On Election Day 1968, a Los Angeles hairdresser (Warren Beatty) tries to secure a bank loan for his own salon while pleasing his girlfriend (Goldie Hawn) and the wife (Lee Grant), mistress (Julie Christie), and daughter (Carrie Fisher) of a prospective investor (Jack Warden). Directed by the great 70s director Hal Ashby and written by Chinatown scribe Robert Towne and Beatty, contains a slew of great performances from a spectacular cast with the underappreciated character actor Warden tremendous here as well as Grant in an Oscar winning performance. Shampoo is a muddled movie that strives to be a satire, lamenting the loss of 1960s innocence as well as the Nixon administration which would have been timely as the movie was released shortly after the Watergate scandal. Although I feel it falls short as satire, the film really comes together nicely in its final third and ends with a wonderfully realized finale. This, along with the performances, make the film worth seeing.
