Streaming Netflix and Drinking Alone in Your Apartment This Weekend? Here’s What to Watch and Drink
Each week Yahoo Tech’s Alyssa Bereznak will help you pick the best of Netflix, old and new. She will also recommend drink pairings. Please note: Any pairing can always be substituted with a large bottle of wine.
I hope you’ve sobered up since last week. Let’s get to it:
1. Mud, paired with a Cadillac margarita.
As we’ve learned time and time again, Matthew McConaughey is very good at playing leathery men with murky pasts (sup, Rust Cohle?). The 2012 indie hit Mud is no exception. He stars as a fugitive who lives in a tree boat, maintaining his rugged physique by subsisting on cigarettes, white bread, and canned beans. Our lone wolf meets two kids, who promise to help him to escape the law and reunite him with his love (Reese Witherspoon).
You might be wondering: How does one choose an appropriate cocktail to honor an actor who is known for drinking every kind of alcoholic beverage possible? You consult the master himself! Check out this footage of McConaughey teaching traveling meat salesman Guy Fieri how to make a Cadillac margarita. His secret is “lots of lime juice.” Because, as McConaughey has learned in the latter years of his career, the harder to swallow, the better.
2. Fargo paired with a hot toddy.
A businessman (William H. Macy) arranges for his wife to be kidnapped in order to collect ransom money from his father-in-law. When the plan goes terribly wrong, a mild-mannered and pregnant police officer (Frances McDormand) trails the case.
This 1996 black comedy is one of the Cohen brothers’ most imaginative and expertly shot films. Seriously, just watching it will make you feel incurably cold (and help you understand why Fargo, N.D., is the drunkest city in America).
So snuggle up to this one with a nice hot toddy, why dontcha? You’ll need all the literal and figurative warmth you can get.
3. Shakespeare in Love paired with port.
Before we knew every detail about Gwyneth Paltrow’s kale juice breakfast and $23,000 Christmas shopping list, she was just the sprightly young woman who charmed us as Shakespeare’s muse in this Academy Award winning film.
Streaming Shakespeare in Love post her “conscious uncoupling” with Chris Martin, however, I can’t help but feel a little cynical. Love is a sham, romance is fiction, and I’ll never be as skinny as Gwyn no matter how many bushels of kale I stuff down my throat. So screw it, and wash this heartbreakingly unreal fairy tale down with as many glasses of a sweet Spanish port as necessary. Feel the sugary alcohol as it seeps into your veins. Let it sink in. That’s real life, people.
4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit paired with straight scotch.
Those of you who have not revisited Who Framed Roger Rabbit since childhood are in for a delightful surprise. The 1998 Academy award-winning film is full of dirty jokes (like the wonderful Jessica Rabbit patty-cake scene) and is also a poignant critique of Los Angeles’ film industry and sham of a public transportation system.
Unquestionably, this one goes best with scotch (which, as Roger himself demonstrates, can do the trick in a pinch). Serve yourself early and often: You’ll want to have a buzz going by the time Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) starts hovering that poor little shoe over a barrel of green Dip.
5. Frances Ha paired with whatever’s in your fridge and the tears of a 20-something who has given up on her dreams.
This 2013 Noah Baumbach flick follows a young dancer (Greta Gerwig) as she struggles to adjust to the responsibilities of adulthood in New York City. Maybe it’s also because I happen to be a young blond girl who’s willing to walk five blocks to avoid an overdraft fee, but this one really resonates. Especially when you’re watching it alone on a Friday night with only the glow of your laptop to comfort you.
No need to get too fancy with your drink choice with this one. Just mix whatever flat soda you have sitting in your fridge with that last bit of vodka in the freezer. Hell, drink it in a red cup! Pair it with a slab of string cheese you melted in your microwave and stuck between two crackers! You’ll need to focus all your attention on how your dreams have slipped from the grasp of your aging hands.
Do you have a pairing suggestion? Send it to Alyssa Bereznak here. And follow her on Twitter. Please, she begs you.
