Director Barry Jenkins’ Live-Tweeting of His Silent Watching of ‘Notting Hill’ Is ‘Everything’

“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?” Jenkins says in hilarious Twitter storm

Barry Jenkins
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Barry Jenkins could see “Notting Hill” while sat on a flight Wednesday night, but couldn’t hear the beloved romantic comedy — so he invited the Twitterverse to help him understand the plot.

The “Moonlight” director was clearly bored on a transatlantic Delta flight as he watched the 1999 film starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts over the shoulder of his seat neighbor.

After first complaining about the bumpy flight from Paris to Los Angeles, Jenkins wrote: “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 s— Lester Freamon is in this?!”

It doesn’t seem that he’d seen “Notting Hill” before — with or without volume.

“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???” Jenkins wrote.

His 104,000 Twitter followers were keen to jump in and help, tweeting back key plot points and tuning in when Jenkins marveled over how a bookstore owner could afford an apartment in Notting Hill, or commenting that Grant’s character “didn’t have Waze or GPS.”

Jenkins was also enamored by Roberts, describing her as “a lamp you find in some antique shop in Nova Scotia. A bulb rather. With infinite lumens and a millionwatt range.”

After admitting that he’d been drinking on the flight, and needed a coffee, Jenkins got PTSD from the press-junket scene. “Look I got love for the press but oh LORDT that wide shot sent a shiver down my spine,” he said.

When the movie was finally over, Jenkins concluded, “I hope this isn’t embarsssing (sic) tomorrow…. Two hours closer to LA though, there’s joy in THAT.”

Nope, it was not embarrassing at all. In fact, the Twitter storm caught the attention of comedian and “The Big Sick” star/writer Kumail Nanjiani.

“Barry Jenkins live-tweeting his silent watch of Notting Hill is: 1. Everything 2. Giving me life,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/948720740009893888

See some of Jenkins’ many, many tweets below.

Stay tuned as Jenkins gets ready to now silently watch a film starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock (we assume he means “The Proposal.”)

“I’m going to drink some coffee and abstain from tweeting THAT,” he promised.

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