F This Movie!: Live Tweet #FPatricksBirthday This Sunday, March 28

by Erika Bromley

The pandemic isn't over yet, so we're bringing back a virtual birthday celebration.

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile (do it) since I’ve written being that teaching during, parenting through, and surviving a pandemic is all-consuming. But I have a special reason to sneak on here today. It’s almost tradition that I take over the site for a bit around the time of Patrick’s birthday. Back in 2017, I took over for a whole week and filled it with what was hopefully a week filled with fun-to-read pieces about movie love, friendship, birthdays, and more movie love. I threw Patrick a 28-hour movie marathon in our basement and invited friends and family to “sign up” for movies based on what interested them most and what worked best for their schedules (surprisingly, a lot of people don’t actually want to watch movies all day and night… and day; I don’t get it but the world is a rainbow!!!). Ten years before that, I rented a local theater room and invited people to eat, snack and watch three movies with us in honor of P’s birthday. Most years, we just have some close friends over in our basement for a day of movies programmed by Patrick (his programming skills might be one of his very best talents, and I think he has many). BUT… it’s 2020 Part 2 (2021) and indoor gatherings are still not the safest and definitely not worth the risk in Patrick’s book. As the vaccine continues to roll out, we hope a movie party with people we can hug and eat pizza with in person will be a “thing” for us again one day! Until then, there is something to be said about a virtual fest or “birthday hangout.”

Celebrating the tenth annual #FThisMovieFest a few weeks ago was a blast, and as always, we were able to (safely and easily) connect with friends and movie lovers from all over the globe. Last year the pandemic had just caused sheltering-in-place mandates for most areas, and the success of #FThisMovieFest gave me an idea: to #FPatricksbirthday with movies and friendship of the virtual kind. It was a blast, and I think one of my favorite things about it was seeing how many folks were excitedly re-watching an old favorite or discovering something new (or, seeing something through new eyes: something I’ve always loved about the F This Movie community in general is that in addition to loving movies, everyone’s mostly so open-minded and willing to look at things in myriad ways -- the best way to experience art, I think). Many FTM friends have asked if we were going to celebrate again this year, and I wasn’t sure. It’s spring, and not everyone lives in an area that is still mostly sheltering-in-place, so I don’t know if anyone will stay in and tweet with us! And, Patrick is debilitatingly and weirdly (I can say this) uncomfortable with celebrating himself, but when I lovingly force him to let his family and friends acknowledge his birthday, he does have fun and is always incredibly grateful and thankful afterwards. SO… I’m back on the #FPatricksbirthday planning, and he is excited!!!! He picked six movies (less would just be… a day). Now… to plan for snacks. Jan is good at this...

To give back this year, we are going to be highlighting some wonderful causes throughout the day, too. It’s been a tough 12 months for everyone, so if we can help in even the tiniest way, I want to. Please join us for one, some, or all movies on Sunday, March 28 (the day before his actual birthday)! We will see you on Twitter following and tweeting with the #FPatricksBirthday hashtag.

The Patrick-curated, mostly-easy-to-stream line-up (Central Standard Times):

10 a.m. Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003, dir. Joe Dante) (HBO Max)