Tag: retro

Dramas

Peggy Sue Got Married

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Image: Peggy Sue Got Married, 1986

Ramping up to the holiday movie season, I find myself in need of a cozy comfort watch. Luckily, Kathleen Turner and her silver lamé party dress are here to take me back to a time when movies about female mid-life crises were mainstream, and high school reunions were an actual thing people still attended (the horror). This week, we’re flashing back to 1960 via 1986 with Peggy Sue Got Married (Disc/Download).

I love time-travel, I love nostalgia, and I love the 1960s, so of course I also love the time-travel romance Peggy Sue Got Married. However, I didn’t expect my love to grow even stronger now that I’m adult-Peggy’s age. This year would have been my twenty-fifth high school reunion, and like her, I have a bad habit of looking at my life through the lens of what my teenage self expected it to be. By returning to the past, Peggy learns the “mistakes” she made in high school were simply the choices that led her where she was always meant to go. In that way, they weren’t mistakes at all. Personally, I find it hilarious that she goes back in time and invents pantyhose, only for my generation to come along and kill it. If this was millennials’ way of fixing a rift in the space-time continuum, you’re welcome.

Back in 1960, Peggy Sue and her friends fantasized about being housewives on the same cute little street, raising their cute little children. What they fail to mention is that they would probably need a cocktail to get through this cute little boring day. In keeping with the mid-century time period, I’m making a girly drink Peggy Sue and her gal pals might have enjoyed. While watching Peggy Sue Got Married, I recommend drinking a Pink Squirrel.

Pink Squirrel

¾ oz white crème de menthe

¾ oz crème de noyaux

1 ½ oz heavy cream

Garnish: grated nutmeg

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well to chill and combine, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with grated nutmeg.

Director Francis Ford Coppola made this movie a family affair with the addition of nasal-voiced nephew Nicolas Cage, and Miss “I’m way too cool for this production” little Sofia Coppola. Fittingly, Peggy’s ability to see her deceased relatives is where the film’s heart shines through. What wouldn’t any of us give to go back in time and see our loved ones when they were young, vibrant, and alive? You can keep your high school reunions; I prefer family reunions. Cheers!

Comedies

Shag

LizLockeLeave a comment

Shag
Image credit: Shag, 1989.

If you’re a fan of Dirty Dancing and Where the Boys Are, let me introduce you to their love child- Shag (Disc).  This 80s-made/60s-set gem is the kind of movie I would have watched in my VCR until the tape finally wore out.  It’s the summer fling flick I’ve been waiting my whole life for, and luckily, it found me after I was of legal drinking age.

Set in 1963, Shag follows four female friends who take a road trip to Myrtle Beach.  One is escaping a fiancé she’s just not that into, one is escaping her reputation as the “fat girl”, one is trying to be a Hollywood starlet, and then there’s Luanne- the buzzkill with the rad car.  Think Sex and the City, but at the beach in retro dresses.  Of course they meet boys, of course they drink, and of course they find themselves during this wild weekend.  But what I love even more than the production design, costumes, and cheesy script is witnessing the bonds of female friendship.  These girls are there for each other, through sexist beauty pageants, TP’d houses, and beyond.

Because Luanne lays down the law early that her daddy’s bourbon is strictly off-limits, we’ve gotta make do with tequila.  For a fun, summertime movie like this, you need something sweet, sparkling, and deceptively boozy.  I recommend drinking this Strawberry Shag.

 Strawberry Shag

4 strawberries + 1 for garnish

½ oz agave nectar or simple syrup

1 oz lime juice

2 oz tequila

2 basil leaves

6 oz club soda

Blend strawberries, agave nectar, lime juice, tequila, and basil in a blender, without ice.  Strain, and set aside.  Then, add crushed ice to a glass, and pour in the blended mixture.  Top with club soda, and garnish with a strawberry.

Strawberry Shag

I didn’t know until this movie that “shag” was a kind of dance, and not a particularly sexual one.  Plus, Bubble Flip is a hairstyle, not a drink.  JFK is a sweet potato, which means he’s dreamy; but also, I never realized how much he actually looks like a sweet potato. Thank you Shag, for expanding my sixties slang horizons.  Cheers!