Category: Just Kidding

The Beetlejuice Striped Suit

Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice (1988)

Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice (1988)

Vitals

Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, boorish “bio-exorcist”

Connecticut, Summer 1987

Film: Beetlejuice
Release Date: March 30, 1988
Director: Tim Burton
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers

Background

Happy Halloween!

As delightfully and unapologetically weird as its director, Beetlejuice was Tim Burton’s follow-up to his directorial debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The darkly comic story about a recently deceased couple summoning an unprincipled poltergeist was developed by Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, and Larry Wilson, with Burton channeling the cheap B-movies of decades past in his interpretation that balanced humor and horror.

In less than a decade of screen roles, Michael Keaton had already established a range of versatility between zany comedy (Night Shift) and thoughtful drama (Clean and Sober) before he took on the outlandish quasi-title role as the uh, well, Julliard-trained Betelgeuse. Continue reading

Tommy Wiseau in The Room

Tommy Wiseau as Johnny in The Room (2003)

Tommy Wiseau as Johnny in The Room (2003)

Vitals

Tommy Wiseau as Johnny, a “misunderstood” banker and Lisa’s future husband

San Francisco, Fall 2002

Film: The Room
Release Date: June 27, 2003
Director: Tommy Wiseau
Costume Designer: Safowa Bright-Asare

Background

It’s April Fools’ Day! The perfect time to switch gears from looking at timeless style in great movies and TV shows… and reflect on extremely questionable “style” from a movie celebrated as an unmitigated cinematic disaster.

The Room is nearly two hours of brain-numbing non-sequiturs, unresolved “plot” threads and an inconsistent narrative, more screen time for a single football than The Longest YardAny Given Sunday, and Rudy combined, and writing that fails to compare with a monkey pounding on a keyboard… and yet this bizarre melodrama has racked up one of the most loyal cult followings in American cinema. Its nonsensical dialogue (“Do you understand life? Do you?!”) has permeated pop culture and sent packs of people to midnight screenings each year, armed with plastic spoons and questions and praise for the film’s eccentric auteur, Tommy Wiseau. Continue reading

George Jung’s White Leisure Suit in Blow

Johnny Depp as George Jung in Blow (2001), from New Line Cinema.

Johnny Depp as George Jung in Blow (2001), from New Line Cinema.

Vitals

Johnny Depp as George Jung, international cocaine dealer

Miami to Colombia, Summer 1977

Film: Blow
Release Date: April 6, 2001
Director: Ted Demme
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

Background

Pablo Escobar: So, you’re the man, huh? Who takes fifty kilos and make them disappear in one day.
George Jung: Actually, it was three days.

As a multimillion dollar-earning international drug dealer, George Jung was well-known to drug culture and law enforcement by the time Bruce Porter’s 1993 book, Blow, was released. However, it was the Ted Demme-directed 2001 film of the same name that brought Jung’s life into the mainstream with Johnny Depp in the lead role. Continue reading