Dramas

Forrest Gump

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Image: Forrest Gump, 1994

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think Forrest Gump (Disc/Download) is a moving tribute to mid-century nostalgia, and those who think it’s sentimental tacky crap. I’m in the first camp because I love the 1960s, and I love to be emotionally manipulated by cinema. Please, let me feel something, even if it comes at the price of my reputation as someone with decent taste. You can take your cynicism; I’ll be over here crying into my box of chocolates.

Back in the nineties, sixties nostalgia was a big deal: from Nick-at-Nite to the multiplex, from The Brady Bunch reruns to The Brady Bunch Movie. Thus it makes sense that a character like Forrest Gump would sweep the nation (and the Oscars) because our cable TV and oldies radio stations primed us for his arrival. American viewers, particularly the Baby Boomers, embraced pop-culture touchstones like Creedence in a Vietnam jungle, hippies dropping acid in San Francisco, Abbie Hoffman shaking his American flag-covered arm above the Reflecting Pool (RIP), and Lieutenant Dan doing his finest Ratso Rizzo impression in Times Square. You may not have wanted to hear Tom Hanks spin his wild yarns of ping pong diplomacy and shrimp market dominance, but Hollywood treated us all like southern strangers on a park bench—it was simply our destiny to listen.

In designing a cocktail for this movie, I tried to think of what Forrest would drink. Fifteen Dr Peppers were out of the question, but a Dr Pepper cocktail is manageable. While watching Forrest Gump, I recommend drinking this Box of Chocolates Highball.

Box of Chocolates

1 oz dark rum

½ oz white crème de cacao

¼ oz Allspice dram

¾ oz cold brew coffee

Dr Pepper, to top

Combine rum, crème de cacao, Allspice dram, and cold brew in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice. Top with Dr Pepper, and stir gently. Garnish with a piece of chocolate.

If this sounds like the kind of drink that would have been served in a basement rumpus room in 1963, well, that’s the point. People can time-travel with cocktails just as they do with movies, back to an era when the world was every bit as complicated and scary as it is now, for vastly different reasons. But as Forrest Gump proves, no matter the year, kindness (and a little chocolate), will get you where you’re meant to go. Cheers!

Comedies

9 to 5

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Image: 9 to 5, 1980

As I continue to grieve beloved star Dolly Parton, it warms my heart to know that so many of us will be celebrating her on September 25th, in honor of her debut film 9 to 5 (Disc/Download). If you’re planning to toast her with a screening and a cold cocktail, Cinema Sips has you covered.

Starring Dolly, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin as a trio of disgruntled secretaries in a large corporate office, 9 to 5 shouldn’t still be progressive, and yet, it is. Their sexist, predatory boss is a type of man who probably still exists in offices all over the country (certainly, within the White House). Women are still fighting for common sense policies like flexible work hours, job-sharing, in-office childcare, and equal pay, and don’t even get me started on the battle for hybrid and remote work. Sometimes it seems like the whole system is orchestrated to return women to the home and kitchen, but in this movie, they fight back. 9 to 5 dabbles in fantasy with its fairy tale dream sequence and Dolly in her cute cowgirl outfit, and to be honest, the plot goes off the rails after the first thirty minutes. However, sometimes you need a bit of fantasy in order to communicate some very real problems in the workplace. If you think Dolly roping and barbecuing her boss is the most ludicrous thing you’ve ever seen, you obviously haven’t used Microsoft Teams.

My favorite thing about this movie is Dolly’s iconic theme song, “9 to 5”. It still bops! While you’re watching these ladies slip rat poison into the boss’s coffee, pour yourself a Cup of Ambition.

Cup of Ambition

1 oz coffee liqueur

1 oz rye whiskey

2 dashes orange bitters

Dried orange garnish

Add coffee liqueur, rye, and bitters to a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a rocks glass with one large ice cube. Garnish with a dried orange.

No shade to Jane and Lily, but Dolly is absolutely the best thing in this movie. She makes every scene funnier, and she brings her trademark wit and charm to what could have been another ditsy blonde stereotype. Through her performances, songs, and charitable legacy, this beautiful butterfly will live on, from 9 to 5, and beyond. Cheers!

Comedies

Miss Congeniality

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Image: Miss Congeniality, 2000

Did you know April 25th is the perfect date? If so, then you either A) got married on this day like I did, or B) you’ve seen this week’s flick Miss Congeniality (Disc/Download) more times than you can count. Gracie Lou may be talented with water, but I prefer to show off my skills with something a little more alcoholic.

Shot in San Antonio, Texas (a fact the tour guides will not let you forget), Miss Congeniality is about an undercover FBI agent posing as a beauty pageant contestant to capture a domestic terrorist. We’re expected to believe that Sandra Bullock is a gross, frizzy-haired tomboy at the start of this flick (a difficult ask given that she’s one of the most beautiful movie stars on the planet), but things soon brighten when Michael Caine’s Henry Higgins-esque pageant consultant transforms her into someone who can rock an evening gown and a bikini. I love a movie makeover, and Caine plays this like he’s having the time of his life. Gracie shares a tepid romance with her fellow FBI officer (Benjamin Bratt), but the real heart of this movie is her relationships with the other pageant contestants. She teaches them to let loose, eat carbs whenever they want, and not take everything so seriously. In return, they teach her about the importance of world peace.

There are some great shots of the San Antonio River Walk in this, but in my two decades of living in Central Texas, I’ve only found one acceptable place to drink in this floating tourist trap. That restaurant is Boudro’s and the drink is a Frozen Prickly Pear Margarita. If you absolutely must visit the River Walk, this will make the experience a little more tolerable. While watching Miss Congeniality, I recommend drinking a River Walk Margarita.

River Walk Margarita

4 oz silver tequila

2 oz Cointreau

2 ½ oz lime juice

2 oz simple syrup

2 oz prickly pear syrup

Fresh lime wedge (garnish)

Combine tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and simple syrup in a freezer-safe container. Freeze at least eight hours. Once you’re ready to make your margarita, pour contents into a high-speed blender with 1 cup crushed ice. Blend until smooth. Pour into a martini glass, then add a swirl of prickly pear syrup around the rim. Garnish with a lime wedge.

We can’t forget about the always-gorgeous, always-hilarious Candice Bergen as pageant owner Kathy Morningside, nor Heather Burns as the sweet, ditsy Miss Rhode Island who gives us the iconic April 25th line. I’m totally fine having my anniversary celebrated in tandem with Miss Congeniality every year because the movie is pure fun. If you can’t find something to laugh about here, all I can say is, “Smilers wear the crown, losers wear a frown.” Cheers!

Classic Films · Musicals

The Pajama Game

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Image: The Pajama Game, 1957

Happy Labor Day to all you Cinema Sips readers! As an Elder Millennial raised on Newsies and Norma Rae, I never let this day pass without a little fanfare. It’s a celebration of the contributions and sacrifices made by the workers of America, many of whom are currently protesting the lousy economic policies that funneled so much of our money up to the billionaire CEOs. In other words, we are currently living through The Pajama Game (Disc/Download). Doris to the rescue!

If you’re looking for a movie about labor unions, you won’t find a prettier one than The Pajama Game. At the Sleeptite Pajama Factory in Cedar Rapids, IA, workers come to the factory in colorful A-line dresses, heart-shaped pin cushions, and a spring in their step. As they sing about the dreamy new Superintendent, whom Doris Day is definitely NOT in love with (yet), the women swish their polka dots, stripes, and ric-rac in time to the fabulous Bob Fosse choreography and catchy songs. In a classic rom-com trope, Day plays the chairwoman of the Grievance Committee (read: labor union) who clashes with the handsome new Superintendent (read: middle manager). He must come over to her side if they’re to have any chance of a romance, which is easy to do once he discovers their boss has been stealing money already allocated for the workers’ 7.5-cent raises. This movie may have been made in the fifties, but damned if it isn’t still relevant in 2026.

In The Pajama Game, Doris loves her apples almost as much as she loves fighting The Man. Let’s welcome fall with this refreshing Hernando’s Honeycrisp Sangria!

Hernando’s Honeycrisp Sangria

1 ½ oz brandy

3 oz white wine

1 oz apple juice

½ oz lemon juice

½ oz cinnamon syrup

Honeycrisp apple slices + cinnamon stick (garnish)

In a shaker with ice, combine brandy, white wine, apple juice, lemon juice, and cinnamon syrup. Shake to combine, then strain into a collins glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with apple slices and a cinnamon stick.

In true Doris form, my favorite star is no-nonsense and driven when it comes to protecting the interests of her friends and co-workers. Sure, they make cute pajamas, but there’s nothing cute about the mistreatment they’ve suffered at the hands of management. This is a frothy, stylish confection of a movie, yet it still serves as a reminder that you can’t have the top without the bottom. Cheers!

Classic Films · Musicals

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

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Image: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953

There’s been a lot of Marilyn Monroe chatter this summer in honor of the star’s 100th birthday, and while I was lucky enough to celebrate her at my local theater with a screening of The Misfits, this week I want to highlight one of her most joyous movies, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Disc/Download). Between Marilyn’s iconic musical numbers and the dancing muscle-bound men, I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun!

While Marilyn certainly makes a splash as showgirl Lorelei Lee, the part might not have worked nearly as well without the chemistry between her and costar Jane Russell. They are two singing, dancing, former “little girls from Little Rock” with very different tastes in men. When Lorelei hooks a millionaire’s son, the two set off on a pre-wedding cruise to Paris, initially unaware that they’re being watched by the millionaire’s private eye. Lorelei schemes to land an even bigger fish with even more diamonds at his disposal, while gal pal Dorothy enjoys a buffet of hot men. Although Dorothy’s official job is chaperone, she astutely points out: “Nobody chaperones the chaperone.” Pretty soon she’s flirting with her buff Olympian shipmates and catching the eye of the handsome PI. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, and you shouldn’t either. Just lean into the vibes, and you’ll be okay.

Recently, I came across a cocktail in the Mr. Boston bar book that has Marilyn written all over it. From its pink hue, to its showgirl roots, this fizzy beverage is like Lorelei Lee in a glass. While watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, I recommend drinking a Floradora cocktail.

Floradora

2 oz gin

1 oz lime juice

1/2 oz raspberry syrup

Ginger beer, to top

Dried lime, garnish

Add gin, lime juice, and raspberry syrup to a shaker with ice, and shake to chill. Strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with a dried lime.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a pet peeve about annoying child actors, but I’m happy to report that young George Winslow is like the Macaulay Culkin of the 1950s; I keep expecting him to order a plain cheese pizza for one! Ultimately, this movie is a reminder that when life gets hard, I simply need to put Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in my movie arsenal and let Marilyn make everything better. Whether covered in diamonds or a fabulous leopard cape, she always brings the light. Bottom’s up!

Comedies

Muriel’s Wedding

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Image: Muriel’s Wedding, 1994

I thought I’d seen most of the quirky, rom-com-adjacent indie darlings of the 1990s, but somehow, Muriel’s Wedding (Disc/Download) slipped by*. In our current landscape of horror films and special effects extravaganzas, there’s never been a better time to travel back to Porpoise Spit and remind yourself what it was like to be young and terrible.

Starring Toni Collette in her breakout role, Muriel’s Wedding is sort of like a trashier Four Weddings and Funeral, with more sequins and fewer top hats. Belittled by her family, Muriel decides to steal $12,000 and go on a wild trip to Hibiscus Island. There, she reconnects with a former high school acquaintance (Rachel Griffiths), who gives her the confidence to leave her dead-end life behind. The two become roommates in Sydney, and on the surface, it seems like Muriel’s life has gotten so much better. She works at a video store! She goes to discos! She has smooth hair! But alas, it still isn’t enough. Muriel won’t feel like she’s “made it” until her ultimate wedding fantasy becomes a reality. This woman is nothing if not a problem-solver, and in desperation, she answers a newspaper ad from someone looking for a wife. Turns out, it’s an extremely hot South African swimmer who needs a marriage of convenience to compete on the Australian team. If “video store clerk” and “marriage of convenience” aren’t enough to sell you on this movie, then we obviously have very different tastes.

Muriel discovers, as so many of us do, that travel can be the catalyst to making a big change in your life. On the fictional Hibiscus Island, anything seems possible after a few brightly colored drinks. Let’s lean into the island fantasy with this Hibiscus Island Daiquiri.

Hibiscus Island Daiquiri

2 oz white rum

1 oz lime juice

¾ oz hibiscus syrup

Lime wheel (garnish)

Combine rum, lime juice, and hibiscus syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

The thing I love most about this movie is its focus on female friendships. As Muriel eventually realizes, the wedding and the guy aren’t as important as the best friend. If you don’t have someone who will throw on a wig and join you in an ABBA lip sync performance, what do you even have? Cheers!

*In my defense, I was eleven.

Classic Films · Dramas

The Long, Hot Summer

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Image: The Long, Hot Summer, 1958

I’ve been saving The Long, Hot Summer (Disc/Download) for a week when I absolutely cannot stand the Texas heat another second, and well folks, this is that week. Seasonal affective disorder has set in, and the only cure is Paul Newman’s abs.

Sharing similarities with movies like Picnic and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long, Hot Summer features Newman in the role of Ben Quick, a falsely accused barn burner and mysterious drifter who lands in a small Mississippi town. He quickly makes an impression on the only daughter of the local bigwig, Clara Varner (played by Newman’s real-life love Joanne Woodward), soon ingratiating himself into her dysfunctional mess of a family. The chemistry between Newman and Woodward is electric, and even when she’s putting on a good show of hating this cocky ne’er-do-well, you can tell she’s also wildly attracted to him. And honestly, who wouldn’t be? The man performs the simple act of eating a watermelon, and I’m a puddle.

In Frenchman’s Bend, Mississippi, people spend most of the day either toiling in the fields or sitting on a veranda with an icy cold beverage in hand. I know where I’d be in this scenario, and I also know what drink I’d be holding. While watching The Long, Hot Summer, get hot and bothered with this Barn Burner cocktail.

Barn Burner

2 oz bourbon

1 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz hot honey syrup (1:1 ratio Mike’s Hot Honey® to water)

4 oz ginger beer

Dried lemon wheel (garnish)

Combine bourbon, lemon juice, and hot honey syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a tumbler filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer and stir gently to combine. Garnish with a dried lemon wheel.

I normally loathe movies where everyone is sweaty, but when it’s Paul Newman standing shirtless outside the town schoolmarm’s bedroom, complimenting her reading glasses and promising to waltz with her under the moon, I don’t mind it one bit. Joanne was smart to lock that down when she did. Cheers!

Classic Films

A Kiss Before Dying

LizLocke2 Comments
Image: A Kiss Before Dying, 1956

If my beloved A Summer Place had taken a very different turn in the third act, it might have resulted in a version of this week’s Technicolor noir, A Kiss Before Dying (Disc/Download). I’m trading the windswept beaches of Pine Island for the desert vistas of Tucson to see what happens when a girl really gets in “trouble”.

Dropping us right into the melodrama, the film opens with a college student (Robert Wagner) who’s just found out his girlfriend (Joanne Woodward) is pregnant, and he is not happy about it. He promises to marry her, but secretly, he’s also checking out poison books from the library and skulking around the chemistry department. When she refuses to take the poisoned pills he gives her, he lures her to a rooftop on their wedding day. In a flash, the girlfriend goes splat, and the murderer coolly walks away. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game wherein the girlfriend’s sister starts asking questions, never realizing the man she’s begun dating is the same man who pushed her sister off a roof and made it look like a suicide. Robert Wagner is extremely good at playing a sociopath—someone akin to a charming conman from a Patricia Highsmith novel.  Except he’s no Ripley; the audience feels no sympathy for this guy.

My favorite scene in the movie occurs in the historic Pago Pago Lounge, a Tucson Tiki bar opened in 1947. I’ve seen pictures in various books, but it’s extra exciting to see it in a Hollywood production. I’m not sure what the characters have in their glasses, but I know I’ll be sipping on the bar’s eponymous drink, the Pago Pago Punch.

Pago Pago Punch

2 oz orange juice

1 ½ oz lime juice

1 ½ oz grapefruit juice

1 ½ oz honey syrup (1:1 ratio honey to water)

2 oz dark Jamaican rum

2 dashes angostura bitters

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with plenty of crushed ice. Shake to chill, then pour entire contents unstrained into a pilsner glass. Garnish with a dried orange and swizzle stick.

Tiki bars are the perfect place to discuss murder because they usually involve dim lighting, soft music, and liquor to loosen your inhibitions. It makes sense they’d pop up in so many film noirs, and it’s always a pleasure to see these architectural touchstones of the Tiki movement come alive onscreen. A Kiss Before Dying invites us to escape into a world where bright Technicolor hides sinister plots, and the only safe place is next to a tropical fish tank, hunched over a cocktail. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films

Hell’s Angels

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Image: Hell’s Angels, 1930

If you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, then you’re likely somewhat familiar with this week’s pick, Hell’s Angels (Disc/Download). As a fun experiment, I decided to watch them both back-to-back, to see whether the backstage drama depicted in The Aviator resulted in a Hughes film that stands the test of time. Happily, or rather, unhappily for reasons we’ll get to later, I’m here to report it does.

The film begins with three college friends: German Karl, and two English brothers, Roy and Monte Rutledge. They think they’ve all got more carefree Oxford days ahead of them, but what none of them realize is that they’ll soon be fighting on opposite sides, both in World War I and in pursuit of the affections of a fickle young woman: a braless, flawless Jean Harlow. Roy and Monte both think they have a shot with her, but she’s only interested in having fun while she’s still alive to have it (a statement that would prove to be horribly prescient given the actress’s death from kidney failure at the age of twenty-six). Roy becomes disillusioned with love while Monte becomes disillusioned with military service, realizing too late he and his fellow fighter pilots are merely pawns for politicians and privateers. He wonders why he and his brother are putting their lives on the line in the night patrol when the people sending them to the battlefield are home safe in their beds. It’s in this skepticism of war that the movie stays current, nearly a hundred years later. I’d imagine there are a lot of military personnel and their loved ones asking this very same question right now.

I’ve been wanting to feature the Jean Harlow cocktail on Cinema Sips for a while, and Hell’s Angels is the perfect pairing because in this breakout role, Jean likes liquor, she likes men, and she’s not afraid to declare it. While watching Hell’s Angels, I recommend slipping into something more comfortable to enjoy the classic Jean Harlow cocktail.

Jean Harlow

1 ½ oz light white rum

1 ½ oz red sweet vermouth

1 dash orange bitters

Orange twist

Combine rum, vermouth, and bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Express the oils from the orange twist over the glass, then rest on the side.

Even if you think a war flick is not for you, Hell’s Angels is worth watching for its technical achievements alone. A silent film that had to be reshot for sound, it also mixes black & white footage with scenes in Multicolor processing, plus tinted frames. Not to mention the incredible (and dangerous) aerial stunts that took the lives of several pilots, and all those fluffy, precious clouds. This is a historical record of what was newly possible in cinema in the late-1920s/early-1930s, and also of what happens when one crazy guy just keeps throwing money at the problem. Cheers!

Comedies

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

LizLocke1 Comment
Image: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998

I’m writing to you from the cold confines of an air-conditioned casino, marked safe from the “dry heat” of Sin City. As the most boring Vegas-goer you’ll ever meet, I’m basically the opposite of the characters in this week’s pick Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Disc/Download). But even though I’m a “three drinks is my limit” kind of girl, that doesn’t mean I’m not up for a cinematic visit to the weird, drug-fueled land of Hunter S. Thompson.

In my opinion, this cult classic survives thanks to three things: Johnny Depp’s narration, the soundtrack, and the production design. Thank goodness director Terry Gilliam chose to stay faithful to Thompson’s original novel by setting this in 1971 because the time period offers a rich visual language you wouldn’t get if it was set in the 1990s. This language includes pink shag carpeting at the Flamingo hotel and casino, the revolving carousel bar at the circus-themed casino (how I wish Circus Circus had instead been named Bazooko Circus!!!), and vintage signs blinking over the Strip. I’m along for this ride because the music is good, the guy on the bar stool is saying some pretty interesting things, and I like how everything looks. I’m not there for the plot, of which there is none, or the drugs, of which there are too many.

Speaking of the revolving carousel, I’ve been to the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, but that one sort of creeps along. The Bazooko Circus carousel is a tilt-a-whirl by comparison! While you’re watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I recommend drinking this Carousel cocktail, adapted from Tim Miner’s recipe for Death & Co.

Carousel

1 oz cognac

¼ oz absinthe

½ oz Crème de Noyaux

¾ oz lime juice

½ oz pineapple juice

½ oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple leaf.

With its strong Tiki vibe and strange collection of ingredients, this’ll make you feel like you’re Hunter S. Thompson in a Hawaiian shirt, cozied up to a Vegas bar with your favorite attorney. Maybe the absinthe will make you hallucinate bats or narco agents—who’s to say? Cheers!