I'll tell you why so serious

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The acting in this movie is really good.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's the day before the 1968 election of Richard Nixon. George Roundy (Warren Beatty) is a popular womanizing Beverly Hills hairdresser. He is tired of salon owner Norman and wants to start his own place. His meeting with the banker goes badly. His actress girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) is conflicted about going to Egypt for a job. His sex partner Felicia (Lee Grant) recommends his business to her unsuspecting husband Lester (Jack Warden). Lester has an affair with Jackie (Julie Christie) who happens to be George's ex and Jill's friend.These are self-obsessed needy people. George especially is not appealing. Warren Beatty has the pretty bad boy persona which only adds to the sad nature of these characters. From his first outburst against the banker, it's hard to root for George. He is always distracted by the next pretty thing. This does have an interesting short scene with an unknown straight-talking Carrie Fisher as Felicia's rebellious daughter Lorna. Overall, I don't want to spend two hours with these people. The movie could have savaged these people and their lives but it fails to push the envelop. The talents are top-notch but I don't care about these characters enough to like this movie. They are also not ugly enough to hate. It's probably trying to connect them to the Nixonian era.

Besides making it with every broad this side of his sister, Shirley, Warren Beatty finds himself as the lothario of the 1970's even with that wretched hairstyle of his own. The opening has him involved in an affair with Lee Grant, the Mrs. Robinson of the 1970's, who doesn't seem to mind that her powerful Republican husband Jack Warden has a young mistress of his own, the sweet Julie Christie. When Beatty, already involved in an uncommitted affair with Goldie Hawn (who is really just a female friend with benefits), also receives a pass from Grant and Warden's underage daughter, Carrie Fisher. So this is a comedy about sex, but Beatty might change his playboy ways if Christie has her way. Young fisher proves herself to be quite in charge when she confronts Beatty about his sexuality. Set around the election of Richard Nixon 6 years before, this has an outrageous election night party where Christie shocks Warden and angers Grant with a hysterically funny pass towards Beatty, followed by the oh so dignified speech of oblivious society matron Doris Packer. This can't help but be an unapologetic product of its times, even if there were major cultural differences between 1968 and 1975. Hawn and Christie are window dressing, yet very good, and Beatty is often a selfish prick. For as unlikable as their self- centered older characters are, it is Grant and Warden who stand out, with Grant stealing every scene she's in. The script is amusing and very adult, and makes me glad that in 41 years, sexual morals have provided at least a little decency that this makes fun of.

It is a 1975 film directed by Hal Ashy (BEING THERE 1979, 8/10), stars Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, and his then-lover Julie Christie, with an Oscar winning performance by Lee Grant and an Oscar-nominated turn by the perpetual character actor Jack Warden, sounds appealing to any cinephile, right? Yet SHAMPOO, not unlike its characters' utterly outmoded hairstyle, is a mediocre downer, which makes Grant's Oscar triumph looks like a fishy consolation prize for the sake of her career achievements. It is 1968, in the eve of the President Election, George (Beatty), a Beverly Hill hairstylist (by the way, no one dares to advise him to get his own flurry hairdo a neat trim), an inveterate womanizer and sex-addict, gyrates around his girlfriend Jill (Hawn) and the cougar patron Felicia (Grant), with other casual dalliances not included. Dreaming of open his own salon but rejected for a bank loan, George is introduced by Felicia to her wealthy hubby Lester (Warden), who might be interested in the investment, meanwhile, he encounters Jacky, his old flame, and discovers she is Lester's mistress. Inevitably Jacky and George rekindles their romance, and everyone involved needs an egress out of the sticky situation. Eventually, the obvious loser is George himself, but as we can envision, 30 minutes after the ending, he is back in his habitual mode to seduce another predator in the jungle of voluptuous creatures, it is hard to deny a self-revealing aspect of George's character is based on Beatty himself (oo who is the co-writer here).More like a personal project for Beatty and Christie, they are not at all in their top form, it it their pillow talk which leaves audience in a state of dumbness and aloofness. Goldie Hawn actually pulls off a renascent awareness of her own worth through maturing from a wide-eyed ingénue to a woman knows what she wants and feels pity on George's addiction. Lee Grant is ferociously acrid as the lust-driven middle-aged wife encircled with desperate loneliness, an Oscar-win is too much for the role nevertheless; Jack Warden is the token of a winner in a male-chauvinistic world, which proffers a rare showcase for this perpetually sidelined character thespian, in the end, he even dissipates some of the antipathy, which presumably aims towards Lester's shallowness and the stink of money, with an inherent affinity borders on visceral humility and drool naiveté, his adventure in a hippie party draws the best eye-sensational revelry in the entire film. But after all, SHAMPOO doesn't live up to my expectation and the ghastly dreadful coiffure, hope no retro vogue will tread back into that era, ever.

In upscale Beverly Hills, handsome hairdresser Warren Beatty (as George Roundy) comes undone by his promiscuous lifestyle. He would like to open his own shop, but copulating with a potential investor's wife, mistress and daughter could cost him dearly. Sexy wannabe actress Goldie Hawn (as Jill) is Mr. Beatty's puzzled girlfriend. The other women are fright-wigged Julie Christie (as Jackie), older-sexed Lee Grant (as Felicia) and teen-dreamy Carrie Fisher (as Lorna). There are, no doubt, many others. Beatty advises wealthy investor Jack Warden (as Lester) to "Shampoo" daily, so the follicles can breathe. Beatty's very attractive. His best scene may be when Mr. Warden walks in on him in Ms. Christie's bathroom. The women are beautiful, with Ms. Hawn reaching incredible levels of leggy sexiness..."Shampoo" won critical acclaim and was a big hit at the box office. This was probably due to its undeniable sex appeal. The story takes place in 1968, just before the election of US President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Often seen on television, they provide background visuals and foreshadow doom. Happier are the soundtrack recordings by The Beatles, The Beach Boys and others. However, neither Nixon nor "Sgt. Pepper" convince you this film is set in 1968. It looks like 1975. Strangest is the fact that Beatty makes a living creating hairstyles like the ones worn by the women he services. Especially odd are the distracting wig-like hairdos worm by Ms. Christie. Naturally, Beatty's own classic hairstyle looks fantastic. Giving "Shampoo" five deserved stars for the 1970s sex appeal.***** Shampoo (2/11/75) Hal Ashby ~ Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant