Tagged: Snap-Down Shirt
Inherent Vice: Doc’s Blue Denim Western Shirts
Joaquin Phoenix as Doc Sportello in Inherent Vice (2014)
Vitals
Joaquin Phoenix as Larry “Doc” Sportello, hippie private investigator
Los Angeles County, Fall 1970
Film: Inherent Vice
Release Date: December 12, 2014
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Background
Adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name, Inherent Vice premiered as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival ten years ago today on October 4, 2014, two months before its initial public release.
“Doc may not be a do-gooder, but he’s done good,” the trailer describes of the protagonist Larry “Doc” Sportello, the stoner sleuth played by Joaquin Pheonix who reprised his Oscar-winning role of Arthur Fleck in Joker: Folie à Deux, released in theaters today.
Five years before he first donned Joker’s clown makeup, Phoenix framed his face in mutton chops as the scraggly beach-dwelling private eye spurned into action by visits from his estranged ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), first to ask his help in protecting the real estate developer she’s been seeing. Continue reading
Rolling Thunder: William Devane’s USAF Lightweight Blue Jacket
William Devane in Rolling Thunder (1977)
Vitals
William Devane as Major Charles Rane, twice-traumatized Vietnam War veteran and “one macho motherfucker”
Texas and Mexico, Summer 1973
Film: Rolling Thunder
Release Date: October 7, 1977
Director: John Flynn
Wardrobe Credit: Nancy McArdle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
You learn to love the rope. That’s how you beat ’em. That’s how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love ’em. Then they don’t know you’re beatin’ ’em.
Today is the 85th birthday of William Devane, the talented Albany-born actor who appeared in the rare starring role in the 1977 revenge-centered action thriller Rolling Thunder.
Written by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould as an intended expansion of the Travis Bickle Cinematic Universe that began in Schrader’s script for Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder centers around Major Charles Rane, a United States Air Force pilot returning home to San Antonio after seven years of imprisonment and torture in a Hanoi hellhole.
“He’s unemotional, unresponsive, and stoic to the point of not being among the living,” writes Quentin Tarantino in Cinema Speculation, the volume that introduced me to Rolling Thunder. Continue reading
Bill Paxton in Twister
Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in Twister (1996)
Vitals
Bill Paxton as Bill Harding, experienced storm chaser-turned-weatherman
Oklahoma, Summer 1996
Film: Twister
Release Date: May 10, 1996
Director: Jan de Bont
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
With its standalone sequel Twisters starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell now arriving in theaters, let’s revisit the original Twister, Jan de Bont’s 1996 blockbuster centered around a group of storm-chasers pursuing and researching tornadoes across Oklahoma.
Our lead storm-chasers are the star-crossed Jo (Helen Hunt) and Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), in the midst of a divorce as Bill seeks to leave his dangerous storm-chasing days as “The Extreme” and settle into a more comfortable life as a TV weatherman with his new fiancée Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz). “New job, new truck, new wife, it’s like a whole new you!” Jo observes as Bill arrives in his new Dodge Ram truck to request that she sign the papers to finalize their divorce.
In the meantime, Jo and her team are preparing to deploy their innovative tornado-measuring device—the realized execution of Bill’s original concept, nicknamed “Dorothy”—into the record-breaking storms wreaking havoc through Oklahoma. Continue reading
Glen Powell in Hit Man: Gary’s Western-Inspired Wardrobe as “Ron”
Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in Hit Man (2023)
Vitals
Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, mild-mannered psychology professor moonlighting as an undercover police contractor
New Orleans, Fall 2022
Film: Hit Man
Release Date: May 24, 2024
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Juliana Hoffpauir
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After a limited two-week run in theaters, Hit Man debuted on Netflix at the beginning of this month and quickly became the service’s #1 most-watched movie in the U.S. The screenplay by director Richard Linklater and star Glen Powell fictionalizes the life of Gary Johnson, a college professor and successful “fake hitman” whose undercover police work led to more than 70 arrests of people seeking the services of a contract killer.
Hit Man is Linklater’s second cinematic depiction of stranger-than-fiction true crime based on a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth (the first was Bernie in 2011), though the production and setting were moved from Houston to New Orleans to take advantage of Louisiana tax credits.
Described in the epilogue as the “chillest dude imaginable,” the real Gary Johnson—whom the same epilogue is sure to insist was never actually involved in any murders—died in 2022 at the age of 75 before getting to see this dark comedy that riffed on his life story.
Though sensationalizing his life for dramatic purposes, Hit Man includes many details from Johnson’s life, like his cats Id and Ego, his unassuming politeness, and the random opportunity that elevated him to the city’s most in-demand assassin who signals his identity to prospective clients with a single response phrase:
All pie is good pie.
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s Tanker Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy International Taxi Driver Day to all cabbies whose alienation doesn’t drive them to a violent murder spree shooting up a brothel! This observance commemorates when the first gas-powered taxi cabs reportedly arrived on the streets of London on March 22, 1907.
The profession was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader and filmed on location in New York City during the scorching summer of 1975. Two years after his first Academy Award win (for The Godfather, Part II), Robert De Niro received his second Oscar nomination for his performance as Travis Bickle, the lonely Marine-turned-cabbie whose PTSD, insomnia, and paranoid psychosis becomes a dangerous powder keg in the squalid decay of 1970s New York. Continue reading
Ethan Hawke in Before Sunset
Ethan Hawke as Jesse in Before Sunset (2004)
Vitals
Ethan Hawke as Jesse Wallace, bestselling author
Paris, Summer 2003
Film: Before Sunset
Release Date: July 2, 2004
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Thierry Delettre
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Continuing the romantic themes after Valentine’s Day, today’s post reviews Ethan Hawke’s style in Before Sunset, Richard Linklater’s 2004 follow-up to Before Sunrise (1995) that premiered at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival (BIFF) 20 years ago this week on February 10, 2004.
Before Sunset reteamed Hawke with Julie Delpy as Jesse and Céline, set nearly a decade after the two had spent an evening wandering Vienna, planning to meet again in six months. Continue reading
Kevin Costner in A Perfect World
Kevin Costner and T.J. Lowther in A Perfect World (1993)
Vitals
Kevin Costner as Robert “Butch” Haynes, escaped convict
Texas, Fall 1963
Film: A Perfect World
Release Date: November 24, 1993
Director: Clint Eastwood
Costume Designer: Erica Edell Phillips
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 30 years ago today, A Perfect World overcame its initial lukewarm box office to be acclaimed as among the career-best works for both director Clint Eastwood and star Kevin Costner.
Costner stars as Robert “Butch” Haynes, a petty criminal who escapes from a Texas prison on the night of Halloween 1963. Despite Butch’s own distaste for him, he breaks out with the reckless Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka), who jeopardizes their getaway—and Butch’s own code of ethics—by attempting to force himself onto a suburban mother while the two look for a car to steal. Butch stops the situation before Terry can take it too far, but the commotion wakes up the neighborhood and results in the two fugitives taking a hostage—the mother’s eight-year-old son, Philip (T.J. Lowther), with whom Butch develops a special bond:
Me and you got a lot in common, Philip. The both of us is handsome devils, we both like RC Cola, and neither one of us got an old man worth a damn.
The Big Chill: Tom Berenger’s Convertible Down Jacket
Tom Berenger in The Big Chill (1983)
Vitals
Tom Berenger as Sam Weber, jaded TV star
Beaufort, South Carolina, Fall 1983
Film: The Big Chill
Release Date: September 28, 1983
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Costume Designer: April Ferry
Background
As I prepare to gather with friends today for our annual Friendsgiving celebration, there’s a cinematic choice that perfectly captures the essence of fall, friendship, and the shared warmth of communal meals.
Despite not being centered around the holiday itself, The Big Chill has earned a place among many as a quintessential “Thanksgiving movie” with its autumnal setting, the camaraderie of old friends reuniting, and the soul-stirring soundtrack creating a nostalgic backdrop reminiscent of the season’s familial gatherings.
Beyond this thematic resonance, the film also offers a visual feast served by costume designer April Ferry’s array of early ’80s threads worn by its ensemble cast. Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and JoBeth Williams star as college friends who reunite more than a decade after their graduation to mourn one of their group lost to suicide—portrayed by Kevin Costner, who was almost entirely cut from the film. Almost.
I recently had a request to explore Berenger’s style as Sam Weber, who was become arguably the most famous of his college pals, gracing magazine covers as the star of the Magnum, P.I.-like series, J.T. Lancer. Continue reading
Jonah Hill in Superbad
Jonah Hill as Seth in Superbad (2007)
Vitals
Jonah Hill as Seth, crude high school senior
Clark County, Spring 2006
Film: Superbad
Release Date: August 17, 2007
Director: Greg Mottola
Costume Designer: Debra McGuire
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Yesterday marked exactly 16 years since my high school graduation. Early June always awakens my nostalgia for the last days of school, when the excitement of summer ahead was made even more thrilling my senior year when I was just months away from entering college.
Superbad was released two months after I graduated during this significant summer, so it always held a significant place in my moviegoing heart for as much as I could—for better or worse—relate to its protagonists, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), during their final weeks of high school as lame-duck seniors.
The movie was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, loosely based on their own experiences as teens in Vancouver during the late ’90s, with added cinematic inspiration by way of American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. By the time Superbad actually made it to the production phase in the mid-2000s, Rogen was a familiar face due to roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but he had aged out of convincingly playing a high school student, providing the opportunity for Jonah Hill’s breakout performance as Seth, the brash teen inspired by Rogen himself. Continue reading
Willie Nelson’s Fringe Jacket in The Electric Horseman
Willie Nelson as Wendell Hickson in The Electric Horseman (1979)
Vitals
Willie Nelson as Wendell Hickson, trusty talent manager and cowboy singer
Las Vegas, Fall 1978
Film: The Electric Horseman
Release Date: December 21, 1979
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Bernie Pollack
Background
Happy 90th birthday, Willie Nelson! Best known as a country singer/songwriter and prolific stoner, Nelson made his screen acting debut in The Electric Horseman as Wendell Hickson, the laidback and loyal yet understandably weary manager to Sonny Steele (Robert Redford), an increasingly erratic ex-rodeo star who has been reduced to PR appearances promoting cereal for his corporate overlords.
Naturally, Willie also contributed three songs for the film’s soundtrack, including the outlaw standards “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”, “Midnight Rider”, and “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”. Continue reading
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