Female Film Critics 24/375
Materialists has officially revived the rom com genre with a modern take on a familiar story. Lucy is an ambitious young New York City matchmaker, who finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex. The plot raises a lot of questions about dating in the world today. It’s an honest and authentic look at dating brilliantly told from writer/director Celine Song’s insightful perspective.
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Writer-director Celine Song’s savvy and shrewd spin on modern relationships confronts expectations – and gender politics without irony. Materialists, her highly anticipated follow up to 2023’s acclaimed Oscar-nominated Past Lives, frames a romantic triangle with Song’s experience working at a dating service while she was trying to get her playwriting career off the ground. With her keen understanding of male-female dynamics, she presents an honest yet somewhat cynical look exploring intangible romantic love vs. a transactional business deal. Look at all the lonely people! Where do they all come from?
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Romantic comedies are making a comeback. There were a few years there where there were sparse pickings in the perennial favorite genre but there has been a real resurgence, especially on the streamers. Marian Yeager’s Match Me If You Can is the latest offering in this 21st century cohort. With a lower budget than many of its contemporaries, the new film has a touch of the Hallmark about it. Though not a stand-out in this well-worn genre, there’s enough in Match to entertain some truly diehard rom-com fans.
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Searchlight Pictures is missing a great opportunity by waiting until March to release Brit rom-com Rye Lane. This film is perfect viewing for Valentine’s Day, and sadly those in search of a charming romance to watch on the 14th will not even know what they’re missing. First-time feature director Raine Allen-Miller centers Black love in this color-drenched, Peckham-centric charmer that makes the South London neighborhood as much a lead character as the two who fall for each other on its streets. There’s so much fun and joy to be had in Rye Lane, it makes me grateful not EVERYONE has kicked the rom-com genre to the curb.
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The serviceable Netflix romantic comedy A Perfect Pairing isn’t a rapturous red burgundy like its protagonist describes with transportive metaphors. It’s more like a $10 supermarket Cabernet—fine enough. Screenwriters Hilary Galanoy and Elizabeth Hackett of the 2020 Netflix rom-com Love, Guaranteed seem to have lifted whole chunks of the plot from their 2019 Netflix rom-com, Falling Inn Love. So, not quite perfect, but if you’re in the mood for a scenic getaway, it’ll do.
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Chances are you’re going to try to resist Marry Me. You’re going to go into it thinking, “Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson together? Really?” and you’re going to scoff and roll your eyes and make all kinds of groaning noises. And then, against your better judgment, you will get sucked into the story and find yourself smiling when – or, maybe more accurately, even though – that story plays out pretty much exactly how you imagined it would.
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This time Owen Wilson is an unwitting Wedding Crasher as mild mannered, divorced math teacher, Charlie, who’s main ambition is to be a cool dad in Marry Me…a just in time for Valentines Day chick flick that men can earn serious brownie points with if they make this movie part of a date night. Don’t be afraid to take the plunge, but don’t have high expectations of wanting to renew these vows.
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The Broken Hearts Gallery has an adorable set up. We meet three best friends, in a high school bedroom, sorting through the remains of a dead relationship. The banter is witty and fresh. The actresses, Geraldine Viswanathan, Phillipa Soo, and Molly Gordon, sparkle. And the premise is inventive—built on a young woman who memorializes relationships via quirky keepsakes: retainers, used Solo cups, doorknobs, neckties, and a collection of chachkies that would impress several grandmas.
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Boy meets girl. Conflict.. Happy ending. This typical rom-com formula has nothing to do with a new festival favorite, screening at this year’s ROM COM Fest. In Reality essentially upends the rom com and welcomes audiences to the inside of the mind of writer/director/star Ann Lupo. .
Read more In the prologue, Annie (Cameron Diaz) blogs incessantly about the spicy sex life she enjoyed with her husband Jay (Jason Segel) when they met in college, when they first copulated, the second time they copulated and right on up to the time they married and had children (Sebastian Hedges Thomas, Giselle Eisenberg). Then suburban life – and exhaustion – robbed them of carnal pleasure. So she comes up with the idea sending the kids to Grandma (Nancy Lenehan) overnight, during which time they make a three-hour sex tape, depicting all the anatomical positions in “The Joy of Sex.”