Year SIX! This year we’re looking at Romantic Comedies. But since the point (did you know there’s a point to all of this?) is to watch movies we haven’t seen, were previously unknown to me, or have, despite being well regarded, been on the backburner, we’re going to just ignore all the usual suspects. IGNORE THEM! Also, to make it more interesting, I want to focus on movies that are not traditional rom-coms in one way or another. Either they don’t conform to popular expectations of the genre, are tonally different, or in one, or many other ways feel, look, and represent the margins of what most people would think of when they hear “rom com”.
As always, I was starting with a few films in mind. Two big ones were The Lobster (2015) and The Worst Person in the World (2021). Simply hearing that The Lobster is an absurdist comedy by Yorgos Lanthimos was enough information to convince me. The Worst Person in the World piqued my interest because I really enjoyed the director Joachim Trier’s first feature, Reprise(2006). When Worst Person… was added to the Criterion Collection and described as “a liberating portrait of self-discovery and a bracingly contemporary spin on the romantic comedy,” I was ready to include it in the line up.
To flesh out the line up, I poured over the Criterion Collection. I was able to find a few ideas, but one notable discovery was the Albert Brooks directed (and starring) Defending Your Life (1991), also starring Meryl Streep. I had never heard of this movie, but the trailer really captivated me; a movie about two people falling in love in the afterlife!
As the year went on, I continued to keep an eye out for anything interesting that might work in this year’s festival. I learned about The New Black Film Canon list a couple of years ago and read about The Watermelon Woman (1996) and Losing Ground (1982) there. This quote from film critic Westley Morris about Losing Ground really inspired me to watch it, “Lovingly, fancifully made, never released, and therefore barely seen, Collins’ romantic thingamabob is powerfully, strangely alive. Collins died in 1988. This was her only movie. So, in its way: a tragedy.”
A few months ago, I learned of the director, Joan Micklin Silver, when two of her films entered the Criterion Collection: Crossing Delancey (1988), and Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Both are romantic comedies; Delancey is more typical, about two Jewish singles navigating love in Manhattan, and Chilly Scenes…, an anti-romcom about a man obsessed with his ex. While both are unique in their own ways, the latter film speaks more to my sensibilities.
Looking for other films that fit the brief turned up some titles like Amelie(2001), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Both of these films work, but I've already watched them, AND, maybe a lot of people have too. The longlist started to take shape with movies like Chasing Amy(1997), The Apartment (1960), Always Be My Maybe (2019), Palm Springs (2020), Me You and Everyone We Know (2005), and 2 Days in Paris (2007)… but I’ve watched all of these.
I intentionally sought out films from the infancy of the genre, as tropes were being born, and before they were codified. I had already watched It Happened One Night (1934) (loved) and Bringing Up Baby (1938) (hated), and identified quite a few interesting movies for the long list: His Girl Friday (1940), City Lights (1931), Trouble in Paradise (1932), My Man Godfrey (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Holiday(1938), Woman of the Year (1942), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and The Lady Eve (1941). Believe it or not, by the late 30s, the rom com genre had already been firmly established, so I decided to narrow my search to a pre-Code film, and with some more digging, I turned up the Buster Keaton film The Cameraman (1928).
Heading into the 50s and 60s I realized there began to be a sort of drop of output in the genre. The few I came across before deciding to look elsewhere were, Sabrina(1954), A Lesson in Love(1954), That Touch of Mink (1962), and Marriage Italian Style(1964). These look great, but didn’t speak enough to the brief.
The 70s are interesting in that we start to get into New Hollywood territory. Harold and Maude (1971) and Annie Hall (1977) both come out of this time period, are both great, but also are not new to me. I remembered the fantastic What’s Up Doc? (1972) which was a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 1930s which led me to Down with Love (2003) a throwback to the rom-coms of the 1940s, and recently I discovered the Pierre Etaix film The Suitor, a 1963 homage to silent romance comedies, what synchronicity! A perfect pairing with the ‘28 Keaton film.
The 1980s and 90s were tough to sift through; there are a LOT of movies that might work, and a LOT of movies people feel strongly about. If you’re wondering why a particular movie didn’t make the list, it's probably one from this era. However, there were a few I added to the longlist because they did seem odd, niche, or whatever: Gregory's Girl (1980) — soccer, Choose Me (1984) — offbeat ensemble, Prizzi's Honor (1985) —assassins, Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) — Howard Hughes penned dramedy, Edge of Seventeen (1998) — 80s Ohio gay-coming-of-age, Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) — suicidal, Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) — Taiwanese chef and girldad’s unexpected new romance, Mifune(1999) — Dogme 45.
The oughts didn’t yield too many unseen titles that fit the brief, despite there being an abundance of romcoms being produced *e.g. Bridget Jones Diary (2001)*, (besides the aforementioned) I came across: Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) — New York Jewish lesbian/bi-awakening, Intolerable Cruelty (2003) — Coen Bros. directed, and Saving Face (2004) — Taiwanese-American lesbian AND directed by San Jose native, Alice Wu!
Romantic Comedies have really taken hold since the 2010s, with a lot of quirky, indie, genre mash-ups in the mix: Cyrus(2010) — romcom with an adult son as antagonist, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) — mental health issues, Warm Bodies (2013) — zombie protagonist, Enough Said (2013) — middle aged lovers, Life After Beth (2014) — zombie ex girlfriend, Obvious Child (2014) — abortion, Meet the Patels (2015) — Indian matchmaking doc, Dinner in America (2020) - punk rock, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023) — vampire, Fallen Leaves (2023) — Finnish deadpan, Rye Lane (2023) — ex obsessed first “date”, The Lovers (2017) — cheating spouses falling back in love, Anora(2024) — a sex worker falls for a Russian oligarch’s fail-son.
With so many titles on the longlist to choose from, the final lineup was based on uniqueness, it being new to me, and how much I wanted to see it.
Watch some of the films that didn’t make the cut this year while waiting (you can look at the full list on Letterboxd).
