Taylor Watches Rom-Coms Vol. 11
The good, the bad, and the beautiful (because there's never any ugly in these movies)
Hi and welcome back!
Long time, no talk. It’s been a few months since my last installment of this series. Summer was busy with lots of new releases (which I hope you’ve been keeping up with at Feature Presentation!), but as the weather cools, I’ve been eager to cozy up with a rom-com.
Here’s what I’ve been watching:
Stuck in Love (2013)
An acclaimed writer, his ex-wife, and their teenaged children come to terms with the complexities of love in all its forms over the course of one tumultuous year.
I have long said that this is one of my favorite romantic films. In middle and high school, I watched it fanatically. A huge Nat Wolff, Lily Collins, and Logan Lerman fan (and Gregg Kinnear because we’ve all seen him in The Last Song!), the cast was tailor-made for me.
The opening line, “I remember that it hurt…looking at her hurt,” was plastered across my Tumblr. It so imperfectly encompassed the way I hoped people would feel toward my growing angst at that time in my life.
But the truth is, despite going to bat for the film dozens of times over the last seven or so years, I haven’t seen it since high school. Revisiting it was so nostalgic for me, and my overarching word to the wise is that, if you haven’t seen this film, you prepare yourself for some seriously angsty performances and a lot of cringey 2010s fashion and lingo. But those things (things, I might add, that I personally find charming!) aside, I think it holds up! I will always love the intergenerational look this film takes on the complexities of love.
To me, this is a great autumn movie because of the scene at Thanksgiving. So now is the perfect time to give Stuck In Love a go if you haven’t before (or even if you have and want to invoke some nostalgia)!
Music and Lyrics (2007)
A washed-up '80s pop star gets a chance at a comeback when reigning pop diva Cora Corman invites him to write & record a duet with her, but there's a problem--Alex hasn't written a song in years; he's never written lyrics and he has to come up with a hit in a matter of days.
Let’s cut to the chase with this review: Music and Lyrics is one of my favorite rom-coms of all time and is one of my favorite Drew Barrymore films, (second to 50 First Dates which I think we can all agree takes the cake.)
I’m always surprised at how under-seen and, in my opinion, underrated this film is. While there is some blatant Y2K fatphobia pulsing through it (Barrymore’s character’s family owns a string of weight loss centers and “camps”), it is a film that has more or less held up through the years.
With a fun (albeit a little silly) script, funny performances, and a KILLER soundtrack of new songs for fictional bands, the Wham-inspired PoP! and Britney Spears-inspired Cora Cora, what’s not to love?!
If you think too much about any of it, it’s ruined. So just don’t think! Turn it on and enjoy it for exactly what it is. It’s so great! I love it!
Nine Months (1995)
When he finds out his longtime girlfriend is pregnant, a commitment-phobe realizes he might have to change his lifestyle for better or much, much worse.
It wasn’t in my plan to have two Hugh Grant movies in one of these articles, but I’ve been in the mood to work through his filmography as of late as we anticipate his new film Heretic and as I personally anticipate watching Maurice, which we will be covering soon here on FP. But, more is more when it comes to Hugh Grant, right?
I had actually never seen Nine Months, though it sat on my watchlist for years. When you have young Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore, with a dash of Jeff Goldblum and a sprinkle of Joan Cusack, you’re bound to have a hit!
Okay, I don’t know if I’d say it’s a certifiable hit, but I really enjoyed this film! I’m particular about how I spend my free time as a busy gal on the go, but it was an evening well spent with this cast and it ticks all of the boxes of a good rom-com.
Will I rush to watch this one again? Probably not. But it’s worth seeing especially if you’re a Hugh Grant fan like I am (against my better judgment).
Credit: Each plot synopsis comes from Letterboxd via TMDb.
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