Category: Comedies

Comedies

Best in Show

LizLocke1 Comment
Best in Show, Columbia Pictures
Best in Show, Columbia Pictures

Today in my house we’re celebrating the birthday of my furry kiddo, Miss Pickles Marie Hasselhoff. She is our beloved border collie, and she’s turning 5 today.  I thought, what better way to celebrate than to put on her favorite movie, Best in Show. It’s one of my favorites too- how convenient! This is one of those films I never get tired of seeing, no matter how many times I’ve watched it. Really, what is funnier than a mockumentary about fancy schmancy dog shows and the people that frequent them? Nothing. We like to throw a birthday party for Pickles each year to let her know how special she is to us, so while she and her furry friends are playing, the humans can enjoy this movie with the accompanying cocktail. A win-win for everyone!

Now, Miss Pickles is of questionable lineage, despite what her very formal name suggests. I don’t think she’d make it into the Mayflower Dog Show, though she would have fun being pampered like these dogs. Sadly, she shares the personality of Weimaraner Beatrice- very neurotic, but we love her anyway. It’s hard to even pinpoint who my favorite character is in this film. Christopher Guest has assembled the funniest improve actors out there to tell this story, and they all make me convulse with insane amounts of laughter. I love Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock as the catalog-obsessed, neurotic married couple, almost as much as I love Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins as the gay couple who name their shih tzu’s after 1950’s movie stars and travel with a suitcase full of kimonos. And let’s not forget nut-namin’ dark horse contender Harlan Pepper, played by Guest himself, or the closeted lesbian couple played by Jane Lynch and the brilliant Jennifer Coolidge. In short, the actors are hilarious, the dogs are adorable- it’s no wonder this is such a great film.

For my cocktail pairing, I’m serving up an obvious choice- a Salty Dog. However, in keeping with the spirit of pedigreed, high-class dogs (now keep in mind, I’m in no way talking about their owners) I’m using only the finest ingredients. Fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, top shelf vodka, and Himalayan pink salt for rimming. But if you want to be all Cookie and Gerry Fleck about it, the cheap vodka you drank in college and Tropicana will do just fine.

The Salty Dog

2 oz vodka

4 oz fresh grapefruit juice

Salt and lime for rimming

Moisten the rim of a highball glass with lime juice, rim with salt. Pour the vodka and grapefruit juice over ice in the glass, and stir.

*Note, this drink can also be made with gin, but I prefer to use vodka.

salty-dog

I’m looking forward to gathering with friends as my four-legged little girl basks in attention, and laughing very, very hard every time Fred Willard is onscreen. What Best in Show does such a good job of satirizing is the phenomenon of dogowners who slowly start to resemble their pets. I have to say in my case, it’s kind of true. My hair has slowly lightened over the years to match Pickles’, and I too get grumpy if strangers try to touch me. So I encourage you to watch this film, drink up, and be amazed at how many times you find yourself saying, “It’s funny because it’s TRUE!” Cheers!

Comedies

Midnight in Paris

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Midnight in Paris, photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Midnight in Paris, photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

This week is something I’ve been looking forward to since I started Cinema Sips. I hate to play favorites, and obviously I’m still discovering new cocktails while I write this blog, but if I had to chose a favorite drink, it would definitely be the French ’75. Typically I’ve been starting with the movie and finding a drink that I think pairs nicely with it. But in this case, the French ’75 is so special to me that I couldn’t wait for a movie to come along that would inspire me to choose this drink. This week, I searched my DVD (and VHS and Laserdisc!) collections in order to find the best excuse possible to make a French ’75, and I finally settled on one of my favorite films of the past few years, Midnight in Paris.

I was never a huge fan of Woody Allen’s older films (sorry, not even Annie Hall) but I really love his newer works. What I love about Midnight in Paris is that although it’s a completely absurd scenario (a writer travels to Paris with his obnoxious fiance, and while walking the streets at night, finds himself in a time-warp of literary giants) I really root for the characters and want this plot to be a reality. Every night at midnight, this writer (played by Owen Wilson) is transported to his dream era- Paris in the 1920’s. It was the heyday of writers and artists and thinkers, and also a heyday for cocktail drinkers. Coincidence? I think not. He meets F. Scott Fitzgerald and his charming wife Zelda (played brilliantly by Alison Pill), along with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Man Ray, and Salvador Dali. When I first read about the plot of this movie I thought it sounded absurd; however, Owen Wilson’s wide-eyed, giddy portrayal of the modern writer makes me feel more than excited to go on this journey with him. And while you’re going on this journey, why not enjoy a fabulous gin cocktail?

Over the years, I’ve honed my recipe of the French ’75, and now lucky readers of Cinema Sips get to reap the benefits:

Fitzgerald’s French ’75

1oz dry gin

½ fresh lemon juice

½ oz simple syrup

2oz chilled champagne

1 lemon twist

Combine gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake until cold, then pour into martini glass. Top with champagne and lemon twist.

French-75

I chose Midnight in Paris for my French ’75 pairing first of all because of the film’s Parisian setting, but second of all because it’s widely known that F. Scott Fitzgerald was a heavy gin drinker. This is my very favorite gin cocktail, so what better way to celebrate a literary hero of mine. Also, this drink feels like a cocktail of a bygone era, and like the main character, I dream of being transported back to a time when all of these amazing artists were mingling and creating and making history. By the end of the film, Owen Wilson realizes that everybody has their own unique ideal time and place. I’m lucky that I can truthfully say I’m living in mine right now-  Austin TX circa 2013. But if I ever want to take a vacation (in my mind) to the most fabulous version of Paris, I just have to put on this movie and make sure the gin is cold and the champagne is flowing. Cheers!

Comedies

Mean Girls

LizLocke4 Comments
Mean Girls
Mean Girls

Halloween is upon us in just a few days, and in the spirit of all things scary I’ve chosen to feature a movie that depicts the scariest thing of all- high school. Forget serial killers, zombies, and ghosts; the real terror of my life has been choosing the right cafeteria table. Additionally, this film’s commentary on women’s Halloween costumes is just priceless- “In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Yep, sounds about right.

Mean Girls is based on the non-fiction book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman. The movie tells the story of Cady Heron (played by an unusually fresh-faced Lindsay Lohan), who grew up in Africa with her globetrotting parents, but is now plunked down in an American high school. She makes friends first with the artsy kids (my personal clique-of-choice in high school) but then gets slowly sucked into the world of popular girls (aka The Plastics). This movie is hilarious in its depiction of the social strata, but also chillingly real too. Girls can be VERY mean, and not just the popular ones. In the end the film gets tied up in a nice harmonious little bow, which is a shame because that so very rarely happens in real life. If this were real life, I predict that over summer vacation everyone conveniently forgets to be nice to each other, and the whole system of queen bees and wannabes resets itself.

Because The Plastics make a big deal out of wearing pink (only on Wednesdays!), I think this drink is a perfect fit. It may not be spooky or scary, but it’s DELICIOUS and it totally makes me wish Amy Poehler (aka “the cool mom”) would have mixed me up a batch of these back in the day for an underage cocktail hour. For Mean Girls, I’m serving up the Pink Lady Problem:

1 ¼ oz gin

½ oz lemon juice

½ oz grenadine

1 egg white

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

pink-lady-problem

You may say, isn’t the consumption of raw egg whites in a cocktail dangerous? Perhaps, but in general the alcohol will kill most germs that are in there. I love egg white cocktails, and I’m excited to feature one here. The egg whites add a creaminess that is so different from most drinks, plus it’s a fun excuse to work out your upper arms while you shake it up. So pop in a Toaster Strudel, perhaps slip into your Halloween costume that’s really just “lingerie and some form of animal ears”, mix up some drinks, grab your 3 closest frenemies, and say a prayer of thanks that you only have to experience high school once in your life. Cheers!

Comedies

Baby Boom

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Diane-Keaton-in-Baby-Boom-1987

I stumbled onto a copy of one of my favorite 80’s movies the other night. No, not Jaws, not Star Wars, and definitely not Indiana Jones. I’m talking about the Diane Keaton classic Baby Boom. Set in the bustling dot-matrix world of New York finance, this movie features plenty of shoulder pads, Le Corbusier furniture, and that great mystery of male sexiness Sam Shepard. For those who haven’t seen it, Diane Keaton’s character J.C. Wiatt is a high-powered businesswoman in New York City who inherits a baby through some pretty outlandish circumstances. She tries her best to raise the baby and keep the career, but in the end a smarmy 80’s-era James Spader undermines her and she’s forced to leave the rat race behind. She moves to Vermont, where she meets a handsome veterinarian and starts a baby applesauce company. J.C. Wiatt is my personal hero in this movie. She takes a horrible situation (cue the shrieking baby at a business meeting) and turns it into something amazing. If that’s not inspirational, I don’t know what is.

For my cocktail pairing, I’m making a Vermont Appletini. Now, you’re welcome to make a standard Appletini with the neon green mix if that’s your thing, but personally I prefer something a little more refined in flavor. Like a lot of the cocktails I’ll be featuring, this one contains real fruit slices. Because fruit is very healthy for you, even if it’s soaked in alcohol. Right?

vermont-appletini.gif

Vermont Appletini

1 part Orange-flavored Vodka

½ part Diced Apple

½ part Simple Syrup

½ part Lemon Juice

½ part Butterscotch Schnapps*

Pinch of Cinnamon

Fresh apple slices for garnish

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the apple and simple syrup. Add ice and the rest of the ingredients. Shake until cold, and strain into a chilled martini glass. Top with a thin slice of apple and pinch of cinnamon.

This drink is a great accompaniment to the film because it combines the sophistication of the New York cocktail scene with the flavors of a fall night in Vermont. Sip slowly as you marvel at Diane Keaton’s impeccable comedic timing, James Spader’s female golfer haircut, and Sam Shepard’s crooked smile and backwoods accent that shouldn’t be attractive yet somehow are, in a geeky sort of way. In many ways, I think this movie has greatly inspired me in life.  J.C. Wiatt longs for life where she can raise her baby outside of the rat race, while still maintaining a fabulous career. In the end, she makes it happen. Whereas I long to sit around mixing cocktails and watching movies all day, while still doing something that can be called a career. And look at me now, doing just that. Here’s to making applesauce with your life. Cheers!

*Note- you may be asking yourself, why should I buy an entire bottle of Butterscotch Schnapps for this one drink? I promise, you’ll use it again in again. It makes a great mixer during the fall, particularly in apple cider or rum cocktails.