one away. I think I’ll still stick with my 8am Diet Coke, just like Shaun. Many a morning has been spent stumbling to the mini-mart in search of chemical caffeinated goodness, though honestly, the only zombie on-site at the time was probably me. This time, I’m stocking my fridge with Diet Coke in advance of Saturday morning, because you never know what you’ll run into out there. You might just see a guy with red on him, or even a dog looking up. Cheers!

Comedies

Mystic Pizza

October 20, 2014October 18, 2014 LizLockeLeave a comment

Recently I was so excited to see that actress Annabeth Gish had joined the cast of TV’s Sons of Anarchy. Where has she been all these years? Aside from a small part in Beautiful Girls, I really hadn’t seen much of her since her star-making role in this week’s film Mystic Pizza (DVD/Download). That appearance got me excited to re-watch one of my favorite movies, which is an absolutely perfect pick for autumn. It makes me long for fall in New England, filled with crisp leaves, cold nights, and chunky sweaters.

Mystic Pizza follows three female friends on the cusp of adulthood as they navigate tricky romances and their future dreams while living in the small town of Mystic, Connecticut. Kat (played by Annabeth Gish) enters into a torrid affair with the married father of the little girl she babysits, Daisy (played by a very young, big-haired Julia Roberts) gets involved with a wealthy playboy, and Jo Jo (played by Lili Taylor) is debating whether or not to marry her long-time boyfriend. They work at a pizza parlor together, and I swear the pizza in this movie looks so good that I always crave it mid-way through. Just do yourself a favor and order one about half an hour before the movie starts. You’ll thank me later. What I love about this film is that these women manage to find themselves and figure out what they want out of love and life, without sacrificing their friendship. That’s the central key to why this movie works so well. Men may come and go, but the friendship among these women is forever.

As for my beverage choice this week, nothing says fall to me like apple cider. I do a little happy dance every time I see it appear in grocery stores next to the bushels of fresh apples. Over the years I’ve paired it with everything under the sun- spiced rum, whiskey, brandy, even an ill-fated night with Bailey’s Irish Cream (I do NOT recommend this if you value your stomach lining), but this week I’ve decided to go girly and make an apple cider sangria. While watching Mystic Pizza, I recommend drinking a Mystic Sparkler.

Mystic Sparkler

2 cups apple cider

½ cup cognac

750ml bottle of cava (or other dry sparkling wine), chilled

2 apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Add the apples to a large pitcher 1/4 filled with ice, reserving ½ cup of the apples for garnishing. Add the cognac, apple cider, and chilled cava. Stir. Add more ice if necessary. Serve in wine glasses and top with more apple slices.

I like to think these ladies would have mixed up a big pitcher of this and sat around dishing about their trysts in abandoned houses. Seriously, haven’t any of their boyfriends heard of electricity? The characters say at the end of the film that they wonder where they’ll all be in ten years, and frankly I wonder that too. Who’s divorced, who has kids, and who still lives in Mystic, CT? I’m just putting it out there to the cinema gods that there NEEDS to be a sequel to this movie. This can’t be the end of it for these ladies. How will we ever know what Leona puts in that pizza?? Cheers!

Comedies

Edward Scissorhands

October 13, 2014October 11, 2014 LizLocke1 Comment

This week, my film selection was inspired by some drinkware accessories my husband crafted. His company Heartless Machine was contracted to make some amazing scissor sculptures for a failed NBC pilot, and part of the collection included scissors that hook onto cocktail glasses. I liked them so much that I convinced him to make a few extras, so I am now the proud owner of some very dangerous barware! What better movie to go along with these sharp scissors than Edward Scissorhands (DVD/Download)?

Released in 1990, Edward Scissorhands was the first collaboration between filmmaker Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp. The story is about a boy who was invented by an eccentric, loving man, but before he could get his real hands and become a full human, the inventor died. Years later, the boy (by now a young man) is found living alone in the inventor’s castle by a kind Avon lady. She brings him home to her suburban house, where he falls in love with the family’s daughter (played by Winona Ryder). In the suburbs, Edward is at first a beloved novelty, sculpting hedges and creating wacky asymmetrical hairdos for all the ladies, but eventually the neighbors turn on him and he is forced to return to isolation. There are definite influences from old monster movies, as well as a great commentary on suburban life. I love Tim Burton movies for their wild production and costume design, and this movie was no exception. The neighborhood houses, though simple and plain in design, are painted in bright pastel colors to make them look even more fake than the people inside them. Johnny Depp is nearly unrecognizable in this, playing his role a bit like Charlie Chaplin with a learning disorder. I’m willing to overlook the filmmakers’ poor choice of hair color for Winona Ryder because the movie is so good, but seriously, strawberry blonde is definitely not her color.

One of my favorite scenes is when Alan Arkin takes Edward down to the basement for a drink. I can practically smell the mustiness as they descend the rickety wooden staircase, but the dad of this eccentric family has fashioned a pretty great lounge area in the corner. Sure, it’s a little sad that he has to hide it in the basement, but I love the padded freestanding bar with its vintage lights and plentiful liquor bottles. He serves Edward “lemonade”- the brown variety, which knocks him out cold. My cocktail this week is definitely not for the faint of heart, and it’s definitely not actual lemonade, though it does contain lemon juice. When watching Edward Scissorhands, I recommend drinking a chilled glass of “Lemonade”.

“Lemonade”

3 oz Amaretto

1.5 oz Bourbon

1 oz fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon simple syrup

Lemon Peel for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and add the liquid ingredients. Shake vigorously to blend and chill. Add fresh ice cubes to a glass, and strain the mixture into the glass. Rub a lemon peel around the rim of the glass to release the oils, then drop it into the drink to serve.

I know I’m lucky to be married to a metalworker who can turn my barware from ho-hum to seriously cool, and I’m lobbying for him to put some of these scissor accessories up for sale on his website, http://heartlessmachine.com . But until that happens, enjoy your “lemonade” with or without sharp edges and revel in this beautiful story of a misunderstood man. After seeing what Edward can do with hair styling and ice sculpture, I can’t help but think of all the other uses for those scissor hands. Cutting up limes and lemons for cocktail hour perhaps? A girl can dream. Cheers!

Comedies

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion

September 8, 2014September 14, 2014 LizLocke1 Comment

This week’s Cinema Sips film choice was inspired by a project currently occupying most of my kitchen counter. My better half, artist Christopher Locke, has undertaken a project drawing amazing portraits on Post-It ® sticky notes. He decided to start a Kickstarter campaign to fund the drawing of even more portraits, with the eventual goal of putting them together into a book. Of course, all this talk of sticky notes got me thinking about Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (DVD/Download). After all, they invented Post-It’s ® (okay actually it was Art Fry of the 3M Corp, but Lisa Kudrow sure does know a surprising amount about the chemical formula for glue). This is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I have to thank my husband for giving me an excuse to watch it with a cocktail. I’ll forgive all the sticky notes crowding the kitchen.

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion is about two lifelong friends who decide to go to their ten-year high school reunion. Mira Sorvino plays Romy White, and the always-brilliant Lisa Kudrow plays Michele Weinberger. As the reunion approaches, they get nervous that they haven’t achieved anything in the 10 years since they’ve graduated. No husbands, no careers, no kids, and they still live together. So, they make themselves some cute business suits, and set out to Tucson pretending to be business women. Of course, they realize a little too late that they don’t actually have a business, so they claim to have invented Post-It’s ®. I won’t ruin the ending here, but I will say that this film features some hilarious performances by Kudrow and Sorvino, as well as Janeane Garofalo, Alan Cumming, and Justin Theroux (long before he was arm-candy for Kudrow’s former Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston). My favorite scene is the interpretive dance done to Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time”- Alan Cumming just kills it here. But really, there are so many amazing moments. Who among us doesn’t get really happy when Julia Roberts finally gets to shop in Pretty Woman??

My cocktail this week is inspired by a drink I stumbled upon called a Roaring Twenties. After all, Romy and Michelle may be in their 20’s, but they still have just as much fun as they did in high school. It’s pink, it’s tart, and it’s as enjoyable to drink as it is to watch this movie. When watching Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, I recommend drinking a Business Woman’s Special.

Business Woman’s Special

1 1/2 oz light rum

1/4 oz Grenadine

1/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 oz Ginger Ale

Lemon twist (for garnish)

Mix rum, grenadine, and lemon juice in a shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled, and strain into a chilled glass. Top with Ginger Ale. Garnish with lemon twist. Serve with gummy bears, jelly beans, and candy corn if you’re on a diet.

I’ve never actually been to a high school reunion, and thanks to Facebook I don’t think I’ll ever feel the need to attend one. I’ve kept in touch with the few people I thought were interesting and intelligent, and that’s all I need. Sometimes I think that my current lack-of-high-paying-career might seem slightly pathetic to those I graduated with, but I suppose aspiring to be a writer gets me some bonus points for creativity. After all, being a broke writer sounds a heck of a lot more interesting than being a wealthy tax attorney. But give me a few years- maybe I’ll be desperate enough to claim invention of the staple remover. So this week, I suggest you watch Romy and Michele, giggle as you drink your Business Woman’s Special, and then after you’ve had a few, head on over to Kickstarter and check out this awesome project. Because Post-It’s ®. Cheers!

Comedies

The Birdcage

August 18, 2014July 27, 2022 LizLocke1 Comment

As we all know, last week the world lost one of the great comedic icons of cinema, Robin Williams. Some took the loss harder than others, but personally I was saddened to think that I wouldn’t get a chance to see what sort of role he would take on next. As an actor, he always had a way of surprising me. Just when I thought he was the zany, manic comedian whose brain worked just a bit faster than anyone else’s, he would throw a curveball in the form of a great drama like Insomnia and completely change the way I viewed him. When I heard the news last Monday, my neighbor mentioned having just watched him in The Birdcage (DVD/Download). Hearing that, a lightbulb went on over my head. YES! This was the way I would celebrate him, by watching Robin Williams in one of his greatest roles, yucking it up with Nathan Lane, while being equally heartbreaking as a man trying to defend his sexuality. Plus, with the buzzy Miami setting, this movie just screams for a cocktail pairing.

The Birdcage stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as two lovers who run a Miami drag nightclub. Nathan Lane is the star of their revue, and Robin Williams is the director. They have also raised Robin William’s son together, and now said son is coming home as an adult with the announcement that he’s engaged. Unfortunately the girl he’s engaged to is the daughter of a staunch republican senator. Soon, the conservative family comes down to Miami to meet the future in-laws, and Williams and Lane have to pretend to be a married couple, with Nathan Lane in drag. The cast in this film is stellar, with Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest playing the senator and his wife, respectively, and Hank Azaria steals just about every scene he’s in as the flamboyant houseboy “Agador Spartacus”. Williams and Lane are so brilliant together that I find myself wanting them to actually be a married couple in real life. They spar, they bicker, but they love each other deeply. Anybody questioning marriage equality need look no further than these two characters to see why it’s worth the fight.

Fans of the Cinema Sips Facebook page already know what my cocktail pairing is, but I am now sharing the actual recipe. For The Birdcage, I wanted to find a drink that was appropriate for the tropical Miami climate, but also sweet and strong like Robin Williams’ character. Immediately, I thought of the Hemingway Daiquiri I recently enjoyed at a local bar. It was cool and refreshing on a hot day, and not sticky like many bastardized versions of the daiquiri often are. I inwardly cringe when I see a frozen daiquiri on a menu (mainly because I know in that instance I’m probably sitting at a TGI Friday’s, and how on earth did that happen?!). So please, do me a favor, and serve your daiquiri’s shaken, not blended or frozen, the way God and drunk writers intended.

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz white rum

¾ oz fresh key lime juice

½ oz fresh grapefruit juice

½ oz maraschino liqueur

Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a chilled coupe glass.

This is called the Hemingway Daiquiri because Ernest Hemingway is rumored to have drunk quite a lot of these in his day, starting at the El Floridita bar in Havana. I think it’s fitting for The Birdcage because I can almost picture Robin Williams mixing one of these up for his enchanting Starina, which she will drink pinky-up of course. I urge you to watch this movie, and try not to be sad that Robin Williams is no longer with us. Instead, think about how lucky we are that great films like this one will live on forever. He will always be funny, he will always be a bit heartbreaking, and he will always make me smile. Cheers!

Comedies

Sideways

August 4, 2014August 2, 2014 LizLocke2 Comments

This week on Cinema Sips, I’m veering off of cocktails for a moment to talk about wine. I had the good fortune to spend a day visiting wineries around Napa and Yountville, CA last week, and while there, I realized that pretty much all of my knowledge of wine comes from the movie Sideways (DVD/Download). I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I wasn’t going in to this experience completely clueless. This film forces me to appreciate and consider the complexity of what I’m drinking. Truly, it’s a love letter to the art of winemaking and oenophiles. That said, I made sure to watch this movie again before leaving on my trip, so that if confronted with a Cab Franc, I’d know that it is not, in fact, a French taxi.

Sideways is about two longtime friends who take off on a pre-wedding trip to California’s wine country. Paul Giamatti plays Miles, a depressed divorcée who is struggling with getting his novel published (sadly, a powerless, defeating process I am all too familiar with). Thomas Haden Church plays Jack, a has-been actor and playboy who is struggling with the idea of being tied down to one woman for the rest of his life. They’re certainly an odd couple, but they play off each other brilliantly. While there, Miles falls for a lovely waitress and fellow lonely heart Maya (played surprisingly well by B-movie actress Virginia Madsen), while Jack lies about his single status and fools around with her friend Stephanie (played by Sandra Oh). The four of them laugh, picnic, tour the vineyards and sip Pinot Noir as the sun sets, creating an idyllic world before it all eventually comes crashing down. The scenery is beautiful, and the script and acting are absolutely top notch. In fact, when I watched this last week, I had to pause a scene so I could turn to my husband and remark, “My God, Paul Giamatti is such an incredible actor.” The fact that he failed to even be nominated for an Academy Award for this performance is widely considered to be one of the top snubs in Oscar history.

On my trip, I visited the Clos du Val winery, Ma(i)sonry (where I sampled some excellent rosé from Blackbird Vineyards and viewed hideously expensive art), and finally ended with wonderful sparkling varietals at Domaine Chandon. Below are some photos I took of the lush scenery and (more importantly) the wine!

Picnic grounds of the Clos du Val Vineyard

Clos du Val wine- an excellent Sauvignon Blanc!

Picnic food, Napa style. Mt. Tam cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, fresh blackberries, cherry tomatoes, bread, salami- YUM!

Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine from Domaine Chandon- my favorite of the day!

After a day of wine drinking, I was happy, parched, and still a little buzzed. Did I drink any merlot? I’ll never tell ;-). I urge you to watch this movie with some friends and a few bottles of wine, and really make a night of it. So often with cocktails, I find myself sipping way too quickly, particularly if it’s a sweeter drink, and I fail to really experience the flavors that have gone into the beverage. Wine doesn’t let you get away with that. It’s meant to be tasted, savored, and contemplated. As Virginia Madsen so beautifully says in Sideways, “If I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day.” Sometimes I think the same thing about films. I react differently each time I watch the same movie, noticing little moments I hadn’t seen before, and maybe relating it to what is presently happening in my own life. When I first saw Sideways, I thought it was a humorous tale of two friends on a journey of self-discovery. Now when I watch it, I relate more to Miles’ struggles with getting published, and wondering if working so hard on something that not many people will ever see is worth it in the end. The conclusion of the film is ambiguous, just like life. I love that so much because it makes me hopeful for Miles, that maybe, like his beloved Pinot Noir, he will eventually be coaxed into greatness. Maybe I will too. Cheers!

Comedies

Wet Hot American Summer

July 8, 2014July 27, 2022 LizLockeLeave a comment

How do I get through summer in Texas? Day b’day, people. One thing that helps is watching a hilarious movie about summer camp, and no I don’t mean The Parent Trap (although I do LOVE Hayley Mills). This week on Cinema Sips, I’m featuring the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer (DVD/Download). Spoofing raunchy 80’s movies like Meatballs and Porky’s, this film is so unabashedly silly that you can’t help but laugh at the bad one-liners, the poor production value, and the plot points that make absolutely no sense. I was lucky enough to see this in a movie theater when it was briefly released in 2001, and I remember wondering why the entire world was not as obsessed with this film as I was. It was the funniest thing I’d seen in years. Well, the world has caught up, and WHAS fever has swept the country, even spawning an upcoming Netflix prequel series. Will all of the original actors make it their beeswax to be in the new series? God I hope so!!

Wet Hot American Summer launched the careers of many of the top comedic actors popular today, including Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, and even Christopher Meloni (who plays the scene-stealing Vietnam vet, Gene). Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce are amazing as always, and kudos to Molly Shannon for playing weepy divorcee/art teacher Gail von Kleinenstein. Because this was a David Wain film, we’re also seeing a lot of his usual cadre of actors, including Michael Ian Black and the hilarious Michael Showalter, who plays both lovelorn Coop and Borscht Belt comic Alan Shemper. There are so many quoteable lines in this film, but my favorite has to be the Paul Rudd classic, “You taste like a burger. I don’t like you anymore.”

What??!

In an ode to summer camp, I’m making an adult version of Bug Juice. Traditionally made with powder packets (let’s not even think about where Gene claims to keep his packets), I’m eschewing that sugary version for something a little more boozy. Of course if you don’t have the energy for a complex drink, vodka and green Kool-Aid will do the trick, but I think we can do better than that. This week, I’m serving up some Adult Bug Juice

1 oz Blue Curaçao

1 oz Orange Juice

1 oz Pineapple juice

2 oz Lemon lime soda

Pineapple Sherbet

Fill a glass (or mason jar) 3/4 full with chipped ice. Add the first 3 ingredients one at a time over the ice. Top with soda, and then the pineapple sherbet.

When I watch Wet Hot American Summer, I always feel like the actors who were in this film must have had the best time making it. I’ve read accounts that it was ridiculously cold and rainy during the filming of it, which makes me really feel for Elizabeth Banks in that skimpy bikini. No matter what Amy Poehler does with the rest of her career, I’ll always think of her as the controlling drama-nerd counselor, and ditto for Bradley Cooper, who despite various Academy Award nominations, will always be making out with Michael Ian Black in the tool shed of my mind. So mix up a big batch of Bug Juice, get out your “arts & farts & crafts” supplies and D&D dice, and blast some Loverboy because we’re headed back to 1981 like you’ve never seen it before. Cheers!

*Note: This week’s cocktail can easily be made non-alcoholic. Just leave out the Curaçao. Also, my drink looks great perched on one of my new coasters from Monday Morning Crafts!

Comedies

Honeymoon in Vegas

July 1, 2014August 30, 2022 LizLockeLeave a comment

A recent trip to Las Vegas has prompted me to re-watch some of the better movies set in Sin City, including Casino, Oceans Eleven, The Hangover, 21, and my personal favorite (and this week’s Cinema Sips pick), Honeymoon in Vegas (DVD/Download). This film gives a bit of an outdated view of The Strip (prompting my mother and I both to wonder- Is Bally’s even there anymore?) but even without Cirque du Soleil ads and trendy restaurants, it’s still a delightful romp about the dangers of gambling, the dry heat of the desert, and the timeless hilarity of Elvis impersonators.

Honeymoon In Vegas is one of the better films to come out of Nicolas Cage’s weird-n-wild oeuvre, only because in this one, his intense, slightly insane mannerisms really work for the character. He plays private investigator Jack Singer, a man terrified of marriage who nevertheless proposes to his longtime girlfriend Betsy (played by Sarah Jessica Parker). They run off to Vegas to elope, but before they can get to the chapel, he enters a rigged poker game set up by mobster Tommy Korman (played by James Caan). Of course Jack loses, and instead of paying money that he doesn’t have, he agrees to let his girlfriend spend the weekend with the mobster. James Caan takes SJP to Hawaii while Nicolas Cages runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, and hijinks ensue. Some great cameos to look for are Pat Morita (aka Mr. Miyagi) as the Hawaiian taxi driver, as well as little baby Bruno Mars singing his heart out as a child Elvis impersonator. The story is ridiculous, but it always gets me excited for Las Vegas, and hopeful that one day I’ll actually spot an Indian Elvis wearing a turban. It’s like seeing a Yeti.

On the cocktail front, I had the good fortune of attending some great Texas Tiki Week events last week. I always look forward to the last week of June because it means Austin becomes a sea of rum drinks in commemorative tiki glasses. How appropriate then to mix up a classic tiki drink to enjoy while watching Sarah Jessica Parker flaunt her perfect body on the beaches of Hawaii. When watching Honeymoon in Vegas, I recommend drinking a Mai Tai.

Mai Tai

1oz light rum

1oz dark rum

½ oz lime juice

½ oz orange curacao

½ oz orgeat syrup

Maraschino cherry and fresh lime for garnish

Pour all of the ingredients except the dark rum into a shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake well, then strain into an old-fashioned glass (or Tiki mug if you have it) half filled with ice. Top with more chipped ice, then add the dark rum. Garnish with a cherry, lime, and a drink umbrella.

As much as I love Vegas, my favorite parts of this film are definitely the Hawaii scenes. Watching Nicolas Cage shout Kapa’aa into a pay phone just makes my year. And let’s not forget the South Pacific sing-along with Peter Boyle’s island chief. As a child I often wondered how the parakeet brandy they drink was made- crushed feathers? Beaks? To be on the safe side, stick with the Mai Tai, and never forget- if you’re about to jump out of an airplane dressed as Elvis, it’s yellow, then red. Kabluna, and Cheers!

Comedies

Spanglish

June 16, 2014July 27, 2022 LizLockeLeave a comment

This week on Cinema Sips, I’m making the bold choice to feature a movie so unabashedly girly and saccharine that I run the risk of being ridiculed for admitting I really like it. But, I will take the heat because it pairs so well with a delicious summertime sangria. See what love I have for you readers? The movie I’m watching is Spanglish (DVD/Download), a 2004 James L. Brooks film that was forgettable to most people, but for me, has cemented its place in my pantheon of Sunday-afternoon rom-coms that I never get tired of watching. Because air-conditioned Sunday afternoons are what summer is all about, I’m popping this one in the DVD player and ignoring all the haters.

Spanglish stars Adam Sandler as a loveable, talented chef whose family hires a beautiful Mexican immigrant to be their housekeeper. He’s married to a cheating, neurotic mess of a gal (played a little too over-the-top by Tea Leoni) so of course the lovely Flor Morales (played by Paz Vega) becomes the object of his desire. She doesn’t speak English, he doesn’t speak Spanish, but they fall for each other anyway. Flor’s daughter is also thrown into the mix as the families become closer over a summer spent at the beach. Perhaps it’s my envy of their beach house that keeps me tuning in year after year to this comedic saga, but I like to think I’m also responding to the excellent (as always) script by James L. Brooks, and the unexpected charm of Adam Sandler. He’s absolutely delightful in this, leaving behind all of the juvenile frat-boy humor of his youth (and unfortunately his present, by the looks of the trailer for Blended). Cloris Leachman of course steals every scene she’s in as the boozy grandmother of the family, and it’s because of her character that I’m never without a drink when I watch this film.

Cloris sticks mainly to white wine in Spanglish, so in honor of her amazing comedic talent, I’m mixing up a white wine peach sangria this week. Of course, part of this decision was based on the fact that peaches are wonderfully in season in Central Texas where I live, and I was hankering for a way to use them in something. I’m not much of a cook, so a fruity cocktail it is. When watching Spanglish, I recommend drinking a Sparkling Peach Sangria.

Sparkling Peach Sangria

2-3 peaches, sliced

¾ cup brandy

1 bottle sparkling wine (such as Moscato)

1 liter white peach seltzer water, chilled

In a pitcher, place ¾ of the sliced peaches and brandy and lightly muddle. Add the sparkling wine and seltzer water, stirring gently with a wooden spoon to mix. Pour into glasses (over ice if you’re enjoying this outdoors, or into a champagne flute if you want to be fancy like me!) and top with a few fresh peach slices.

I had the pleasure of enjoying this drink at a party over the weekend, and it did not disappoint! It’s best to mix up a big batch of this because the movie does run a bit long, but for me, that just means more Adam Sandler to love. Also, kudos to Mr. Brooks for capturing the neuroses of the interior design professional PERFECTLY (I say this because I used to be an interior design professional). Tea Leoni plays it so well. So sit back, drink up, and enjoy this movie about family, culture clash, forbidden love, and maybe the best looking sandwich ever captured on film. Cheers!

Comedies

Gentlemen Broncos

June 2, 2014 LizLocke4 Comments

Warning: things are about to get weird. After OD’ing on girly high school movies in May, I’m kicking off the summer with one of the more bizarre films in my DVD collection. I like to think it’s gained a sort of cult following over the years, but maybe it’s just a cult of me, my husband, and our friend Allen. Oh, and Tilda Swinton, who was quoted in the March 21^st, 2014 issue of Entertainment Weekly as saying that this film was “kind of insane….Just go and find it.” Find it I did, in the 99-cent bin at Blockbuster, to which my husband exclaimed, “They’re practically giving it away! Don’t they know what they have??”

Gentlemen Broncos (DVD/Download) can only be described as an enormous box office flop. Budgeted at $10 million, it only ended up grossing just over $113,000 when it was released in 2009. I vaguely remember Jemaine Clement (who plays author and plagiarizer Ronald Chevalier) coming to our city to promote the film, and then it just sort of vanished. Written and directed by Jared and Jarusha Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame, Gentlemen Broncos is essentially a story about a young boy who dreams of becoming a science fiction writer, only to see his manuscript stolen, and his book Yeast Lords adapted into a terrible low budget film. While this story is playing out, the filmmakers also intersperse the story of the actual manuscript, acted out a couple of different ways by the always-brilliant Sam Rockwell. It’s confusing, but stay with me. The hilarity of the film stems from its satire of the science fiction genre, complete with bizarre character names, troll analysis, and pompous writing. Jennifer Coolidge steals just about every scene she’s in, playing the mother of the young writer who makes rock-hard popcorn balls, lives in a geodesic dome house, sells Dynasty-era nightgowns and befriends a redneck with a python (played with creepy aplomb by Mike White). This movie is so, so bizarre, but I absolutely cannot stop laughing throughout it.

Of course, even the greatest bad movies can sometimes benefit from a strong cocktail. It can’t hurt, right? In honor of the movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie Yeast Lords, I’m making a beer-based cocktail. This one features citrusy notes that pair well with a Hefeweizen, and is a great drink to kick off summer. When watching Gentlemen Broncos, I recommend drinking a Yeast Lord.

Yeast Lord

1 oz bourbon

1 oz fresh lemon juice

1/4 oz simple syrup

4 oz Hefeweizen beer (I’m using my favorite German Hefeweizen, Weihenstephaner)

Lemon Wedge

Mix first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, and strain into an ice-filled glass. Top with Hefeweizen, and garnish with Lemon wedge.

Each time I watch Gentlemen Broncos, I always wonder- what must the actors have thought when they read the original script for this? Did they laugh out loud like I do every time I watch it? Did they shrug their shoulders and just figure that it was so bizarre, somebody was bound to find it funny? I like to think that this movie is well on its way to achieving cult-classic status, and surely this groundbreaking and bound-to-be-highly-read post on Cinema Sips will push it over the edge. Or, maybe it’ll just be me, my husband, Allen, and Tilda Swinton in on the joke. Either way, I’m ready for a cocktail and a laugh. Cheers!

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