Tag: Warren Beatty

Classic Films · Comedies

Ishtar

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Image Credit: Ishtar, 1987

One of the great mysteries of our world is how some films get universally maligned (or even worse, ignored), while others are lauded to the ends of the earth. I’ll never understand how most of the “Best Picture” winners of the past twenty years made it to the Dolby stage, just as I’ll never understand how Ishtar (Download) is often regarded as one of the biggest movie disasters of all time. If my post has a rallying cry, it is this: JUSTICE FOR ISHTAR!!!!

Inspired by the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movies of the 1940s, Elaine May’s update on the classic concept features Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as a pair of Simon & Garfunkel wannabes who agree to perform at a Marrakesh hotel. The two stars have amazing chemistry together, and when I tell you there were tears of laughter streaming down my face as they performed their terrible lounge act, complete with bongo drums and electric keyboard, it is not an exaggeration. These actors are hilarious, but it’s May’s direction and keen eye in the editing room that makes them hilarious. As evidenced in her debut film A New Leaf (another favorite of mine), she knows the exact moment to cut for perfect comedic effect. I’m ready to follow these guys wherever their musical journey leads, even into a confusing Middle Eastern conflict I still don’t fully understand. The thing is, you don’t need to. All you need to do is give in to the experience of watching Warren Beatty wrestle a blind camel through the desert as Dustin Hoffman is circled by buzzards. The fact that he’s wearing Ralph Macchio’s wardrobe castoffs from The Karate Kid truly completes the picture. Like Ishtar itself, this movie is a state of mind.

For some reason, I spent most of my life thinking this film was three hours long and exclusively shot in the Sahara desert. Maybe I thought it was a Lawrence of Arabia spoof? At any rate, I’m happy to report the desert scenes only comprise a fraction of this under-two-hours gem, though they still make me a little hot and uncomfortable. Lyle Rogers may not be able to handle his bourbon, but I sure can. This week, cool off with a Moroccan Mint Julep.

Moroccan Mint Julep

2 oz Bourbon

½ oz Cardamom Clove Syrup

Fresh Mint

Crushed Ice

Muddle 8-9 leaves of mint in the bottom of a shaker with the cardamom syrup. Add bourbon and crushed ice. Stir to combine. Top with more crushed ice and a sprig of fresh mint.

There are probably a lot of reasons this film got panned on its initial release, most of them leading back to misogyny. When a woman has the audacity to demand time and money to make her vision a reality, it often doesn’t go over well in Hollywood. There are many other things that happened during this film’s production, however before you go down that particular rabbit hole of Wikipedia, watch Ishtar. Form your own opinion. But remember: honest and popular don’t go hand-in-hand. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Here Comes Mr. Jordan / Heaven Can Wait / Down to Earth

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This week, I’d like to tell you a story about a really special movie that got remade over and over again. Once upon a time, there was a play called “Heaven Can Wait”. Columbia Pictures decided they wanted to turn this comedy about the afterlife into a feature-length film, but they didn’t have the rights to the title. Those were already snapped up by Twentieth Century-Fox. So they made a picture called Here Comes Mr. Jordan in 1941. Then in 1943, Fox released a movie called Heaven Can Wait (covered here on Cinema Sips), unrelated to the play, but still a comedy about the afterlife. Still with me? Okay, good. Then we skip ahead to 1978, when Warren Beatty decided to make his version for Paramount Pictures, and lucky Warren, he got to use the original play’s title Heaven Can Wait. Fast forward to 2001, when the Weitz Bros. made their version as a vehicle for Chris Rock, giving it the title Down to Earth (which was actually the name of Columbia’s 1947 sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but let’s not even go there). This week, I’m watching all three movies: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Down to Earth (2001). What is it about this story that has Hollywood reincarnating it every thirty years or so? Let’s pour a drink and find out.

The basic plot shared by all three films is that a guy on the cusp of success suddenly dies in a freak accident. When he gets to Heaven, he protests, saying his time wasn’t up yet. The angels check their records, and… yeah- he’s right! His time wasn’t up! The grim reaper made a mistake. So, they send the soul back down, but unfortunately his body has already been destroyed. That means he has to find a new body, one that hasn’t been discovered as deceased yet. The best candidate they find is a wealthy jerk, notorious for screwing over the less-fortunate. At first the soul wants nothing to do with this body, but then he sees a beautiful woman who’s been harmed by the millionaire. By taking this body, he can help her. Hilarity ensues when the millionaire suddenly turns into a kindhearted philanthropist and decides to pivot his career toward the original soul’s chosen one. In Here Comes Mr. Jordan it’s a boxer, in Heaven Can Wait it’s an NFL quarterback, and in Down to Earth it’s a comedian. The only problem is that this millionaire has a target on his back, so the original soul has to jump again into another body, after he’s already made the girl of his dreams fall in love with body #2. Will she still know him? Will destiny prevail? Can this soul have the future it was always meant to have, in whatever body it inhabits? Are the loved ones we’ve lost still out there somewhere, even though it seems impossible? These are the big questions being posed by this story, and they’re questions I personally find fascinating. It’s no wonder Hollywood does too.

In Here Comes Mr. Jordan, boxer Joe Pendleton complains about being taken out right when he was “in the pink”. Meaning, his physical form was tip-top, and exactly where it needed to be for him to win a championship. This seems like as good an excuse as any to crack open a bottle of my new favorite gin, Beefeater Pink Strawberry. I’m not normally a fan of fruity flavored spirits, but this one is something special. I love it mixed with grapefruit tonic and a splash of grapefruit juice, which actually pairs pretty well with the “Gin and Juice” scene in Down to Earth! While watching these “Heaven Can Wait” adaptations, I recommend drinking this In the Pink cocktail.

In the Pink

2 oz Beefeater Pink Strawberry Gin

4 oz Pink Grapefruit Tonic (I like Fentimans)

1 oz Grapefruit Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

Fresh Strawberry, Mint, Lime Twist for garnish

Build drink in a tumbler with ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with fresh mint, strawberry, and lime twist.

Research tells me this story was adapted again into a made-for-TV movie starring Tara Lipinski, but sadly Ice Angel seems to have vanished into the television ether. If I had to pick my favorite version, it’s an extremely tough choice, but I supposed I’d go with 1978’s Heaven Can Wait. The cast is a who’s who of beloved stars (Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, even screenwriter Buck Henry!), and the understated comedic script co-written by Elaine May speaks to me slightly more than the others. However, you really can’t go wrong with any of these movies. If you worry we’ve come to the end of the road, don’t be scared—I’m sure we’ll get another version in approximately five to ten years. Cheers!

*If you feel like going on your own movie binge, here’s a link to all three on Amazon:

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Disc/Download)

Heaven Can Wait (Disc/Download)

Down to Earth (Disc/Download)

Classic Films

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

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Image credit: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 1971

How do you make a Western that a pink-loving, romance-obsessed millennial female like me will actually enjoy? Easy.

  1. Fill it with gorgeous Leonard Cohen songs.
  2. Cast two of the most beautiful humans alive in 1971: Warren Beatty and Julie Christie.
  3. Make bath time fun again.
  4. Tell the costume department to invest in a really big fur coat. I’m talking massive. Make him look like a very fancy bear.

This week on Cinema Sips, I’m featuring the Robert Altman classic, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Disc/Download). You won’t find a lot of Westerns on Cinema Sips because I’ve never been a fan of dust and dirt and long, lonely vistas; however, there’s something about McCabe & Mrs. Miller that hooks me. The modern music is certainly part of it, but I think it’s also the way ordinary realities are depicted. The characters speak like normal people, instead of holdovers from the Victorian era. They talk about real issues, like same-sex attraction, and menstruation, and what it is that humans really want on the edge of a barren frontier. It’s not sex and it’s not religion (despite the proliferation of brothels and churches); it’s comfort. In many cases, power.

I’m going to warn you, McCabe has truly heinous cocktail preferences. He enjoys a double whiskey with a raw egg, and frankly, seeing that yolk drop into the glass makes me want to vomit. Let’s make a tastier egg-white version instead, adding a little marmalade in honor of Mrs. Miller’s cockney roots. While watching McCabe & Mrs. Miller, I recommend drinking a Marmalade Whiskey Sour.

Marmalade Whiskey Sour

2 oz Bourbon

1 oz Lemon Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

½ oz Orange Marmalade

1 egg white

Combine ingredients in a shaker without ice first. Shake vigorously for thirty seconds, then add ice. Shake for another thirty seconds until chilled and frothy. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice.

I’ll have to remember this movie when I’m sweltering through a Texas summer because one look at the snow-covered mining town makes the room feel ten degrees cooler. But even when the snow is falling outside, and the wind is howling, it’s still fun to snuggle up under a furry blanket, pour a drink, and contemplate whether any Western hero was ever as cool as John McCabe, before or since. Certainly, he was the best-dressed. Cheers!

Comedies · Dramas

Shampoo

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shampoo
Image credit: Shampoo, 1975

In 1960’s-era Beverly Hills, the hairdresser was king. Back then, women didn’t have all the handheld home gadgets we have today. No straightening irons, fancy ionic hairdryers, or texturizing sprays. It was aquanet and curlers, and if you were really brave, an actual clothes iron. So of course, any heterosexual man who could make a woman’s hair look like a million bucks would have been the natural recipient of a casual sex buffet. In Shampoo (DVD/Download), that man was Warren Beatty. Outside of Shampoo, that man was still Warren Beatty.

I like to think of this Hal Ashby-directed gem as American Graffiti meets Dazed and Confused meets the French New Wave. The story unfolds slowly, letting the audience experience a typical day in the crazy life of a popular, promiscuous hairstylist. Warren Beatty’s character George doesn’t end the film much further than where he started, but our own perception has shifted. His metamorphosis from sexy cad to sad hustler occurs once  Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn show him the consequences of his actions, and it’s worth watching just for their performances alone. This film isn’t for everyone, but I’ve always been a fan of slice-of-life stories. And wow, there’s a lot of life in this slice.

All you regular Cinema Sips readers know I love a good party scene, and Shampoo does not disappoint. There’s a celebratory dinner for Republicans (picture stuffed shirts glad-handing each other over Nixon’s presidential victory), and then there’s a wild, acid-fueled counterculture party at a Hollywood mansion. While I’d probably rather be with the hippies, I can’t deny that Republicans know how to make a lethal cocktail. Goldie tries to order a Stinger, which prompted me to ask, what’s a Stinger? Apparently, a drink that died out in the 1970’s. Let’s celebrate 1968 with this slow sipper. It certainly makes me feel like I’m drinking in another era.

Stinger

1 ¾ oz Cognac

2/3 oz White Crème de Menthe

Pour Cognac and Crème de Menthe in a cocktail shaker with ice, and stir to combine. Pour entire contents of shaker into a rocks glass.

Stinger

What I find fascinating about this movie is that it was made just after Nixon’s resignation, yet takes place on the night he was elected president in 1968. Such a short number of years in between, but what a difference those years make both in hair, and in politics. I wonder, will we be seeing movies set on 11/8/16 at some point? If the answer’s yes, I’d just like to say: I was a shell-shocked mess, but I think my hair looked pretty good. Cheers!

*Ironically, Beatty’s character has THE WORST haircut I’ve seen on a man. Where do the sideburns begin and end? Where are his ears? I have no idea!!!!!

Classic Films

Bonnie and Clyde

LizLocke1 Comment

Bonnie and Clyde
Image credit: Bonnie and Clyde, 1967

Throughout February Cinema Sips will be featuring some of the great couples of movie history.  To kick things off I’ll be starting with a classic.  Though they often ran afoul of the law and experienced a bloody ending to their love story, the legend of Bonnie and Clyde (DVD/Download) is one that will live in infamy. I’m going to pretend that the Hilary Duff remake of this film never happened (*shudder*) and instead concentrate on the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway masterpiece.

Directed by Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde shares a similar gritty look to his earlier collaboration with Beatty, Splendor in the Grass. The actor is fantastic in both, and as Clyde Barrow he’s equal parts seductive charmer, wholesome Southern boy, and deadly criminal. Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker totally rocks a beret, and she’s a perfect counterpart to Beatty. They may rob banks, but with these two doing it, robbing banks never looked so good.

Because Bonnie and Clyde viewed the laws of our country as mere suggestions, I’m making a classic and appropriately-named cocktail. While watching Bonnie and Clyde, I recommend drinking a Scofflaw.

Scofflaw

2 oz rye whiskey

1 oz dry vermouth

¾ oz lemon juice

¾ oz grenadine

2 dashes orange bitters.

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass.

scofflaw

This film will always be remembered for the violent ending, but it’s also a gorgeous study of the dusty, Depression-era mid-west landscape. Bonnie and Clyde’s band of outlaws are mostly good people who happen to do very bad things, and perhaps that’s why the story is so riveting even today. Even though I know it’s impossible, I still root for Bonnie and Clyde to ride off into the sunset together. And of course, Bonnie would wear a fabulous hat. Cheers!

Classic Films

Splendor in the Grass

LizLocke1 Comment

Image Credit Warner Bros, Splendor in the Grass, 1961
Image Credit Warner Bros, Splendor in the Grass, 1961

I’m switching gears a bit on my high school movie binge this May to revisit a classic high school film, and by classic I mean pre-John Hughes. Splendor in the Grass (DVD/Download) was released in 1961 and stars Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty (in his first feature film role) as two star-crossed Kansas teenage lovers. Though I’m of course a big fan of classic cinema, this film has always felt timeless to me. It captures teen angst in such a pure way- ie. that feeling of every little problem being a life or death situation, the intensity of emotions, and inability to wait for the future to happen. On the surface it’s a high school movie about “going all the way”, but really it’s about the passion of youth and the remembrance of things past.

Splendor in the Grass tells the tale of Bud Stamper and Deanie Loomis, two teenagers in rural Kansas. He’s a rich boy who wants to shirk the family oil business in favor of becoming a farmer, and she’s the daughter of a humble shopkeeper. When the movie begins, it’s clear that Bud and Deanie are the most popular couple in school, and genuinely in love. However, soon teenage lust rears its ugly head, and Bud can’t reconcile his passionate yearnings with the “good girl” on his arm. There is a betrayal, and Deanie is driven mad with grief. The film is set against the background of the Roaring ‘20s, and it’s fun to see Bud’s flapper sister come to town to shake up the family. Deanie’s clueless mother also deserves special mention, since her cure-all for mental illness seems to be a big plate of mystery meat and gravy.  As the Fresh Prince so wisely said, “Parents just don’t understand.”  The beautiful Natalie Wood does an amazing job of becoming unhinged, and it’s easy to see why Warren Beatty was a heartthrob in his day- Yowza! Sorry, but he puts pretty much any teen idol of recent years to shame.

My drink this week is inspired by the Wordsworth poem that is recited during the film- “Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind.”  This drink references floral notes and farm life in Kansas, and I’m using a limited edition gin from Hendrick’s, Midsummer Solstice. When watching Splendor in the Grass, I recommend drinking a glass of Mabel’s Merriment.

Mabel’s Merriment

1 1/2 oz Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice

1 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur

6 oz Cucumber Tonic

Fresh Key Limes

Build ingredients over ice in a tall Collins glass.  Garnish with fresh key lime slices.

Mabels merriment

I think everyone can relate to the feeling that what is happening in high school is so tragically important at the time, and this film shows the bonds formed during that period are never really forgotten. Perhaps this is why I love high school movies so much, for they are the films I watched over and over again as a teenager, as I was just beginning to shape my identity. In many ways I feel a closer bond with the characters in these films than I do to my actual classmates from that time. Watching this movie again (still on the VHS tape I bought in high school!) certainly makes me feel like I attended a reunion of sorts. It’s no secret I hated high school, but I absolutely loved that time in my life when I was discovering cinema, and watching anything and everything I could get my hands on. I miss those days, when every script and style and actor was new to me, but I will grieve not- rather find strength in the great films that remain behind. Cheers!