Zach Braff’s comedy, Going in Style, from Theodore Melfi’s script, epitomizes the genre of geezer heist. Starring a trio of venerable superstars of a certain age,Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin, the movie’s chase takes place in a shuttle bus rather than a speeding car; everything goes at the pace of a walker, except for the comic timing. A bank is successfully robbed. Matt Dilloninvestigates, and John Ortiz aids and abets the crime. A forgetful Christopher Lloyd provides contrast to the dynamic three. The laughs keep coming. WithAnn-Margret as a hot chick on the make for Alan Arkin, there’s sex too!
An extravagant world premiere at Mario Batalli’s La Sirena, featuring Bastianich wines ensued: Edie Falco, Jim Gaffigan, Tova Feldshuh, Bob Balaban, Carol Kane, Joey Pantoliano, among others shuttled over to Chelsea. Candice Bergen sat near Michael Caine. It was hard not to think about them together in Miss Congeniality.
Ann-Margret seems to have cornered the market as a sidekick to “Grumpy Old Men.” To my surprise she remembered the day decades ago when she was rehearsing a show in a studio next to Gilda Radner’s. The Saturday Night Live star was rehearsing for a Broadway debut on the heels of her great success, and stopped by to say hello to Ann-Margret who was surrounded by a chorus of dancers with her name tattooed on their biceps. That was the only time she ever met Gilda, Ann-Margret told me, at the party standing beside her husband Roger Smith. Demure all the way, in her autobiography Ann-Margret: My Story, she never admits to having had sex with Elvis, although they did date while they were making Viva Las Vegas. She didn’t mind the bedroom scenes in Going in Style. As the movie’s title may suggest, no matter at what age, sex, like boys gone wild, is always in.
A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.