Stuff I Am Doing This Week: Yelling About Romantic Comedies
Blame the media I consumed in my formative years.
My most toxic trait is that I am first and foremost an unbelievable hopeless romantic. When it comes to media, if there’s not a romance in it, chances are I don’t really want it. As soon as my brain started developing as a kid, I was focused on the romance of it all in everything. When watching ‘Pokémon’, I was less focused on Ash trying to catch ‘em all and was more focused on when he and Misty were going to realize they were made for each other.
As an adult, very little has changed. Out of all of the books I read in a year, the majority of them are romances. When trying to convince me to watch ‘Severance’, my brother said, “Don’t worry, there’s a couple you can root for!” as a selling point (it sort of worked). Romance is my absolute favourite genre, but my favourite sub-genre and possibly my favourite of all? The romantic comedy.
I love a good rom-com. Nothing hits like like them for me; I like romantic dramas and romantic epics, but nothing is quite like that perfect blend of romance and humour to me. Sure, a lot of it has to be childhood influence from the media I consumed in my formative years. I was incredibly lucky to live in the heyday of the romantic comedy. I saw ‘The Wedding Planner’ in the theatres at 10. For some reason, I remember watching ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ a lot on VHS. I forced my brother to watch ‘Clueless’ on repeat at our grandmother’s house. Maybe my frontal lobe wasn’t fully developed, but so what? I knew what I was watching was quality.
Unfortunately for me — they don’t really make romantic comedies (at least not movies) like they used to.
There’s been many a discussion about the drop-off in the number of romantic comedy movies. Why do we not have them anymore and where did they go? When ‘Anyone But You’ came out a few years ago, there was a sense of collective relief among people like myself, who were dying to see another rom-com. So why don’t we make more?
I’m not here to rehash that, largely because I don’t know why, I’m just a girl who works in social media. But I do hate that there has been such a huge gap in the last couple of decades; this has been a huge pain point for me. I got so much out of watching romantic comedies as a kid! Yes, the focus may have been that they lived happily ever after - but all of the women had interesting careers! They had friends! They lived in big apartments in huge cities! Falling in love was just the cherry on top of everything else.
Obviously, I have been yearning for a romantic comedy renaissance, so when the trailer for The Materialists came out, I just about lost my mind. I texted everyone I knew. “WATCH THIS!” I yelled. I shared the trailer on social. Just last week, I made my friend at work watch it and just the other day, I explained its plot in great detail to a friend. Now this is a romantic comedy! This is what I have been waiting for! Dakota Johnson plays a woman with a ridiculous career (she’s a matchmaker!!). She lives in New York! She has to choose between PEDRO PASCAL, who is rich and owns a 12 million dollar apartment and is also Pedro Pascal, and CHRIS EVANS, who is a boyish, obviously-in-love-with-her waiter with whom she has history! It’s directed by Celine Song and has a new track by Japanese Breakfast?
Sign me up! I’m internally screaming just writing about it! As we inch closer to the release of ‘The Materialists’ (which I am now dubbing my personal movie event of the year), I feel inclined to share some of my favourite romantic comedies across books, television, and film. Pickings may have been slim, but there was still some out there!
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018) - When this movie came out I watched it four times in a row. The story follows Lara Jean, a high schooler whose life gets turned upside down when five secret love letters she had written to every boy she ever had a crush on accidentally get sent out. While I had read the book it was based on and wasn’t particularly impressed by it, I was absolutely enamoured with the movie. To me, this was a return to form: the perfect teen rom-com that emulated the days of yore I so desperately yearned for. The plot? Silly! The sets? Elaborate and aspirational – what teen has a room as perfectly curated and cluttered as Lara Jean’s? The chemistry between Lana Condor and Noah Centineo? Sizzling! The soundtrack? Full of bops! I adore this movie. I love this movie so much that I have refused to watch Noah Centineo in anything else — I simply do not want to see him protray anyone other than Peter Kavinsky.
No Gain No Love (2024) - While in North America we may have abandoned the romantic comedy genre, it is alive and well in South Korea and this show is the perfect example. In ‘No Gain No Love’, our female protagonist, Son Hae-yeong, is exhausted by the societal expectations forced upon her; attend everybody and their cousin’s weddings, give gift money, do not pass go. When her workplace announces that they are incentivizing staff to get married and have children by offering them a leg up at the company (along with added benefits and salary boosts), she hatches a scheme to fake a marriage…to the convenience store clerk she can’t stand. A gem of a trope — fake dating AND enemies to lovers. This show is delightful. Sure, the plotline is ridiculous, but it is crafted so thoughtfully and written with so much heart, you barely have to suspend disbelief. Shin Min-a is an absolutely fantastic actress! The secondary plotlines are engaging and believable! It is probably one of my absolute favourite Korean dramas ever.
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston - I read a lot of romance novels. Like a lot, a lot. This one? This is my favourite. It has everything I want in a good romance; good chemistry, good characters, and just a touch of magic surrealism for added fun. Our protagonist, Clementine, inherits her late aunt’s apartment in New York City. In the midst of grieving, she moves in, only to discover that the apartment…is somehow occupied? Her aunt had sublet it before she passed. But like all good rom-coms, things aren’t exactly what they seem! This was one of the few reads I’ve read in recent years where I read it twice and where sometimes I still go back to read passages. I’ve recommended it to about everyone I know, so I’m obviously writing about it here, too.
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku (2018) - I can’t make this list without adding at least one anime, because anime was inadvertently one of my earliest exposures to romance media; I was about four years old when I first saw ‘Sailor Moon’ and was absolutely rooting for Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. ‘Wotakoi’ centers around childhood friends, Narumi Momose and Hirotaka Nifuji, who reunite as adults at their shared workplace, both hardcore nerds (otaku). The overall story of Wotakoi is simple and earnest; there’s not just Narumi and Hirotaka to root for, but two side couples, both of whom are a lot of fun. I will say, I debated heavily between putting this or ‘Skip and Loafer’ on the list, but the latter is a) not technically a romance anime and b) not done, but I also recommend that (I just rewatched the trailer for it while writing this and my goodness, it’s so good)!
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) - Despite the many rom-coms I saw as a kid, this one sticks out to me as the most special. This is everything I love about rom-coms. Kate Hudson is an independent, career oriented woman, with her own life and friends. She’s a journalist because almost all protagonists in early rom-coms worked in communications! Matthew McConaughey works in advertising because again, communications!! It takes place in New York! The plot is INSANE and would NEVER HAPPEN EVER! Her name is ANDIE ANDERSON! It still feels so iconic years later. Frost yourself!
I think we need Evans and Pascal to end up together at the end of that movie.