Shampoo (1975)

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Jack Warden, Lee Grant, Tony Bill, George Furth, Jay Robinson, Carrie Fisher, Randy Scheer, Susanna Moore. [R]

Hairdresser Beatty dreams of opening up his own salon, but he’s had no luck securing a loan to do so; meanwhile, he’s juggling relationships with three different women for no better reason than because chasing skirt makes him feel like he’s going to live forever. Set mostly during election day 1968, the script (by Beatty and Robert Towne) satirizes sexual politics and morals among the posh elite during the height of the counterculture movement, but it struggles to connect the pieces in a consistent or meaningful fashion; it doesn’t help that one angle of its mockery is how Beatty navigates all of the events and social circles in a befuddled crisis, oblivious to almost anything not related to what’s in his pants, wallet or otherwise. Ashby captures the climate of the era well, and the actors do a fine job (especially Warden as a wealthy man married to one of Beatty’s lovers and having an affair with another of Beatty’s lovers), but despite several sharp and funny moments, the film never sorts itself out enough to make a point; the final scene between Beatty and Christie rings especially false. Grant won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Fisher’s film debut; Howard Hesseman has a bit part.

67/100