Oh Romantic Comedy, Why Are You Such A Sucky Genre?

gavin and i were talking about rom-coms tonight (a genre that he is NOT a fan of). we had a bit of a tiff about what actually constitutes a romantic comedy and what doesn't. in light of our argument (and the fact that we found no resolution) i decided to put it to all of you...

i've come up with a list (or four) of rom-coms. the first is a list of movies that i think are undeniably rom-coms, ones that i actually think are good (and why). the second is rom-coms that are most certainly rom-coms and most certainly suck. thirdly, rom-coms that are and that are good in that cracky sort of way. the fourth is the heart of the debate. movies that are awesome, but are they actually romantic comedies? you'll see why it's even up for debate when i come to them.

let's start with a few ground rules. all of these films are contemporary. i decided not to go back into those older films like 'bringing up baby' because i felt like maybe a lot of people haven't seen them and well, because i wanted to talk about modern film and it's my blog so i do what i like, damn it.

come to think of it, that's the only ground rule. i'm sure you'll notice that there are some films that i've just totally left out (i don't want to talk about 'pretty woman', i just don't) but you'll either have to comment about how you feel that it was horrible for me to have left it out or you'll have to just suck it up. now that i've yelled at everyone, let's begin...

romantic comedies that we KNOW are romantic comedies and that we love...

1. 4 weddings and a funeral-- ok, so this one may be a little trite (and we can hold it singularly responsible for inflicting hugh grant on the world- god help us!) but i still think that it holds up as a good rom-com. most of the characters are pretty fantastic (and SO bloody english!) and there are some quite good laughs and it fits the formula (boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back). the people are pretty and everyone is happy in the end. there are tears (i defy you to not sniffle at least a little when john hannah reads wh auden's 'funeral blues' over the coffin of his partner) and laughs and happy endings. way to go, richard curtis. we'll be talking with you again soon.

2. coming to america- oh, i bet you forgot about this one, didn't you? it's not one that you think of right away but it IS a rom-com. again, totally fits the formula (boy meets girl, falls for girl, girl starts falling for boy, boy loses girl, girl decides to move to africa to marry the boy after all). this is from back in the day when eddie murphy was actually funny and not such a douche.

3. groundhog day- so, andie mcdowel (sp), we meet again... this movie is a classic. how can you say it's not? bill murray is beautiful (as he so often is. i would like to say here that 'rushmore' would totally be a candidate for one of those maybe/maybe not rom-coms but it's not on my list... i now kind of wish that it was) and the story is great. it's touching and sad and funny and fits our aforementioned formula in it's own day repeating itself way.

oh, and i've always wanted to do this if i get pulled over and i know i'm going to jail anyway (i wouldn't though-- robin and i talk about this a lot)

4. joe vs the volcano- ah, a rom-com from the people who made all of the rom-coms that people think are good but aren't. tom hanks and meg ryan deliver an actually funny film in this one (remember when tom hanks was funny? yeah, it was a looooong time ago but it's back there). it's not people who've never met yet somehow fall in love 'sleepless in seatle' and it's not oh so crappy 'you've got mail'. it's quirky, it's touching and it has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. if you haven't seen this one, you should. if you have, think about it again and i'm sure you'll be running to blockbuster.

5. ghost town- i actually love this movie. it didn't do very well in theaters and i'm not totally sure why. it's very ricky gervais (maybe people just don't buy his as a romantic lead, i dunno). it's funny and it's sweet and you actually believe that tea leone (and let's be real, she's WAY out of ricky's league) would fall for him. if you like ricky (the office, extras) then you'll like this movie. there are just no two ways about it. it's a bit metaphysical but whatever, that adds to the fun. at its heart it's just a sweet movie about a jackass who falls for the great girl and has to win her over (again-- boy falls for girl, boy sort of gets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back). it follows the formula but allows the comedic genius in ricky gervais to really shine.

so, i was just looking around youtube for clips from this movie to put up and i realized something. maybe it didn't do so well because it's TOTALLY not billed as a rom-com. it's billed as this weird movie that's all about ricky gervais talking to a dead greg kinear (who is also pretty damn funny). too bad the marketing let this film down. in the end, all i could find was the stupid trailer but i suppose it's better than nothing.

6. love actually- so, we've come back around to richard curtis (who wrote 4 weddings). this one was actually his directorial debut. i think that the jury's out for a lot of people about this movie but i really liked it. although some of the cast bothers me (seriously, richard, step AWAY from hugh grant!) i think that some of the actors in it are marvelous (alan rickman, emma thompson, liam neeson, colin firth, chiwetel ejifor...) and the movie really is quite well done. it's got that curtis mix of love and laughs and heartbreak. i also kind of love the fact that it's a bunch of little love stories all going on at once. it's sort of the rom-com version of six degrees of separation. even if you don't like one of the mini-story lines just wait a hot second and you'll be in the middle of another one. also, i like that it's christmasy (i don't know why). and, come on, any film in which colin firth ends up jumping into a lake can't be all bad.

7. dan in real life- this movie took me totally by surprise when i saw it. i didn't even know about it until it was already on dvd (maybe it never made it to theaters, i don't know). i saw that it was steve carell (who i love) and so just went with it. then i got the lovely surprise that is juliette binoche. dane cook is in it, too but he really isn't that bad (i usually dislike him intensely). it's just such a sweet and funny movie and it has a pretty spectacular soundtrack by sondre lerche. this is one of those that you just have to see. i can tell you about the plot but it won't do it justice. like 'little miss sunshine' this movie proves that steve carell is more than just a goofball. again, all i could find is the preview but i think it's worth watching.

i think we should move on to rom-coms that we love because they're so bad (but we still love them)

1. just my luck- there are a number of reasons that i love this movie (although it really is SO bad). i kind of love lindsey lohan even though i don't know why, they filmed it in nola (shot to look like new york) and our very own meeg is not only an extra but he can actually be seen in a number of scenes (awesome). let's just call it what it is though. it's crack. it's probably killing your brain cells but it's good fun anyway. i tried to locate the meeg clip on youtube but couldn't. if you do watch this movie wait for the scene when she's going into the art gallery and stare straight ahead to the people already there. you will see meeg standing there in the distance. keep an eye out during the gallery scene because he pops up a few times. yey meeg!

2. kate & leopold- meeg and i like to talk about this movie sometimes. it's yet another meg ryan masterpiece in which she falls in love with a duke who has come forward from the 19th century (hugh jackman). yeah, so the movie is pretty crappy all around and maybe it's only cracky goodness for people like meeg and myself who love the fact that hugh jackman's character is based on an actual person. we enjoy sitting around talking about the inaccuracies in the character and plot line based on what we know about the real guy. if you kind of love/hate historical inaccuracy then this will be a great watch for you. if you don't care about that stuff then maybe skip this one because jackman is awkward and ryan is shrill. the fun is in the ridiculousness of it all.

3. she's all that- ah, i love it when they take a pretty girl, slap glasses on her and make out that she's awkward and ugly (and you know that the scene in which they take off her glasses and put her in some nice clothes and, hey presto! she's hot, is coming). maybe it's not really THIS movie that i love but the whole ugly duckling (who we all can plainly see isn't actually ugly) is for some reason turned into a swan corner of the rom-com market. again, the ridiculousness is what makes it good (and bad).

4. just one of the guys- this is sort of a classic (and perhaps the quintessential girl posing as boy falls for another boy and then has to reveal that she's actually a girl rom-com). i think that everyone's probably seen this one since it was made in the 80s. it really is so bad (and the bad guy from the karate kid is in it) but it's cracktacular. i also love how nobody can tell that the 'boy' is CLEARLY a girl (although maybe this one pulls of the maleness the best. amanda bines doesn't do as well in that soccer movie that she made).

i think it's about time that we turn our attention to some just out and out BAD rom-coms. these are the ones that give all other rom-coms a bad name

1. you've got mail- i thought that i'd start with this one since you'd think that it would be good. it stars two of the people who were in one of the 'good' rom-coms, meg ryan and tom hanks but that doesn't help it at all. oh yeah, greg kinear was in it, too (and parker posey, come to think of it). ugh, whatever, no amount of good actors is going to make this film anything but what it is-- sucky. it was an attempt to rekindle the magic (if you can call it that) of 'sleepless in seatle'. this is like the movie i'm going to mention next in that they clearly just picked up any script and thought maybe it would do well just because it was hanks and ryan reunited. instead it's a hollow shell of a film. i don't like the characters and even the actors seem not to as they all phone in their performances. really, this is one to be missed.

2. runaway bride- this is the other reunion film that i was talking about. repairing richard gere and julia roberts after 'pretty woman'. it doesn't seem like they did too much work looking for a script though and came up with some bullshit. seriously, gere and roberts fall in love after they've known each other for like 3 days. it's crap. i hate it when that happens. an attraction is one thing, saying you're going to get married after a week is just a recipe for divorce. this movie was so bad that it hurts my brain to think about it.

3. 27 dresses- oh, katherine heigl, how i loathe you. do we really have to talk about why this is an awful movie? girl who loves weddings ends up having to plan the wedding of her dream man to her own sister >gasp<. as she does so some aspiring journalist stuck in the wedding announcements section decides to covertly do a piece on her. they fall in love but his editor publishes the awful piece about her anyway, blah blah blah. oh, it's just so awful. who the hell loves weddings so much that they volunteer to be bride's maids in 27 weddings?!? who even knows that many people who are getting married?! it's ridiculous and the only person in the cast i even like is james marsden (shame on you, james, for even making this crapfest of a movie!).

4. the ugly truth- katherine heigl strikes again (and this time she brings gerard butler down with her). admittedly, gerry boy does himself no favors in this film. this is another one in which it took me 20 minutes to figure out where the hell this guy is meant to be from. is he american? is he scottish? was he born in scotland and maybe lived there for 10 or so years and then moved to america so his accent is just super diluted? who the hell knows. gerry, just use your own accent! it's really lovely and you CAN'T do an american one, i don't care what they keep telling you. it's wrong, just wrong. heigl's character is super high maintenance and bitchy and butler's is crass and a bit of a prick. so, we like them when they get together and sort of mellow each other out? no, we don't. why? because we've spent so much of the movie disliking them that we couldn't care less what happens and sort of wish that they would both just die at the end. that being said, gerry is nice to look at so we'll have a clip (he really does say everything he can to make people gasp in this clip. seriously-- did you have to say 'vag'? we knew what you were going for. totally not needed.)

i could go on about bad rom-coms but i won't waste your time (or mine). we all know what they are, we all know that sandra bullock and/or hugh grant are in most of them and we know how to avoid them. now, i'd like to move on to the last part of my post-- rom-coms that i'm not really sure are even rom-coms (but i think are AMAZING pieces of cinematic art).

1. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind- who knew jim carey could be in a movie and NOT pull ridiculous faces and act like an idiot? i didn't, but i can see how it would take genius like charlie kaufman (who also wrote 'adaptation' and 'being john malcovich') to do it. kate winslet is lovely and the rest of the cast are great even though i have mixed feelings about some of them (that's right, kirsten dunst, i'm looking at you). i'm not even going to being trying to explain the plot of this movie. if you've seen it then you'll understand why. i could do it but that's an entry unto itself. if you haven't seen it, you MUST. it's beautiful. it's sad and funny and touching and experimental and not trite or contrived at all. it's one of those movies that you'll see more than once and that'll stick with you long after the dvd is over.

2. wristcutters, a love story-- i didn't see this one coming (although i should have. patrick fugit seems to have pretty flawless taste- and tom waits is in it, too). i rented it once and never watched it. then one day it came on tv and i did. i loved it. it's about this kid (patrick fugit) who kills himself when his girlfriend breaks up with him. he ends up in this dim pseudo-reality where suicides live out eternity. they work, they have apartments-- it's just like the real world only far more depressing (no one can smile, they just don't have the ability). he finds out one day that the girl he killed himself over committed suicide shortly after he did and he sets out on a roadtrip with this crazy guy he meets to find her. along the way they meet shannon sossamon (sp) who is looking for 'the people in charge' because she maintains she's there on accident, she didn't kill herself. along the way the run into all kinds of crazy, cool people (tom waits) and they listen to some excellent music (gogol bordello). since most of you probably haven't seen it, i won't say anymore but i really do think this is one of those movies that deserves to be on this list. it's well imagined, well acted, funny, weird, touching and makes you not want to kill yourself. i'd say that's something you always want out of a movie.

3. science of sleep- yeah, gael garcia bernal can pretty much do no wrong. mix him up in with a weird love story set in paris/his dream world (which he can't distinguish from reality most of the time) and i can't get enough of this film. it's hard to say what it's really about other than a guy who is mexican/french who falls in love with his french neighbor. the crazy loveliness of it comes in because he's a dreamer-- literally. he sleeps and has these insanely vivid dreams. he can never tell what part of his life is real and what is the dream. it's simply magical. i also love that it's weirdly tri-lingual. sometimes they're speaking in french but bernal's character's french is really bad so sometimes it's in english (and others it's in spanish).

sidebar- while looking for the trailer on youtube i found out that the guy who directed this also did 'eternal sunshine' totally makes sense.

4. waitress- this is another one that took me by surprise. not least because i don't like what's her face (the chick from 'felicity'). it took a long time for me to come around to watching this one but when i finally did i thought it was amazing. it sort of reminds me of 'pushing daisies' because the felicity chick is a pie-maker. it's hard to actually call this a romantic comedy though because it's not the sort of happy ending that you'd expect from one (granted, 'eternal sunshine' and 'science of sleep' don't have very cut and dry happy endings, either'). i'm still going to shove this one in that category though. it's funny and bizarre (not as bizarre as the other films on this list) and the best parts are when she's making up pies. i love the names she gives them (like 'bad babby pie' when she finds out she's pregnant with her horrible husband's baby). it's one of those films that wasn't promoted well. it's a shame, too because it really deserves to be on everyone's favorites list.

5. amelie- possibly my favorite movie ever. how can you NOT love this movie? jeunet is a genius ('city of the lost children', 'delicatessen', 'a very long engagement'), the cast is wonderful (audrey tautou alone makes any movie worth watching) and the story really is magical. i love everything about this movie, from the green tint to paris uber-romanticized to the whimsical way everyone is introduced with things they like and don't like (the narration is brilliant). i'm sure that everyone has seen this film already, it was so terribly popular when it came out (and for good reason). i love the little games that amelie plays and the way her imagination sets the tone for the entire film. it's so very french, so very funny, so very sad and so very beautiful. it's everything that a romantic comedy (?) should be. if you haven't seen it then that's a crime, if you have then you should probably see it again. it'll make you want to run away to paris and fall in love.

ok kids, i think that's about enough from me. i'm sure you're tired of thinking about rom-coms anyway. i hope that this has a least inspired you to go out and see a few feel good films that may or may not actually be romantic comedies. happy falling in love!