Film column by Tamim Alnuweiri. Follow her at @tamimalnuweiri.
Rom Coms are horrible and I’m positive that anyone who’s made their fortune from them has sold their souls to some sort of Kabalah Devil or what ever space urn they pray to in Hollywood. But sometimes you want something light like a comedy with some romance thrown in, but not a traditional rom com because if I ever watch a Katherine Heigl movie again karma might kick in and give me cataracts. So~ this is a list of movies that combine humor and romance in a way that doesn’t offend the senses.
1. Stolen Kisses
Truffaut understood how to make a sequel without really making it a sequel. He directed a series of movies following the character Antoine Doinel (first introduced in the seminal 400 Blows) who is a bizarre Larry Davidesque weirdo. Stolen Kisses is the best film from the series. Antoine is dishonorably discharged from the French army (one of the best scenes in the movie) and then works a bunch of random jobs while trying to woo a girl and her family.
2. Rocket Science
Rocket Science is a little gimmicky in the way most indie movies are BUT it’s really funny. A kid in middle school with a speech impediment joins the debate team after being persuaded to by a girl. Because this is an indie movie he’s got a weird ass family and there are quirky side characters but it actually comes together quite well, at the very least it’s unpredictable.
3. Seinfeld, Season 7 Episode 24
This isn’t the best or the funniest Seinfeld episode but it’s the only time Jerry ever properly commits to a woman. He meets a woman who shares all of his interests and quirks because she is very literally the female version of him. Jerry gets engaged to her and at first it’s complete euphoria but quickly turns into regret when he realizes that he hates hanging out with himself.
4. Divorce Italian Style
In all honesty, the premise of this movie is enough to set me off. Okay so basically Ferdinando is married and wants to get divorced so he can marry his cousin (????). Divorce is illegal in Italy (Catholicism) so Ferdinando wants to murder his wife, but he wants her to cheat on him first so that he’ll get a lighter prison sentence (1960’s Italy was apparently a parallel Looney Tunes universe). He then finds someone to seduce his wife into an affair which proves to be surprisingly difficult. Mind you that’s not even the plot of the film, that’s just the premise on which it’s built.
