Splitsider

 
Rom-Coms

'When Harry Met Sally' Is Bad For Ladies

by | October 10th, 2012

When Harry Met Sally is a commercial film. Its mission is to be entertaining, to ensure as much watching as possible. As a commercial romantic comedy, its entertainment stems from its romance (Harry and Sally ending up happily together) and from its comedy (“baby fish mouth”). The film is romantic, it is comedic, and thus it was a commercial success.

But to When Harry Met Sally’s fans, it is not about commercial success but about the question of whether men and women can be friends. This is the hook of the movie, the foundation for its romance and jokes. Within the first fifteen minutes, Harry makes a statement which the rest [...]

Rom-Coms

Mindy Kaling Dissects The Lady Creatures Of The Rom-Com Universe

by | September 26th, 2011

In Mindy Kaling's "Flick Chicks," part of this week's New Yorker, the Office writer explains her love for the bizarre, deeply unnatural beings that populate modern rom-coms. "I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world," she explains. "For me, there is no difference between Ripley from Alien and any Katherine Heigl character. They are equally implausible."

Kaling also identifies a host of inscrutable alien entities like the Klutz, the Ethereal Weirdo and the unrealistically young rom-com mom. "[W]hen 'Mom' was an adolescent, the very week she started to menstruate she was impregnated [...]

-->