SHAMPOO (1975)

Los Angeles, 1968. Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) has dreams of opening his own salon, but doesn't have the money. So, in order to raise the funds, he seduces a client (Lee Grant) and together, they try to convince her wealthy husband (Jack Warden) to finance George's salon. That's unethical as fuck (especially since George has a girlfriend of his own, Goldie Hawn, plus an ex that he’s still sleeping with, Julie Christie), but it has a good chance of working...if George can keep his dong in his britches. Unfortunately, George's sex drive is so out of control that he cannot help but to get in his own way.

As far as pre-RACQUET clones go, SHAMPOO is a good film. Strong acting by an impressive cast, quick pace, awesome fashions, interesting characters, a few funny moments, beautiful Los Angeles locations and some really great music during the party scene that fit absolutely perfect (especially the Buffalo Springfield song).

One thing that did go over my simple (yet still incredibly handsome) brain was all of the political themes and stuff going on in the background. Multiple times throughout the film there's a television featuring coverage of Richard Nixon's election. I don't know what the point of that was or why the film was set in 1968 instead of 1975, but even without understanding that extra layer of the story, I still enjoyed it. Maybe it has something to do with sexual revolution? And speaking of sex…I was surprised by the lack of sex in the film. Yeah, there’s sex talk and implied sex scenes, but SHAMPOO is much tamer than I expected it to be. I’m curious if SHAMPOO was considered risque or controversial when it came out?

Anyway, SHAMPOO is a fun film and worth checking out.  I am a little confused with Lee Grant winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in this film.  I mean, she's definitely good, but it didn't stand out to me as award worthy.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)

A young man with severe mental issues, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), leaves Texas and travels to New York City in hopes of being a long-legged mack daddy. He soon finds out, mainly thanks to his brain having the computing power of 14 Fig Newtons superglued to a half-dead AAA battery, that although he has long legs, he damn sure ain’t no mack daddy! Things happen and before you can say “I should write a YA novel called ‘Donner Party Slumber Party Massacre’ about teens playing a slumber party game where whoever falls asleep first gets eaten.” Ol’ Joe Buck is homeless and starving to death. At the same time, he befriends a predatory street hustler with the confidence building name of Ratso (Dustin Hoffman). Together these two champions go into business capitalizing on Buck’s supposed ability to satisfy women.  Things go about as well as you would expect.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY won three Oscars at the 42nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  Looking back on it meow, was MC really the best movie of 1969?  I have no clue.  I haven't seen every movie released in 1969, but I am curious (and will probably update this review in the future) because while it is a good film...I cannot imagine that it was really the absolute best movie of the year.  Then again 1969 was like three or four hundred years ago, so who knows what the fuck was going on back then.  One thing I do know is MIDNIGHT COWBOY is a very interesting time capsule back to a time that looks absolutely foreign as fuck compared to [insert the year you're reading this].  Another interesting tidbit is MIDNIGHT COWBOY is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture.  Being "rated X" you're probably expecting to see wall-to-wall big floppy juicy dongs and titties bouncing all over the place, but sadly what little nudity there is was extremely non-erotic and honestly depressing as hell due to (most of) it being in rape flashback nightmares.  Instead, I'm guessing, the X rating was due to overall depressing tone of the film, the homosexual subject matter and the strongly implied sexual abuse Joe suffered as a young child at the hands of his grandmother.

Should you watch MIDNIGHT COWBOY?  Definitely.  100%.  It's still a good film with strong acting, amazing NYC locations and wildly influential on movies and TV shows even still today.  Especially the "I'm walking here!" quote.  That shits been used in everything from FORREST GUMP to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Check it out.

[Update 03/02/2022: This has absolutely nothing to do with the review, but I was just looking through some old newspapers and found a few ads for something called "Midnight Plowboy". I can only assume it's some kind of adult parody of MIDNIGHT COWBOY (or maybe not).  Either way I just wanted to share. Link to newspaper ads.]