The Ultimate Movie Calendar

My very first movie theme night was Gear Up for Gere, the night Ray and I watched Primal Fear and The Jackal in high school. 20 years later, I did Hankering for Hanks—pretty sure it was Cast Away and Catch Me If You Can.

Then while listening to Remember the Titans on The Rewatchables podcast, I thought of Denzel December. A whole month going through Denzel's filmography. A few weeks later, Thanksgiving was approaching and I thought of Giving Thanks for T.Hanks in November. And once I had two months figured out, of course my brain was like, "well where's the rest of the year?" Here. Here's the rest of the year.

The Ultimate Movie Calendar. 12 months, each one recognizing a single filmography:

Samuel L. January
Fincher February
March with Matt
Apatow April
Murray May
Cruising into Summer
Celebrate Independence with Freeman
Al August
Streep September
Fall into Ford
Give Thanks for T.Hanks
Denzel December


So what does this look like? Here's what it looks like. I picked no more than 10 of the movies that I'd want to make sure made it into each month:

Samuel L. January 

Pulp Fiction
Die Hard with a Vengeance
A Time to Kill
The Negotiator
Do The Right Thing
Jurassic Park
Django Unchained
Goodfellas

Fincher February

Fight Club
Seven
Social Network
Panic Room
Gone Girl
The Game
Zodiac
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

March with Matt

The Martian
Good Will Hunting
Rounders
Interstellar
Bourne Identity
Ocean's Eleven
Talented Mr. Ripley
The Departed
Dogma

Apatow April

Anchorman
40-Year-Old Virgin
Talladega Nights
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Step Brothers
Funny People
Bridesmaids
This is 40
The Big Sick
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Murray May

Groundhog Day
Kingpin
Rushmore
Ghostbusters
Lost in Translation
Royal Tenenbaums
Stripes
Caddyshack
The Monuments Men
Zombieland

Cruising into Summer (June)

Edge of Tomorrow
Collateral
Knight and Day
Minority Report
Vanilla Sky
Magnolia
The Color of Money
A Few Good Men
Tropic Thunder
All Six Mission Impossible movies back to back so it counts as one movie

July: Celebrate Independence with Freeman

Shawshank Redemption
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Rises
Now You See Me
Now You See Me 2
Lucky Number Slevin
Bruce Almighty
Outbreak

Al August

Heat
Godfather
Godfather Part II
Scarface
Scent of a Woman
Insomnia
Any Given Sunday
The Recruit
Two for the Money
Ocean's Thirteen

Streep September

Adaptation
Devil Wears Prada
Julie & Julia
The Post
The Manchurian Candidate
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Iron Lady
Doubt

Fall into Ford (October)

The Fugitive
Air Force One
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Temple of Doom
Last Crusade
What Lies Beneath
Patriot Games
Blade Runner
The Empire Strikes Back

November: Give Thanks for T.Hanks

Catch Me If You Can
Cast Away
Apollo 13
Forrest Gump
You've Got Mail
A League of Their Own
Saving Private Ryan
That Thing You Do
The Da Vinci Code
Captain Phillips

Denzel December

Inside Man
Training Day
He Got Game
Deja Vu
The Equalizer
Remember the Titans
Malcolm X
The Bone Collector
Fallen
The Taking of Pelham 123


- - -

A few notes.

• I wanted Will Ferrell but once I gave Fincher February there wasn't a spot for him. So instead I got Will Ferrell through Apatow April. 
• Apologies to Christopher Nolan. I considered having Nolan November and Give Thanks for T.Hanks but that threw off the 12 months thing and once you add one holiday now you have to add others, so yeah. But Freeman allowed me to have the Dark Knight movies, so it's not a complete loss.
• Apologies to Keanu Reeves. Just didn't fit. 
• Apologies to Leo. 
• I did try to maximize number of movies represented. Once I had Matt Damon and Fincher, I didn't need Pitt to get his own month. Once I had Pacino, I felt I could lose DeNiro. Even got Goodfellas through Sam Jackson.
• I'm aware this list is male-dominated (11 out of 12). I have my own biases and have to own that.
• I could easily lose Al August but would I replace it with? 
• Cruise has the deepest roster. Just wow.

Let me know in the comments if you'd swap one month out for a better one.
Do not let me know in the comments that I'm missing any of the Marvel movies. This was intentional.