My Birthday Movies
A tradition began my first fall living in New York City. I’d forgotten that much of the east coast still gives Columbus Day as a holiday, and I found myself with a free day to myself. I’m pretty sure that’s when I went to see my first movie in NYC. It was Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.” It entrenched itself so deeply and atmospherically in my soul, that not only did I start eating almost exclusively from Japanese restaurants and spent tons of money in Asian markets, I of course went to see it three times. At least one of those times was right around my birthday.
From that year on, once October hit, I started subconsciously then consciously paying attention to what movie might be coming out right around my birthday. Generally, they were quiet, character rather than plot-driven, aesthetically creative, independent films. Every year I await the next in my series of…
Birthday Movies
Here’s my list. There’s only one year that I had to break my pattern.
Can you tell which?
2003 Lost in Translation
Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola
2004 I Heart Huckabees
Written & Directed by David O. Russel
2005 Everything is Illuminated
Written & Directed by Liev Schreiber, Based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s book
2006 Marie Antoinette
Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola
2007 The Darjeeling Limited
Written & Directed by Wes Anderson
2008 The Duchess
Written by Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen, Directed by Saul Dibb
2009 Where the Wild Things Are
Written & Directed by Spike Jonze, Based on Maurice Sendak’s book
2010 Nowhere Boy
Written by Matt Greenhalgh, Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood
2011 50/50
Written by Will Reiser, Directed by Jonathan Levine
1 | Jonathan Edmund
November 2nd, 2011 at 11:40 am
Do you recommend Nowhere Boy?
2 | Kj
November 2nd, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Yes. It’s not mind-blowing but its well done and interesting