Just past the hour mark, in the scene where bujalski heckles marnie for her annoyance and exhaustion at him, I thought:

"This doesn't capture me in the same way as Mutual Appreciation, but the images are more beautiful."

The camera ate a glare overhead. A pinkish white halo surrounded bujalski's profile as he leaned, bottle in hand, to the deck's balcony.

The shot pulled through and around a dark wood beam to better follow his movement toward the edge. I felt encouraged.

A couple of scenes later someone asks, "When's your birthday?" and marnie replies, "It's today actually."

I groaned. Today was the day after my birthday and I had answered the same question in the same way, just hours ago, to someone of equal unprominence.

"How old are you?" "24"

I groaned louder and in a rising tone. I spent the past two weeks half-enjoying meet-ups and hang-outs. My birthday went unremembered and uncelebrated. My awkward schedule, mixed feelings, and medically imposed mexican beer hiatus, left me with only underwhelming options.

These two movies are evergreen. They are what it feels like to be generally privileged but emotionally inconvenienced, to be without concrete and fanfare'd resolution to the moments of stomach turning in young adulthood.