A Thread About Romantic Comedies and Their Ilk.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > A Thread About Romantic Comedies and Their Ilk.

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

I come with recommendations!!! But I'm a Cheerleader is awesome and I love it~ There aren't enough good happy LGBT movies.

Earth Girls are Easy - this is mostly a highly regarded movie of mine because it's got super hot Jeff Goldblum. It's super light and bubbly and hopefully I'm not forgetting some terrible messaging in it.
Groundhog Day - mostly a comedy with elements of romance. A classic in a lot of ways
Heathers - Dark comedy about a teen romance, proto- Mean Girls and Winona Ryder (love forever, huge crush)
Grosse Pointe Blank - John Cusack, Minnie Driver, high school reunions, and assassinations
The Proposal - I like a lot of Sandra Bullock and I thought this was really cute for a bland premise. Flipped power dynamics than standard romcom fare, female boss/male subordinate
Zack and Miri Make a Porno - I remember loving this and I know the two main leads fall in love while trying to make a porn for money. Has some gross out humor
Wristcutters: A Love Story - Indie movie about a purgatory suicides get sent to and a love story that happens
Cashback - Love love love this. Guy with insomnia finds he can pause time. Some creeper guy stuff but I remember it being good so I hope it actually was
Amelie - French film about a very very quirky girl ( like the definition of manic pixie dream girl) solves people's problems and finds love. Super awesome color palette and teeth achingly sweet
Bridesmaids - Awesome in every way, woman deals with feeling like a failure while being the maid of honor for her best friend. Crazy funny and vulgar and top notch performances and actresses
Clueless - Not sure if this was mentioned yet but a valley girl version of Jane Austen's Emma. Love it to death
Bridget Jone's Diary - More of a guilty pleasure, modern remake of Austen's Pride And Prejudice with Colin Firth and Ren�e Zellweger

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 02:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 07:10

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

But I'm A Cheerleader is excellent, one of the best of all time.

If anyone else has any great LGBT romances with happy endings (I'd love romcoms but I know those are almost entirely hetero) I'd love to hear them! One of my fave LGBT movies is Weekend and it's sad and lovely.

So! Has anyone else here seen My Best Friend's Wedding? I dislike this movie pretty intensely. I know that it ends up actually recognizing that the main character is acting terribly but it feels like a wet fart. It has a lot of the worst cliches that feel very anti-feminist to me. Having to get married by a certain time, women being crazy and illogical, that romances/people are to be 'won', and that's just off the top of my head.
Does anyone like this film? Am I wrong?

Also found this interesting article on them here: https://medium.com/matter/money-all-right-money-money-money-869391578f65#.z1dy9z8ic
tl;dr on it to interest clicking the link, looking at how romcoms have shifted from the rich to the more regular with elements of money/wealth still being involved

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 15:30

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

there wolf posted:

The other day I was thinking of some movie and thought "at least Best Friend's Wedding made her apologize and be sorry for what she did" and now I'm really annoyed that I can't remember what it was that BFW was marginally better than. Yeah, that one is a real stinker, and one of a couple of Julia Roberts films where her character should be the villain, but because it's Julia Roberts you get this incredibly sympathetic framing that makes you wonder what kind of drugs the filmmakers were on.

Runaway Bride is another one, and probably even worse because it's a genuinely awful heroine backed by a whole community of toxic busybodies who we're all just supposed to love because they're all just such quirky characters!

If you ever want to vomit with anger, watch Babycakes (1989) in that vein. It might make a good romcom hate watch. It's a TV movie starring Ricki Lake, and she is a fat girl and thus deserves to be ridiculed and the idea she could ever attract a man is hilarious!!!!! :xd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FIlx4lHxsA

Clip of some highlights, it's very easy to find the full movie. It's got it all, hateful families, dubious consent, women scheming against women, lovely best friends, women shaming, and amazing late 80s clothes/hair

# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 16:03

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

Jenner posted:

TL;DR: The media does not really depict poverty in a realistic way. Those heartwarming stories of a kid breaking the cycle are tragically rare and it's only becoming more risky and dangerous to try. In general the community largely keeps to itself. Families are often depicted always being present and involved and having enough food and scraping by but that's just not the case. Mothers/parents often went without food so their kids could eat and they worked long hours into the night, leaving their children to fend for themselves.

This is just my experience and perception of poverty and life in poverty. I cannot speak for all people in poverty. But the media depiction is either too ideal/romantic or too condemning. Real poverty is soul crushing and devastating and no amount of hard work and gumption can get you out of it. You have to get lucky.

This post was still real long. I am terrible at this.

Jenner this articulates so well a lot of things I've seen. I grew up adjacent to poverty because of family, and this rang so true it felt like a physical bell.

Here's some other interesting reads about romcoms and their adaptations to social changes
https://acclancy.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/changing-ideologies-within-the-romantic-comedy-genre-in-the-21st-century/
https://www.overthinkingit.com/2014/02/27/romantic-comedy-income/
http://www.ojcmt.net/articles/53/531.pdf (A Qualitative Textual and Comparative Analysis of the Representation of Masculinity
in the Action and Romantic Comedy Genres)

I was thinking Lars and the Real Girl may be better at depicting the careful balance that you have to live in to maintain a certain lifestyle. House paid off by parents or maybe even grandparents as well, carefully taken care of clothes, small towns getting by. Also I know Loving isn't a romcom but it is real and focuses on people in much tighter circumstances.

jet sanchEz posted:

I liked The Proposal but I think it only worked because Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock had good chemistry. I think that on-screen chemistry is about the only thing that makes most rom-coms watchable, in fact.

I guess most people would consider Knocked Up a comedy but, off the top of my head, it is a movie that has two romantic leads that have pretty bad chemistry.

As cited above, the chemistry between Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah makes Roxanne work really well.

Chemistry is def make or break for these movies. I have to think that's why Katherine Heigl dropped off a bit since she came off as cold in a lot of her movies.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 16:51

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

Jenner posted:

This thread is real good. All the posts (except mine) are amazing. I'm very proud.

I think a real depiction of poverty, where a subpar education and dying community become your cage and you can never escape, would be really tragic. People watch movies for escapism or something.

A movie where a lone impoverished person in a struggling and cannibalizing family watches as all their class mates drop out, get arrested, get pregnant and disappear, or otherwise crash and burn and then when they try to get into college they don't even know enough math to pass the entry exam would probably make some people really depressed.

Moving on.

I think it's more possible to show and do those sorts of things in books because it doesn't have to do it all visually. Like reading Vanity Fair, there is no way a movie can capture the whole scope of that book.

I was googling around to see what romcoms are available for streaming and someone PUT BEE MOVIE ON THE LIST OF MOVIES TO WATCH!!! How broken is this person? Why?!!!
Jenner, did you like Stardust? I can't recall if you posted about it

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 07:10

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

got any sevens posted:

This is why I disliked the ending of Grease. Still an overall cool movie though :/

In my head, Grease ends with the makeover but she is like "Nah boy" and runs off with Rizzo

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 20:36

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > A Thread About Romantic Comedies and Their Ilk.