When Rom Met Com

I’ve been hesitant to write about Bollywood movies here.  First off, I’m not an expert.  I’ve watched a bunch, but not even close to a big amount, and while I enjoy them, there are a lot of things I Just Don’t Get because I’ve had almost no exposure to Indian culture (besides Bollywood cinema and some research).  But it’s kinda cool to see movies that are absolutely nothing like the stuff we get to see here.

I decided to give it a shot with Dil Bole Hadippa! because it’s literally described as Bollywood’s attempt at She’s the Man.  Excellent!  It’s based on an American movie that’s based on a Shakespearean play!  And it’s a straight up romcom (a lot of Bollywood movies I’ve watched have been more dramedy), so it belongs here.

So here we go.  I’d love to hear from anyone more familiar with India and/or Bollywood about these movies in general.

What’s It All About?

Veera works for a theater company, but she is really really good at cricket.  She’s so good that she can play in sandals.  Also she’s ambidextrous, which I guess is not called a switch hitter in cricket, but it should be because there would be so many switch hitter jokes they could make.  None of which they do, because it’s India and they won’t go there.  Also because it’s not called a switch hitter.

Apparently every year for the last twenty years or so an Indian national team and a Pakistani national team have played each other in some kind of friendly cricket match called the Aman Cup.  India has lost for the last eight years, so the coach calls his son Rohan back from his superstar cricket career in London to help his old man out.

Meanwhile, Veera wants to try out for the team because she’s super awesome at it.  Sadly, ladies are not even allowed on the field, so she does what any female athlete would do: she dresses in drag.  They don’t call it drag, because pretty much none of these movies ever do, but she’s rocking a full on beard and mustache. She does not, however, bind her breasts, which bugged me for most of the movie.  Maybe it’s because I know trans dudes and have seen drag kings – and other movies in which females masquerade as males – but Veera-as-Veer was really obvious to me.

Anyway, Veer(a) makes the team, is kind of a conceited ass, gets put in her place by Vicky, and then they fall in love.  Well, Rohan falls in love with Veera-as-Veera, whom he keeps bumping into around town.  She shows him the “real India”, because he’s all cosmopolitan and jaded and thinks they’re all a bunch of hicks.

During the Big Final Match, Rohan finds out that Veer is actually Veera, and gets all upset.  Like one does.  But then they win and she makes an actually pretty cool speech about what women can do, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Be sure to stay for the music video over the credits.

What Works?

Oh, I don’t know.  I like Bollywood music and dancing, so it’s nice that those are there.  But that’s not anything unique to this movie, so I don’t know if that should count.

The woman who played Veera/Veer, Rani Mukerji, was really quite good.  I think there are certain limits on the queerness that Bollywood movies can convey in films (though there always seems to be a “fey” dude wandering around) so it was interesting to see her play within the limits of that.  Regardless of what version of the story it is, you’re always queering up gender and sexuality when you use this plot.

Shahid Kapoor as Rohan was also good.  It’s fun to see him loosen up and fall in love with India as he falls in love with Veera.

As a Western viewer, it was interesting to watch a movie that had a lot of mentions of God (mainly Muslim, but also Hindu), which is something we don’t see very often.  It was also interesting to see India/Pakistan relations through the lens of something besides Western  media.

The first Bollywood movie that I ever saw was Lagaan, another movie about cricket and Indian nationalism, and I think that’s a winning combo for me.  Having a character show another character the beauty of their homeland (often with singing and dancing) is something I like in almost any movie, but it stands out nicely in Dil Bole Hadippa!, and you can’t help but be charmed by Veera, the same way Rohan is.

Not So Much…

This is a long movie.  Most Bollywood movies are long, by Western standards, but this one had a lot of random add-ins that seemed sort of pointless, like the mean prima diva of the dance company and the supermodel who’s trying to get with Rohan.  You think something is going to happen with those two, but it never really does.

My main quibble, which I think is from the fact that I’m used to Western movies that have some more leeway in this regard, is that there wasn’t much comedy in the disguise.  In She’s the Man, Viola-as-Sebastian (and, actually, Viola-as-Sebastian in Twelfth Night, too) has to deal not only with Dudes in the Locker Room, but also having girls interested in her and the fallout from that.  Even those movies don’t go as far as they could – completely ignoring the emotional fallout that must exist for a girl who finds out she’s attracted to a girl in drag – but Dil Bole Hadippa! doesn’t get past the locker room joke.  There is one moment with the Supermodel looks at Veer thoughtfully, but it never goes anywhere.  She disappears from the movie after that scene.

Final Thoughts

I think there are better Bollywood movies out there that you can try, if you’ve never seen any before.  Dil Bole Hadippa! isn’t terrible, and its made better by the performance of Mukerji, but it’s also not spectacular.  It doesn’t do anything very new with the story… in fact, it doesn’t even do some of the old stuff.

“Nobody knows anything, Joe. We’ll take this leap, and we’ll see. We’ll jump, and we’ll see. That’s life, right?”

Back in the day, before anyone  got mail or was sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starred in this little romantic comedy about a dude who jumps into a volcano.  No really.

I have loved this movie since I first saw it in the theater in 1990, and I love it still.  None of the other Hanks/Ryan movies live up to this one, as far as I’m concerned.  Oh, they may be a bit more mainstream and less surreal, but they will never hold a candle to one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, starring the greatest romantic comedy couple of the 1990s.  Yeah, I said it.

Oh, and Meg Ryan plays three roles.

I decided to write about this little gem mainly because I don’t think it’s appreciated enough.  Not to knock Sleepless in Seattle or You’ve Got Mail, but I think a lot of people overlook this one, because it’s the movie with the funny name and the even funnier premise.  But at the center of it is a heart of gold, complete with a super sappy life lesson.

What’s It All About?

Joe is a regular guy who works at a horrible company, in a dingy basement that has no windows and is lit with fluorescent lights.  He always feels sick, he has a crush on the secretary (Meg Ryan#1) but is too afraid to say anything, and he daydreams of a better life, but is stuck in his sad, grey world… until the day he’s diagnosed with a brain cloud (yep).

Everything changes for Joe!  He tells off his boss, he quits his job, and he asks Meg Ryan #1 out on a date.  The next day… a rich eccentric guy played by Lloyd Bridges comes over Joe’s house to offer him the opportunity to “live like a king, die like a man” by jumping into a big volcano on a little island called Waponi Wu.

There’s a reason Rich Guy wants this to happen, and it involves superconductors and mineral rights, but most importantly the natives of the island drink a lot of orange soda.  Yes, you read that correctly.

If you don’t love this movie already, stop reading.  You’ll never love it. If you do love it… stop reading and go watch it, ’cause I’m not telling you what happens.

What Works?

This is a smart movie.  It’s a modern fairy tale.  It’s chock full of foreshadowing, witty, self-referencing lines, and visual symbols/cues.  It seems like there’s a reason for everything in this movie, from a desk lamp to the bottom of a shoe, and it makes me feel like I’m watching something that was made with a lot of love.  The movie is extremely rewatchable, because you totally won’t catch most of the stuff the first few times through.

Now, we all know that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have good chemistry, but when this movie first came out they were an unknown quantity.  Just remember that when you’re watching and saying to yourself “well, duh they’re great together.”  We knew nothing at the time.  It was a whole new world!

And be on the lookout for memorable performances from Actors You Probably Recognize.  Besides Lloyd Bridges, Ossie Davis, Abe Vigoda, Amanda Plummer, and Dan Hedaya are all in here, chewing scenery along with some of the best of the romantic comedy supporting characters the genre has seen.

Not So Much

Joe Versus the Volcano is definitely a fantastic movie, and I mean that in the “this movie is pure fantasy” sense.  The fantasy elements – things I mentioned before, like repeated imagery and surreal events – work wonderfully, as far as I’m concerned, but they are definitely not staples of your typical romantic comedy.  Those expecting a more grounded-in-reality movie, like the other two Hanks/Ryan team ups, will be pretty disappointed.  I mention this stuff here in the “negative” category, because I can see it being a deal breaker for some people.

Honestly, if you can get past the ridiculous idea that this is a man with a brain cloud who jumps into a volcano, well.  There’s not much to dislike about this one.

Final Thoughts

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I love this movie.  It’s my favorite of the Hanks/Ryan movies, and one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time.  The fantasy works for me, but it may not work for everyone.

Twenty-one years after I first saw it, I can quote most of the movie and I actually reference it pretty often in my daily life.  It’s weird, and trippy, and surreal, not unlike another favorite of mine, LA Story.  If you’re willing to give something a little stranger a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Usually I start my posts out with a good quote from the film I’m blogging.  I could not find any quotes on IMDB for this movie….probably because it’s pretty awful.  Yup, I’m laying it out there right now.  This is a dumb, dumb movie.  But sometimes you want to watch a dumb, dumb movie, especially if you’re viewing it through shutter-shade lenses.  Because it’s an ’80s retro-rom-com of course!  And that makes dumb movies slightly more palatable. But only slightly.  Where The Wedding Singer made so many right choices, this movie usually made the awkwardly wrong ones.

What’s it all about?

It’s 1988 in sunny California, and Matt (Topher Grace), an MIT grad is unfortunately stuck there in a crappy job at a video store.   Matt’s dad is fed up with his indecision in figuring out how to utilize his obvious intelligence but lack of drive.  Matt’s deadbeat best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) doesn’t help things but rather gets him into trouble most of the time.  One day at the video store, Matt runs into his high school crush Tori (Teresa Palmer) and in an effort to impress her, pretends he is just a shopper and actually works at Goldman Sachs.  This does help a little, though it seems that she likes him just for their funny chemistry and invites him to a party thrown by Matt’s sister’s dickish boyfriend (played by the usually likable Chris Pratt).  Crazy party scenes ensue, and Matt gets some good “get to know you” time with Tori – so good, that they end up sleeping together (on a trampoline, no less).  But when Matt confides to Tori that he lied about his job to impress her, she does not take it so well.  It takes Matt some crazy stunts to win her back, and find some self-confidence he seems to majorly lack.

What Works?

- The Clothes:  I know this is a weird thing to start off with, but a. I’m a costumer and b. It does seem to have a particularly fun but not outlandish sensibility to the costumes, which can be rare in a retro-80s flick.

- The leads’ chemistry:  I have a giant soft-spot for Topher Grace, so his involvement made the film pretty enjoyable on that aspect.   Teresa Palmer was not bad either, and they worked well together so you sort of rooted for them.

- Dan Fogler was pretty funny as Matt’s friend, though he is a poor man’s Jonah Hill.

Not so much…

- Most of the movie.

- No really.  It’s mainly because it’s one of those raunchy-ish offensive comedy movies that isn’t good enough to get away with being either of those things.  Don’t get me wrong… it was a fine way to Redbox the evening, ha!  But lots of the jokes were awkward,  and the comedy was brought down by a poorly structured side story of Matt trying to deal with his insecurity and his father’s disapproval.

A pretty clunky story in general.

Final thoughts:

My biggest warning for this film is not against any of the film’s downfalls…. rather: You better like the song “Take Me Home Tonight” because you will have it stuck in your head all day.  Luckily, it’s one of the best ’80s songs EVER.

“They’re aliens.”
“So? That doesn’t mean they can’t be dates!”

I was way too young the first time I saw this movie.  I didn’t see it in the theaters, but I’m pretty sure I rented it at Blockbuster when it was a new release, which would mean I was nine or ten years old.  I didn’t know what “easy” meant, and I think my mom thought the jokes would be over my head – which they were – a form of parenting that I don’t think exists anymore.  She was always much more concerned about violence than sex.

This is a late-eighties, dayglo-clad, SoCal-mocking, scifi sex and romance comedy starring a whole lot of people you wouldn’t think would be in a movie called Earth Girls Are Easy, like Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, and Jim Carrey.  Well, maybe you would expect Jim Carrey.  This movie was practically custom made for the MTV generation; the real MTV generation who would know what I mean when I say that the other Julie Brown co-wrote the script and co-stars as the Quirky Best Friend.

Earth Girls Are Easy may just be the best science fiction musical sexcapade romantic comedy you ever see.

What’s It All About?

Valerie is a nice, kind of clumsy lady who works at a local salon as a nail tech.  Her relationship with her fiancé isn’t going well – they haven’t had sex in two weeks - and he tries to cheat on her while she’s supposed to be away for the weekend.  Except she’s not, and she catches him!

Bereft of fiancé, Valerie is very sad.  But some tiny, horny, hairy aliens crash land in her pool.  So it’s all good.  There’s the blue one, the red one, and the yellow one.  The blue one is the quiet sensitive type, who would totally not check out half-naked SoCal women with his superpower scope thing.  The red and the yellow one… not so much.

Luckily, Valerie works at a salon and stuff, so she can get them makeovers.  Which mostly involves shaving them so they’re Jeff Goldblum (blue), Jim Carrey (red), and Damon Wayans (yellow) and putting them in color-coordinating clothing.  They have other names, but it’s easier to remember them by color.

They all go out to a club, like you do, where some dancing and making out happens.  Then, like, Valerie totally falls for the quiet sophisticated ex-blue guy, but she needs to deal with the return of her fiancé, and the aliens getting in trouble with the law, and the world’s weirdest post-sex dream sequence.

And then they fly off into the sunset… and outer space.

What Works?

This is not a good movie.  It’s ridiculous and cheesy and Jeff Goldblum doesn’t talk a lot, which is a failing whenever Jeff Goldblum is around.  It seems like someone shot some music videos and built a movie around them, and didn’t give it another thought.

But man, is it hilarious!  You know how I said Girls Just Want to Have Fun is a great time capsule into dancing in the 80s?  Well, Earth Girls Are Easy is like a look into a strange alternate reality that may or may not have actually existed in the Valley in 1988.  It is so weird that you can’t take your eyes off of it.  There are actually several music video sequences in the movie, one of which has so little context and no relation to the plot of the story that you wonder what the hell it’s doing there.  And it’s about being a stupid blonde. No lie!

There are a lot of witty one-liners in there that I appreciate more now that I’m an adult, mostly about gender and sexuality.  It’s like there’s a really biting satire hiding beneath the surface, waiting to come out, but it never really gets the chance.

Plus, and let’s all be honest with each other, Geena Davis is awesome.  She just is.  You can’t argue with me on this one, because there is absolutely no argument.  She’s awesome all the time, even in cheesy movies.

It’s almost worth it to see a young Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey play at their ridiculous best.  You can definitely see the shtick that Jim Carrey would later turn into box office gold.  Also, Jeff Goldblum spends a lot of time shirtless, if that’s your thing.

Not So Much

Well, it’s a pretty bad movie.  Did I mention that? I appreciate what it’s trying to do, but man does it go out of its way to not work.  Like, who sat down and came up with this movie?  Okay, Julie Brown and two other dudes, that’s who.  Seriously, though, could you imagine pitching this scenario to a studio?  ”We want to get Academy Award winner Geena Davis, and her cerebral husband Jeff Goldblum to star in a movie about three aliens who crash land in the San Fernando Valley, then go on a ‘babe hunt’.  Oh, and there will be musical numbers.”

And yet here we are.

The plot is predictable, not because it’s a bad movie, but because it’s a romantic comedy.  The acting is fine, once you realize that it’s probably a farce, but there are definitely some cringeworthy moments to be had.  Of the three main musical numbers, two of them are like watching a train wreck; Geena Davis lip synching as she destroys her boyfriend’s stuff is like nails down the proverbial chalkboard for me.

Final Thoughts

I have a hard time recommending this to anyone.  I like it, but it’s such a strange niche that I can’t guarantee whether anyone else will get even a single iota of enjoyment out of it.  It’s a science fiction romcom that is very much of its time and doesn’t hold up well as anything other than a view into the twilight zone of a fictional late eighties Valley culture.  I didn’t find myself laughing at the jokes, but I did enjoy the movie and was pulling for Valerie and Blue to hook up at the end.

This would be a flat out B-Movie if not for the actors.  When you realize that Geena Davis had already won an Oscar, and then went on to do A League of Their Own… that Jim Carrey was one of the biggest stars of the 90s, and that Jeff Goldblum saved the planet when he and Will Smith totally blew up that alien mothership, well.  They class the joint up.

I’m curious to hear if anyone else out there likes it.  I’ve heard it has a pretty decent cult following, but I’ve always assumed that’s more in the scifi crowd than the romcom crowd.  Which isn’t to say there can’t be an overlap with the fanbase – I’m an overlap, after all – but I’m interested in hearing what people who may not enjoy cheesy scifi as much as I do think about it.

Ruby: He was one of those guys you meet for a moment, but that lodge themselves in your brain forever. Better for fantasizing about than actually sleeping with. Better as mysteries. Because we all know what happens when you take away the mystery.

Marissa Tomei is the actress you go to when you want that “Hot Girl With Average and/or Busted-Up Dude” pairing.  She has played opposite Joe Pesci (My Cousin Vinnie), Christian Slater slow-in-the-brain in Untamed Heart, Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler… the last of which makes Vincent D’Onofrio look like Ryan Gosling in a “hey girl” tumblr.  It’s probably because Tomei not only has the looks but the chops to work opposite these personalities.  I only knew D’Onofrio’s work from the Law and Order CI francaise, which admittedly was not my favorite.  But I’m always up for an unconventional rom com, and both friends and my roommate recommended Happy Accidents.

What’s It All About?

Ruby Weaver (Tomei) tries to save men.  Men that cannot be saved. She’s ended up with such an unfortunate string of exes that she is in therapy to try to conquer her codependency.  But it seems she’s walking into another relationship with another dud, and a weird one at that.  Sam Deed initially seems very smart, and oddly funny, with a big heart and fixation on Ruby.  But she begins to notice red flags, culminating in the discovery of a sketchbook full of drawings of the same woman and the name “Chrystie Delancey” written over and over and over again.  When she confronts him, he has a perfectly logical explanation: He’s a time traveler from the year 2470, and he’s come back to change the future so his sister is not killed. And he loves her.  Is he completely delusional? And no matter what the truth is, can Ruby keep from wanting to save him?

What Works:

This is a small-budget movie produced by the Independent Film Channel, and as such it is majorly focused on Ruby and this mysterious relationship.  Tomei and D’Onofrio have great chemistry and fit nicely in this offbeat sci-fi/rom-com, so they can carry the movie.

Time-travel stories are always extremely entertaining to me – either you get to see people of our world  dealing with historical circumstances, or you get to find out a new idea of the future.  Sam’s future is so far from ours it gives the freedom to basically make up anything (for example, Dubuque, IA being on the Atlantic coast of America) , but its a highly entertaining future to learn about – particularly from D’Onofrio’s likeable oddball character.  It’s also, like TiMER, a great sci-fi movie for people who shy away from that genre, because it is dealing with science fiction in our own world – no crazy makeup or CGI.  Just interesting ideas about where the world might go and how ours could affect that.

The time traveller stuff isn’t the only thing that is interesting.  I love that Ruby’s issues with codependency drive a lot of how she deals with this revelation.  A revelation that would probably send most women running.  Her investment  in this relationship, misguided or not, gets us invested which keeps us guessing to the end whether Sam’s story is true or not.

Speaking of which, the script and direction, both by Brad Anderson, keep us guessing right to the end whether it’s the real deal – and that is gratifying too!

Not so much…

I didn’t have any issues with this film.  If you don’t love small-budget films, you might not like this one.  But I think the intimate nature of the filming (all done on hand-held cameras) only benefits the story.  Some people don’t love the soundtrack.  The music is definitely a little weird, but the story is a little weird so I didn’t mind it.  It gets a little slow in the middle, but it’s worth sticking with, as it has a great wrap-up.  One major revelation towards the end was a little unrealistic to me, and I’m not sure if it was necessary to the movie.  But it’s too big a spoiler to reveal here, so drop me a message if you ever want to debate that.

Final thoughts:

That’s all.

Has your mom ever asked you, “If your best friend jumped off of a bridge, would you do that too??”

This is a phrase oft uttered by parents trying to sway their child NOT to dye their hair purple like Shelly or NOT to pierce their nose like Randy or NOT to go to an expensive concert with Chad.  Things that are much less life-threatening than jumping off of a bridge – but parents love the hyperbole.  We here at When Rom Met Come do too, and this week’s Friday question asks you:

What popular rom com do you want to burn every copy of, that everyone else seems to worship to the heavens? (i.e. which do you dislike that everyone else loves?)

Sam has a tough time geeking out over Four Weddings and a Funeral, though it seems like a natural fit for her. “I just don’t get the appeal, despite my love of all things British.”

Beth refuses to drink the Love, Actually Kool-aid. “I want to like it. It’s British and cute and Hugh Grant dances.  But it just rubs me the wrong way.”

This humble writer (Liz) finds it hard to hate any rom com, but feels pretty “meh” about My Best Friend’s Wedding.  Obviously Rupert Everett singing Dionne Warwick is priceless.  But I find it hard to like Julia Roberts in that movie, which makes it hard to enjoy completely.

I sort of wish, though, that mine was Notting Hill, just so I could keep with the Hugh Grant theme of this post.  Maybe I should just say that. It’s supposed to be pretty crappy, isn’t it?

Please leave us a comment with the rom com you’d skip at the video store (in a world where video stores still excited, that is).

Y’all, He Said, She Said is 20 years old. It would be a junior in college right now. It would be voting and thinking about smoking clove cigarettes and experimenting in hipster fashion. Amazing.

What’s it All About?

The movie begins at the end. Dan Hanson (Kevin Bacon) and Lorie Bryer (Elizabeth Perkins) have a t.v. show called He Said, She Said and are debating a highway merger. The debate ends with Lorie hucking her coffee cup at his head and storming off the set. Turns out they’re a couple, but things haven’t been going well.

The story flashes back from Dan’s perspective. They’re cubicle neighbors and up and coming reporters at The Baltimore Sun writing about funerals and weddings. They get a shot at an editorial column which pits her “knee-jerk” liberalism against his “I think I speak for a lot of people” conservatism. The editor likes their dueling opinions so well, he gives them the column together. They fall for each other despite their initial enmity (I know. SHOCKING.) Things are going well until Lorie wants more of a commitment from Dan and he starts to feel pressured. Fighting, the future, and boom! Time for Lorie’s side. She has a different perspective on their relationship, though she’s just as in love as he is and just as scared.

In the end, it ends at the beginning which was the end. Dan proposes to Lorie’s delight. The natural order of hetero love is reaffirmed. Fin.

What Works?

Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins have real chemistry. Awkward, sexy, two steps forward, one step back kind of chemistry. And they fight about couple stuff: when to move in together, when to move on, when to go out, when to stay in. Ultimately, they love each other enough to work through all the nonsense and be happy.

I love the storytelling device. It’s never unclear what side of the story we’re hearing, and the movie reminds us (maybe too often) that there is no one truth in a relationship.

The supporting cast is full of great character actors: Nathan Lane, Anthony LaPaglia, Charlayne Woodard, Stanley Anderson, Damien Leake, etc. It’s fun to watch them weave in and out of Dan and Lorie’s stories changing slightly based on who is doing the telling.

Oh, and hello, Sharon Stone! Looking all Sharon-like with your sexy voice and your come hitherness. What are you doing hitting on Kevin Bacon? Go bother Michael Douglas. He seems more your type.

Not So Much…

It’s got plenty of flaws. There’s some shitty gender essentialism winding it’s way through it. Of course Lorie is the one pushing for marriage, and Dan wants to be able to cat around maintaining his freedom. The cast is too white and romcom-y. Dan has night terrors that just…work themselves out? It’s not a movie a lot of people remember because it isn’t particularly memorable, but it’s good for a Saturday afternoon of cleaning your house and watching a movie in the background.

Final Thoughts

The old couple who live below Lorie and Dan have my favorite conversation in the whole movie:

Mrs. Spepk: In my day, young people got married before they slept together.

Mr. Spepk: That’s bullshit. We slept together before we were married.

Mrs. Spepk: We did not.

Mr. Spepk: Ahhhh.

Mrs. Spepk: And you didn’t marry for love back then either. Love came later.

Mr. Spepk: I’m still waiting.

“He’s a boy and he’s alive.  What’s there to hate?”

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking that this movie, as awesome as it is, is not a romantic comedy.  It’s an eighties dance movie with a ridiculously wonderful soundtrack, cast, and wardrobe, sure, but romcom? No way!

But I disagree! Unlike some of those other eighties dance movies (the “F” trilogy of Footloose, Flashdance and Fast Forward, plus Stayin’ Alive, Breakin’, and Dirty Dancing, and all the ones I can’t even remember to name) this one has a funny-romantic storyline at the center.  Yes, it’s about the dancing.  But it’s really about the love!  And the humor!

Okay, and the dancing.

The only other movie I’d say is even remotely close would be Hairspray, but that’s more about Tracy’s journey into self-acceptance and broader political issues than about her hook up with Link.  I mean the original Hairspray, btw, not the way more romcomish 2007 based-on-the-musical version.

Where was I?  Oh!  I’ve loved Girls Just Want to Have Fun since, I don’t know. Whenever it started airing on HBO. See, my family had HBO back in the 80s, and my dad used to record movies off of movie stations (interesting legal tangent: “timeshifting”, or recording movies off of TV stations like HBO, caused a super famous copyright infringement case that still affects the way we share information today) and for some reason he thought my sister and I would like this one.  He was definitely right! We had the double feature of Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Mannequin, which means we had two of the four Sex in the City women sitting on the same VHS.  Eighties gold.

What’s It All About?

Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) just moved to Chicago, the home of Dance TV.  She moves around a lot, because her dad’s in the military.  He’s super strict.  He paints war figurines for fun, and he doesn’t even play with them or anything, just displays them.  He is not the dad you want to have, if you’re a teenager who just moved to the home of DanceTV!

Luckily, Janey pretty much instantly becomes friends with Lynne, who is a total quirky new wave teen (except not really because Helen Hunt was 23 or something) queen who also loves Dance TV!  They don’t just love DanceTV, they love to dance!

DanceTV, or DTV if you’re cool enough to know the lingo, is a shot-locally-but-broadcast-nationally dance show, sort of like Soul Train or American Bandstand.  This idea is so foreign to today’s type of television that it even seemed weird to me upon my most recent rewatch.  Why would people go to Chicago to dance on national TV?  Strange!

Anyway, DTV needs two new regulars, so they hold a So You Think You Can Dance style competition, twenty years early.  Naturally, Lynne and Janey decide to go for it.  It’s at the open tryouts that they meet the rest of our cadre of dancing superstars (okay, only two of them dance): Jeff, the bad boy, Drew, his dorky best friend, Maggie, Jeff’s pre-teen sister (SHANNEN DOHERTY), and Natalie, the super rich villain.

Janey’s style is all very gymnasticy and ballety, and Jeff’s style is all very rock and roll, so you know those two get paired up together, right?  Right.  World’s collide! The blue collar kid going to trade school soon and the Catholic school girl!  But oh man, can they dance.  They spend the whole movie practicing a routine for the final that they don’t even use.  That is how good they are, my friends.

There is so much more to the plot of this movie, including a ridiculously awesome Coming Out Ball that is crashed by Eighties Freaks, but I refuse to give away too many details.  It’s too perfect to ruin.

What Works?

This isn’t about the movie itself so much as how well it’s held up for repeated viewings.  I watch Girls Just Want to Have Fun at least twice a year, which is more than I can say for almost any other movie from that period.  It works because it ends up being something of a pop culture time capsule while still remaining fun. My friend remarked to me, while we were watching the first, big tryout scene, that dance has change so much in the last twenty-five years.  For example, there is absolutely no discernible hip hop influence in any of the dance moves that any of these characters do.

What else works?  Pretty much everything.  The cast is wonderful, and it’s a great opportunity to catch Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, and Shannen Doherty before they were SUPERFAMOUS.  I kind of want them to have some kind of reunion at some point.  There is a lot of superpower sitting in this cast.  Throw in Jonathan Silverman, and you’ve struck gold.  This is a fluffy movie, but they all play it with aplomb and are obviously having a good time with it.

Sarah Jessica Parker has good romantic chemistry with Lee Montgomery, who is The Guy You’ve Never Heard of, and it’s fun to watch them (and their doubles) dance together.

The story is filled with all sorts of crazy fun subplots, like the rivalry between Quirky Best Friend Lynne and Mean Girl Natalie that ends up becoming a Dance Rivalry between Janey and Natalie, which leads to ramifications for Jeff’s dad.  There’s a random scene at a basketball-filled dance club, in which Drew playfully assaults a girl (you can not get away with this stuff now, unless you’re Judd Apatow).  And there are a whole lotta dance montages, guys.  A whole lotta.

Not So Much

Well.  Uh.  Hm.

Everyone is obviously way older than their characters, except for Jonathan Silverman and Shannen Doherty (who are older but not way older), which is normally one of my pet peeves. When I was eight it didn’t really matter, since everyone was older than I was, but I really think Modern Family and Skins have since spoiled me.  Teenagers really can play teenagers!

Other than that, this movie is perfect.

Perfect!

Final Thoughts

Did I mention that this movie is perfect?  That I rewatch it at least twice a year?  That I know all the words, and all the dances?  That I used to want to be Jeff Malene when I grew up?  No?  I love this movie!  It’s got the best tropes of a romcom: quirky best friend, disapproving parent, hate-l0ve-test-love relationship, heroine who comes out of her shell, and a happy ending.

Freeze frame on the high five.

Claire: I’m impossible to forget, but I’m hard to remember.

It’s funny that this quote is from this movie, because I sort of feel that way about its co-stars.  Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst are both very pretty, but generally rather forgettable.  I was interested in seeing Bloom in a role that didn’t require swashbuckling, and being a tad narcissistic, I enjoy that the movie sports my name in the title (sad, but true). So I said “OK, Netflix, let’s do this!”

What’s It All About?

Orlando Bloom plays Drew, a young sneaker-designer whose groundbreaking design ends up backfiring, being recalled, and costing the company nearly a billion dollars in damages.  He consequently gets fired, and the overwhelming nature of his failure leads to a decision to commit a rather spectacular suicide involving a carving knife and an exercise bike.  Before he can do the deed, however, his sister (Judy Greer, the queen of supporting roles) calls and informs him his father has died while on a trip home visiting his family. As the oldest son, Drew needs to go meet the family and organize his father’s funeral.  He decides he will take care of this, and attend to his own end when he returns.  But his means to an end are thrown upside down when he reunites with his father’s warm family – and UNites with a quirky flight attendant named Claire.

What Works?

Super supporting cast:  This film had a bunch of surprise supporting stars who all have a lot of cred:  Alec Baldwin as the sneaker mogul who fires Drew, Susan Sarandon and the aforementioned Greer as Drew’s mom and sister, Paul Schneider as his slacking musician cousin… PLUS some unconventional actors – Loudon Wainwright III and Paula Deen both show up as uncle and aunt.  Love it!

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was apparently handpicked by director Cameron Crowe, and it compliments the movie beautifully.  A great mix of modern stuff for the central characters (My Morning Jacket, Ryan Adams) and some more classic country and rock which befits its Kentucky setting and Drew’s family (Elton John, Nancy Wilson, Patty Griffin). Also, um, Paul Schneider can sing?? Yes, yes he can!

Dialogue: I enjoyed this script and the conversations between its characters.  It felt quirky without feeling purposefully quirky. You know, naturally quirkly. Quirky!

Not So Much…

The Leads: It’s basically like I said initially: It’s not that they are horrible performers.  But Bloom and Dunst don’t carry a film for me.  Especially when Bloom lacks breeches and his native accent.  Dunst is slightly better in the film.  I think this “different” sort of movie and character suits her better than a classic ingenue, where she REALLY disappears.  Also, Bloom has creepy facial hair.  That being said, they worked well together, and were very believable as a couple. But then vanilla tastes very good with another scoop of vanilla.

Final Thoughts:

I found this film pretty enjoyable. But twenty minutes into it, I realized Netfix had tricked me.  I was not watching a romantic comedy! True, Elizabethtown has comedy.  And it has romance.  But it isn’t REALLY about the central couple, it’s about the central guy.  Which is great! But why did we call it a rom-com?  Is it one? Was it just buried so much in unconventional stuff that I didn’t see the normal features of a rom com?  But then….what IS a conventional rom com and why specifically did Elizabethtown not seem to fit?

I can’t totally answer this, because I don’t know what the exact “rules” are to classify a romantic comedy.  For this movie, it was just a gut feeling I was going with, and frankly I was surprised that the romantic couple had a happy ending (I had guessed Drew would wind up single at the end as it seemed mostly about his journey).  Maybe it’s simply that we didn’t spend as much time with the couple that led me astray. Maybe there needed to be more of a balance between the  focus on the romance and the focus on the family relationship.

But if that happened, we may not have gotten THIS:

http://cli.ps/o7mB9

And that was just gold for me.

Happy New Year, RomComers! Our last week of 2011 was a goodun. Here’s what you missed.

Liz went meta last week with Timer and liked the questions the movie asks. What if you could have a device implanted on you that would count down the days until your soulmate entered your life? Would you get it? And how would it affect your relationships until that point?

Sam was not impressed with No Strings Attached. You don’t need to watch this movie. You already know how this movie goes. This movie is so formulaic that they made another version of it called Friends With Benefits that came out like two months later with the other half of the girls who had sex with each other in The Black Swan.

We had our first guest writer, one Ms. Kate. Her adoration of all things Gwyneth inspired a wonderful post on Shakespeare in Love. Stoppard’s script, which he wrote with Marc Norman, is sharp, witty, and fast. People decry this movie because it’s a fictional portrayal of Shakespeare, but isn’t everything? In a sea of “Shakespeare didn’t write his plays and here’s who did” movies, Shakespeare in Love is a fun, escapist comedy.

Friday’s question was all about characters to whom you can relate. Sam digs lots of characters but none so much as that lovable scamp from The Cutting Edge. And even though I have absolutely nothing in common with Doug Dorsey, he’s the romcom character I’ve always wanted to be, so I don’t know if that counts as “relating to” him.

Oh, and we even had a bonus post thanks to one awesomely creative spammer.