Regular readers know that I have three movies (well, two movies and one trilogy) that I MUST watch every year, at the same time annually. I especially like it when the season/weather is the same IRL as it is in the movie/TV show. In late October, I watch Back To The Future I/II/II. In November, I watch Beautiful Girls (to prepare me for the transition from NYC to my smaller hometown of Blue Bell, PA, even though that movie actually takes place in February in Massachusetts). Over Christmas, I HAVE to watch The Family Man, which is a totally underrated gem of genius. But back to Beautiful Girls, specifically Andera, one of my favorite pop culture characters ever. Can we talk about what an inspirashe she is? Incidentally, this isn’t even the only FFF installment Uma Thurman has triggered; check out Mia Wallace of Pulp Fiction‘s treatment here. 

Girl breezes into town to visit her cousin (app, as in appetizers, not the Steve Jobs variety, fan Stinky Womack, who owns the bar), slays the snow-covered SCENE and wins everyone over with her wit, her intellect and stunningly simple ’90s-style cozy clothing and blonde hair. Then, she’s all, bai, I’m going back to Chi town to be with my man and read the Sunday paper and listen to Van Morrison and drink ice cold martinis. She completely inadvertently seduces every male resident of Knight’s Ridge simply by being herself and sashaying around in her THERMALS and winter coat, craftily deflecting the unwanted advances of an entire bro pack (INCLUDING A ’90s MATT DILLON) without hurting anyone’s feelings. She is not even being glamorous, which you know she is when she returns to her small fish in a pig pond lifestyle in Chicago. Her beauty game is so simple, yet incendiary. 

Tocca Margaux, $68; Sephora.com. 

In BBJ feature Fictitious Fragrance Fans, I assign a pop-culture character a signature scent. Fragrance is one of the most difficult areas of beauty to discuss and I find myself trying to convey a scent to you, more often than not, by the pop culture character it embodies to me. So why not make it a thing?

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