I’ve had the urge to tweet through old movies at times. Last year, I went on some kind of John Cusack bender and couldn’t stop tweeting about Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity (the movies kept coming on, night after night, on some subscription channel) and I was trying to figure out which one was my favorite off-beat Cusack-rom-com performance. Director Barry Jenkins had a similar experience, but on a plane, watching Notting Hill without sound. It seems like his seatmate was watching Notting Hill, and so Barry decided to live-tweet the experience. Hugh Grant became “English Cat” and Julia Roberts was just Julia Roberts, but as it turns out, he’s a massive fan of both actors. He basically got drunk and live-tweeted the whole thing, without even hearing any of the dialogue.
In other news, the woman next to me is watching NOTTING HILL. A few choice folks will get the irony of this happening on my last flight of this sojourn. Also… Julia Roberts is STUNNING in this film. And holy shit Lester Freamon is in this?!
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Okay so I can’t actually hear the movie, somebody help me, what’s up with Hugh’s character? He just made out with Julia Roberts and I’m like… HUH? Julia just looks waaaaaaaay too much for his character in this! But I can’t hear it so maybe he got game? Like English cat game???
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Okay somebody tweeted me that Hugh owns a bookstore, but… on their first date Julia had that braid AND that onesie body suit tucked into jeans and flat heel boots, she was basically Jay-Lo on IN LIVING COLOR! Translation: TEW MUCH FOR HUGH!!!
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
WHY IS THERE A SCENE OF HUGH GRANT SHAVING?! Everybody knows HUGH GRANT DONT SHAVE!!!! That dude ain’t NEVER NOT BEEN CLEAN SHAVEN!!! I doth protest!!! English cat game means HUGH AIN’T TO SHAVE BRUH!!!!! Flag on the play Coach Michell!!!
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Clearly a period piece BTW: what kind of bookstore owner has a flat like THAT in NOTTING HILL? This one actually isn’t a joke, what we’ve done to our neighborhoods, to property values and the VALUE of certain jobs is so damn sobering, depressing
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Okay: Julia Roberts on a roof in Notting Hill. In Hugh Grants sweatshirt on a roof in Notting Hill. Little to no makeup. Reebok trainers. Wow. If I were Julia and I saw myself in the mirorr, SAW MYSELF looking that way, FEELING that comfortable? Okay THEN… then I would get it.
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Random thought: the makeup artist working with Julia on this film is SUPERB. At first I thought it was too cute a tell to reduce her makeup as she grew comfortable with him but they stuck to it and it’s subtle and just superb. Hats off to script sup and make up artist there 🙌🏿
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
Okay so Hugh is in his bookstore now and as a lover of books and a believer of miracles I can see, I can FINALLY FULLY see how Julia Roberts as Jenny From The Block fell for this English Cat Game, I salute you book slinging grey Oxford wearing remnants of shaving Hugh Grant 🍷
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 4, 2018
He keeps going on and on like that on his flight back to LA. It was charming and he got thousands of likes and retweets. He should do that more often. I would watch that as a show – like, Drunk History, only they could do Drunk Barry Jenkins Does Commentary On Romantic Comedies. Or… Drunk Commentary with Barry Jenkins. Something like that. (Also: Notting Hill is one of those movies I always end up watching for a solid 20 minutes whenever it’s on. It’s no Grosse Pointe Blank, but it’s good.)
Photos courtesy of WENN.
His drunk tweet thread is a thing of beauty. Made my day!
Now this is what twitter should be for
Yup! It gave me such joy last night.
I’m just here for the Woodford Reserve.
This.
This is exactly the kind of drunk behaviour I enjoy from celebs. Not drunk-driving, not drunk-fighting. This.
Absolutely love this! Especially knowing he can’t hear the dialogue!
I love it.
Movie tweeting or texting is the best ! It is abslolutely addictive.
I once both ruined and made my friends entire night by texting about that terrible Blake Lively / shark movie.
I love Notting Hill, I can’t not watch it if it is on. I watched it this past weekend.
There is something about Hugh Grant movies that I love. I don’t even like Julia Roberts but there is something about the speech, “Standing In Front of a Boy.”
This is one of the movies that has a “big” ending that everyone waits for, like Dirty Dancing or Sixteen Candles.
BTW Julia Roberts was pretty good in the movie Wonder, I really loved that movie. It was the first non animated movie me and my daughter went to see. My daughter is still repeating the lines from when Auggie got into a fight at the end.
His thread was a total delight. I loved reading it! Kind of reminds me of something the Alamo Drafthouse does–if anyone’s ever in Austin, TX. It’s a movie theatre and every so often they run an older movie and have 3 professional comedians do commentary as the movie plays. It’s usually hilarious, and kind of like Jenkins’ live tweet. Now I need to go watch Notting Hill again!
Hilarious.
Ok. This is me (but wayyy less funny) with the addition of my kids telling me to shut up and minus the alcohol. Maybe I should think of twitter, no kids and booze.
I’d love to hear what he thought of the roommate, Spike! That guy was a trip.
This was just what I needed this morning!
This is totally amazing.
Love, love, love this. Its ending was just perfection. I was smiling from ear to ear and lol’d a few times, too. I’m with those who think he needs to do this more often!
Love it! So nice to wake up to.
That was glorious and almost as good as a cup of coffee to wake me up today 🙂
Best thing I have read all day.
I love this dude. I was so entertained by the thread when it was happening in real time
I read his tweets on EW’s website and they are hysterical. He should have tweeted about the Proposal. That was the next movie before he signed off.
That was the first thing I saw on my timeline when I woke up,it was amazing! I watched Notting Hill on saturday and I loved every minute of it,there’s just something about Hugh Grant:)
I’ve always liked Grosse Pointe Blank. Underrated movie
That was great.
I have never seen this movie but now I may check it out thanks to Barry.
LOL that’s hilarious. That makes me want to rewatch the movie tonight!
Is he talking about Lester Freamon the character from The WIre?
I love that movie! I remember when Howard Stern live tweeted Private Parts and it was very interesting. This is what celeb Twitter should be for! Not for retweeting product placements!
Dude just got himself a new follower. And I might just re-watch it. Other than the seasons-changing shot, I never really got this movie. To me, the leads just had zero chemistry.
Not gonna lie, I think Notting Hill is beautiful visually but RIDICULOUS (in a bad way) in terms of the script. The writing is so bad. It’s a more poorly written redo of a superior movie, Four Weddings, by the same writer (or director?). Hugh and Julia deserved better.
BUT these tweets make me want to watch the movie with the audio off and just make up dialogue. Barry was watching it the right way, no dialogue.
Hugh Grant in “Notting Hill” wasn’t just a bookstore owner…didn’t his shop only sell travel books? At a time when every bookstore was going under unless it was called Borders or Barnes & Noble (who followed suit 10-15 years later).