Ftm Rewind: 24 Hours Of Movies: Happy Birthday Erika!

by Patrick Bromley

Super 8 (2011, dir. J.J. Abrams)

Drive (2011, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984, dir. Charles E. Sellier Jr.)

wrote a piece about Silent Night, Deadly Night that made me love her more than I already did. Her affection for this movie helps explain why she yells "PUNISH" every time I do something wrong. Just kidding! I don't do anything wrong. Just kidding! She doesn't yell at me.

2:15 Sleepaway Camp (1983, dir. Robert Hiltzik)

31, but I can't blame her for that one). This is a consistent source of amusement to me, because his movies are nastier and more horrific than a lot of what's out there. I can remember us being among the few to actually see this film when it played in theaters in 2003 and loving the fact that Erika loved it. She likes The Devil's Rejects way more, but this one will play better at 4 a.m. Plus I think The Devil's Rejects will be too genuinely upsetting to her, because it speaks right to a lot of things she is legitimately afraid of. House of 1000 Corpses is more fun.

6 a.m. - Can't Buy Me Love (1987, dir. Steve Rash)

After keeping her awake all night and asking her to sit through three consecutive horror movies, it seems fair to bring in the sunrise with another nostalgic favorite -- one of those films that Erika can quote from memory. I used to play this game where I would stumble across Can't Buy Me Love on TV and see how long I could leave it on before she would identify it from the other room. It was always only a single line of dialogue, or sometimes just a few notes of the score. Fucking amazing. It's not a significantly better movie than Cocktail, but it has a lot of '80s teen movie charm and I could easily watch it any time.

8 a.m. - Shakespeare in Love (1998, dir. John Madden)

Let's wrap up these 24 hours with another movie we fell in love with together, and one that played a big part in our eventually getting together. All Erika ever wanted was someone who looks at her the way Joseph Fiennes looks at Gwyneth Paltrow in this movie. I'm that person for her. I hope she'll still look at me like that after sitting through this many movies.

Happy birthday, Bue. I love you.