Lauren Kung Jessen picks 5 movies to pair with ‘The Fortune Flip’
In Pairings, artists and creators pick the movies that complement their latest work.
Lauren Kung Jessen is the author of Lunar Love, Red String Theory, and Yin Yang Love Song. Her latest novel, The Fortune Flip, is out on March 17!
We asked Lauren to pick a few movies that pair well with The Fortune Flip.
Just My Luck
In The Fortune Flip, Hazel and Logan’s luck flips after a fortune telling reading gone wrong, so of course Just My Luck makes this list. In the movie, when the luckiest woman in the world kisses a stranger at a party after a tarot reading, she finds that all her luck has poof—vanished. Now, she only attracts bad luck. Meanwhile, the guy she kissed is enjoying only good things coming his way. This is magical realism in the early aughts at its most fun and is a lighthearted escape.
It Could Happen to You
In The Fortune Flip, Hazel and Logan share the winnings of a lottery ticket. In It Could Happen to You, a New York City cop (Nicolas Cage!) offers a waitress (Bridget Fonda!) half the winnings of his lottery ticket when he realizes he has no money for a tip. The movie is feel-good and captures the benefits and consequences of coming into a large sum of money, all with a love story at its center.
Back to the Future
Hazel’s doing an ‘80s movie marathon so I wanted to name-drop as many ‘80s movies that I could where it made sense. In the meet-cute, Hazel and Logan do a joint fortune telling reading where birds select three cards as your fortunes. The birds’ names are Doc and Marty, which was a nod, of course, to Back to the Future, and a play on the past and present.
Dirty Dancing
The Broadway musical Logan works on is called Windfall, which is about an estranged family that inherits a lakeside resort that used to be the go-to destination in its heyday. Now falling apart, the family has to decide whether to work together to sell the place or bring it back to life. This was an homage to Dirty Dancing, in a way, and I wanted the theater set to capture that lakeside romantic feel.
When Harry Met Sally
The Fortune Flip takes place in the fall in New York City, and what gets more Autumn in New York than When Harry Met Sally? Think: chunky knit sweaters, orange and yellow foliage, and two people going from strangers to friends to lovers.