Tag: Ryan O’Neal

Classic Films · Comedies

Paper Moon

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Image credit: Paper Moon, 1973

If your summer plans include a road trip on a budget, then I’ve got just the movie for you. Paper Moon (Disc/Download) travels a long, hilarious path through the small towns of the American Midwest, fueled by hot dogs, whiskey, and get-rich-quick schemes. Forget baseball; grifting may as well be the national pastime of the good ole’ US-of-A.

Starring real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, Paper Moon is yet another Peter Bogdanovich classic that wouldn’t be nearly as special without the input of his ex-wife Polly Platt. Thanks to her, we have the precocious, stunningly good Tatum in the role of newly orphaned Addie, and it’s because of her performance the movie succeeds as well as it does. The way this little girl spars with her off-screen (and maybe onscreen??) dad is electric, and it’s a shame only Tatum won the Academy Award for this because Ryan turned in some amazing work too. If you like road movies set in 1930s rural America, such as O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, Sullivan’s Travels, and It Happened One Night, you’ll find a lot to love about Paper Moon. It’s a portrait of Americana, of people doing whatever they had to do to survive, yet not losing their heart along the way. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Addie and Moses Pray (that name!!!) find their hearts, and it’s the big payoff neither of them expected.

Tatum O’Neal’s record of being the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history still stands, and if you haven’t seen pictures of this little girl in a mini tuxedo, I urge you to look it up. It’s even more remarkable that she was only eight years old when the movie began filming, especially considering she’d never acted before. She smokes cigarettes and spars with prostitutes like she’d been doing it her whole life (maybe she had… I still need to read her memoir). Anyway, let’s toast young Tatum with this Prohibition-era cocktail, the Ward 8.

Ward 8

2 oz Rye Whiskey

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Orange Juice

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice

2 tsp Grenadine

Maraschino cherries (garnish)

Shake whiskey, orange juice, lemon juice, and grenadine in a shaker with ice until chilled. Strain into a coupe or Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with cherries.

The production design, locations, and costumes of the film are all stunning, but of course they were with Polly Platt in charge. The movie is timeless because she made it so, placing it in a very specific era and place that would never show its age. To watch Paper Moon is to feel like you’re watching a movie made in the 1930s, when the scripts were sparkling, the stars were dazzling, and the road of cinema seemed to stretch on forever. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

Love Story

LizLockeLeave a comment

Love Story
Image credit: Love Story, 1970

We all know the classic line: Love means never having to say you’re sorry. But really… does it?? I may have only a decade of marriage under my belt, but I would’ve thought that love means defying your family to be with the person you want. Or working a crappy job to support the dreams of someone else. Or maybe love is holding your spouse in a hospital bed while they die from a mysterious illness that only makes them look more beautiful. Really, there’s a lot of love in Love Story (Disc/Download). It’s just not where the script wants it to be.

Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) and Jenny (Ali MacGraw) meet in college, trade barbs, then kisses, and eventually wedding rings. They struggle to make ends meet while he’s in law school, and just as things start looking up financially, Jenny gets sick. From what, we’re never told. All we know is she looks ah-mah-zing during mournful winter scenes in snowy New York, and especially on her death bed. We know from the very first line of this movie that Jenny’s not going to make it, and yet I spend 90 minutes thinking somehow, someone made a mistake. Maybe Ryan O’Neal is talking about a long-lost little sister, not the wisecracking wife who’s way too good for him.

For such a sad, serious movie set in a bitterly cold climate, all I can think about when I watch this film is an earthy, warming cocktail. Aptly named, this Widow’s Kiss will have you thinking about poor Oliver, cradling his wife for the last time. I’m not crying, you’re crying!!!!

Widow’s Kiss

1 ½ oz Calvados apple brandy

¾ oz Yellow Chartreuse

¾ oz Benedictine

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Luxardo Maraschino Cherry for garnish

Combine Calvados, Yellow Chartreuse, Benedictine, and bitters in a shaker filled with ice. Stir until chilled, then strain into a glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Widows Kiss

One of my great disappointments in life is that Ali MacGraw did not make more films. It’s through her performances in Love Story and Goodbye, Columbus that I learned how to dress with confidence, and how to stand up for myself in relationships. In Love Story, she’s brash, she swears, and she doesn’t take sh*t from anybody. But she also looks fabulous doing it, in wool peacoats, tights, and a scarf for every occasion. If clothes are a woman’s armor, she’s ready for anything, even the inevitabilities of love and death. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

What’s Up, Doc?

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Whats Up Doc
Image credit: Whats Up Doc?, 1972

The 1970’s were a really unfortunate time for hair. Also luggage. But there was one great thing that set the decade apart from all others- Barbra Streisand. Specifically, young, gamine, fresh-faced Barbra Streisand, before she was Oprah-rich and started cloning her dogs. In this week’s film What’s Up, Doc? (DVD/Download), she’s at the top of her game, but isn’t afraid to pratfall down to the bottom.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, What’s Up, Doc? pays homage to the great screwball comedies of the 1930’s. Fast dialogue, rapid fire puns, etc.- it’s like Bringing Up 70’s Baby. Four people show up at the same hotel carrying the same ugly suitcase. Naturally the suitcases get mixed up, and chaos ensues. Barbra is radiant as flighty Judy Maxwell, and her zany romance with engaged musicologist (played by Ryan O’Neal), is great fun to watch. The script is still remarkably fresh, and I found myself imagining who’d play these roles in the remake. Dream cast: Ryan Reynolds as Howard Bannister, Aya Cash as Judy Maxwell, and Kate McKinnon as Eunice Burns. Boom.

One of my favorite scenes involves Judy and Howard meeting on an abandoned floor of the hotel.  The stuffy musicologist plays “As Time Goes By” (because every construction site has a spare piano lying around…) and they gaze into each other’s eyes, and…. (insert *sigh* here). This cocktail is as sparkling as the movie dialogue, as sweet as the romance, and naturally, on the rocks. While watching What’s Up, Doc?, I recommend drinking an Elderflower Collins (on the rocks).

Elderflower Collins (on the rocks)

2 oz gin

1 oz St. Germain

1 oz lemon juice

2 oz Lemon Elderflower Soda

2 oz Topo Chico

Fill a highball glass with ice, then build drink, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with a lemon slice.

elderflower fizz

If you’re traveling to San Francisco anytime soon, I’d highly recommend giving this movie a watch. So many great location shots of the city, including some truly epic car chases up and down the hills. Bogdanovich throws every sight and sound gag at us, and luckily, most of them work. In What’s Up, Doc?, anything goes. Cheers!