In response to a debate yesterday over The Ringer's list of the 50 best rom-coms, none released earlier than 'Harold and Maude,' I offer a list of my own.
This is great (the idea that someone would leave The Apartment off a list of _50_ great Rom Coms is just...), but I'm going to lose sleep over that bit about Hook getting re-evaluated.
How can this list of rom-coms be published and NOT include any films from 1999? That year was the pinnacle of rom-coms that would define all future rom-coms from the 1920s to 2022. More specifically this list is missing the best rom-com of all time: Takashi Miike's Audition. Based on notable romantic novelist Ryu Murakami's novel, this millennial meet-cute finds a down-on-his-luck widower encouraged to love again by his son and a producer friend that holds an open call casting for his next girlfriend! He meets an aspiring dancer that loves to really shred and the romance is non-stop! And from there it's nothing but good times. For shame this isn't included.
Me love Ringer, but it 30-year-olds writing for 20-year-olds and they not really have sense of history. Even when they talk about sport, idea of old-timey baseball player is Bobby Bonilla.
Also, that last line about Groundhog Day and sincerity just more evidence that Bill Murray was absolutely perfect casting. Sincerity hit hardest when it come from someone who has devoted life into turning insincerity into art form (only real comparison is when David Letterman would momentarily get emotional, like after 9/11 or death of his mother).
And me got to Apartment and thought, "how this #4 on list? What movie better than Apartment?" And then me read rest of list and thought, "oh, right, those movies."
Every few years I rewatch "It Happened One Night". How is it that a nearly 90 year old movie does not feel dated yet every movie from my youth fills me with the nausea of nostalgia? Maybe it's that the score to every 80s movie sounds like a throwaway David Sanborn album.
My favorite romantic comedy that I’ve discovered in recent years is Howard Hawks’ “Twentieth Century”, which is just wildly quotable and features an overpowering John Barrymore going absolutely nuts. More emphasis on the comedy than the romance, but both elements really work.
I was kind of underwhelmed by The Lady Eve, the high point being Barbara Stanwyck doing the play by play via her compact mirror. I do adore her though, and fervently hope Criterion releases Ball Of Fire on bluray someday soon.
I generally like The Ringer but yeah, of-all-time rankings aren't where they excel. For a more encompassing deep dive into the genre, I would recommend Caroline Siede's When Romance Met Comedy column, an NCC-esque time-hopping series on rom-coms which recently ended on the AV Club.
These 10 are all very good of course, but these lists could use some non-English language pictures. Not sure I can endorse John’s claim that Audition is a rom com but there’s no question about Johnnie To’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart; and it’s a terrific one at that. Let’s get some love for the international rom coms!
I'm not a big rom-com enthusiast, but 1938's Holiday is one of my favorite movies. I don't think there's a better Hepburn/Grant movie than this one and Grant's Johnny Case is one of the few movie characters that I actually *relate* to. The supporting cast is glorious, especially Lew Ayres as Hepburn's older brother who is an alcoholic and implied to be a closeted gay man. The laughs are frequent, the gowns are gorgeous and Hepburn & Grant do a little tumbling act! What's not to love.
"It Happened One Night" is one of those movies with equal amounts of romance and comedy. The "Walls of Jericho" will never get old. And "The Shop Around the Corner" will remain timeless while... actually, I don't even want to mention that other film.
The Lady Eve tops my list too! I love every incarnation of Barbara Stanwyck trying to fleece a rube and then falling in love with his goodness (including Ball of Fire, Remember the Night, Meet John Doe, half her films, basically), but this one's my favorite.
I'd add Hobson's Choice, which I discovered on TCM back when I still paid for cable. It's a David McLean film from the 50s, set in the 1890s.
Great list. I think ‘The Awful Truth’ would make my personal top 10 but just one minor quibble with Scott’s list. I love ‘Something Wild’ (which I didn’t in 1986 but rewatched recently and was really smitten by it) but given the menacing 3rd act, I’m not sure it really falls into the traditional ‘rom-com’ category given that left turn. Still great though.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and state my unconventional opinion: The Shop Around the Corner does not work as a romance. It's a charming film about coworkers at a store, yes. Jimmy Stewart is JS, yes. But Sullavan is so, so cruel to Stewart before she finds out he is her correspondent, and there is so little time for any chemistry between them, that I always wonder why he's even interested in her by the end.
What a great list - the only thing I might have changed is substituting The Awful Truth for Adam's Rib. I hadn't heard of the recent Ringer list so I just looked it up now. It really makes me realize how bad the state of romantic comedies has become in the past few decades. Although I've sat through most of those 50 films because I am sucker for rom-coms and always think "maybe this will be good" I think last really, truly good romantic comedy was probably Clueless in 1995.
Very solid list. I know that soon enough "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) will get the justice it deserves and be listed among the best in the rom com canon.
This is great (the idea that someone would leave The Apartment off a list of _50_ great Rom Coms is just...), but I'm going to lose sleep over that bit about Hook getting re-evaluated.
How can this list of rom-coms be published and NOT include any films from 1999? That year was the pinnacle of rom-coms that would define all future rom-coms from the 1920s to 2022. More specifically this list is missing the best rom-com of all time: Takashi Miike's Audition. Based on notable romantic novelist Ryu Murakami's novel, this millennial meet-cute finds a down-on-his-luck widower encouraged to love again by his son and a producer friend that holds an open call casting for his next girlfriend! He meets an aspiring dancer that loves to really shred and the romance is non-stop! And from there it's nothing but good times. For shame this isn't included.
Great stuff and I am disappointed in myself to have 2 blind spots on this list. To the top of the heap they go!
Me love Ringer, but it 30-year-olds writing for 20-year-olds and they not really have sense of history. Even when they talk about sport, idea of old-timey baseball player is Bobby Bonilla.
Also, that last line about Groundhog Day and sincerity just more evidence that Bill Murray was absolutely perfect casting. Sincerity hit hardest when it come from someone who has devoted life into turning insincerity into art form (only real comparison is when David Letterman would momentarily get emotional, like after 9/11 or death of his mother).
And me got to Apartment and thought, "how this #4 on list? What movie better than Apartment?" And then me read rest of list and thought, "oh, right, those movies."
Every few years I rewatch "It Happened One Night". How is it that a nearly 90 year old movie does not feel dated yet every movie from my youth fills me with the nausea of nostalgia? Maybe it's that the score to every 80s movie sounds like a throwaway David Sanborn album.
My favorite romantic comedy that I’ve discovered in recent years is Howard Hawks’ “Twentieth Century”, which is just wildly quotable and features an overpowering John Barrymore going absolutely nuts. More emphasis on the comedy than the romance, but both elements really work.
I was kind of underwhelmed by The Lady Eve, the high point being Barbara Stanwyck doing the play by play via her compact mirror. I do adore her though, and fervently hope Criterion releases Ball Of Fire on bluray someday soon.
I generally like The Ringer but yeah, of-all-time rankings aren't where they excel. For a more encompassing deep dive into the genre, I would recommend Caroline Siede's When Romance Met Comedy column, an NCC-esque time-hopping series on rom-coms which recently ended on the AV Club.
These 10 are all very good of course, but these lists could use some non-English language pictures. Not sure I can endorse John’s claim that Audition is a rom com but there’s no question about Johnnie To’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart; and it’s a terrific one at that. Let’s get some love for the international rom coms!
I'm not a big rom-com enthusiast, but 1938's Holiday is one of my favorite movies. I don't think there's a better Hepburn/Grant movie than this one and Grant's Johnny Case is one of the few movie characters that I actually *relate* to. The supporting cast is glorious, especially Lew Ayres as Hepburn's older brother who is an alcoholic and implied to be a closeted gay man. The laughs are frequent, the gowns are gorgeous and Hepburn & Grant do a little tumbling act! What's not to love.
"It Happened One Night" is one of those movies with equal amounts of romance and comedy. The "Walls of Jericho" will never get old. And "The Shop Around the Corner" will remain timeless while... actually, I don't even want to mention that other film.
The Lady Eve tops my list too! I love every incarnation of Barbara Stanwyck trying to fleece a rube and then falling in love with his goodness (including Ball of Fire, Remember the Night, Meet John Doe, half her films, basically), but this one's my favorite.
I'd add Hobson's Choice, which I discovered on TCM back when I still paid for cable. It's a David McLean film from the 50s, set in the 1890s.
Great list. I think ‘The Awful Truth’ would make my personal top 10 but just one minor quibble with Scott’s list. I love ‘Something Wild’ (which I didn’t in 1986 but rewatched recently and was really smitten by it) but given the menacing 3rd act, I’m not sure it really falls into the traditional ‘rom-com’ category given that left turn. Still great though.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and state my unconventional opinion: The Shop Around the Corner does not work as a romance. It's a charming film about coworkers at a store, yes. Jimmy Stewart is JS, yes. But Sullavan is so, so cruel to Stewart before she finds out he is her correspondent, and there is so little time for any chemistry between them, that I always wonder why he's even interested in her by the end.
What a great list - the only thing I might have changed is substituting The Awful Truth for Adam's Rib. I hadn't heard of the recent Ringer list so I just looked it up now. It really makes me realize how bad the state of romantic comedies has become in the past few decades. Although I've sat through most of those 50 films because I am sucker for rom-coms and always think "maybe this will be good" I think last really, truly good romantic comedy was probably Clueless in 1995.