February 2025 Watchlist: "Love is a Funny Thing"
For The New Sincerest's February 2025 Watchlist, contributor Matthew Hadley catches the love-bug and explores the romantic comedy genre.
February 2025 - “Love is a Funny Thing”
Movies Watched: 18/23 (78%)
Featured Still Image: Rye Lane (2023)
https://letterboxd.com/mtthwhdl/list/february-2025-love-is-a-funny-thing/
February is for lovers, baby! That’s why I chose to dive head over heels into the romantic comedy genre. It’s strange to consider these movies “genre films” in the same way as horror or superhero movies, because the goal is frequently to make them as universal as possible. I’ve never, for example, heard my sister-in-law describe herself as a Hallmark Christmas nerd, though her appetite for them can be as voracious as your average Star Wars fan. Similarly, a close friend told me that she swears by rom-coms because they mostly have happy endings. Dopamine and comfort in the familiar are strong reasons why a lot of genre fans gravitate to their chosen hyperfixation. Is wanting to see Hugh Grant kissing in the rain really so different from wanting to see Godzilla fuck up a city with his atomic breath? It’s a rush either way. I am not immune to the rush of the rom-com, but I sometimes feel uneasy while watching them.
I’m just going to ask what’s been on my mind all month: Are straight people okay? Sorry, that was blunt. I’ll rephrase it. Say there is an alien from outer space who landed their UFO near a movie theater. If the first thing they do is wander into a matinee, wouldn’t they have to assume that men and women have segregated their entertainment from each other? I think the alien would wonder why men don’t seem as interested in the themes of love both on and off screen. “Why is it called a chick flick when men are, like, half the equation in these narratives?,” they might ask. Or possibly, “Are all rom-coms for men directed by Judd Apatow?” “How come so many movies that are targeted to women still fail to pass the Bechdel test?”
As a queer, neurodivergent person in a polycule, I do feel alienated from the happy endings I see in these movies. It’s not just me, either. I know a lot of cisgender straight women who still don’t feel represented by these movies. And I don’t think it’s us; it’s them. And if rom-coms are aspirational fantasies, why do they feel so restrictive? I don’t think rom-coms are an inherently conservative genre in the same way that country music isn’t. I just think we should keep an eye on it as a Trojan horse for “traditional family value” rhetoric to sneak into our entertainment. There’s a post-DEI version of Hollywood where the homogeneity threatens to become so granular that no one can fit inside of the Hallmark snow globe anymore. That’s possibly why the genre has been struggling to make a profit after the 2010s. I don’t know if it could survive another iteration of the Hays Code.
Of course, there are still a few queer movies that are made each year. Some of them are included on my watchlist, but I’d encourage straight people to join the cause in asking for more. Not just because it’s good allyship or whatever, but because queer people have rom-com tropes built into their real life love stories already. You want to talk about finding true love against all odds? Try doing it in Iowa, where only 4% of the population is LGBT+. The “we have to keep our love a secret” trope inherently has way more legitimacy. A genuine polyamorous rom-com seems really obvious given how common love triangles show up in these movies. And yet, for the most part, the genre seems perfectly content to sit on its laurels pushing the same story and identical looking actors in each role.
It may seem like I hate rom-coms, but I feel a kinship for fans of the genre. From my perspective as a horror nerd, participants of either genre have needed to build the tolerance to endless box office schlock. The hope against hope is that there might be a dopamine high that matches the first viewing of When Harry Met Sally or The Shining. I see a rom-com enjoyer as someone who roots for an underdog, and someone who wants love to win the day. Those are both really fucking lovely personality traits. They’ve also been through some really rough years in the same way that horror fans were before “elevated horror” came along. It doesn’t seem to me like the same treatment has been given to try to elevate the rom-com on the same scale. I don’t blame the fans for this. My issue is with the production companies who want to make money from a target audience that they don’t even respect half the time. Making a movie should be an act of love and devotion, which feels bizarrely more alive in a genre about murderous clowns than it does in one about a feel-good romance.
My uneasiness about rom-coms does not stem from the genre itself, and I don’t think the answer is more contrarian cynicism for movies that choose to express joy or sentimentality through their storytelling. I don’t even have a problem with the well-worn tropes used to convey this messaging if they are employed in interesting ways. The top five movies I’ve selected this month prove that all of these ideas can work if the filmmakers are given free reign to speak from the heart. I sincerely hope there is a quality, non-problematic rom-com renaissance on the horizon, because we all deserve some more laughs and love in our media.
Top 5 Movies of the Month
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Pedro Almadóvar
Trope Award: Best Airport Scene
Rating: 5/5 star | Watched: with boyfriend
Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events.Mini Review: Peppa on the verge of a nervous breakdown
Broadcast News (1987) James L. Brooks
Trope Award: Most Compelling Love Triangle
Rating: 4.5/5 star | Watched: alone
Basket-case network news producer Jane Craig falls for new reporter Tom Grunnick, a pretty boy who represents the trend towards entertainment news she despises. Aaron Altman, a talented but plain correspondent, carries an unrequited torch for Jane. Sparks fly between the three as the network prepares for big changes, and both the news and Jane must decide between style and substance.
Mini Review: Holly Hunter's performance as news producer Jane Craig is proof that "giving a shit" can be a person's most endearing quality.Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017) Masaaki Yuasa
Trope Award: Biggest Number of Meet Cutes
Rating: 4.5/5 star | Watched: with boyfriend
As a group of university students go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as “The Girl with Black Hair” experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife – all the while unaware of the romantic longings of “Senpai”, a senior student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her in an effort to win her heart.
Mini Review: An expressionistic screwball romantic comedy with all of the maximalism of a shonen anime, “Night Is Short, Walk On Girl” finds kaleidoscopic vibrancy in embracing a wabi sabi lifestyle. Drink up, and you'll be happy you did!Bread & Tulips (2000) Silvio Soldini
Rating: 4/5 star | Watched: alone
Trope Award: Best Travelogue Love Story
An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her behind. While enjoying the wonderful people she meets she achieves a new life and the first time independent of her family.
Mini Review: All men who squander the joy of their spouse deserve to lose her to an accordion.Saving Face (2004) Alice Wu
Rating 4/5 star | Watched: alone
Trope Award: Juiciest “I Have a Secret” Moment
A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
Mini Review: Romcom comfort food (complimentary). The Cat Power needle drop earns a star rating all by itself for gay excellence.
