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Romantic comedies

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Comments

  • #32
    pq0n1ct4ve8zf5
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,070 ✭✭✭✭pq0n1ct4ve8zf5


    I'm too scared to google how old it is, but Forgetting Sarah Marshall is fairly solid.

    Oh there's also a Amy Poehler/Paul Rudd send up on romcoms called They Came Together which is pretty much worth a look


  • #33
    jackofalltrades
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,274 ✭✭✭jackofalltrades


    Titus Grumpy Semiconductor wrote: »
    I'm too scared to google how old it is, but Forgetting Sarah Marshall is fairly solid.
    Yeah that's a great film.
    Although I looked up when it was released and it made me feel old. :(


  • #34
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,575 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    j.s. pill II wrote: »
    Not the biggest fan of the genre* but I quite liked Young Adult wih Charleze Theron.

    Bridesmaids had it's moments but it's really more of a chronicle of one woman's gradual mental collapse and hence a bit grim.

    Young Adult is a bit grim too but I guess that's what I liked about it!



    *EDIT: I f**king hate rom-coms!

    Well, she's not the worst thing to be looking at... :D
    It has to be said though, she did some absolutely EPIC scenery chewing in Snow White (both of them), if there was an Oscar for that, she would have won it.


  • #35
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »
    Well, she's not the worst thing to be looking at... :D
    It has to be said though, she did some absolutely EPIC scenery chewing in Snow White (both of them), if there was an Oscar for that, she would have won it.

    I can never figure out if scenery chewing is a good thing or a bad thing? I've seen it used in different contexts.


  • #36
    j.s. pill II
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 247 ✭✭j.s. pill II


    Does anyone remember Chasing Amy??

    I can't imagine something with such an offensive premise could possibly be made today (in a nutshell, Ben Afflek takes a fancy to a lesbian and manages to turn her with his hotness).

    Funny coz of the goatees and 90s haircuts though


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  • #37
    xalot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,109 ✭✭✭xalot


    Not my favorite genre by a long shot but I've liked:
    Trainwreck,
    500 days of Summer
    Silver Linings Playbook
    Lars and the real girl,
    The 5 year engagement


  • #38
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    "I Give it a Year" is pretty good.

    There's a film with Isla Fisher in it too called "Wedding Daze" which I love.

    Oh and she's in Definitely Maybe too, which you could probably call a Rom Com but it's really more of a "Who done it (birthed Ryan Reynolds' baby)? Rom-bit-ofCom"


  • #39
    Turquoise Hexagon Sun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 532 ✭✭✭Turquoise Hexagon Sun


    Silver Linings Playbook was really good.

    Also The Overnight. It's one of these ones where the critics seemed to have loved it but the audience not so much on Rotten Tomatoes
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_overnight_2015/

    Also, from writer/driector of Once a similarly music-orientated story.. Begin Again. I thought it was decent enough. It's got an 82%/81% rating on RT.
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/begin_again_2013/


  • #40
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,713 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    From the films being mentioned it's interesting how people associate romcom with almost any film with a female leading character that also has comedic elements. It's very broad way of thinking about what is actually very narrow genre that has almost totally died off.


  • #41
    pkvader
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 329 ✭✭pkvader


    j.s. pill II wrote: »
    Does anyone remember Chasing Amy??

    I can't imagine something with such an offensive premise could possibly be made today (in a nutshell, Ben Afflek takes a fancy to a lesbian and manages to turn her with his hotness).

    Funny coz of the goatees and 90s haircuts though

    Yeah great movie, I was a big kevin smith fan back then.


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  • #42
    Turquoise Hexagon Sun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 532 ✭✭✭Turquoise Hexagon Sun


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    From the films being mentioned it's interesting how people associate romcom with almost any film with a female leading character that also has comedic elements. It's very broad way of thinking about what is actually very narrow genre that has almost totally died off.

    Can you give examples? :)


  • #43
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,713 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Of romantic comedies? The Apartment, Annie Hall, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, even Jerry Maguire. That kind of thing. Films where romantic courtship is the main plot-line of the film and which usually ends with the two leads getting together.

    Bridesmaids and most of its ilk are female buddy comedies or "women behaving badly" films, not romantic comedies, even if they do have shoehorned in romantic sub-plots. Silver Linings Playbook is a mashup of domestic drama and screwball comedy. Once is a musical which isn't a musical. 500 Days of Summer strays too far from the conventions of the romcom to be considered one. It's an anti-romcom if anything. And so on.

    Some of these films may be the successors of the romcom in that they are made to appeal to what studios think female audiences want, but that doesn't make them romcoms.


  • #44
    Turquoise Hexagon Sun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 532 ✭✭✭Turquoise Hexagon Sun


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    Of romantic comedies? The Apartment, Annie Hall, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, even Jerry Maguire. That kind of thing. Films where romantic courtship is the main plot-line of the film and which usually ends with the two leads getting together.

    Bridesmaids and most of its ilk are female buddy comedies or "women behaving badly" films, not romantic comedies, even if they do have shoehorned in romantic sub-plots. Silver Linings Playbook is a mashup of domestic drama and screwball comedy. Once is a musical which isn't a musical. 500 Days of Summer strays too far from the conventions of the romcom to be considered one. It's an anti-romcom if anything. And so on.

    Some of these films may be the successors of the romcom in that they are made to appeal to what studios think female audiences want, but that doesn't make them romcoms.

    I hear ya..

    I've watched and enjoyed most of the films you listed as examples of Rom-Coms but I feel the genre term of romantic comedy is quite broad as it is. We must not forget the purpose of catergorising films or music in general. It's a basic descriptor to guide you to strong themes the films contain.

    It's easy for any film to cross multiple genres. Films like Annie Hall or When Harry Met Sally might be more purist when it comes to describing them as Rom-Com but the way things are, I wouldn't get too bogged down in trying strictly fit films in to categories. :P

    Rom-Coms sort of have a bad rep for being bit formulaic maybe a bit cheesy and maybe a little mushy so I think it's refreshing when films like Once or Silver Linings Playbook offer something more within the Rom-Com genre.

    I do see your point about some of the films mentioned such as Bridesmaids as you pointed out. ;)

    Back on topic..

    Adventureland wasn't so bad..
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/adventureland/


  • #45
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Turquoise Hexagon Sun wrote: »
    Rom-Coms sort of have a bad rep for being bit formulaic maybe a bit cheesy and maybe a little mushy so I think it's refreshing when films like Once or Silver Linings Playbook offer something more within the Rom-Com genre.

    Films like While You Were Sleeping or Sleepless in Seattle, for example, were a genre of their own. They were romantic comedies and the main thrust of the plot was a couple getting together, but there was usually a little bit more going on with the characters and overall story lines.

    More recently the "RomCom" has become a dirty word. You have these terrible paint by numbers films where Katherine Heigl and Gerrard Buttler "banter" for 90 minutes and then hook up. They're empty and soulless and churned out by the studios because there was obviously an audience for them.

    It does seem a little like people have got sick of that kind of film now and there are some decent films being made where the romance plot is central to the story but they're more reminiscent of those 90's classics like When Harry Met Sally or While You Were Sleeping. You know it's 99% sure the couple are getting together at the end but you care enough about the characters to want to stick with them for the 90 minutes or however long it is.

    Obvious Child is, for me, the most recent good romantic comedy in the vein of what used to be considered romantic comedy. I think maybe it's necessary to separate "Rom Com" from "Romantic Comedy" again.


  • #46
    Turquoise Hexagon Sun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 532 ✭✭✭Turquoise Hexagon Sun


    Well said.

    I haven't seen Obvious Child, I'll check it out.

    Thanks


  • #47
    callaway92
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,202 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    Does Up In The air count?

    Brilliant movie


  • #48
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Reese Witherspoon's career is actually a pretty good microcosm of the history of the "rom com".

    Sweet Home Alabama and Just Like Heaven are two pretty decent "rom coms" with plots and character development and heart along with the Rom and Com. Skip ahead a few years and she's making nonsense like This Means War.


  • #49
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,713 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Turquoise Hexagon Sun wrote: »
    I hear ya..

    I've watched and enjoyed most of the films you listed as examples of Rom-Coms but I feel the genre term of romantic comedy is quite broad as it is. We must not forget the purpose of catergorising films or music in general. It's a basic descriptor to guide you to strong themes the films contain.

    It's easy for any film to cross multiple genres. Films like Annie Hall or When Harry Met Sally might be more purist when it comes to describing them as Rom-Com but the way things are, I wouldn't get too bogged down in trying strictly fit films in to categories. :P

    Rom-Coms sort of have a bad rep for being bit formulaic maybe a bit cheesy and maybe a little mushy so I think it's refreshing when films like Once or Silver Linings Playbook offer something more within the Rom-Com genre.

    I do see your point about some of the films mentioned such as Bridesmaids as you pointed out. ;)

    Back on topic..

    Adventureland wasn't so bad..
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/adventureland/

    We have different understandings of genre. Genres are not categories in my view. They are a set of conventions, a sign to the audience so they know what to expect. So they are almost by definition formulaic. This is why calling something a "genre film" can be used as a criticism. But it's also why great genre films are so good: they build on and subvert the conventions of their genre. Having said that, films can of course borrow from multiple genres.

    And I love Adventureland, but it owes far more to the coming of age story / teen genre than it does to the romantic comedy.


  • #50
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Turquoise Hexagon Sun wrote: »
    Well said.

    I haven't seen Obvious Child, I'll check it out.

    Thanks

    I mentioned it in another post but Take Care is another recent one that reminded me more of the old fashioned ones in the same way as Obvious Child did. Not quite as good as Obvious Child but worth checking out if you've got a spare 90ish minutes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFlGCE_DnM


  • #51
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,713 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Yeah, I think Obvious Child is a good example of a modern romantic comedy. Highly subversive but definitely built on those earlier conventions.


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  • #52
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 24,011 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Already mentioned this one too, but in line with the most recent posts Laggies (or Say When) is another recent one that's not just a bog standard paint by numbers predictable "rom com".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xep7s36qZL0


    So, to answer what I think was the original question again....

    Obvious Child
    Laggies
    Take Care

    :D


  • #53
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,832 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    In recent years, I liked Crazy Stupid Love and would deem that a romcom. Silver Linings Playbook has no com and not much rom.

    Recently saw a very slight film on a plane called 5 - 7 starring that guy who plays Chekov in the new Star Trek films. I found it quite charming.

    Classics like WHMS are just not made anymore, and I have a massive soft spot for Only You starring Robert Downey Jnr and Marisa Tomei (major squee at their scene in recent Captain America film).

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • #54
    Nervous Wreck
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,115 ✭✭✭✭Nervous Wreck


    I just wanna thank whatever mod corrected the spelling in the thread title. You're my hero.


  • #55
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,713 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Nervous Wreck wrote: »
    I just wanna thank whatever mod corrected the spelling in the thread title. You're my hero.

    Your welcome. ;)


  • #56
    Nervous Wreck
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,115 ✭✭✭✭Nervous Wreck


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    Your welcome. ;)

    !!!


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