Popular reviews

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 30

  “Days of Wine and Roses” is the closest that Blake Edwards ever came to being Billy Wilder. 

  It’s also the moment where their careers diverged - just as the ends of their respective works on alcoholism opposed one another in their endings. 

  After a string of films, including “Experiment in Terror” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which seemed to flit between the dark and light of city life in a way reminiscent of Wilder, Edwards - three years before Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend,” made “Roses.” Despite coming first, it exists now somewhat in the shadow of its thematically identical predecessor. 

  “Roses” stars Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick as a couple of office romantics who turn a partying habit into a downward spiral towards…

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  Review by Lara Pop ★★★★ 44

  I've always been scared of alcohol. I'm scared not of its short-term consequences but of its ability to make one lose control in the long run. I'm scared of the long run and I'm scared of how easily it can turn into a habit. A habit that controls you more than you do the habit. In the first place, it's not about how much you drink – but how regularly, and, whether you can break that regularity every once in a while by saying: 'not now'. If not, you better look out for the habit–self dynamic and be aware of your tendency. Don't brush it off, and make sure the control won't ever tilt to the habit side.

  Another important…

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  Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★★ 7

  Gustav's #10 Film Selection for Edgar

  "They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
  Out of a misty dream
  Our path emerges for a while, then closes
  Within a dream.
  – Ernest Dowson, from "Vitae Summa Brevis" (1896).

  A screwball comedy in the first act, a jazzy account of addictive self-destruction in the second act, and a thought-provoking melodrama in the third act... It is somewhat justifiable that the world got extremely excited with a phenomenon like Dr. No, got disturbed by the claustrophobic dementia of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and the Academy got touchy with a meaningful social commentary against racism and intolerance featured in To Kill a Mockingbird, but hidden beneath the shadows of…

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  Review by Cormac 👑 ★★★½ 5

  Men will literally find a nice girl and fall in love with her and get married and get her hooked on drink to justify his own addiction and become full-blown alcoholics together and watch her sharply spiral out of her own control & into a life of eternal misery instead of going to therapy.

  
  ...Sound of Metal by way of the 60s.

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  Review by Steven Sheehan ★★★½

  It was in an interview with James Lipton that Jack Lemmon revealed his disease. He was addressing the host of Inside The Actors Studio and the budding actors sitting in the audience waiting on his every word, discussing the moment his character in this film, Joe Clay, stood in front of an AA meeting and stated he was an alcoholic. "Which I am incidentally" Lemmon continued. Cue stunned silence.

  Taking on the role of Clay was essentially a sideways move for a man who was struggling with the bottle in his own life at the time. According to director Blake Edwards, both Lemmon and Remick were heavy drinkers, shooting many of the scenes when they were inebriated. If true, that…

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  Review by Jerry McGlothlin ★★★½ 4

  Bill Withers wrote “Ain’t No Sunshine” after he saw Days of Wine and Roses and… yeah, this is one of the most depressing movies you’ll ever see. Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick star as a young couple who fall into a crippling battle with addiction; specifically, alcoholism and while Lemmon’s character is able to face his addiction through Alcoholics Anonymous and solid support systems, Remick’s character is unable to follow suit. She doesn’t believe she has a problem—a common issue amongst addicts, no matter the specificities of the addiction—and spirals deeper and deeper into the disease. It’s a rather downbeat film. Though incredibly well-acted, scripted and directed, it does come off as a little bit public service announcement-y. That isn’t to…

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  Review by TajLV ★★★★ 3

  "You remember how it really was? You and me and booze - a threesome." ~ Joe Clay

  When this film was released, I was only eleven years old, too young to see it in the theater. However, I do recall the advertising with Jack Lemmon. It must have been on TV or a trailer I saw when watching another film. I'm also pretty sure my parents went to see this, and I know they owned a record album that had the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer Oscar-winning title song on it, although I don't remember if it was Andy Williams singing or Perry Como.

  Jack Lemmon plays San Francisco P.R. man Joe Clay in a romance with Lee Remick as executive secretary…

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  Review by Sonny_Jim ★★★★ 4

  A man takes a drink; the drink takes a drink; the drink takes the man.

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  Review by Steve Moyle ★★★★★ 2

  I saw this about a week ago and I wished I reviewed it earlier but then again it really was a experience that was hard to put into words. I also only mean that in the best of ways, it's just my second Blake Edwards film and i'm very impressed with how he captured this film regarding such a damaged couple. Dealing with the effects of chronic Alcoholism, the way it affects the individuals and the people around them, especially the ones closest to them. Joe (Jack Lemmon) and Kirsten (Lee Remick) have recently gotten married, Joe has a great job but soon his life goes to a true downhill spiral, Kirsten doesn't drink at first but after they get…

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  Review by Robert Daniels ★★★★½

  “It’s always another bum.”

  Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick are anything but in Blake Edwards’ raw examination of the disease of alcoholism. Both actors are exposed nerves, scratching kinetic waves off each other. This film also features some exceptional makeup work and lighting, puffing out visages and zapping out complexions. Drinking has never looked so hideous, so unpleasant as in here.

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  Review by Zoë 🐝 ★½

  I'm definitely in the minority on this one, but I am struggling to think of much I liked about Days of Wine and Roses. Here's what I got: I liked the promotion of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I liked the empathy toward alcoholics and addressing that addiction is a disease that some people are predisposed to. That being said, though 1962 is an early year for these ideas in Hollywood film, Days of Wine and Roses wasn't the first and didn't do it the best.

  I'll Cry Tomorrow, the Susan Hayward movie from 1955, has its problems, but as a movie about alcoholism and the power of AA it's a better film in basically every way. That movie made me cry!…

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★★½ 5

  My name is Steve, and I could easily have been an alcoholic.

  It rang rather true to me that Lee Remick, before she meets Jack Lemmon, says that she didn't like alcohol because she didn't like the taste, instead finding an addiction in chocolate. It's basically the same with me.

  I'm absolutely certain that if somebody at some point during my youth had introduced me to a drink that I did like that things would have spiralled out of control very quickly. I just have that type of mind and personality that becomes addicted to things. I have to fight to make sure things that I like that could be damaging don't become such. I have all manner of filters…