If you ever get nostalgic for 1960s music and political ideology, then definitely check out this movie… set in the 1980s? This week, Cinema Sips is diving into The Big Chill (Disc/Download), which is unfortunately not about frozen cocktails. Rather, it’s about recapturing the joy and camaraderie of youth, and rocking out to classic Motown hits. Sign me up!
I’ll admit, when I first watched The Big Chill as a teenager, I didn’t get it. All these whiny middle-aged people having affairs and trying to make jogging a thing—not my cup of tea. But as an adult who is now squarely in the age range of these characters, I enjoy it a lot more. I don’t think you can really “get” The Big Chill until you’ve experienced grief, and/or drifted away from the friends you had in college. You have to have lost something before you can find it in this movie. Jeff Goldblum is the standout in an ensemble cast of college buddies reuniting at a funeral, and if you thought he was charismatic in Jurassic Park, you will enjoy him even more in this. They gave his character all the best lines, and the best drugs.
This group of mourners seem to go through an awful lot of white wine, which is understandable given all the issues they’re still working out. Impotence, loneliness, infidelity, depression- pass the Sauvignon Blanc. You could certainly keep it simple with a bottle of wine, or you could mix it into something perfect for long conversations around the coffee table. While watching The Big Chill, I recommend drinking a Heard It Through the Grapevine cocktail.
Heard It Through the Grapevine
3 oz Dry White Wine
1 oz Ginger Liqueur
1 oz Lemon Juice
3 dashes Orange Bitters
2 oz Ginger Beer
Lemon/Basil Garnish
Combine wine, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, and orange bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to combine, then strain into a glass filled with a large ice cube. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with a lemon wheel and sprig of basil.
There’s something that happens when you reach your thirties and forties, when you start losing people at a rate you never could have fathomed ten years earlier. Suddenly it’s parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, etc. The wedding circuit is replaced with the funeral circuit. We start gathering and taking stock, wondering when it will be us in that box, and what will people say about the life we’ve led? Wondering if this will be the last time we see any of these fellow mourners again. Maybe a movie about frozen cocktails would have been a little more uplifting, but The Big Chill gives me the community, and the perspective, I didn’t know I needed. Cheers!
Cinema Sips 