“The Hangover Part II” contains a milestone of sorts — it is the first mainstream film I know to show a full-frontal nude shot of a transsexual.The movie has the same four knuckleheads as the first installment — relatively smooth Phil (Bradley Cooper), dorky dentist Stu (Ed Helms), straight-arrow Doug (Justin Bartha) — and appalling neurotic and pain in the neck Alan (Zach Galifianakis). This time they are headed to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. He has found a lovely Thai gal and everything’s going to be cool. The guys are going to behave themselves. They are going to have one beer apiece on the beach and then go to bed. In the first “Hangover” Alan doped the Jagermiester with Ectasy. This time he dopes the marshmallows because he has taken an inexplicable dislike to Stu’s future brother-in-law Teddy (Mason Lee), a teenage boy who is pre-med at Stanford. And true to Alan form, he has also arranged for their buddy from the Las Vegas misadventure, international criminal and deviant Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) to pick them up for a night of fun. So they wake up in a fleabag hotel in Bangkok with a monkey and no Teddy (but Teddy’s finger floating in a bowl of melting ice) and Mr. Chow, who becomes dead after taking a little cocaine to get his head together. And hilarity ensues. Actually it doesn’t. The first movie worked because it was completely and utterly tasteless, well-paced, and even slightly clever at times. And it was funny. This sequel screens as if the producers had cobbled together the gags that were deemed too idiotic for the first picture, tossed in the exotic locale and a little Mike Tyson for the finish, and ta-da! Instant summer boffo smash. There are three laughs in the film — one when the bride’s father compares Stu to a bland rice dish, one when Stu sings a parody of a Billy Joel song renamed “Alantown,” and one when a monk, enraged by the buffoons ignoring the monastery’s silence rule, beats them with a stout stick. Then there are the failed gags, in no particular order of ghastliness: simulated monkey fellatio; the always hilarious cocaine overdose; the consistently amusing alleyway shooting of the hero; the unspeakably funny facial tattoo applied to the dentist; the achingly witty and constant repetition of the phrase commonly abbreviated as “WTF”; the cigarette-smoking monkey ; the teenage boy who gets so intoxicated he takes part in a street riot and loses a finger; and, of course, the incredibly awkward interaction between the she-male and the dentist. The best actor in the film is Bartha, who cleverly arranged not to be in most of it. Sometimes a film is so bad it’s good. Sometimes a film is so out there it transcends its limitations. And sometimes a film is a shabby piece of work with nothing to recommend it unless you want to hear Mike Tyson try to sing. And that comes at the end — which means sitting through the rest. A “Must Avoid.” “The Hangover Part II” is rated R, obviously. It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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