Crack open a tinny, pop open a bottle, or pour yourself a pint for these eight essential beer movies…
Across the world, the humble beverage is something many countries have in common. We all drink water; many of us drink tea or coffee. Some of us, for some ungodly reason, even drink Red Bull. Then there is the alcoholic beverage. Whilst some nations may lean more toward spirits and cultural national favourites, the Earth as a whole consumes one particular beverage more than the rest. That’s beer and all its sub-genres, including those IPAs that taste like cat discharge.
Some nations, more than others, pride themselves on their 9-5, Monday to Friday, drink at the weekend sensibilities. A pint of beer might seem synonymous with certain nations (or a beautiful pint of Guinness for the Irish). If it sounds like I’m obsessed, I assure you just the occasional tipple will do. However, cinema hasn’t forgotten the brain-numbing potential of beer, making it central to many storylines, whilst other films have focused on the manufacturing or the tradition and cultural significance of beer. Here are eight essential beer movies to wet your whistle…
Beerfest
The Broken Lizard boys are back right now with Super Troopers 3, returning to the breakout franchise that helped them transition from TV to the big screen. Another of their cult favourite films had beer central to the premise. Beerfest sees two brothers head to Munich during Oktoberfest (an annual festival celebration of beer). There, as well as spreading the ashes of their late grandfather, they get drawn into a secret beer games competition.
Drunken comedy hijinks ensue for Jay Chandrasekhar and company. It’s as anarchic, goofy, and chaotic as you’d expect from the Broken Lizard team, particularly with the blood alcohol levels dialled up through the core characters through the majority of the runtime.
Another Round
Beer and pretty much every other alcohol you can think of is central to Another Round. Mads Mikkelsen heads up Thomas Vinterberg’s dramedy as a teacher who stumbles upon a theory that a specific blood alcohol level can maximise creativity within a person. Along with three other middle-aged friends, they set about testing that theory. Initially it seems to hold weight, but inevitably the body starts changing and adapting to those levels, and the addictive powers of booze also affect them.
Martin (Mikkelsen) in particular struggles to control his obsession with finding that perfect point between nirvanic looseness and plain drunkenness. He begins a tragic descent that threatens his work and family life. Whilst Vinterberg observes Nordic drinking culture without judgment, he adeptly conveys the consequences of becoming a slave to the booze. Darkly comic and at times powerful, it’s a fusion of tones that Nordic cinema often does so well, able to leap from farce to fierce in a single bound and land both.
Wake in Fright
Never has a film so brilliantly managed to pull the audience into a lucid dream place that slowly becomes an inescapable nightmare. For beleagured teacher John (Gary Bond), that place is “the Yabba.” On his Christmas vacation heading for Sydney, an outback hick town stopover becomes a trap that pulls him into a self-destructive beer-soaked odyssey. The townsfolk strictly observe traditions, which include their unshakable hospitality. Even when John loses his money, he’s never short of a meal and, more importantly, a beer.
If he’s not in a perpetual state of tipsiness, he’s hungover and unable to adequately facilitate his way out of The Yabba, meeting among the townsfolk a former outlier (like himself) played brilliantly by Donald Pleasence, who submits himself to beer whilst simultaneously rueing his reliance on it. All the while, Ted Kotcheff’s film burns with warm colours, drenches its characters in sweat and accentuates the relentless clammy humidity. It’s a discomforting film that’ll even have you licking your lips at every crisp cold pint that clinks onto a bar on screen.
Young Einstein
We’ll stick with Australia and a film that posits the question, “What if Albert Einstein split the beer atom to put bubbles into beer?” Yahoo Serious announced himself to the world and answered it with this farcical and delightfully silly comedy that places Einstein in the outback, has him invent the theory of relativity, discover gravity, invent rock ‘n’ roll and fall in love with Marie Curie. All whilst patenting his beer recipe too.
Either the irreverent and laid-back humour will strike a chord or it won’t, but Serious’s film is relentlessly good-natured, energetic and has a killer soundtrack to boot. His dedication to physical comedy and performing outrageous physical stunts is also a constant source of entertainment, and dare I say the film is more clever and subversive than it was initially given credit for.
Mother’s Pride
Britain loves kitchen sink cinema, be it gritty drama or more lighthearted bittersweet comedy. Mother’s Pride is a love letter to small-town community and tradition, long-standing community pub culture, and ale. Centuries of brewing culture and local specialities are a cornerstone of British beers, bitters and ales. No matter where you live, there’s a local brewer or full-blown brewery who does a local special.
Mother’s Pride focuses on a family whose pub is suffering (a topical and relevant issue right now) who begin to brew their own ale, set on entering the Great British Beer Awards. As you’d expect from a light, bubbly, middle-England crowd-pleaser like this, it’s bolstered by an excellent cast (headed by Martin Clunes and James Buckley). It might follow the predictable flavours of a film like this, but it has some distinct nuances too. Above all, it’s a feel-good yarn that celebrates some of the good things about the country in a time of relentless social and political negativity.
Smokey and the Bandit
Over to Texas for a perfect pour of Burt Reynolds iconography. Smokey and the Bandit sees Reynolds don a Stetson and smuggle beer across the state but finds the matter complicated after picking up a hitchhiker. That’s the starting point for Hal Needham’s rollicking chase across the highways.
Thankfully, Reynolds plays Bandit, a capable racecar driver always able to stay a step (or car length) ahead of his pursuers. This ended up being a hit in cinemas, but also a perennial player on cable, satellite, and terrestrial TV. Even growing up in the UK, I’d catch this on weekend TV once or twice a year. Easy drinking, if lacking in complexity, it’s a real comfort tipple.
The Heineken Kidnapping
Heineken is a widely known beer brand across the world and one of the less egregious-tasting cheap factory lagers out there. It’s also famous for the highly publicised kidnapping case where the beer tycoon Alfred Heineken was kidnapped and held for an enormous ransom. Of course, this was inevitably going to be dramatized.
In 2011, the late great Rutger Hauer starred as Heineken in Maarten Treurniet’s Dutch movie. It was later also given the Hollywood treatment in a far less convincing version with Anthony Hopkins starring in the title role. Hauer is typically great, and whilst the film doesn’t create as much tension as it could, even through using more creative license, it’s still a fascinating crime drama.
Strange Brew
SCTV, the famous Canadian sketch show, launched the careers of numerous comedy icons including John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. The latter two played recurring characters, including brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, here given their own movie, Strange Brew.
They get work at a brewery (believing it’ll come with the benefit of free beer) where something is amiss, and step in to help Pam try to regain control of her late father’s business. While the film isn’t as iconic as several other screwball comedies of the era starring former network comedians, Strange Brew has become a cult favourite thanks to the charm and chemistry of Moranis and Thomas. Definitely well worth discovering and opening a can of goofball charm for those who haven’t sampled it yet.
What’s your favourite beer movie? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
