Grease: We all know it; we all secretly love it. It’s a throwback to middle school slumber parties and high school plays — semi-naughty, semi-tame and 100% hummable whether you can get down with musicals or not. While the plot is a bitter pill for feminists to swallow (If you like a boy, completely alter your…
That I haven’t done The Talented Mr. Ripley for a Living In yet is shocking. Its breezy, 1950s Americans-in-Europe vibe is all I could ask for and more — so much so that I couldn’t help sneaking a few things that I already own into the post because, well, I’ve been trying to cultivate the…
A classic summer flick if there ever was one, Thelma & Louise harkens back to a simpler time when women could roam the wild west with nothing but a Thunderbird, an atlas and a loaded handgun. Joke! But in all seriousness, the pair of firestarters launched a thousand road trips, and their tough but feminine…
Moonstruck is the one movie we can all agree on. It’s a double whammy of entertainment, working both the romantic comedy angle and the violent Nicolas Cage angle. When both angles collide? A real crowd pleaser. The love story of a widowed accountant and a maimed baker wouldn’t seem terribly compelling, but when woven with a…
It’s hard not to drift into another world during Dreamgirls. The 2006 movie adaptation of the Broadway play tells the fictionalized story of the birth of Motown Records and its star act, The Supremes. The ladies paved the way for pop music as we know it, and their transformation from sweet soul backup singers to…
It’s been impossible to be present on the internet and not read about writer/director Nora Ephron’s death last week. We’re no strangers to Nora love here, see exhibits A, B and C, and we’ve been heartened by the widespread appreciation for her warm and witty ways. The final piece in our Ephron puzzle is You’ve…
Only You is a charmer of a rom-com. With Robert Downey Jr. at the helm and Marisa Tomei in some killer clothes, it’s covet-worthy in all respects. It tells the story of a woman who follows the advice dished out by a Ouija board in her middle school days and goes to Venice to find…
Before there was Gossip Girl, there was Cruel Intentions. And before there was Cruel Intentions, there was Dangerous Liaisons. A smutty 19 90s adaption of a heavy hitting classic, the cast emanates a blinding glow of teen goodness. With Sarah Michelle Geller, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillipe, Selma Blair and that guy who will be forever…
Sofia Coppola’s second film Lost in Translation begs for a warm night and some takeout sushi. Set in a fancy Tokyo hotel, Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray dance a delicate waltz of isolation in an overwhelming city until they find each other. The intensity of Japanese culture shock forms a unlikely bond between them, and…
Smile everybody! It’s prom time. While most may be traumatized at the memory of glittery heels and plastic corsage boxes, it’s best to embrace the good and the bad and Carrie, everyone’s favorite telekinetic heroine, does just that. The cult classic packs a wallop of campy high school horror and genuine emotional sensitivity, all covered…
Leave it to a 1950s musical to turn a factory union labor dispute into a sunshiny love story. The Pajama Game is just that, the story of an employee organizer who enters into negotiations with a pajama factory’s superintendent and gets a lot more than she bargained for. With plenty of saturated colors and patterns,…
Cold Comfort Farm is a new-to-me mid-nineties BBC movie suggested by a reader and given a thumbs up by our very own Kate Pruitt. English countryside period piece? Twist my arm. The movie’s heroine, Flora, grows up amid London privilege in the 1930s and eventually moves with relatives to a rundown country farm. Emma-esque hijinks…
Empire Records is better known for nostalgic adoration than cinematic appreciation, but we’re okay with that. Face it, we love to love the nineties and enough time has past to make Doc Martens seem like a good idea again. Who didn’t develop a massive girl crush on Liv Tyler and suddenly find themselves unable to…
They said it couldn’t (or shouldn’t) be done. That it was impossible. A long shot. A snowball’s chance. Etcetera. Are we talking about Rocky overcoming the odds and fighting the famous boxer Apollo Creed? No. We are talking about turning Rocky into a Living In post. In the spirit of the man himself, we’ll take…
Lady Chatterley is exactly what is should be: a lush and lascivious romp that would make even the boldest blush. Based on the scandal-inducing novel by DH Lawrence, the movie follows the affair of an aristocratic woman and her estate’s game keeper. Style rains down as an English spring blossoms, and for the love of…
A Woman is a Woman hits all of the best style notes – feminine and French but also subtle and cool. We’re no strangers to Jean-Luc Godard fandom here, and this early musical romp is no different. Following the story of a young exotic dancer who’s anxious who have a baby with her ambivalent boyfriend,…
Mannequin is your typical 1980s rom-com about a time traveling Egyptian princess turned into a living store display. You know, the usual. It boggles the mind that someone in a business suit okayed the plot, but I’m not complaining. A young mannequin played by Kim Catrall woos her creator by night, romping around in fancy…
Sid and Nancy were punk rock’s Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed lovers aside, the infamous couple crashed and burned all across the world in the late 1970s. Nancy was the Sex Pistols’ Yoko Ono — reviled by fans and fated for disaster. Sid, well, he was tragic from the start. Skipping over the methadone clinics and…
When Design*Sponge managing editor Amy Azzarito uses exclamation points to suggest you watch a movie, you watch it. There is no saying no to Ms. Azzarito — she has fantastic taste, she shares your first and middle name and hello, she’s the pal who got you this job in the first place. Her Auntie Mame recommendation couldn’t…
Spring has undeniably sprung. Daffodils are already waning, cherry is wilting but boom! It’s hellebore time in the city. The New York flower market is rioting with specimens, and we’re carting home armfuls quicker than they can stock the shelves. When bought locally or cut from the ubiquitous plant, their vase life is phenomenal. The…
