Is the rom-com in crisis? The New Yorker critics frynaomifry, vcunningham, and alex_lily take stock.
Do you want to say something on behalf of a shirtless Billy Crystal? I have nothing against it, but that’s not what’s getting me into my seat.Alexandra SchwartzIn Nora Ephron’s “When Harry Met Sally,” the love story between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan’s characters unfolds over more than a decade.For some of us, these things are also erotic. Look at him standing by that window, all bundled up!Exactly.
But the thing that really pisses me off, if I may say so in print, is that once this couple is faced with a challenge—which is that the cultural problem is real, that the barriers between them are serious, that each family is alienating the other member of the partnership—these are not issues that affect their relationship in any way until they very unbelievably break up on the eve of their wedding because they just can’t handle it anymore, and muchunbelievably come back together because the...
In the Kenya Barris rom-com “You People,” Jonah Hill and Lauren London play a couple whose romance is complicated by their families—and, according to one of their castmates, the two never actually kissed.What you were saying about these real issues as a potentially rich playing field for a movie made me think all the way back to Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” which came out in 1991. It’s not a romantic comedy, although it has some funny moments in it.
But, Naomi, you were talking about the fantasy element, which has a huge role in rom-coms. I think “Working Girl” is one of the great fairy-tale movies. It also calls back to the classic rom-coms of the thirties; it’s an issues movie, but in a way that works with comedy and fantasy, the issues being class and women in the workplace.
The 1995 romantic comedy “Forget Paris,” which Billy Crystal both directed and stars in, addresses grownup issues in lighthearted ways.What I’m gleaning from what you said, and I think it’s really true, is that there needs to be a nice balance of fantasy and reality. It’s not so far out of the realm of possibility for us to imagine ourselves in these situations, but it’s heightened.
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