Shampoo
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Movie Reviews of Shampoo
Movie Review: Adult comedy classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
Netflix is truly wonderful because I haven't seen this movie in maybe 20 years and it is still the ultimate adult comedy. How can you go wrong with a Robert Towne script that is far more inside than anyone under 40 will ever know. What is truly great is at "The Bistro" the camera makes sure to pick up a portrait of Ronald Reagan...A good 10 years before he took office. Jack Warden has never been more hysterical when he spots his wife talking to his mistress and then proceeds to forget her name.
This is Beatty's movie to be sure...and nothing can prepare you for what is quite possibly the ultimate wake up call to lost youth. It is a perfect gem.
Movie Review: One Fairly Fine Film
Summary: 4 Stars
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair," say the Three Witches in _Macbeth_, and the principle holds true for the film _Shampoo_. Released in 1975, and one of the leading members of what are now being called "70s films," _Shampoo_ is the story of George Roundy, hairdresser in beautiful and sun-blessed City of Angels. Perhaps no other film in Hollywood has been placed into more capable hands -- Hal Ashby, the remarkably disciplined but expressive director (as in Roundy's rides on his motorcycle through the Hollywood Hills); Robert Towne, veteran screenwriter who won an Oscar for _Chinatown_; and Warren Beatty, one of Hollywood's greats, and swordsman of renown. The film follows Roundy as he enjoys what he seemingly enjoys most, the company of women, and as he seeks to start a business, his own hair salon. But in the film, as the Three Witches say in _Macbeth_, fair is foul, and foul is fair -- which is to say that in _Shampoo_, roles reverse and appearances deceive. Roles reverse in the central characteristic to Roundy -- his enjoying the company of women. For in Roundy's world, the courter has changed to the courted, and the courted, the courter. Why it is, or even whether it must be or ought to be is perhaps fit for another discussion -- but it seems hard to argue, to this reviewer, that the traditional role for a guy in courtship is to be the courter, and the traditional role for a woman, to be the courted. In Roundy's world, however, things somehow have got reversed. He does no courting -- he doesn't stop his movement seeing an angelic brunette walking down the sidewalk and chase her down, he doesn't time his exit from a bank to catch an arresting blonde on her way out. He does no courting. For it is women who court him. He's walking into his shop and a woman slams on her brakes and bats her eyes for his attention, he's waiting for one of his "friends" (most likely how he'd introduce her to someone) at her house and, while he's killing time, her daughter comes on to him. So in Roundy's world, things have got themselves reversed. The cause of the reversal is significant and important to understanding Roundy. Roundy's very existence is you might say "half free-will" -- half free-will because on nearly any matter, he is only forced to make half a decision. For in constantly being courted, he is essentially being offered decisions for approval or rejection. In being constantly sought-after, half of his decision-making process is completed for him. His life is thus a whirlwind -- from an observer's point of view, he might be seen to do things in a roundabout fashion. And so he ends up having sex with the young daughter, Lorna (played by Carrie Fisher), of one of his friends. How does such a thing happen? Because he's only ever forced to make half a decision. And yet in Lorna's courting him, which she does with vigor, there is a lesson as well. For she comes on to Roundy by saying, "Wanna f---?" And to this Roundy agrees. However, when one of his friends courts him by indirectly asking him to fix her hair, he turns her down. And so a lesson to be seen here, as well, is that as Roundy has a thousand and one offers at any one time, he takes the most direct and most clearly communicated. Thus roles reverse in _Shampoo_. But appearances deceive as well. Perhaps appearances deceive in no better way in the film than in the manner that Roundy is forced to act in order to start his business. For Roundy secretly has his own master whose altar he must kneel before -- the bank. In seeking to start his own hair salon, he must do the courting. He must go to a bank and apply for a loan. It is he who is doing the approaching, it is he who conforms to the standards his master will demand of him. Indeed, no longer is it one of his friends who is putting on just the right top or just the right perfume for Roundy's approval, but it is Roundy who is putting on just the right jacket and putting his raffish hair in just the right place for the approval of his master -- a bank manager. Tellingly, he invites none of his friends along with him to the bank -- he's aware of his reversed role, and he doesn't like it, but there is nothing he can do about it. Denied his first attempt at a loan, he must later go see another banker, Lester (played by Jack Warden). Lester is the husband of one of Roundy's friends. And here too appearances deceive -- for Lester believes Roundy to be gay, and so Lester would be quite shocked to learn that Roundy is enjoying the company of his wife. And indeed appearances may so deceive in this world that the end is a deception itself. For the end of _Shampoo_ is often seen as bleak and despairing -- Roundy in shock as the only person he decides he can trust, leaves him, and breaks his heart. But is Roundy's heartbreak forever? It's hard not to look a few months into the future and see Roundy motoring along Mulholland Drive on his motorcycle, a friend of his speeding up beside him in her car, flagging him down, smiling devilishly out of her car, asking him if he wants to f---, Roundy suppressing a smile, glancing around. Glancing at what? At nothing. Roundy shrugging, and then Roundy off on his motorcycle tailing behind the girl in her car, having already mended, or if not mended, at least forgotten -- maybe! with hope! -- his heartbreak.Movie Review: Casanova as a harried Hollywood hairdresser
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert Towne, who has written a number of popular movies and at least one critically acclaimed one--Chinatown (1974)--and Warren Beatty wrote this satire of Hollywood. Beatty plays George Roundy, a not entirely bright but nimble hairdresser on a motorcycle who is much beloved and desired by woman. The women doing most of the desiring are Lee Grant (Felicia), Julie Christie (Jackie), and Goldie Hawn (Jill). Jack Warden plays Lester a successful investor who, to his chagrin and ultimate amusement, learns that his wife, his mistress, and his daughter Lorna (Carrie Fisher) are being bedded by the guy he thinks is gay. (Shades of the sham eunuch in the harem!)
This is a premise that many in the Hollywood Hills could not resist, the irony cutting so beautifully through the canyons and swimming pools and the lavish parties. Most of the action takes place on that November day in 1968 when Nixon and Agnew were swept into the White House by the "silent majority." Lester and his friends are quite pleased and are celebrating as the election returns come in. Meanwhile George is trying to raise money so he can open his own shop since he's got the "heads." Keeping the heads though turns out to be more than he can handle--and to be honest jumping from bed to bed several times a day with several different women might be too much for any man.
Will Georgie-Porgie, puddin' pie (who kissed the girls and made them cry) get the money for his shop and the girl he loves--and which girl is it, that he loves? Goldie Hawn wears a micro-mini (but there's no peeking!) and Julie Christie sports a short pony skirt with boots while Lee Grant has to play the eldest woman. Now, who gets George and would she really want him?
Some nice sixties/seventies Hollywood decadence graces the screen along with free love and don't bogart that number. In the background there are a lot of mug shots of Nixon and Agnew in juxtaposition as a kind of joke since the movie was made in 1975 not long after Watergate.
Beatty, playing a role said to be patterned after makeup artist Jay Sebring, is competent and wins our sympathy, maybe because we know he's never going to amount to much. Or does he? Lee Grant won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, but to be honest I thought Julie Christie was better, although they both were good. Actors carried this with Warden and Hawn also putting in strong performances.
Shampoo is not so much funny as it is amusing. It's like a superior sit-com without the laugh track, but in no way is it a "defining" Hollywood film.
See this for Warren Beatty, one of the Hollywood royalty, brother of Shirley MacLaine and husband of Annette Bening.
Movie Review: Sham Plot
Summary: 4 Stars
1975 was a good year for movies with the likes of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Jaws", "Dog Day Afternoon", and, my favorite for the year, "Dersu Uzala". There were a couple of popular movies that year that I never got around to seeing; "Nashville" and "Shampoo". I finally got to see "Shampoo" the other night and, frankly, I was disappointed. What disappointed me was the whole concept of the main character, George, played by Warren Beatty. He was just too important in too many ways to too many people to come across as believable. I wasn't surprized to see that, as co-writer, Beatty created his own character on that level.
I still give the movie a decent rating because it is well-directed, well-acted, and moves along pretty well. It was probably a bit on the edge in 1975 (for a major motion picture, that is) and still would be inappropriate for the younger ones. I gather that it is a political commentary because so much of the background involves the Nixon/Agnew campaign in 1972. I'm no big fan of either of those politicians but I came away thinking that they got the better of the script somehow. I hope that the movie was also a comment on the sexual revolution of those days. There was plenty of it with little emotion or purpose (other than the obvious). Indeed, sex comes across as a loser to Richard and Spiro in the PR race. George can't get enough of it and laments that he just can't pass up a pretty woman. Then we are led to believe that he is actually emotionally involved with one of the many that he's physically involved with. It's hard to tell which one that would be, however. In the end he makes his choice but, by then, she seems as uninterested in that as we are.
Lee Grant won the Best Supporting Oscar for her role as the wife of Jack Warden's character. She was alright in her role but seems to have benefitted from a lack of competition. The one who did stand out is Jack Warden. He was excellent as a smooth operating money-managing, wife-cheating, where's-the-party sort of guy who always seems to be in control (or, at least enough in control as anyone seems to be in this movie). His competition for the Oscar that year, however, was George Burns in his memorable role in "The Sunshine Boys".
I like a good satire but I didn't see one in "Shampoo". I guess thirty years of waiting left me underwhelmed. I hope I get a better reaction to "Nashville" when I finally get to see that one.
Movie Review: A Little Dated but Still Fun
Summary: 4 Stars
I will admit that I did not really like Hal Ashby's Shampoo when it came out. Thirty-three years havealtered my opinion slightly but it's still not a favorite.
Warren Beatty plays George Roundy a Las Angeles hairdresser who yearns for his own salon and becomes entangled in the lives of four different women and the man who is somehow connected to all of them. In order to get his loan George approaches businessman Lester Carp (Jack Warden). The problem is that George is sleeping with Lester's wife Felicia (Lee Grant), Lester's girlfriend Jackie (Julie Christie) and Lester's daughter Lorna (Carrie Fisher). George is also in the middle of a failing relationship with his own girlfriend Jill(Goldie Hawn). The confusion results in a sex comedy that AFI considers one of the 100 most funny but the movie has lost quite a bit of its edge over the years.
The disc I viewed was bare bones with no extras. Columbia's transfer was kind of grainy and soft and the mono sound while adequate to the souce material was a little tinny. Watch it as a piece of 1970's nostalgia and as a classic but don't expect greatness.