Tagged: Leisure Suit
Minx: Jake Johnson’s Pink Leisure Suit
Jake Johnson as Doug Renetti on Minx (Episode 1.10: “You happened to me”)
Vitals
Jake Johnson as Doug Renetti, easygoing porn publisher
San Fernando Valley, California, Summer and Fall 1972
Series: Minx
Episodes:
– “Mary had a little hysterectomy” (Episode 1.06, dir. Carrie Brownstein, aired 3/31/2022)
– “You happened to me” (Episode 1.10, dir. Stella Meghie, aired 4/14/2022)
Creator: Ellen Rapoport
Costume Designer: Beth Morgan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After the show’s fate seemed uncertain at the end of last year, Minx returns this Friday, July 21 on Starz. The streaming platform had rescued the series after it was unceremoniously canceled by HBO Max in December 2022 and removed from its service, alongside other original series like Westworld and The Nevers. Though its future was in doubt, Minx completed filming the second season within a week and, exactly a month after HBO Max canceled it, Starz announced on January 12, 2023 that Minx would be adopted onto its service.
Also set in the San Fernando Valley during the so-called “golden age of porn”, Minx could be described as a lighter-hearted companion piece to Boogie Nights, to the extent that Jake Johnson told Brooke Marine for W Magazine that he “used to play it in my trailer [during Minx] to remember the certain energy and bounce to that movie. When it would be early in the morning and I’m putting on tight pants, it would instantly make me happy to be at work.” Continue reading
Once Upon a Time in America: Max’s Beige Beachwear
James Woods and Tuesday Weld in Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Vitals
James Woods as Max Bercovicz, ambitious mob bootlegger
Miami Beach, Fall 1933
Film: Once Upon a Time in America
Release Date: May 23, 1984
Director: Sergio Leone
Costume Designer: Gabriella Pescucci
Background
Happy first weekend of summer… at least to my fellow readers in the Northern Hemisphere! Today’s post continues embracing sun-friendly resort-wear, this time by way of Sergio Leone’s controversial gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America.
Robert De Niro and James Woods star as Noodles and Max, a pair of gangsters who worked their way up from teenage street hoods to bootleggers viciously ruling the streets of New York in the latter Prohibition era. Between Max’s megalomania and Noodles having spent much of their mob’s formative years in prison, resentments grow between the pair, but the influx of cash is enough to bury any problems… at least until late 1933.
While lazing under the sun with their respective molls in Miami Beach to the dulcet tones of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, Noodles learns from the newspaper that they’re about to be “unemployed” with the repeal of the Volstead Act just weeks away. Continue reading
Johnny Depp’s Red Leisure Suit in Blow
Johnny Depp as George Jung in Blow (2001)
Vitals
Johnny Depp as George Jung, successful cocaine smuggler
Massachusetts, Fall 1979
Film: Blow
Release Date: April 6, 2001
Director: Ted Demme
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Background
One of the more formative movies in developing my appreciation for more outlandish period style is Blow, Ted Demme’s Scorsese-inspired chronicle of the rise and fall of real-life drug smuggler George Jung, who was born 80 years ago today in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The DVD (does anyone remember its white case?) was in almost constant rotation when friends would come over in high school, and Mark Bridges’ costume design resonated to such a degree that, thanks to eBay, I may have been one of the few high-schoolers in the early 2000s to own a vintage polyester leisure suit. Continue reading
Christopher Lee in White as The Man with the Golden Gun
Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Vitals
Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga, sophisticated freelance assassin
Bangkok, Thailand, Spring 1974
Film: The Man with the Golden Gun
Release Date: December 20, 1974
Director: Guy Hamilton
Wardrobe Supervisor: Elsa Fennell
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Sir Christopher Lee, the imposing yet debonair screen icon known to many for portraying Count Dracula a total of nine times while Bond fans may know him best as Francisco Scaramanga, the eponymous villain who faced off against Roger Moore’s James Bond in Moore’s sophomore 007 outing, The Man with the Golden Gun.
Blood Simple: M. Emmet Walsh’s Yellow Leisure Suit
M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser in Blood Simple (1984)
Vitals
M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser, sleazy private detective
Texas, Fall 1982
Film: Blood Simple
Release Date: January 18, 1985
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Sara Medina-Pape
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Spring is officially here, the season of warmer weather and bright colors… though a tacky yellow leisure suit may not be exactly what you had in mind! On the 86th birthday of prolific character actor M. Emmet Walsh, today’s post explores his eccentric but dangerous private eye in Blood Simple, the directorial debut of brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
George Jung’s White Leisure Suit in Blow
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