A slightly tipsy and chaotic holiday episode on Love Actually for all you saucy minxes out there (posted several days post-Christmas of course). Listen to me confuse writer Richard Curtis for Joy Division's Ian Curtis while we google pictures of Rodrigo Santoro for an hour and lament the fact that Laura Linney didn't shoot her shot with enigmatic designer "Karl".
Phantom Thread (2017) is the best dark romance film of all time. This Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece has it all: pageantry, ghosts, passionate power struggles, and a plot twist that is equal parts stomach-turning and erotically satisfying. The film's gothic atmosphere is a stunning homage to Rebecca, the Daphne du Maurier novel turned Hitchcock classic, but Phantom Thread's love story is anything but archaic. Actress Vicky Krieps brings to life a contemporary romantic heroine that is more than a match for Daniel Day-Lewis, her male counterpart. I explain my theories on why this unsettling love story ruffles the feathers of neoliberal critics and drove the legendary DDL into retirement.
(500) Days of Summer was a Tumblr user’s dream come true when it came out in 2009. Now, it’s the rom-com that every millennial loves to hate and hates to love. What happened? A discussion of the film’s fall from grace and its satirical examination of the manic pixie dream girl concept.
A conversation with my friend Quinton on the most romantic passage in The Great Gatsby, the intimacy of shopping with your significant other, and why indigo is the ultimate color of love.
A deep dive into one of my favorite films of all time: Sabrina (1954). While Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday (1953) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) may get more hype, I argue that Sabrina is far more iconic for establishing the “makeover transformation” as a major plot device in romantic films, now considered to be a mainstay in the genre. Although Hepburn’s other popular films feature similar glow ups, the metamorphosis in Sabrina is the ideal romantic fantasy at every turn. I also get into the pros and cons of the 1995 remake and how the story became a self-fulfilling prophecy in my own life.
My second interview episode with Matt, my other best friend, where we discuss his favorite romantic film: Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006). We do a deep dive into the romantic grandeur of the film's visuals, its eclectic religious symbolism, and how the story has mirrored the losses in Matt's own life. Later in the episode, we talk about other pieces of media that informed Matt's romantic identity: the poetry of Iranian astronomer Omar Khayyam, his favorite love song on the Blue Crush soundtrack, and some sage advice on marriage that he received during a surreal 3 am encounter with Alec Baldwin at a diner in West LA.
With an extremely British ensemble cast and a bumbling yet charming Hugh Grant as a romantic lead, early 90s rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) is the spiritual predecessor of Love, Actually (2003). An exploration of the English love/hate obsession with Americans and why "thunderbolts" are always worth waiting for.
