"Number one for me was not faking too much," Haley says. "Obviously you have to fake stuff and you have to pretend you're somewhere where you're not. But I wanted this film to be grounded and believable, and for it to feel like you were actually on vacation with Poppy and Alex. So it was important to me to shoot it with our boots on the ground."
In one scene, an adoring fan asks Melvin his secret to writing women. I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability, he says, an epic burn forever seared in my brain. Of course Melvin's anti-charm offensive only goes so far in a James L Brooks project. Before long, the rudeness erodes as Melvin is forced on to a journey of self-discovery with the nextdoor neighbor he can't abide (Greg Kinnear) and the diner waitress he can't live without (Helen Hunt).
Having starred in previous gay holiday romcoms for Lifetime and Hallmark, husbands Taylor Frey and Kyle Dean Massey return with T he Holiday Exchange, which captures their version of the festive experience. The film charts Wilde (Frey) shaking up the holidays by swapping houses with Oliver (Rick Cosnett) which in turn leads them to meeting locals who turn their lives around.
Maybe an appreciation of Rob Reiner as a director should start with When Harry Met Sally..., which helped lay the foundation for a romantic comedy boom that lasted for at least 15 years. Wait no, it should start with Stand By Me, a coming-of-age story that captured a painfully brief moment in the lives of kids. It could start with This Is Spinal Tap, one of the first popular mockumentaries, which has influenced film and television ever since.
If the phrase "military industrial complex romantic comedy" rings your bells, Hailey Gates' feature directorial debut " Atropia" just might be for you. What if we told you it's also a bit of a satire? And it's based on real events and places? And it stars Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner, whose forbidden romance really blossoms inside the confines of, well, no spoilers here, but a decidedly unsexy space?
The film has Jero (Cristian Mariani) coming home from a workout to find his partner Tom (Gastón Frías) is gone and ghosting him on their anniversary. Jero soon experiences the five stages of grief. As a way of explanation, Tom has left a box of 300 letters recounting his side of their relationship. As Jero starts reading Tom's missives, he learns that his ex thinks he is childish and superficial.
If Studio Ghibli movies make you feel like you're in a warm embrace, you have to read Water Moon (or really any Samantha Soto Yambao novel). They're a magical realism trip into completely unique worlds, where the stakes feel high at times, but you know the ending will be happy nonetheless. Her latest, The Elsewhere Express, is high on my TBR.
Anyone who thinks it's easy to make a romcom should take a look at this. It has all the ingredients: good-looking leads (Alex Pettyfer, Eva De Dominici), picturesque locations (the film is mainly set in Puglia, and benefits from funding from the region), lightly comic music underlining the scenes, charismatic veterans in supporting roles (with Toni Collette and Andy Garcia), transparently engineered third-act jeopardy, and so on and so forth.
In "This Is 40," which premiered Dec. 21, 2012, Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd play Debbie and Pete, a married couple both about to turn 40 while dealing with struggling businesses, parenting two daughters and trying to rediscover a connection in their marriage. I'd been looking forward to seeing the movie for weeks, knowing my husband and I could use a date night with some comic relief, with some way to focus on someone else's marital problems instead of our own.
Maybe this will help narrow your scope this weekend. This week has a lot going for it, from a Bruce Springsteen biopic, to Rose Byrne giving the performance of a lifetime, to the continuing love story between a hot rabbi and a podcaster. Then there's a trip back to Derry (because people haven't learned to just go live anywhere else in Maine) so Pennywise can terrorize a whole new crop of kids, and another chapter of Anne Rice's television universe premieres on AMC+.
While the premise may sound on paper like the setup for a loud, crude 00s comedy, this is a much more finely tuned piece of work than that, with engaging characters and an impeccably calibrated plot full of plausible twists and turns that are wild yet still realistic.
The Groomsmen: Second Chances stars Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett as former pro basketball player turned coach Danny, while his business manager and eventual husband Zack is played by This Biter Earth and A Night Like This actor, Alexander Lincoln. The bulk of the film focuses on Danny's attempts to suppress his feelings for his friend, while Zack plans his wedding to his partner Nolan (Adam Rhys-Charles). Yet, and this is a pretty hefty spoiler alert, on the day of the wedding, Zack confesses that Danny's feelings are reciprocated.
This week, I had the pleasure of attending the Baltimore premiere of a new offbeat romcom, The Baltimorons. To put it plainly: The film is magic, the kind that can only happen when there's a deeply honest story being told over a backdrop that also, somehow, manages to tell its own story at the same time. Strassner and Larsen? Epic chemistry. Baltimore? Hardly a third wheel, but a star in its own right.
In any relationship, it's important to understand how you and your partner are different and work to find common ground. That's especially true when your girlfriend is a dark knight pledged to the god of evil who traveled here from another reality to fight a malevolent wizard and you're just a girl trying to get by. This oh so common conundrum is explored in taking my Dark Knight Girlfriend to the corner store, a short, sweet visual novel available for free on Steam and Itch.
This weekend, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson star in their last Conjuring movie, and that makes me want to say boooo. All good things must end, but boooo. (Spooky pun unintended.) But I can say yay to Splitsville, a dry comedy about a pair of dysfunctional couples finally going wide for all to see. There's also an Office spinoff out, but maybe I'll wait until there are nine seasons to binge on Peacock. Here's everything!
Ashley (Adria Arjona) has recently informed her husband, Carey (co-writer Kyle Marvin), that she wants a divorce so she can sleep with other people. Not long after this bombshell, Carey learns that his best friend Paul (director and co-writer Michael Angelo Covino) and his wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson), have an open marriage. Having just had his world rocked - twice - Carey returns to the apartment that he and Ashley share, determined to preserve the remnants of his relationship by proving that he, too, can handle non-monogamy.
The Fit Prince is a queer parody of the holiday movie genre set in the fictional kingdom of Swedonia, featuring real-life couple Linus Karp and Joseph Martin.
“Amy Heckerling's high school romcom masterpiece, inspired by Austen's Emma, is now on re-release for its 30th anniversary and more than ever it feels like a complete joy.”
