Comedies

About a Boy

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Image credit: About a Boy, 2002

Look who’s comin’ round the bend… it’s Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult in this week’s pick About a Boy (Disc/Download)! I’m shocked I haven’t covered this on Cinema Sips yet because A) it’s a Christmas movie (kind of) and B) it’s one of my all-time favorites. College-aged Liz saw this multiple times in the theater, watched the DVD on repeat, and fantasized about someday possessing enough time and disposable income that I could spend all day watching game shows, eating in nice restaurants, and having my hair carefully disheveled. Two out of three ain’t bad, I suppose. Who needs game shows anyway?

Based on the Nick Hornby novel, About a Boy pairs Grant as the single, unapologetically selfish Will, with young Hoult in the role of Marcus: a sensitive boy with a depressed hippie for a mother. The two meet through a mutual acquaintance, and soon Marcus is coming over to Will’s house after school to watch television. TV eventually turns into life advice, then friendship, and before you know it, Will’s snagged an invite to what is one of the most realistic and hilarious blended family Christmas gatherings I’ve ever seen. Marcus’s mom (a brilliant Toni Collette) gives her son a crappy tambourine for their Roberta Flack sing-a-longs, while Will gets him a Mystikal CD and portable player. As it turns out, Will is the only one who pays attention to Marcus’s needs and desires because all the other adults are too busy dealing with their own dysfunction. Interesting that it took the person who’d been stranded on his own lonely island to show up with a life raft.

Because Will’s life is basically a vacation from real adulthood, he commits to living like he’s on a sun-drenched tropical isle. He separates his daily activities into small units of time, seeks out simple indulgences, and carefully curates who is allowed to fly in for a visit. I too adopted the Island Living ethos during the pandemic, so I know for a fact that movies and tiki cocktails are a perfect match for this lifestyle.  While watching About a Boy, I recommend drinking an Island Living Swizzle.

Island Living Swizzle

1 oz Light Rum

1 oz Overproof Rum

½ oz Amaretto

1 oz Pomegranate Juice

¾ oz Lime Juice

¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup

Splash of soda water

Dried Citrus Wheel

Dusting of nutmeg

Combine rums, Amaretto, cinnamon syrup, pomegranate and lime juices in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and combine, then strain into a glass filled with fresh crushed iced. Top with soda water and stir gently. Garnish with dried citrus and dusting of nutmeg.

Not only does About a Boy contain my favorite Hugh Grant performance, but it’s also wild to see current heartthrob Nicholas Hoult as a small pre-teen with crooked bangs and an ugly rainbow jumper. If you need a holiday movie and cocktail that are the perfect blend of acid and sweet, join me on this island and give About a Boy a watch. Cheers, and warmest wishes for a jolly holiday from Cinema Sips!

Holiday Films

The Holdovers

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Image credit: The Holdovers, 2023

It’s rare for me to consider a twenty-first century holiday flick an instant classic, but the second I saw the vintage title cards of The Holdovers (Disc/Download), I knew I would be watching this film every December, without fail, for the rest of my life. Move over Carol, The Holiday, and Love Actually; there’s a new tradition in my house.

Set during Christmas 1970, The Holdovers reunites director Alexander Payne with his Sideways muse Paul Giamatti. The comparisons to that movie are inevitable because once again, Giamatti plays a teacher who has failed to live up to his full potential. He spews intelligent insults, drinks a lot, and is extremely awkward with women. However, pairing him with a teenage boy (Dominic Sessa) instead of a fully grown man who acts like a teenage boy brings a new layer to the his performance. He’s a protector instead of a sidekick. And to the cook who’s forced to stay over with him and the boy at an abandoned New England boarding school over Christmas: friend and ally. Da’Vine Joy Randolph rightly won the Best Supporting Actress for her role as the grieving mother who just lost her only child to the Vietnam War, and seeing her bring so much nuance to this performance is watching a master at work. She makes it look easy, when it was probably anything but. Really, the whole movie could be described this way. If you told me this film was actually made in 1970, I would believe you because the cinematography, the production design, the soundtrack, and the costumes are all seamless. There is nothing that hints at the year 2023, and nothing to indicate the level of work it must have taken to achieve this kind of authenticity. Because of that, we can just sit back and enjoy a movie that already feels like it’s been part of our lives for the last fifty years.

My favorite scene in The Holdovers involves our three principal characters in the parking lot of a Boston restaurant, enjoying Cherries Jubilee “to go”. If you’re familiar with the dessert, then you know it’s prepared tableside, with cherries and brandy lit on fire, then spooned over ice cream. This cocktail uses that cherry flavor while also referencing the giant bottle of Cognac stolen from the headmaster’s office. If you’ve gotta go, go big. While watching The Holdovers, I recommend drinking a Vanderbilt cocktail.

Vanderbilt

1 1/2 oz Cognac

1/2 oz Cherry Heering Liqueur

1/8 oz Simple Syrup

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Brandied cherry, lemon twist (garnish)

Stir ingredients together in a mixing tin with ice, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry and lemon twist.

Of course, you could always opt for a bottle of Miller Highlife (it is the champagne of beers), however I prefer to bring a little class to this party. After all, it’s a very fancy boarding school full of very fancy people who may or may not have learned some valuable knowledge in exchange for their pricey tuition. Entre nous, I’m pretty sure the biggest lessons happened outside the classroom. Cheers! 

Holiday Films

A Biltmore Christmas

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Image credit: A Biltmore Christmas, 2023

Time travel romance and Classic Hollywood are two surefire ways to get me interested in a story, but add a location that transports me back to a glorious summer vacation, and I’m officially hooked. I thought I couldn’t love any television holiday movie as much as I love The Spirit of Christmas, but then A Biltmore Christmas (Disc/Download) came along. At this point, it’s a tie.

Fans of the Cary Grant/Loretta Young/David Niven classic The Bishop’s Wife will probably recognize the fictional movie-within-the-movie our main character Lucy has been hired to reboot, in this case titled His Merry Wife! The lead actor in this 1940s holiday classic has Big Cary Grant Energy, and his character plays an angel sent down to earth to help his late wife find love again. Lucy doesn’t like the saccharine ending of the original film, but the studio doesn’t like the jaded tone of her new script, so they send her to the Biltmore Estate during the holiday season to find some inspiration. Once there, she tips over an hourglass and time travels to 1947, smack dab into the shooting of His Merry Wife! Masquerading as an extra, then an emissary from the studio, Lucy soon falls for actor Jack Huston (confusingly, not the Jack Huston, just… a fictional actor with the same name as a member of the Huston acting + filmmaking dynasty??). Jack doesn’t question her references to the Criterion and TCM, while Lucy’s surprisingly adept at sprinkling a few “bub”s and “old sport”s into their conversations. Unfortunately, she’s only there on a temporary Hourglass Time Travel Visa, and he’s scheduled to die in 1948. It’ll take a Christmas Miracle to work this one out!

One of the things that made my visit to North Carolina so special last summer was sampling the local products. I had the forethought to bring home a bottle of Biltmore Estate® Blanc de Noir, as well as a gin infused with rose petals grown in the Biltmore’s conservatory rose garden (from Chemist Spirits). If you’re looking to support some businesses in the hard-hit Western North Carolina region this holiday season, both companies ship! To celebrate A Biltmore Christmas, I recommend mixing up a Biltmore Sparkler.

Biltmore Sparkler

2 oz Chemist Spirits Biltmore Conservatory Rose Gin

¾ oz Lemon Juice

¾ oz Cinnamon Syrup

4 oz Biltmore Estate® Sparkling Wine

Dried lemon wheel (garnish)

Combine gin, lemon juice, and cinnamon syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine, then garnish with a dried lemon wheel.

This drink is similar to a French ’75, but the addition of cinnamon syrup makes it feel particularly festive. Like Lucy, I enjoy taking a classic and putting a new twist on it! If you’re a fan of Somewhere in Time, if you’ve ever imagined what it would be like to sing a holiday duet with Cary Grant, or even if you just enjoy a super-random appearance by Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes, give yourself the gift of A Biltmore Christmas this year. Cheers!

Holiday Films

Hot Frosty

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Image Credit: Hot Frosty, 2024

After a rough November, I’m ready to laugh again. Somehow, the Netflix gods knew exactly what I needed and delivered in the form of the delightful holiday flick Hot Frosty. Starring Lacey Chabert as a widowed small-town diner owner, and Dustin Milligan as a snowman come to life, this movie exudes all the innocent charm of the Jimmy Stewart classic Harvey… if Jimmy was totally shredded and shirtless for half the movie.

Why do I like this one so much? Well, in addition to Dustin’s abs, I also related to the snowman’s problems with temperature regulation. After the hottest fall on record in Texas, I felt this line in my bones: “He has extreme heat sensitivities! He’s not going to make it till the 26th!!!” Am I… a snow woman? Do I need to start munching on ice cubes to stay cool? Become a streaker? Happily, he and I both found partners who are understanding about our heat sensitivities and don’t force us to submit to uncomfortable situations. They want us to “lay low”. They recognize that we’re indoor kids, and we’d be better off watching cooking shows in a cold house than sweating in a crowded diner. To this end, the best thing about Hot Frosty is the way it shows a romance where people are simply nice to each other. They take care of each other. No fake dating, no lies, no triangles, no second chances—just straight-up kindness. And boy, couldn’t we all do with a bit of that right now.

Being as heat intolerant as a snowman, I can tell you that frozen beverages are the only way to survive. Jack Snowman makes a mean eggnog, so why not make it frozen? After all, it’s still ridiculously hot in many parts of the country, and I’m pretty sure my winter coat won’t see the light of day in 2025. While watching Hot Frosty, I recommend drinking a Frozen Eggnog.

Frozen Eggnog

2 cups Store-bought Eggnog

½ cup Half-and-Half

½ tsp Nutmeg

2 oz Brandy

2 oz Dark Rum

1 cup Ice

Star Anise + Grated Nutmeg (garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth, then pour into a chilled glass. Garnish with a dusting of nutmeg, and star anise.*

*Note: If you’re lucky enough to own a Cuisinart Soft Serve Machine (as I do), I recommend blending the ingredients first, then pour into the machine. Let it churn for 10 minutes, then dispense. This gives the drink a much better consistency than straight out of the blender.

I admit, I was skeptical when I first learned the premise of this movie; it sounded too corny to be believed. And yet, it does make me believe in the power of love and community. If you enjoy Ted Lasso and Schitt’s Creek, you’ll probably like Hot Frosty for the same reasons. And if you’re just there for the abs, well, you won’t be disappointed. Cheers!

Comedies

The Daytrippers

LizLocke1 Comment
Image credit: The Daytrippers, 1996

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being woken up at your parents’ house the day after a major holiday to the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a dishwasher being unloaded at 7am, then you’ll understand the comedic brilliance of this week’s pick The Daytrippers (Disc/Download).

Greg Mottola’s directorial debut is a fun, frenetic tale of family drama at Thanksgiving, made at the height of the independent film craze of the 1990s (back when $50,000 got you… a great movie, apparently!). Eliza (Hope Davis) suspects her husband (Stanley Tucci) is cheating on her, so she and her entire family hop in the station wagon and drive to Manhattan in an attempt to catch him in a lie. Other people may spend their Black Fridays at the mall, but the Malones prefer to be crammed into a car with no heat, listening to Eliza’s sister’s boyfriend (Liev Schrieber) describe the plot of his novel. For anyone who has stood by while an author desperately attempts to summarize their own work, you know this special torture. Parker Posey is fantastic as flaky sister Jo, but it’s Anne Meara who steals every scene with her smothering yet hilarious presence. Don’t go into the light, Rita!!!

If you’re going on a wild goose chase through the city with your zany family in tow, you’ll need a beverage that seamlessly makes the transition from breakfast to cocktail hour. Maybe you need to start imbibing as soon as the vacuum cleaner plays its reveille- no judgment here! While watching The Daytrippers, I recommend drinking this Rise and Shine cocktail.

Rise and Shine

1 ½ oz Bourbon

½ oz Kahlua

¼ oz Maple Syrup

1 oz Cold Brew

2 Dashes Chocolate Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a martini glass.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving movies is another Parker Posey classic, The House of Yes, which features an even more dysfunctional family than the one in The Daytrippers. Really, the Malones look pretty normal compared to the Pascals, though Parker is an equally weird, funny ingenue in both. Why not settle in and make it a double feature? Maybe you can even convince your mom to turn off the coffee grinder and join you. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Uncategorized

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984

A much-anticipated trip to experience the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland prompted this week’s watch; the second installment of Spielberg’s Indy trilogy that I’ve always referred to as “the gross one”: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Disc/Download). As a child, I couldn’t get past the monkey brain scene, but as an adult, I made it all the way through pits of fire and creepy crawlies, and a sprawling underground city of child slave labor. When I tell you I have earned that trip to Disneyland, believe it.

Although my favorite Indiana Jones movie will always be Last Crusade, the sheer weirdness of Temple of Doom bumps it up to second place in my eyes. Imagine, you create a character that looks like he came straight from the Golden Age of Cinema, a hero adults and children can all rally around, and then you… send him into a whirlpool of black magic and voodoo cults. You serve him eyeball soup and raw beetles. You give him a heroine who, while stylish and beautiful, is fairly annoying throughout the entirety of the film. If not for Short Round and the fabulous production design, there wouldn’t be much to recommend in this movie. However, the relationship between adventurer and precocious child is every bit as fun as the one between adventurer and precocious old man in Last Crusade. This movie takes the viewer on a circuitous, bizarre ride, but it manages to keep Harrison sweaty and shirtless for a satisfactory amount of time. And at this particular moment in my life, that’s enough for me.

Make no mistake, the banquet scene is still gross. It helps if you have a cocktail and a blindfold, and preferably an empty stomach. While watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I recommend drinking this Temple ‘Tini.

Temple ‘Tini

1 1/2 oz Dark Spiced Rum

1/4 oz Banana Liqueur

1/4 oz Vanilla syrup

3/4 oz Cold Brew

3 dashes Ginger Bitters

Gummy snake (garnish)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a gummy snake.

Although the Disney Imagineers built a ride inspired by the production design of Temple of Doom, I really wish they had instead focused on the Shanghai nightclub where this story begins. Like Rick’s Café, Club Obi Wan looks like the perfect place to sip a cocktail amid the chaos of war, or crowds of screaming children. A missed opportunity, Disney. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

The Man Who Knew Too Much

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Image credit: The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956

I don’t know about you, but I’m in dire need of a good Day. Doris Day, that is. When anxiety, hopelessness, rage, and disappointment threaten to overtake me, it always helps to watch a star who faced tremendous struggles onscreen and off. One who came through these battles with her grace, dignity, and empathy intact. It seems fitting then, that Doris Day’s iconic song from The Man Who Knew Too Much (Disc/Download) would feel tailored to this most uncertain of times we’re living in: “Que sera, sera; whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see; que sera, sera.”

The fact that Alfred Hitchcock made a perfectly great version of The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1934, then decided to do it again in 1956 is a pretty wild concept. Nevertheless, if he had to fulfill a studio obligation for one more picture, I’m glad he decided to dust this story off because 1950s Man has a lot more heart and emotional depth. Much of that comes from Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart, who have always felt like America’s parents. If you happened to be kidnapped by terrorists, you could feel confident they would be clever and determined enough to rescue you. Doris gets a lot more material to work with than Edna Best did in the original, and it’s to her credit the stakes feel so much higher. Seeing her devolve into hysterics when she realizes her son is missing, then watching her steely resolve take over when she faces an incompetent police force is a wonderful arc. In the end, it’s Doris who saves the day, because terrorism is no match for a woman with a strong, powerful voice.

When The Man Who Knew Too Much opens, Jimmy, Doris, and their little boy are on a bus to Marrakesh. There are some great scenes filmed in a Moroccan bazaar (in fact, Doris insisted on better care for the background animals, refusing to shoot until every camel, horse, stray dog, and cat had food and water), before the plot takes them all to London. Doris and Jimmy end up throwing an impromptu party in their hotel room, and one wonders just how many gin & tonics their friends put back while waiting on these two to foil an international assassination plot and find their son. This time of year, I love the flavor of cardamom in my drinks, so I’ll be infusing some Old Tom gin with a handful of cardamom pods. Leave it to soak overnight, then strain the pods out. While watching The Man Who Knew Too Much, I recommend drinking this Ambrose Chapel Gin & Tonic.

Ambrose Chapel Gin & Tonic

2 oz Cardamom-infused Old Tom Gin

5 oz Indian tonic water

Orange wheel (dried)

Star Anise

Build drink over ice, and garnish with a dried orange wheel and star anise.

It’s ironic that Doris hated the song “Que Sera, Sera” when she first heard it, thinking it too cutesy and saccharine, because even by her own account, she lived her life by its lyrics. She didn’t know what the future held, but she never lost faith in herself. Her world wasn’t rainbows day after day, and she couldn’t have known prior to each marriage how the men in her life would let her down. But after every disappointment, betrayal, and setback, she got up, dusted herself off, and put one foot in front of the other. Her voice was her gift, and for the rest of her life, she used it to help the people and causes that mattered to her. Just as I’ll try my best to do now, one Day at a time. Cheers!

horror

Suspiria

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Image credit: Suspiria, 1977

Summoning all my courage and pouring a stiff drink, I finally took a reluctant step into the world of Giallo horror this week. The entry point: Dario Argento’s tale of a coven of murderous witches at a German ballet school, Suspiria (Disc/Download). Having already watched and enjoyed the 2018 remake by Luca Guadagnino, I felt comfortable with the subject matter, but fearful about the level of horror awaiting me. Were things a lot more gruesome in 1977? I was about to find out.

Starring Jessica Harper as the naïve dancer who unknowingly steps into the coven’s lair, Suspiria is visually stunning from the very first frame. It’s like if Wes Anderson teamed up with Gianni Versace to make a picture that’s all symmetry, color, and gold leaf. The rooms have intense red lighting, garish murals, and neoclassical styles mingling with baroque, but the way it’s shot is very controlled. The school is both scary and beautiful, and the same could be said about the movie itself. Yes, there are grisly scenes, such as a girl being trapped in razor wire while her throat is slashed, a rain of maggots falling from the ceiling, and a truly horrifying bat attack, but with the arresting soundtrack by prog-rock band Goblin and the otherworldly set designs, you just deal with the gore because it’s all part of the experience.

Speaking of gore, I’m still mulling over the sticky red drink served at the school, which looks suspiciously like blood. Maybe it’s Campari, but… maybe not???  While you’re watching Suspiria, aim for something more appetizing with this Serpent’s Eye cocktail.

Serpent’s Eye

1 ½ oz Apple Brandy

1 ½ oz Dark Rum

½ oz Campari

1 oz Lime Juice

½ oz Grenadine

2 oz Blood Orange Juice

Blood orange slice (Garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a blood orange slice.

In addition to its impressive visuals, Suspiria also offers an interesting commentary on power. The only way to eliminate the coven is to remove its leader, which is akin to cutting off the head of a snake. One wonders if it works that way in real life with other dangerous cults and movements, or if history is always doomed to repeat itself with new snakes and new heads. By the end of this movie, I was cheering for the world of Argento: a world where evil can be defeated by a powerful American woman. That’s the world I want to live in, maggots and bats and all. Cheers!

Classic Films · horror

I Walked With a Zombie

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Image credit: I Walked With a Zombie, 1943

I love ghost stories with a touch of gothic romance almost as much as I love tropical cocktails, so when I discovered that Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked With a Zombie (Disc/Download) is a Caribbean-set riff on Jane Eyre, I was all in. Finally, an excuse to break out all the rums in October!

Classic horror has always been my go-to during spooky season because it’s generally more psychological horror than visual horror. Even in this film, which has the word “Zombie” in the title, it’s quickly communicated that the zombie is actually just a very sick woman who is unable to speak or communicate after battling a tropical fever. The terror comes from everything around her: the checked out husband, the fiery, drunken ex-lover, the naïve Canadian nurse, the resentful locals descended from slaves, and even a mother-in-law masquerading as a Voodoo priestess. In one poignant scene, the newly arrived nurse remarks to her cab driver with tone-deaf cheer that even though his ancestors came to the island chained to the bottom of a ship, “At least they came to a beautiful place!” His response: “If you say so, miss.” With one line, everything we assumed about these characters and this setting has been upended. We now understand who and what is evil on this island.

Looking back through my Cinema Sips archives, I’m a little surprised I haven’t featured a Zombie cocktail yet. However, the Caribbean setting of this film makes it an ideal match for the classic Tiki drink adapted from Don the Beachcomber’s original recipe. While you’re watching I Walked With a Zombie, I recommend drinking a Zombie.

Zombie

1 ½ oz Jamaican Rum

1 ½ oz Puerto Rican Rum

1 oz Overproof Rum

¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup

½ oz Grapefruit Juice

½ oz Velvet Falernum

¾ oz Lime Juice

¼ oz Grenadine

2 dashes Absinthe

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Mint Sprig

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a tiki mug or tall glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

If you came to I Walked With a Zombie expecting rotting flesh and slow-moving corpses, you might be disappointed to find only melodrama and chiaroscuro lighting. But for those of us who understand that our world has been built on a lot of scary, unpleasant history, this is the true horror watch. Cheers!

horror

Scream

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Scream, 1996

So okay, I don’t want to be a traitor to my generation and all, but before this week, I had never watched Scream (Disc/Download). However, in the name of research for a manuscript I’m currently working on, I finally had to bite the bullet and give Skeet Ulrich a chance. After all, great art requires great sacrifice.

Before you start questioning how I could have gone this long without watching Ghostface slash his way through a group of teenagers, keep in mind that when this movie came out, I was thirteen and only interested in three things: My So-Called Life MTV marathons, my VHS copy of Clueless, and Sweet Valley High paperbacks. Why would I want to watch Neve Campbell fighting off a knife attack when I could watch Neve Campbell falling in/out of love while raising her orphan siblings on Party of Five? I probably could have gone the rest of my life without watching this meta horror franchise, but when the need arose, I sighed and stepped up to the challenge. I watched the original, as well as the reboot, skipping a few in the middle. I saw Neve get chased, I saw Courtney Cox usher in an era of tabloid journalism as reporter Gale Weathers (that name!!!!), and I saw a lot of annoying film studies majors share their VERY STRONG OPINIONS on the genre. Thankfully, there was alcohol involved during this experiment.

Thinking about an appropriate cocktail for the Scream franchise, I wanted to choose something fall-inspired because these are great movies to watch in the month of October. Smoky Mezcal simulates the feeling of being around a campfire (although here in Texas we’re still hunkered around the air conditioner), and a riff on the Last Word cocktail is appropriately named for a movie that gives its murder victims a shocking amount of dialogue. While watching Scream, I recommend drinking a Famous Last Words cocktail.

Famous Last Words

1 ½ oz Mezcal

¾ oz Yellow Chartreuse

¾ oz Lime Juice

¼ oz Maraschino Liqueur

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a twist of lime.

So what’s the verdict, then? Am I glad I finally watched these? Overall, yes. I’m never going to be a true fan of the slasher genre, but the nineties nostalgia kept me engaged, and it was fun to see all the teen stars who continue to age gracefully on our streaming apps. We may have all gotten older, but the Ghostface mask will always be timeless. Cheers!