ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

Plot:  Young Augusten Burroughs (Cross) absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father (Baldwin) and an unstable mother (Bening), he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch (Cox), and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.

Keyword:  birthday candle.

[oilgun]

Plot: Timothy Higgins, the saddest boy in the world, prepares to hang himself at his ninth birthday party.

[Fran]

Also known as:  "All About My Mother"

From IMDb:  The first hour and a quarter of Pedro Almodovar's "Todo sobre mi madre" strikes me as perhaps the finest filmmaking he has produced to date. Manuela (Cecilia Roth, superb) is seeking the long-lost father of her son Esteban, who has been tragically killed in a road accident on his 17th birthday. Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona, hooking up with an old friend, Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transsexual prostitute, who determines to help the grief-stricken Manuela to re-build her life. Subsequently we meet Rosa (Penelope Cruz), a nun who has become rather too involved in her missionary work helping Barcelona's sex workers, and also the cast of "A Streetcar Named Desire," the stage production that Manuela and Esteban went to see before his death, and starring his actress heroine, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes).

Almodovar dedicates his movie to the women of the world in all their guises, whether they are mothers, lovers, actresses or men who have become women. The women of this movie are all scarred by life's cruel experiences but have nevertheless endured, and they come to form an impromptu family bound together by love, humour and a shared sense of "survivor-hood."

[memento]

From IMDB: In New York City, Molly Gunn is a spoiled wealthy immature young woman, living as if she were a princess in a fairy tale. Her father was a popular rock-and-roll guitar player, who died in a plane crash with Molly's mother when she was a little girl. On her birthday in a nightclub, she meets Lorraine "Ray" Schleine, a nasty young girl with attitudes of an adult, living with her careless mother and a terminal father in a fancy uptown apartment. When Molly's accountant vanishes with her US$ 100,000,000.00 inheritance, Molly is left with nothing but debts, and she needs to work to survive without having previous experience or any skills. She is hired to be Ray's babysitter, and their close contact makes Molly reach the maturity and Ray act like as a child of her age.

[Lynne]

Eduard Cortes' La Vida de Nadie (Nobody's Life) is about a man living a lie. Emilio (Jose Coronado) works as an economist at the Bank of Spain. He is happily married to Agatha (Adriana Ozores) and has a son. He meets a college student, Rosana (Marta Etura), who is having financial problems. He offers to help her, and their relationship grows when she keeps visiting... More him at work. What nobody knows is that Emilio has been living a lie, and the truth eventually comes out and ruins his life. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

[southendmd]

Plot:  Little Kathy discovers a man wanted for murder hiding in her family's barn. When she askes him who he was, he says Jesus Christ just before he goes unconscious. Kathy and her siblings are convinced that he is Jesus and try to hide him from grown-ups.

With Hayley Mills and Alan Bates.  Written by Hayley's mother, Mary Hayley Bell.

Keyword:  birthday.

[Fran]

From Snowdenfine.com:  Bob’s a dentist turning forty, but his birthday provokes a mid-life crisis, much soul-searching and some amorous thoughts about his young receptionist at work. He returns home certain of the futility of his dental career and the emptiness of all his friendships -- unaware that wife Margaret has organised a surprise party and that his friends are hidden behind the furniture in his sitting room listening to him rant and complain. The evening does not turn out quite as they expected…  This 12-minute film won numerous awards including a 1994 Oscar for best short animation.

[Fran]

Also known as:  My Sassy Girl

IMDb keywords include:  Birthday

From IMDb:  Based on a series of true stories posted by Ho-sik Kim on the Internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend. These were later transformed into a best-selling book and the movie follows the book closely. It describes the meeting of Kyun-woo (Cha) and an unnamed girl. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate (somehow) the girl's abuses.

[oilgun]

Plot:   It's Harold's birthday, and his closest friends throw him a party at Michael's apartment. Among Harold's presents is "Cowboy", since Harold may have trouble finding a cute young man on his own now that he's getting older. As the party progresses the self-deprecating humor of the group takes a nasty turn as the men become drunker. Climaxed by a cruel telephone "game" where each man must call someone and tell him (or her?) of his love for them.

==COMMENT==
I can't believe this hadn't been played yet...

[southendmd]

Since we Northern Hemisphere types are having a nasty winter, how about a "California Dreamin' " Round?