The Birthday

* I updated my review from 2008 to when i just saw it again in 2023

In 2004, Corey Feldman made a movie called The Birthday, in Spain. It never made it to America besides a few film festivals.

Jordan Peele had a film festival this week at the Walter Reede Theater and he wanted to close it out with this film. This was essentially the US world premiere, almost 20 years later.

I had seen this movie probably a decade ago thanks to the internet, but it was a crummy German dvd rip and it really lost a lot of its detail and sound design. This screening was a 35 mm print and it looked and sounded amazing.

Corey and the director Eugenio Mira were both in attendance to speak briefly before the start and to have a 25 minute Q&A after the film ended.

The film itself is about a man named Norman (Feldman) who is attending a birthday party for his girlfriend's father at the hotel he owns. What starts out as a relationship plot slowly over time deviates into something more sinister. Throughout the movie, there is a building undertone of dread and mystery as the soundtrack drones on with weird ambient noises that sneak up on you from the background.

About a third of the way in, things start to get weird. Unfolding slowly is the real plot, involving a religious cult who believe that the beast that will usher in the end of the world is being born in that hotel that night.

I don't want to go too much further into the plot, but the last 15 minutes or so are so visually and aurally intense and there is so much chaos going on all at once. It reminded me a lot of some of David Lynch's work. Seeing it in the theater really brought out the sound design, which was one of my favorite parts of this movie.

Feldman is at his best here. He plays the character with a tinge of comedy, channeling Peter Falk (during the q&a, he claims he was doing a Pacino impression from Dog Day Afternoon but I'm not gonna agree). He's got a weird voice that is ridiculous at first but after two minutes I couldn't see him playing it any other way. He plays the opposite of his usual cool and confident characters as a meek nebbish pushover. This characteristic is a major part of the plot as he tries the entire movie to get his girlfriend aside to have a serious talk about their relationship but he's constantly being ignored.

The film has plenty of weird stuff going on, strange characters throughout and a lot of comedy at the expense of the weird. Feldman plays out a lot of slapstick comedy in this film and it works well. The entire film is set inside the hotel so you see the same sets over and over again but you never get bored of the scenery.

Feldman and Mira spent a good amount of time answering questions about the film after the film ended. A bunch of good stories were told and it was being filmed. Perhaps that footage will make it to a BluRay release at some point in the future.

Highly recommended.

I also got to see the movie at Sitges and I am perplexed. I agree with my Italian counterpart on the "love or hate" stance but I believe that the movie still has to grow on us all. The tempo is awkward but it's compensated by the brilliant sound and camera movements that keep us inside the movie's technique, something I believe Eugenio Mira intended for when he made the movie. I would say once again that it is too soon to judge "The Birthday" when, for now, it is heading to be a cult movie, indeed similar to Donnie Darko (my all time favorite), that has still to be seen and compared to similar movies that are trying to grasp a new style of cinema that young filmmakers are trying to institute in the new millennium. Last but not least, I want to point out that the actors are great specially taking into account the fact that the movie was made on a low budget in Spain. Corey Feldman makes me wonder why he disappeared for a decade from mainstream movies ( "The Birthday" looks like one of them, anyway...) but I believe that with this movie he has a made a great comeback playing a role that suits him well and that probable only he could represent. Check it out dudes! THE cult movie of the year (and it's only just started!)

I don t believe much of the reviews seen here, i think that they are written by the crew of the movie. In Sitges, 2 years ago, all the crew was in the cinema during the movie: they were the only ones to applaud, to clap their hands and to "like" the movie. I've seen thousands of movies, and this one was the one that disappointed me the most and bored me the most on a cinema. It s boring, no implication at all from the viewers and ultra long, so you want it to end but it never happens. You spend all the movie time expecting for some climax but that never happens. As a friend, a lover of cinema, a huge fan of fantastic and horror movies, don t waste no minute in this garbage.

In this movie definitely didn't happen what I was expecting (since I didn't read the summary).

The leading actor is darn good, even though u have to get used to his very unique type of cringy personality he's portraying. Some of his lines are pretty funny.

The events in this movie get out of hand at one point and in the end it had me leaving with the thought: "Okay... Did the world really need this movie ?! On the other hand, it really does have something about it."

So, maybe watch it, but don't be disappointed if it just leaves you shaking your head afterwards. The plot really is something else.

You may have noticed that the reviews for this movie or either really high or really low. This is weird in almost good weird way. First start off by saying that this is a very cool looking movie, it's shot well, but it's visually intriguing and artistic. You can tell it's low budget, but they make up for it in uniqueness and atmosphere.

This movie would be a lot more enjoyable if English isn't your first language I think, but if English is your language, I recommend watching it overdubbed in another language with English subtitles. I know that sounds crazy but let me explain.

The acting in this movie isn't great, mainly because Corey Feldman takes his character too far. He plays this really shy and nervous nerdy guy, but to the point where he's acting in a way no human would ever act. That alone is enough to make this movie frustrating. Even the scenes where he's talking to his girlfriend, and his friend, it's like he's talking to people he's never met in his life. It really makes you dislike him and everything that's happening, but there are so many little things that you will like and you keep watching.

The other thing I noticed was the way the characters talk to each other and what they're saying just doesn't work. And it's not necessarily the writing that's bad, because the premise is interesting enough, and quirky enough. This is a Spanish movie, filmed in Barcelona, Spanish director, and a lot of the actors and extras are from Spain as well. I think if I had watched this in any other language I would've loved it, but in English it's annoying.

It's not so much what they're saying but how they're saying it, and Corey Feldman's delivery. If you could find this overdubbed in any other language with English subtitles I say go for it. I would love to see someone remake this, literally anyone, but preferably someone remake it in another language.