Cinema Sips has gone back in time to cover 1967, 1976, 1985, and now <drumroll please> I’m ready to party like it’s 1999! In my opinion, I’ve saved the best for last on my mini journey through late-20th century cinema. Maybe this is my favorite movie year because I was sixteen and impressionable at the time, or maybe it’s because the movies were SO DAMN GOOD. I’ve already covered many of my favorites (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Notting Hill, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc), but now I’m turning my attention to a few other films that made a hell of a lot of money, started a lot of conversations, and represented what audiences were most looking for at the time. Kicking things off is M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller, The Sixth Sense (Disc/Download).
I saw this movie with my dad during its initial theatrical release, and I remember him being decidedly pissed off by the ending. It was a bait-and-switch, overturning everything we thought we were watching for the last two hours. I believe his direct quote was, “Those JERKS!” But it was this very ending that made people keep talking about the movie, giving it box office staying power beyond any other psychological thriller at the time. Similar to Hitchcock’s Psycho, this movie about a young boy who sees ghosts lives and dies by its final ten minutes, and if anyone spoiled the twist before you had a chance to see it, I hope only bad things have happened to them over the ensuing twenty-three years. I’m not going to go into it here in case you’re very young or have been living under a rock, but what I will say is that Bruce Willis gives a career-highlight performance as the child psychologist tasked with helping a scared little boy (an adorable Haley Joel Osment), and Toni Collette has somehow aged backwards in the last several decades?? This goes to show that a dark lip color and heavy eye makeup did us no favors in the late ‘90s.
The thing about the ghosts in this movie is that they don’t actually know they’re dead. Similar to its charming rom-com counterpoint Ghost Town, spirits between worlds come to Haley Joel Osment in crisis, and he has to fix their problems in order to set them free. I know what you’re thinking—how do they not know they’re dead? Well, this is conveniently explained away as “they only see what they want to see.” I guess one of the things they turned a blind eye to was their obituary, but I’m not making the same mistake. While watching The Sixth Sense, I recommend drinking a classic Obituary cocktail.
Obituary
2 oz Gin
¼ oz Dry Vermouth
¼ oz Absinthe
Lemon twist
Pour ingredients into a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir until well combined, the strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
I previously featured this cocktail as a pairing for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it’s just as lethal now as it was then. You need something strong and spirit-forward for this movie (see what I did there??) because you don’t want to end up like my dad, angry and bitter that M. Night Shyamalan pulled a fast one. Instead, you want to ease into this psychological mind-bender on a cloud of absinthe fumes, ready to be spooked and surprised. Cheers!
Cinema Sips 