movies – smoothliminal

The other night, two of our favorite neighbors came over for dinner. He is the youngest member of the New York Bromeliad Society, and she is a therapist from England, whose mom happens to be from upstate New York.

‘Where in New York?’, I asked and when she said Poughkeepsie, I said, ‘Oh! I love Poughkeepsie!’

‘You’ve been there?’, Devin asked.

‘Well, no, but it’s in my favorite movie…sort of. Actually, it’s not my favorite movie’, I quickly tried to take it back, but it was too late. Soon I was doing my best Carrie voiceover: ‘And just like that Charlotte Poughkeepsie’d. In her pants.’ I don’t normally like potty humor, but in the movie I interpret it as cosmic punishment for her racism. Poetic justice at its finest!

Then, I had to explain how there are certain movies I like to watch in certain seasons.

In the fall I watch the transition season classic You’ve Got Mail and turn up the volume for the dial-up internet connection sounds of yore. Beep-beep-beep-beeeep-dooo-bee-doowoh-shhhhhshshshshshgrsh! I first watched You’ve Got Mail when I was nine years old and obsessed with AOL Kids chat rooms, so it’s really special to me.

I forget about them the rest of the year, but as soon as it’s December, I long to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and Love Actually. They are the Christmas gifts I give myself every year. I also love the live-action Grinch, primarily for the costumes and set design, but some years I skip that one because it’s long, and no one else likes to watch it.

In spring, I watch You’ve Got Mail again! I can’t help myself. It has the best descriptions of spring and fall in New York, and I’m astounded every time that I live so close to where it was filmed. If my nine year-old self could be here now, she would bemoan the state of chat rooms today and then go get a sandwich at Barney Greengrass. I’m pretty much exactly the same person I was then, come to think of it. Anyway, right now in New York, we are smack dab in the middle of spring, fast approaching the scene where Brinkley tugs on Joe Fox’s jacket, if you know what I mean. Most people don’t, unfortunately, but I assume they do because I’ve been reading Hey Natalie Jean for years, which is in essence a website about You’ve Got Mail disguised as a personal blog. Really. I can’t even link to all the posts about You’ve Got Mail because there are too many, so I will just link to my favorite. I happen to think I am married to a Frank, though he emphatically does not self-identify as a Frank (though isn’t it just like a Frank to be so emphatic about it?). I think I’m a Patricia! Again, this probably means nothing to you. I should move on.

Soon it will be summer, and I will watch Sex and the City the feature-length movie precisely once. Fun fact: I spent the summer of 2012 doing freelance work from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library and got to hear tourists discussing Carrie Bradshaw in every language.