Rom-coms: romantic or just problematic?
Aili Forester, Staff Writer
Classic rom-coms like “Love, Actually,” “Clueless” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” have long had a reputation for being cheesy and cliche. The cheesy-ness of these classics still carry on to the rom-coms of now, but in slightly more problematic ways. While the old rom-coms of the ’90s and early 2000s were undoubtedly corny, they were still original enough to be interesting. These movies started the cliche rom-com tropes like love triangles, fake dating, the “popular kid ends up with unpopular kid” and the workaholic and the wholesome. However, these storylines are now extremely overused. Tons of movies are adapting them to be more modern, but failing to do so without being extremely awkward.
One of the most popular rom-coms right now is the “To All the Boys I’ve loved before” series. Originally a book series by author Jenny Han, the series was adapted into three different Netflix films starting in 2018. The story follows two high schoolers, Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) who are fake dating but eventually actually fall in love with each other. This is an adaptation of similar movies like “Pretty Woman” (1990) and “The Proposal” (2009) which also followed fake dating storylines. The factor that makes a modern play on this trope like “To all the boys I’ve loved before” more unbearable than older versions of it, is the oversaturation and lack of creativity in the films. Too often, the dialogue between characters is unrealistic and cringe. Characters who are supposed to be protagonists in the story, also often come off as bad people due to bad writing that makes them look ignorant or not self-aware.
Another example, Netflix teen rom-com series, “The Kissing Booth,” which is a three part movie series about best friends Elle Evans (Joey King) and Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney) whose friendship is jeopardized by Flynn’s older brother, Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), who Evans falls in love with. This story derives from the classic love triangle cliche, but falls extremely short in delivering any emotional depth due to its immature writing style and desperate attempts at being quirky and relatable. The movies have random stories shoved in without context, while leaving other storylines unfinished. For example, in the most recent movie of the series, we see a gay couple formed quickly at the end, leaving the character’s.storyline to feely underdeveloped,ingenuine and random. Since the main target audience for movies like “The Kissing Booth” are teenagers, it makes sense for the film-makers to try and create content that appeals to teens. It is important to include subjects regarding social issues, yet instead of fully focusing on the issue or topic, “The Kissing Booth” only quickly touches on this in what seems like a sub-sub-plot. It feels like it was only put in for the sake of making the movie seem progressive and “woke” by having a non-heterosexual relationship.
The cheesy-ness of rom-coms is part of the appeal for many, this does not excuse bad writing and unoriginality. While it seems unlikely that there will be an end to rom-com’s any time soon, hopefully, there will be more genuine and original stories in the future.
