Tagged: T-shirt

Something Wild: Ray Liotta in Black Leather and Black Watch Plaid

Ray Liotta in Something Wild (1986)

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Ray Liotta as Ray Sinclair, volatile ex-convict

Pennsylvania to Virginia, June 1986

Film: Something Wild
Release Date: November 7, 1986
Director: Jonathan Demme
Costume Designer: Norma Moriceau

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Three years after his film debut in the 1983 box-office bomb The Lonely Lady, Ray Liotta made a more explosive impact through his Golden Globe-nominated breakthrough performance in Jonathan Demme’s darkly comic thriller Something Wild, released 40 years ago today on November 7, 1986.

The film follows uptight banker Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) on an impulsive adventure with the free-spirited “Lulu” (Melanie Griffith), who seduces him into abandoning his old yuppie life. Their larcenous escapades lead them to her Pennsylvania hometown, where she introduces Charlie to her mother as her husband. They continue this romantic charade that evening at her high school’s ten-year class reunion, where they encounter Lulu’s devilish ex-husband Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta). Continue reading →

Interstellar: Matthew McConaughey’s Heritage Workwear and Hamilton Watch

Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar (2014). Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.

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Matthew McConaughey as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, resourceful NASA pilot-turned-farmer and widowed family man

Colorado, Spring 2067

Film: Interstellar
Release Date: November 5, 2014
Director: Christopher Nolan
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Born 57 years ago today on November 4, 1969, Matthew McConaughey was in the midst of his celebrated “McConaissance” when he starred in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar, which opened in select theaters one day after the actor’s 45th birthday. The charismatic Texan had spent two decades building an eclectic career, from his stoner breakthrough in Dazed and Confused (1993) through a succession of dramatic leading roles and romantic comedies. Following a brief hiatus, McConaughey returned to the screen on the other side of 40 with a renewed focus on more challenging material, culminating in his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and his unforgettable turn as nihilistic detective Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO’s True Detective.

Interstellar marked McConaughey’s first—and, to date, only—collaboration with Nolan, who sets his ambitious spacefaring saga in a dystopian future where catastrophic blight and widespread famine threaten humanity with extinction. McConaughey stars as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, a widowed former NASA pilot now raising his teenage son Tom (Timothée Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) on a dusty corn farm in the Great Plains. When Coop and Murph follow a series of seemingly supernatural clues to a clandestine NASA facility, they encounter Professor John Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway), who are preparing a desperate mission to identify habitable worlds beyond our solar system. Coop’s experience as a skilled aviator makes him an ideal candidate to pilot the expedition, though accepting the assignment means leaving his children behind for what could be years—or even a lifetime.

Coop: So if we find a home… then what?
Professor Brand: That’s the long shot.

Though Coop is motivated by the hope of securing a better future for his children, his decision to leave devastates Murph, who feels betrayed by the father she fears she’ll never see again. As a parting gift, Coop gives her a watch—specially designed for the film by Hamilton—to accompany the Hamilton timepiece he wears himself. Continue reading →

Lanterns: Kyle Chandler’s Weathered Wardrobe as Hal Jordan

I’m pleased to again present a guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who has written several pieces for BAMF Style previously and chronicles the style of the Ocean’s film series (and beyond!) on his excellent Instagram account, @oceansographer.

Kyle Chandler in Lanterns. Photo credit: John Johnson/HBO Max.

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Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, cocky former test pilot and Green Lantern of Sector 2814

Coast City, California, Summer 1975 and 1996, and
Rushville, Nebraska, Fall 2016 and 2026

Series: Lanterns
Air Dates: August 16-October 4, 2026
Created by: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

While most comic fans regard Hal Jordan as one of the medium’s most recognizable heroes, the pre-eminent Green Lantern of Earth, the character has really had a rough go in live action. Created by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, Jordan debuted in DC Comics’ Showcase #22 in 1959, succeeding Alan Scott as the second human to use that superhero moniker. When finally brought to life on the big screen by Ryan Reynolds in 2011, the movie’s overwhelmingly negative reception made the character untouchable for mainstream audiences for years to come.

Fifteen years later, DC Studios was finally ready to give Hal another opportunity to prove his worth, this time on HBO. To distance this interpretation from the last in the audience’s mind, a decision was made to shift the focus of Lanterns from spectacle to story, from special effects to character. The show deliberately takes a more grounded (not to mention cheaper!) approach, setting its character-driven mystery primarily in Middle America, à la True Detective. So rather than sending its protagonists on a galaxy-hopping adventure battling a host of CGI extraterrestrials, we see our heroes confront aliens and cyborgs (convincingly disguised as humans) in very recognizable environments, even when they’re briefly on another planet.

But who could bring this fantastic character back down to Earth, making him seem equally at home downing shots of whiskey in a roadside bar as soaring through outer space? Who could possibly make him feel convincingly lived in with just the right combination of rakish charm and dogged grit?

Enter Kyle Chandler. Continue reading →

Wild at Heart: Nicolas Cage’s Snakeskin Jacket as Sailor Ripley

Nicolas Cage as Sailor Ripley in Wild at Heart (1990)

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Nicolas Cage as Sailor Ripley, an A #1-certified manslaughterer who just broke parole

Cape Fear to Texas via New Orleans, Fall 1989

Film: Wild at Heart
Release Date: August 17, 1990
Director: David Lynch
Costume Designer: Amy Stofsky

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

This week continues to explore unconventional style from David Lynch movies with a long-overdue look at Nic Cage’s snakeskin jacket as the swaggering Sailor Ripley in Wild at Heart, Lynch’s darkly comic adaptation of Barry Gifford’s 1989 novel of the same name. The film premiered at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival where it garnered some controversy for winning the Palme d’Or, three months prior to its wider North American release in August 1990.

Specifically considered for the role after Lynch read Gifford’s novel, Cage described Sailor as “a kind of romantic Southern outlaw,” reunited with his girlfriend Lula Fortune (Laura Dern) after spending 22 months and 18 days in the Pee Dee Correctional Institution for fatally defending himself—and Lula’s honor—against an attacker hired by Lula’s domineering mama Marietta (Dern’s real-life mother Diane Ladd) after Sailor spurned her drunken advances. Two years has done little to dampen Marietta’s dislike for Sailor, who again sends paid killers on Sailor’s trail as he and Lula flee Cape Fear on their way west to sunny California. Continue reading →

Robert Redford in All is Lost

Robert Redford in All is Lost (2013)

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Robert Redford as “Our Man”, a resourceful aging sailor

Indian Ocean, July 2012

Film: All Is Lost
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Director: J.C. Chandor
Costume Designer: Van Broughton Ramsey

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Robert Redford was born 90 years ago today on August 18, 1936, making this the first observance of the late actor’s birthday since his death in September 2025 at age 89. One of the prolific actor’s strongest performances from the later period of his career was J.C. Chandor’s survival-at-sea thriller All is Lost, which premiered at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in May 2013 before its wider release that October.

The 76-year-old Redford is the sole actor who appears on screen—unnamed but credited as “Our Man”, a resilient and robust mariner who was sailing solo through the Indian Ocean when a shipping container crashed into his starboard side of his CAL 39, the Virginia Jean. The collision immediately destroyed the Virginia Jean‘s power and external communications, leaving Our Man completely isolated to solve the compounding problems himself without the ability to call for assistance. “All is lost here, except for soul and body, that is, what’s left of them,” Redford’s character narrates. Continue reading →

Cape Fear (1962): Robert Mitchum’s Straw Hat and Striped Tee as Max Cady

Robert Mitchum as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962)

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Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, psychopathic ex-convict

Southeast Georgia, Summer 1962

Film: Cape Fear
Release Date: June 15, 1962
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Costume Designer: Mary Wills

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

With the latest adaptation of Cape Fear earning strong reviews on Apple TV+, let’s look back to the release of the original film sixty-four years ago today on June 15, 1962. Adapted from John D. MacDonald’s suspense novel The Executioners, the first Cape Fear stars Gregory Peck as Southern attorney Sam Bowden and Robert Mitchum in a chilling performance as Max Cady, a psychotic ex-convict who, upon his release after serving eight years for sexual assault, sets out to exact revenge on the man he believes responsible for his incarceration. Continue reading →

Dazed and Confused: Matthew McConaughey’s Ted Nugent T-Shirt and Peach 1970s Levi’s

Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused (1993)

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Matthew McConaughey as David “Woods” Wooderson, Texas stoner

Central Texas, Spring 1976

Film: Dazed and Confused
Release Date: September 24, 1993
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Katherine Dover

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Alright, alright, alright…

Richard Linklater’s nostalgic coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused was set fifty years ago today on May 28, 1976, during the last day of school for Lee High School, outside Austin, Texas. Linklater drew from his own experiences growing up in Huntsville, even lending actual names of classmates to the characters—eventually resulting in a lawsuit that would be swiftly dismissed. Many of the ensemble cast were then little-known actors who rose to considerable stardom, including Ben Affleck, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Nicky Katt, Jason London, Parker Posey, and Renée Zellweger, but it’s perhaps Matthew McConaughey that emerged most memorably in his breakthrough role as David “Woods” Wooderson. Continue reading →

Eddie Albert’s Casual Attire in Roman Holiday

Eddie Albert in Roman Holiday (1953)

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Eddie Albert as Irving Radovich, expatriate newspaper photographer

Rome, Summer 1952

Film: Roman Holiday
Release Date: August 27, 1953
Director: William Wyler
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It’s not easy to command attention when sharing the screen with icons like Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, but Eddie Albert shined so brightly alongside them in Roman Holiday that the actor’s supporting performance received one of the film’s ten Academy Award nominations! Continue reading →

The Last of Sheila: Ian McShane’s Hockney Shirt

Ian McShane as Anthony Wood in The Last of Sheila (1973)

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Ian McShane as Anthony Wood, controlling Hollywood husband and ex-convict

French Riviera, Late summer 1972

Film: The Last of Sheila
Release Date: June 14, 1973
Director: Herbert Ross
Costume Designer: Joel Schumacher

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As Ian McShane celebrates his 83rd trip around the sun today, I want to return to one of his earlier roles among the stylish 1973 murder mystery The Last of Sheila‘s ensemble cast.

Only thirty when the film was released, McShane co-stars as Anthony Wood, the charming but controlling manager for his actress wife Alice (Raquel Welch). The couple are included among the frenemies invited by eccentric producer Clinton Greene (James Coburn) to spend a week stationed on his yacht, Sheila, named for the late wife who died exactly one year earlier in a mysterious hit-and-run. Clinton reveals a plan to be more than just hosting seven days frolicking in the Ligurian Sea, unveiling a dark—and ultimately deadly—mystery game centered around gossip and murder. Continue reading →

Pierrot le Fou: Belmondo’s Navy Ribbed Seaside Shirt and Jeep Cap

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Ferdinand Griffon in Pierrot le Fou (1965)

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Jean-Paul Belmondo as Ferdinand Griffon, runaway husband and itinerant yacht-hand

French Riviera, Summer 1965

Film: Pierrot le Fou
Release Date: November 5, 1965
Director: Jean-Luc Godard

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Jean-Luc Godard’s tenth feature, Pierrot le Fou, premiered 60 years ago this week during at the 26th Venice International Film Festival, more than two months before its wider release in November 1965.

The film stars Godard’s frequent collaborators, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina (who was also the director’s wife), as the doomed Ferdinand and Marianne fleeing OAS gangsters from Paris to the Mediterranean. Continue reading →