The Birthday
It is Tuesday 25th November 1987, and Norman Forrester is looking forward to spending proper time with his girlfriend Alison Fulton, his first chance since her return from Europe, but it is not an evening for just the two of them, the joint birthday party of her father Ron and her uncle Casper, the first time he is going to meet her wealthy parents and extended family after dating for a year, she complaining he is late to her room even as she is not yet ready herself.
The function held at the first Royal Fulton Hotel which launched the prestigious chain thirty-seven years before and now scheduled for demolition in the near future, Norman is anxious and Alison is distant and uncommunicative, avoiding introducing him and freezing him out, while upstairs his friend Vincent parties with his drunken big pharma bros and the waiters inconspicuously do their best to prevent anyone leaving…
Set in Baltimore but filmed entirely in Spain, The Birthday is directed by Eugenio Mira from a script co-written with Mikel Alvariño who also plays bass in the party band the Baltimore Flamingos Rainbow Orchestra, with Mira providing the sometimes bombastic and intrusive soundtrack under his pseudonym Chucky Namanera, starring The ‘Burbs’ Corey Feldman as Norman, wandering in confusion and alternately badgered and ignored, called on to cooperate then made unwelcome.
Unsure whether it is an abstract comedy of manners, a satire on class or a science fiction horror as an unwitting host from among the guests is prepared for the god Ikira-Loa to be summoned into existence, with random encounters and tangential conversations, the very nature of the film means it lacks direction, at best meandering through a loose sequence of happenstance in suites, function halls, basement boiler rooms and a recalcitrant elevator, Norman’s sense of being out of place palpable but never resolving itself into something more interesting.
The conspiracy revealed by the over-zealous Theodore (Felix Burns), desperately trying to sell the heavy-handed exposition, Norman is co-opted into the resistance but destined to play the role of Cassandra even as he becomes convinced that there is something awry, trying to call out the danger to Alison and Vincent (Erica Prior and Dale Douma) who remain profoundly indifferent, unable to stop talking long enough to listen, a holding pattern unfolding in real time which needs to locate either a purpose or the nearest exit.
Taking cues from The Shining in the anonymous corridors, increasingly strewn with empty bottles then bodies, as well as Society in that the rich truly are a different breed, with moments echoing Mulholland Drive in the manufactured pretence of joy of the participants, The Birthday never finds its feet, too long in the setup, too lost in the payoff, an apocalyptic soirée with the bourgeoisie but with the necessary charm evaporating early.
The Birthday is streaming on the Arrow platform now
