Host Special: Love, Laughs, and the Rom-Com Genre

It’s time for another all-hosts special! Hosts Sandra, Tara, and Candice chat all about romantic comedies ahead of Valentine’s Day. We discuss some of our favorite films, actors, and tropes within the ubiquitous rom-com genre, while also sharing some fun facts. You’ll love hearing the banter about meet-cutes and steamy scenes, and you may even discover some classic movies to cozy up to with a special someone.

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Transcript

00:01 - VO (Host)
Quiet on the set. All together Action. Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind-the-screens insight and inspiration. 

00:24 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight host special and on our Valentine's Day this year our topic is romantic comedy movies. I'm your host, sandra Abrams, and joining me to swoon over this genre are the other hosts of Media Maker Spotlight, tara Hi and Candice. Hey everybody. If you've listened to our host specials, you will know we normally do not agree on other genres, but for romantic comedies we love this category. 

00:58 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Am I right? No, I don't no. 

00:59 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
No, tara's saying no, she doesn't agree. Candice. 

01:04 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I love a lot of genres. This is one I enjoy as well. 

01:06 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
yes, All right, so our first question. I figured let's finish this sentence. When I go to the movies and watch a romantic comedy, I feel, or it reminds me of Candice. 

01:21 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, I don't always go to the movies for them anymore, with all the streaming, but I do, and over the years I have I don't know, I think for me rom-coms, they they're sort of like sitcoms in the sense that like's fun, it's going to have, that you know characters finding love, and because it's a rom-com, it's funny, it's going to be comedic as well. So I find them like a little dessert almost, but like a known thing where you know what you're going to get. 

01:58 - VO (Host)
So they feel comfortable. 

02:00 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I guess comfortable and happy. 

02:02 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's the same for me. I know that there's going to be a happy ending, so I look forward to that. What about you, tara? 

02:08 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
that's a really nice way of putting it. I rarely enjoy them, why? What is? 

02:16 - Candice Bloch (Host)
it that you don't enjoy it's always the same and I'm like yeah get creative people yeah, well, it's so, it's the formula. I mean, but the formula can be really it's that whole, there's only seven stories, or whatever. 

02:29 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I mean, I know yeah, and I think that's the point is my. My thing with romantic comedies tend to be that, yes, you have the same ending, usually a happy ending. But the reason why I like thrillers or I like a lot of like gangster films like martin scott says he's good fellas and stuff like that, and well, that's based in true stories but still it's the way that the story is told and the conflicts that arise. Right, and a lot of romantic comedies, particularly in um more american or western ones, stay the same. They're like, oh, almost like the books too yeah, any book. You're like I wonder how they're going to end up lover like enemies turning into lovers. You're like, oh, yeah. 

03:25 - Candice Bloch (Host)
So that's why I just wish that there was a little bit of difference, and I have a couple that I I do really like yeah, but to me that's also like that predictability makes them like the chocolate chip cookie right, so you can have a really cool meal or a really interesting new flavor. I love almost all genres because they're all so different and so at least you know. Rom-coms I find enjoyable when you're just like you know what I just want, like the mac and cheese or the you know the thing, you know where you're getting you know. So that's. I think the predictability is actually one of the selling points for me on those. 

03:59 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yeah, and a lot of people yeah. And why it's keep getting made? Because they know a lot of people like that comfort. 

04:07 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's, that's true, and I, and when I pick up on something that Candice pointed out was the formula, there's key elements that go on, you know, with them and I don't know about you, but I kind of put the list together as like it's usually like around Christmas time. It's usually involves a wedding, there's usually a beach, there's mistaken identity, chaos, and there's usually some evil person like uh, that's trying to break up the couple, and I'm thinking in in crazy rich Asian. You know there was Nick's mother, Eleanor, trying to break them up, you know. So there's always some evil person I don't know. Oh, and there's beach scene. I was thinking of forgetting Sarah Marshall. So I don't know about you guys, but those are kind of like the formulas within them. 

04:52 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, like vacation or you know, there always has to be I mean, there has to be some conflict, something that's almost going to have them knock it together so that they can get together at the end and it'll be satisfying. And we all know that Sandra absolutely loves the Christmas time rom-coms, I mean. I guess Christmas movies. They're sort of rom-coms. Are they comedic enough to be? I guess they are a subcategory of rom-coms. They're all definitely like heavy on the cheesy rom. 

05:23 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right, and this is so. The Women in Film and Video. Our parent organization, just had the movie club and on Monday night they were talking about Christmas films and a lot of those Christmas films were rom-coms. The Holiday, the Last Holiday, with Queen Latifah and LL Cool J. There was the Best man there was. Oh, there were some other ones. I'm not thinking of them, but right yeah. 

05:51 - Candice Bloch (Host)
But I mean, if you're, if you're just saying that there's some like a romantic plot in a film, that's like 95% of films. They usually put some sort of relationship in there, and then you know, because it's a very human thing, we all want to find connection and to find people in love. Yeah, exactly, I mean, you know. 

06:12 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It is a Christmas movie. Die Hard is a Christmas movie. We've determined that it is. We're referring back to a previous host, special, if anybody wants to know. 

06:23 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yeah, but it's still a romantic love story because it's a husband and a wife and they had a fight and spoiler alert they get together in the end. 

06:33 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, what is it? Do you like the beach scene? Do you like it when they travel somewhere? No, no, maybe. 

06:43 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Okay, I just like if it's clever. If it's, I just like if it's. If it's clever if it's well acted, if it's, you know, if the funny part of it is in there. And and yes, they are formulaic but they're not all exactly the same. So I like when it's a fun and interesting, like new dynamic or I think the chemistry is what really makes. 

07:00 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh yeah, chemistry a really good rom-com, if you can really buy that. Oh, I can see them as a couple, whether they are supposed to be really lovey-dovey or if they're supposed to be like you're driving me crazy, right, but you can tell that they love each other. And that is because, if you just see it all the same and you're like, yeah, yeah, whatever, and that's where I get annoyed, so yeah, yeah, whatever, and that's where I get annoyed. So, yeah, I think the chemistry between the main love story actors, the ones that we're supposed to really root for, that's what I really get drawn to. 

07:38
Chemistry is key in any film, but particularly in these things Right. 

07:42 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Sometimes I don't see the chemistry, like I saw the chemistry in Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey in the Wedding Planner. 

07:51 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
But, Sandra. 

07:52 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, two stars that I love. I didn't really see that chemistry in that film In the Proposal. 

07:59 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Right, yeah, yeah, I think they only did one together, yeah. 

08:06 - Candice Bloch (Host)
It wasn't as much chemistry, but I like both of them as well, so I you know, I just found it kind of a fun different thing as well, because I mean she was, she was older than him. 

08:14
You know, there I I just like I hate when any movie puts like a really stupid scene somewhere in there. Like I know this going to be a personal, personal attack on a film, but I think there was the Matthew McConaughey, sarah Jessica Parker like failure to launch movie and it was like almost cute. And then they put in some like a dumb animated lizard biting a finger or something and I was like why? Why do you need that like weird slapstick? That's in the wrong, like it wasn't even a tonal thing, it was just putting in a weird CGI thing and took me right out of it. I was like why did you even need to do that? Like just cut that, that was terrible. 

08:53 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
So that's the thing that I always hate about the proposal. It's like when Sandra and Betty White have to do that weird dance in the woods? 

09:02 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, that was, that's what makes me think of it. And do that weird dance, the dance in the woods? Yeah, that's what makes me think of it, and some people enjoy that. It's funny, it was to me tolerable, but my least favorite part of it, and then, but not as bad as I have seen in other films yeah, so it's. You know you can't win them all. 

09:16 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Some people love it, but then you have the silly moments where he's sitting, well, sleeping on the floor and then the family's coming in and there's a parent. So she's like what is that? She's like, get in the bed, get in the bed. She's like what is that? He's like it's morning and that's funny. 

09:30 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's it, yeah but Sandra Bullock really had a lot of chemistry with Hugh Grant in the movie Two Weeks Notice that was a really cute one. 

09:40 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, I really like and I could definitely see that. 

09:44 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
No, I, oh I highly recommend it, especially when she's ordering the chinese food. That's a theme throughout the film that I could relate to. So, okay, but one of the things that you mentioned, uh, the silliness it gets back to. You know there's in the 1930s they didn't really say romantic comedies. The 30s and 40s they talked about how, you know, films are screwball comedies, you know so. Then you thought about Cary Grant and Catherine Hepburn and Bringing Up Baby. There was also it Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Colette Corbert. You know those are two famous, like we would call them rom-coms, but they didn't necessarily call them back then. But what's really the? Do you think there's any real difference between screwball comedies and romantic comedies? 

10:34 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I think they're like the parents to the romantic comedies or the ancestors, but I do want to. Did you guys know about the influence of it Happened One Night with men's fashion. 

10:48 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
No, so tell us about that. Give us that trivia. That sounds good. I love this. 

10:52 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I have this in my head and also side note, I'm doing a podcast on Carol Lombard, who Was married to Clark Gable Clark. Gable from it what happened one night, but she was like the sandra bullock of that time of screwball comedies, you know to be or not to be. Um, mr and mrs smith was not about assassins. Um and for it happened one night. Which is what, 1933? 

11:23 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
33? 32 or 33, about that, yeah Around there. 

11:27 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
So there's a scene where Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are getting dressed to go to bed and they only had a certain amount of time to get the scene done and they realize, you know, they're getting undressed and they were like oh, there's not enough time for Clark to have an undershirt, so we'll just not, he'll just wear a shirt, take off the shirt. And he's shirtless, because usually men were wearing undershirts, right. 

11:55 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So they're like fine, it's just a time saver, for undershirts went drastically down after the film came out and it never went up until the show, the oc when the lead character, yeah, was seen wearing always a uh undershirt. 

12:16 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Uh, then that's when the price of the rise of purchasing undershirts, well that's just the power of like entertainment and celebrity on fashion. 

12:24 - Candice Bloch (Host)
That's just the power of like entertainment and celebrity on fashion. 

12:25 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
That and like the influence of something like well, we call them, we would call them rom-coms, but these screwball comedies and then of course it Happened. One Night is one of the first. It is the first film to win all the big, major Oscars, but one of the few to win all the major ones, and but one of the few to win all the major ones, and it's one of my favorites, for sure, and a lot of rom-coms have copied that. I mean it's Chasing Liberty with Mandy Moore and Matthew Gush. 

12:53 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, to bring that up, like a lot of rom-coms are the classic stories just recycled a bunch, you know, like there's you know 10 Things I Hate About you is Taming of the Shrew. Like you know, there's a lot of Shakespeare that gets pulled in and a lot of classic things. But, sandra, what you had asked before about like what? How would you categorize this? Or how do you think with the categories? You know the definition covers a few of them and you can be screwball, slapstick, whatever comedy, but if you have comedy, you can be horror comedy, you could be dramedy, you could be rom-com. You know, like there's all these mashups that we create in the genre names themselves, because there's elements to all of these things in a lot of movies, because there's all these different flavors and notes in life and that's what our stories are about. It's not 100% one thing. So you know, I think personally I just see it as this, like massive Venn diagram. 

13:55 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's true. They all have something in common, which is at the center is a couple that you're rooting for. You want to see them succeed. 

14:01 - Candice Bloch (Host)
And one thing that I find I see a lot in modern rom-coms is the, the montage at the beginning. There's always like a montage to catch you up to like say, it's a female lead, you know, you see, like what her life is like, you know, and it's kind of like yeah, you're seeing, oh, she's single. There's this not working out, that not working out, or whatever. And then it, then you kind of meet up with the you know the 30 minutes in the like main first plot twist or whatever. When they like meet the, who's going to be who they end up with. So I I always think that's kind of funny that there's a lot of montages in in this genre. I mean, there's always like montages in like action films, for like training montages and whatnot, but I feel like there's a rom-com montage. That's a bit of a commonality there between a lot of them, and sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in my rom-com montage, just like waiting for some big plot twist to come Right. 

14:54 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, that was something. There's a character in the Holiday and Kate Wissom's character is living in Cameron Diaz's house and next door living to her is uh, eli wallach's character and he's talking about romantic comedies and he talks about no the elderly man, eli wallach, I think is the elderly man, oh, oh, that guy right right, the older guy, then that's where you get all the he talks about the women with gumption right. 

15:20
I love that, yeah, and he says to her you know, these romantic, it's all about meet cute. You know and that's that's exactly when you were talking and made me think of you know how these people meet cute. You know that type of thing, yeah that is a classic. 

15:34 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, I mean we still. We still use that term. I mean I use that term still to this day. It's like a meet cute. Is you know the funny or interesting circumstance in which you connect with a new person? Is you know the funny or interesting circumstance in which you? 

15:43 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
connect with a new person? Is that from the? 

15:44 - Candice Bloch (Host)
film. It's like from way way back in early cinema. It's like the original terminology for when, sort of like, the two main characters meet and you always want to have it be sort of interesting, like, oh, they reached for the same last croissant at a bakery, or you know, there's always some type of thing that has them meet in a cute way. So that's their meet cute. And we're also seeing from another of our producers, brandon, who is giving us some stats, that that term was accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch to describe the encounter between Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife Wow. 

16:27
And then the earliest known use of the term in print was in the 1950s in the New York Times Book Review. Interesting. There's a factoid for you guys. We're trying to give you information as well as just our opinions. 

16:42 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Great movies rom-coms and good trivia. So we know about men's t-shirts sales plummeted after Clark Gable. And now we know about the term meet cute. But one of the things that did Candace, you mentioned Shakespeare. A lot of these things harken back to some of his stories and one was the story of Twelfth Night. And there's Viola, her brother Sebastian. They get shipwrecked on an island and she falls in love with Duke, duke falls in love with Contessa, the Contessa falls in love with Viola because Viola is dressed like a man. You know, there's all these misunderstandings and misidentification and it made me think of the Billy Wilder film. Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis, jack Lemmon, marilyn Monroe, you know. And again it starts off bad because they witnessed the St Valentine's Day massacre. 

17:38 - Candice Bloch (Host)
So in Chicago they dress like women and Get on a train and what happens. 

17:42 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
But just so you know, for that film Marilyn Monroe. Actually she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy at that movie. So, candace, you said you haven't seen it. That's definitely right up there. You've got to see that. 

18:00 - Candice Bloch (Host)
It's been on my list for ages. I've seen so many films. As you all know, I've studied film. You have to see so many. I've seen a lot. Because there's so many you can't see everything, and that's one of those classics that has fallen through the cracks where I always have it on my you know, to watch list. But then there's three more other, you know recent ones or something that I end up watching and not getting around to that one. 

18:23
But I will definitely watch it before. I'll make a point of watching it before this episode airs, because we are recording in the end of 2024. And this will be out in, as we said for Valentine's Day. 

18:37 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
But I have a question about that. I have seen it a while ago, but I remember it was always considered having one of the sexiest love scenes and then I would watch it and I watched. I'm like there's no, maybe for the time. I don't know. 

18:55 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I know I think it's for the time I do remember doing, actually, a report in college about the evolution of the rating system, and so I remember. I don't remember everything, but I know there were some factoids about you know what they allowed to be showed at different times, and maybe they had like a silhouette or something, yeah, and so it might have been maybe more risque for the time or I'm not sure, but what I know of 12th night I know from the end of shakespeare in love, because I haven't I haven't read the play or seen uh, the other movies. 

19:28 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
So, isn't it? 

19:29 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
she's the man too, and then, oh yeah, I've seen that Amanda Burns Bynes. Yes, Amanda Bynes yeah. 

19:36 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I've seen that and Channing Tatum one of the earlier ones, but I was wondering if Sandra knew about that. 

19:41 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
The ratings. There's the particular scene when they're on the boat and Tony Curtis is playing that he's the owner of the yacht and they're on the boat and there's a couch scene. 

19:57 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh okay, yacht, and they're on the boat and there's a couch scene. Oh okay, for us it's like nothing, isn't it? 

19:58 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
but nowadays it is yeah, um, but I I want to talk about speaking of all these different movies and the times. I wanted to talk about now, all these films. They talk a lot about blockbuster, so, speaking of some like it, hot, I think it wasn't made but for a couple of million and ended up making $49 million at the, I think, domestic box office. But meanwhile now movies cost so much more. For example, I read that Crazy Rich Asians cost $30 million to make but it made $232 million worldwide. So an astounding amount of money and I know that Brandon, our producer, had helped us out with finding out some of these costs. But other films, if you think about it Coming to America, eddie Murphy that was made in 1988. Made like $130 million, but at the time that was a lot of money for a movie domestic sales to make. 

21:01 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Would that be considered a rom-com Coming to America? 

21:04 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yes, I think so, yeah, okay, it is considered like it's not just a comedy Genre. 

21:12 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yeah. 

21:14 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
He gets the girl in the end and the whole reason is because he's looking for a wife. That's true. Yeah, that's true, and it was because it's an Eddie Murphy vehicle Like he was able to cross the audiences. 

21:30 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I think I just love how he was like, if I'm looking for a queen, we should go to Queens. 

21:42 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I think we have a bunch there. Yeah, I think the number one blockbuster was my Big Fat Greek Wedding. Oh yeah, that changed a lot for indies in general, but that one and that one is a good one have. 

21:49 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I have. I shared my little personal factoid of that movie. 

21:53 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh, let's hear. 

21:53 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Let's hear. So. Back in the day I worked at the Independent Movie Theater Landmark. You know those landmark theaters and I worked at one and I was working there the summer that my Big Fat Greek Wedding came out and we got to see like in real time it transcending from the indie, sort of like what you can handle there, and we would have lines just like wrapping around the block. And so I remember when we were all like thrilled that it finally started going into like the bigger multiplexes to handle the crowds. 

22:26
But it was just such a crazy time, there was so much crowd control that I had to do it's like this quiet theater, you know all these little independent films, just really art house, kind of a chill vibe. And then that movie was just chaos. It was. I mean, it was, it was adorable, it was fun, it was great time. I love it. I think it was worth worth all the hype. But yeah, I have that like personal, just a little bit of like a I don't know PTSD about it. Sort of I'm like oh yep, no, I remember when it became too big for indie theaters, because I was in one. 

22:59 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, that movie only cost $5 million to make and then it ended up making. I probably have this figure wrong, but you know domestically it did over $200,000. 

23:09 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Ultimately over $. Yeah, ultimately over 368 million worldwide. It's one of the top ones of the 21st century, right yeah? 

23:21 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
And then it spawned. 

23:22 - Candice Bloch (Host)
It spawned like the, the sequel. I think the sequel was kind of cute right. And then there was a third one. 

23:28 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I think the third one flopped I saw it I don't. 

23:38
I right, I've saw it. I don't I don't haven't seen the last one yet because it didn't, it didn't look good. They go to greece. But I think this also proved with my big, fat greek wedding crazy, rich asians, and even to this point of coming to america. There was this argument of like, well, people don't really want to hear these different, diverse stories, or, like the greeks, or it's too specific, or asians like will they even understand this or this or that, and it's proving the exact opposite. Um, and I, really the reason why we loved my big, freak greek wedding is when I'm not greek but I'm iranian and it was so relatable her being bullied as a kid and like the whole family needing the whole family for this white boy, ian. She's like it's okay, I make lamb. 

24:26 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I know I love that he doesn't eat meat and she's like oh okay, then I'll just make lamb. 

24:29 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
It's just such a great. And then there's a great scene in my big fat greek wedding too, with the dad, and it's the greek man, a persian man, a chinese man and a scottish man, and they just keep talking about whose ancestors did more for humanity. 

24:47
It's just so true and it was just such a beautiful thing. And and then my big uh, no crazy r Rich Asians. It's true that I don't. I've never been to Singapore. I haven't really been to that side of the world yet but I was going to say yet for you, yeah. For all of us, I'm sure, but it was so important for so many people and I could still relate to it. 

25:11 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, that is exactly the whole point of the diversity and inclusion of more stories, because not only are you seeing all these different perspectives and enjoying it, and they can still be really popular and they're not a hindrance but then you can see those common threads that we all want love and connection, we all want the human experience. And so I think the more you see all of the different, you know all the different people and experiences represented, you see the commonality for the human experience and I think that's what's great about entertainment and films in general, I think personally, is that you know showing all these stories and finding out how we're all similar and how you know all of that. So just a little, preachy thing. 

25:52 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
It made me think of what Lin-Manuel Miranda said. You know, love is love, and that gets back to what I was the LBGTQ rom-coms. You know people think, oh well, they don't. You know, people may not want to see that, but that's not necessarily true. So recently Bros came out and that it was one of the first gay romantic comedies by a major studio that had an openly LGBTQ principal cast, and a lot of people went to go see it because love is love, as you were saying, candice. 

26:27 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, it's, it's so great. I mean, honestly, if it's just if it's funny and well-written, I would bring it on. I'll see any version, you know, and it's great to see that we are seeing more now. Finally, I mean there's still a long way to go, but you know, representation and the diversity of the stories that we see it is making some progress, so yay for that. 

26:50 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So we've talked a lot about the blockbuster films, but we haven't really talked about our favorites. And I started to make a list and I was like, oh, and there's this one, and there's this one. So, for example, I was talking to Sarah Barger, who is WIF's past president. I was talking to her the other night and I was telling her that we were going to be having this for Valentine's Day as our host special and she said, oh, you have to put this on the list. And a film that I had not thought about was Serendipity with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. And then I started thinking about oh yeah, and John Cusack was also in Say Anything, and then that sparked this, you know. So I thought there's one right there I. 

27:31 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Fidelity is one of my favorites of him. 

27:33 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, and another one. 

27:34
So you start to like oh okay, I like Four Weddings and a Funeral when Harry Met Sally how to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, it's complicated, which is a rom-com for a certain age, and then I was like all right wait a minute, this list is getting so long. 

27:49 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, Like I notoriously can't pick favorites for almost anything, I mean I have just like maybe like a favorite season or a favorite time of day or something, but everything else I'm like not depends or there's too many, so I really can't pick favorites of anything and so like. 

28:05 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I have all these that you list. 

28:06 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Okay, Tara, if you have specific favorites, go for it. 

28:09 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
What are your favorites? All right, go for it. Let's hear your favorites, Tara. 

28:12 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Because you probably only have like three or four that you like of rom-coms, right. 

28:16 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh, you're nice. I have two rom-coms and one Zom-com, a zombie rom-com. 

28:23 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Oh, because that sounds more your style. 

28:28 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Well, one is like a foreign film Yesterday, today and Tomorrow, which is an Italian film with Sophia Loren, which is an Italian film with Sophia Loren and which is what is his name? I don't remember, who cares. 

28:38 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Marcello Mastriano. 

28:41
Yes. 

28:41 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Because in its three short films, the first and the last one are rom-coms and the middle is a drama. Arguably so that's one of mine. But I think these are my two favorites. But one is frankie and johnny, which was a play, and then they made it into a film with al pacino and michelle pfeiffer, host starface um and it's really sweet, and they thought michelle pfeiffer shouldn't play it because she's too pretty, but she did a great job. I really liked it. And then the other one is IQ, with the queen herself, meg Ryan. 

29:26 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Is that the one with Einstein in it? 

29:28 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yes, she's the niece of Einstein and she's engaged to. Is it Stephen Fry? 

29:34 - Candice Bloch (Host)
The really tall, I'm not sure I've seen so many movies at this point. That was way back, yeah, but it's Stephen Fry, it's F-R-Y-E. 

29:43 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
He has an E at the end of his name, yes, and Einstein isn't crazy about him. And he meets a mechanic, tim Robbins, and he tries to set her up with a mechanic. It's so sweet and it's so cute, so, yeah, I just really like those. 

30:02 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah Well, speaking of Einstein, he's got that really great quote about relativity, where it's sort of like if you put your you know the relativity of time, it's sort of like if you put your hand on a hot stove for like two seconds it could feel like an eternity, but if it's something to do with like kissing a girl or something, it could feel like I'm not. I'm butchering the quote, but you know there's a cute quote that's attributed to Einstein. 

30:27 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Was that relatively? Was that a TV show? No, didn't they make some type of TV show with that name, Called Relativity? I'm not sure, yeah. 

30:35 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Not on here, but speaking of TV. When we were talking about doing this special, we were going to focus only on films, but then Sandra also mentioned like MTV and I was like wait, that's right. Is TV like? Are there rom-coms within TV? But now, with all of these series and everything, there's very clearly ones that fit in, including some of the most recent ones, like like the most recent big smash hit was like nobody wants this, that's 100 percent and it's nominated for a Golden Globe. 

31:03
Oh, it was so cute. I'm glad there's. I'm glad there's another season coming of that one. It was very cute yeah that was. 

31:09
Yeah, there's, there's all sorts of other TV, because it funny, because I think you know, when you think of TV you just think of, like sitcoms instead of rom-coms, you know. And then within that there are you know, love story arcs that come and go, season and whatever, because it's a different format and it's different like with that formulaic thing of a rom-com you have, like by the end of the movie they're together, you know. But when you have multiple shows, um yeah, and then you know there's then there's ones that just continue with all sorts of uh things like sex in the city is all about all of these different and that's a that's definitely comedy. 

31:43
So would you say? 

31:43 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
it's romantic there's I mean. 

31:46 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, there's even like longer storylines and shorter ones, and you know there but there's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of shows that have that like continuous arc. There's like how I Met your Mother and things like that where the purpose of it is that romantic coming together when? 

32:01 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
is that meet-cute? 

32:03 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Exactly, as long as there's a meet-cute in it or a resolution, I don't know. So yeah, I think it's interesting that I'm trying to think about it a little bit more and I was trying to open my brain up to what are shows that I would consider rom-coms now instead of just like a cute series, Like you know where am I jamming those? In that Venn diagram. You know it can't be its own special right. 

32:25 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Like there's Christmas specials, there's Halloween specials. 

32:29
Why not? It could be. 

32:31
But a rom-com special is going to be interesting. 

32:37 - Candice Bloch (Host)
There's a space on that Monster Van diagram for that. 

32:41 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
I'll let Ryan Murphy figure that out Exactly. 

32:45 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, let's circle back. I want to talk about we talked about some of the favorite movies. I'm wondering who do you consider your rom know leading ladies and rom-com leading men? Do you have any favorites there? 

32:59 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, some of those are going to date us, because it's sort of like the eras that you watch the most. 

33:04 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I wasn't going to go there on that, candice, but now that you mentioned it, yes, I mean there's a, there's a variety. 

33:12 - Candice Bloch (Host)
You know, I mean I try to span different decades. I mean I actually really liked some of those originals you know, like All About Eve and you know the what is it? Barbara? What's her name? Stanwyck, you know, I kind of, I think, was coming up a little in the like Meg Ryan era, but then, you know, getting older, in the you know, julia Roberts, sandra Bullock, kate Hudson kind of era, katherine Heigl you know, 27 Dresses. Yeah, those, and that was directed by a woman, 27 Dresses was oh nice. 

33:54 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yeah. 

33:54 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Ann Fletcher, I think, was the director on that, yeah. 

33:58 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, and then there's also the leading men Like you would think of, like the Hugh Grant era, and you know, for a while it was like just Hugh Grant. That's true, right, I'm like trying to think of others right now, but I know there's a few that we even mentioned yeah, he did not even heal love actually for weddings and funeral, yeah, never mind. 

34:17 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I feel like he hated his his rom-coms too. 

34:20 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
But then they said bridget jones's diary, which is actually quite well done and is based on jane austen, but uh, they were saying he's so close to his character, which is like kind of the villain, than any of his other characters and you're like, really it's pretty funny yeah, yeah, well he's. 

34:41 - Candice Bloch (Host)
He's been talking about sort of his um rom-com era in some of the press he's been doing recently for like heretic and things like that, other things that I mean movies, movies, we know tara's gonna. 

34:50 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh, I just watched it and I was like good job, good job yeah. 

34:57 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, yeah, and then there are in those crossover genres. Another one that I thought was really cute was Warm Bodies, which is sort of a zombie rom-com. That is one of the zombie rom-coms or whatever. 

35:09 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Yeah. 

35:10 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I have not watched that, so which sort of which leading people do you guys associate with the genre? 

35:19 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I would say Doris Day and Rock Hudson Love Her, come Back. That's a good one. That's a good one. If you haven't, you know, not familiar with that, that's a good one. Legally Blonde. 

35:30 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Oh, Reese Reddick. 

35:32 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And there's that really funny comment. At one point she says to him you know I'm a blonde, people don't take me seriously. And he says oh, you have more power than you think. And she goes hmm. And then the Luke Wilson character says how do you think I would look as a blonde? And she says I don't think you can handle it. 

35:49 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
And then meanwhile Luke Wilson has his brother Owen, who is a blonde I and meanwhile Luke Wilson has his brother, owen, who is a blonde. 

35:55 - VO (Host)
I didn't realize that, yeah, and I just thought, oh, that's such. 

35:57 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So you know that little blip of chat right there, you know it just makes you laugh because in reality what the reality is. But I would put when Harry Met Sally is one of my favorites. 

36:08
But again it gets back to that. 

36:10
There's that scene, there's a classic scene. You know where they're on the phone and they're watching together on the phone. They're watching, uh uh, ingrid Bergman and Casablanca, and they're talking about and he says to her you know, uh, now there's Ingrid Bergman, she's a high maintenance woman. And then there's, and she says what do you mean? He goes, well, there's high maintenance women, there's low maintenance women. He goes. Well, she goes which one am I? And she says he says, oh, you're high maintenance because you want everything on the side. 

36:38 - Candice Bloch (Host)
No, no, no, he said you're the worst kind. You're high maintenance, but you think you're low maintenance. 

36:42 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Oh yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

36:47 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
That also only works because it's Billy Crystal Right. That's what I mean. Yeah, right, yeah, but that's. 

36:54 - Candice Bloch (Host)
I mean, there's, there's the really. There's also the really great lines that you get from um, these different films Like that, one has the you know at the very end. Sorry to spoil it for people, but you know that when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible and like things like that are that really stand out, just like you have in the Tom Cruise, renee Zellweger, jerry Maguire, you have the like you complete me and all these, all these lines that become is you complete me Tara? 

37:23 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Oh, I thought it was you had me at hello. 

37:25
Well there's, you had me at hello in that as well, and then you complete me. 

37:29 - Candice Bloch (Host)
So there's both. There's both in that movie. 

37:31 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
But yeah. Is that a rom-com, though? Or are you just saying that that's in line? 

37:35 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, no it has that rom-com element, of course. 

37:37 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And then there's also and the Cuban Goody Jr in there is going. Show me, you know, Tom. 

37:45 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Cruise has to shout to him Show me the money. But another great line that's from a rom-com as well, with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, is when he he like says he, you make me want to be a better man because he like stops taking his meds. And so anyway it's, there's like really good lines that come from these films and you kind of you know it's like a, it's like a great line in song or something. That's as good as it gets was great. 

38:11 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I didn't really. I Great, I didn't really I liked it, but it wasn't like wow, you know, I know that's what I thought. Yeah, but I wanted to give a shout out to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, but she was also in. 

38:23 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Runaway Bride. She was a darling of all of these, yeah. 

38:25 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right, she's another darling and Runaway Bride was actually shot here in Maryland, so shout out to the Maryland Film. 

38:32
Office here in Maryland. So shout out to the. 

38:33
Maryland Film Office. Oh, look at that, because when she's riding across in the horse that was shot, I think it was Hartford County, which is north of Baltimore, so a lot of those scenes take place in Maryland, yeah. 

38:47 - Candice Bloch (Host)
There's also the big house that they go to in. 

38:48 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Wedding Crashers is in this area, as well, right, that's on the other side of the bridge, I think. 

38:51 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Right, yeah Right. That's on the other side of the bridge. 

38:53 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I think Right, yeah, yeah so that's definitely. 

38:56 - Candice Bloch (Host)
And Wedding Crashers has some romantic elements too. It has some great lines, but you know there's all love stories in them. 

39:02 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
We're going to wrap soon, but there's a few more things I wanted to mention. For 2024 that came out this year a foreign film it's called. It's from Kuwait, it's a Kuwaiti foreign film. No-transcript For 2025, there's a film coming out. It's kind of a remake of the Wedding Banquet by Ang Lee and that film, the Wedding Banquet, was done in 1993. And that film for 2025, the remake has Bowen Yang from Saturday Night Live and it has Lily Gladstone, oscar winner Lily. 

40:00
Gladstone, so Bowen Yang and his boyfriend, and then there's Lily Gladstone and her girlfriend, and a green card is involved, there's IVF treatments involved, and then suddenly the grandmother from South Korea comes to America. 

40:14 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Wow, Green card is also a rom-com from back in the day, oh yeah that's right With Gerard. Depardieu, that's right. 

40:21 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And that also had Andy McDowell in it, right, Right it was in Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and a Funeral Right right. 

40:46 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Groundhog Day another one of the greats, I think. Yeah, bill Murray is such a curmudgeon. That's another good one. Yeah, an actor you can pick, you know whatever. And it's just there's so many within the because so many get made of the rom-com genre and they're so I mean I know Tara disagrees, but they're so, like you know, satisfying because they're usually pretty, pretty easy to. It's like you can't mess up the cookies as much, you know, that's what I'm saying. Like it's pretty easy to make a chocolate chip cookie, right, you can, you can burn them, you can definitely mess them up. There are definitely horrible, horrible rom-coms, unfortunately, but you know there's so many great ones and it's just such a nice-. 

41:19 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Anything with Colin Firth. I have a huge crush on Colin Firth, so that gets it Brit speaking. We talked about Bridget Jones earlier. So, there's Bridget Jones. This can be for 2025, about the boy, but unfortunately spoiler alert Colin Firth is not in it because Mr Darcy has passed away. 

41:37 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
He's in it, but the actor's in it. 

41:44 - Candice Bloch (Host)
But yes, the character is dead because the writer the real life. 

41:46 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
husband died, Sandra you scared people right there thinking that Colin Firth had passed away and Hugh Grant's back. 

41:51 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
It's so funny Speaking of Hugh Grant, right, right, right. 

41:54 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
The trailer looks so good. 

41:56 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Anything else that you guys want to talk about, rom-coms you want to share. I wanted to. 

42:02 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
What is that film that had Glenn? What was the same? Glenn Powell and Sidney Sweeney yeah. Anyone but you. Thank you, brandon. And everyone is like they were really clapping, like what do you call it? Like they were really like we're bringing back the rom-com. I'm like it never died, weirdos. 

42:26 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yeah, that's true. 

42:27 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
And I did like it, but I didn't know that it was based on Much Ado About Nothing, which is my favorite Shakespeare play, and you couldn't tell so while, I was watching it. Well, while I I didn't, I couldn't tell from the trailer. So I went and watched the film and I'm like it's like the beginning of Much Ado Wait a minute. And there's a cookie involved in a couple of scenes, but um, A literal, not a metaphorical one. 

42:56
Yes, there's like an actual cookie, but that was a fun one. What annoyed me is like the PR stunt and sometimes that could backfire, but that was fun. 

43:10 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yeah, do you have any final thoughts here about this? 

43:13 - Candice Bloch (Host)
uh, the romantic comedies, and for valentine's day, I mean just that you know I'm gonna keep watching them because, uh, and it, I mean it depends on also sometimes, like you know, if, if you like the leads, you know it's you get to play out that little fantasy, or or you know, and they, they, the people, they throw the audiences the bones, they'll do, like you know, thirst trap scenes and stuff, so which it's fine. You know, I think it's a cute, necessary genre To me. I think it's like a step above, like the equivalent in TV of the soap opera, where a lot of actors sort of like cut their teeth and get you know there's a lot of people that do those types. 

43:55
But yeah, I mean, I think it's. It's probably harder than people give it credit for to be light and fluffy and entertaining and different and and sort of land the plane in a in a slightly satisfyingly different way. Um, but yeah, I don't know to me, I guess my final thought is they're, they're the cookie of the movie world. 

44:14 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
And I like dessert. 

44:15 - Candice Bloch (Host)
So yeah, if we made t-shirts, that's the t-shirt Right rom-coms, the cookie of the movie world. 

44:26 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
And I like dessert. 

44:29 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And for all our listeners. We want to hear from you. Give us feedback on what's your favorite romantic comedy and favorite romantic comedy leading man or woman. You can email us at podcast at WIFVorg that's podcast at WIFVorg with your opinion and Candice anything else that you want to plug on where people can find Media Maker Spotlight. 

44:54 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, you can always find us through WIFVorg, the main website for women in film and video, and we have our own show website as well, which is MediaMakerSpotlightcom, and we also have our YouTube channel, so you can watch us there and you can see how we dressed for the occasion in classic Valentine's colors. I'm wearing a heart necklace and everything, so you know You're wearing makeup. Yeah, we're leaning into the cheesy because, why not? It's fun, right you know? Yeah, I say do more things that make you smile and celebrate love. So keep making rom-coms. I'll keep watching them and I will keep watching all the action and horror and thriller and sci-fi and horror and all that stuff too, because it's the whole human experience. So, anyway, but also, we love you, our listeners. Speaking of love, and just want to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day. 

45:46 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well. Thank you for joining Media Maker Spotlight host special. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day. 

45:56 - VO (Host)
Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit w-i-f-as-in-frank-v-as-in-victororg. This podcast is created by Sandra Abrams, Candice Block, Brandon Ferry, Tara Jabari and Jerry Reinhart, and edited by Michelle Kim and Inez Perez, With audio production and mix by Steve Lack Audio. Subscribe to continue learning from more amazing media makers. Please visit mediummakerspotlightcom for more information. That's a wrap. Spotlightcom for more information.