Non-Stupid Romantic Comedies

This is an aside titled 'Non-Stupid Romantic Comedies' dated 12/19/08

If you were on the Internet this week you probably heard that love can no longer exist in the age of the romantic comedy. But like all cultural artifacts, while 95% of the output is rubbish, there are some real gems. I love Sliding Doors and Bridget Jones’ Diary isn’t all that bad. Next Stop Wonderland is one of my all-time favorite movies. (NYT captures it perfectly in this 1998 review.) Little Black Book is actually a weird Network-inspired satire and I’d consider Neil LaBute ’s The Shape of Things a rom-com too. To believe the genre is inherently stupid is like dismissing horror because Eli Roth makes movies.

Posted by Joanne on Dec. 19, 2008 Tagged: feminism, Film, movies

ekstasis

"...So comedy lies, but we should believe its lies – and embrace the unlikely happy endings that the genre offers us. Those who criticize these deux ex machina devices, those who cringe at the 'unrealistic' endings of comedies, those who yearn for 'realism,' make the mistake of wanting truth from their art. But the ethical criticism of art does not reduce to the epistemological criticism of art..."

-- Prof. Allan Hazlett, "Why Everything is Going to be OK"

Kevin B. O'Reilly

Yep. Dismissing movie genres is pretty dumb. I'll add "Annie Hall" to your list.

Kevin B. O'Reilly

Yep. Dismissing entire genres is pretty dumb. I'll add "Annie Hall" to your list.

Jg

I have always thought that RETURN TO ME was one of the sweetest movies of the genre, almost an homage to the best of them instead of a carbon copy of the rest.

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- A perfectionist is someone who finishes the backside of a drawer, which I consider completely unnecessary. - Helmut Krone. Krzysztof Kieślowski's grave. Post Internet. The cult of busy. Émilie Simon has a keyboard, a Tenori On, a Doepfer and a steampunk arm. The Bygone Bureau redesigned and an interview with OKTrends. Star Wars Modern on fascist fonts (more.) Tattúínárdælasaga, Star Wars in Old Norse. Would you pay $31.95 to read Vollmann on the Kindle? New Zaha Hadid designs for a business center outside Venice.
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