this is what i do

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This would be what motivated me to make a LJ post: please name your top 10 romantic comedies, friends. Define "romantic comedy" however you see fit. (That sentence makes it sound like I want you to go indie or weird -- I don't, I just want to know your favorites. If your favorites are "You've Got Mail" and "Love Actually", that's what you should

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boooo, i don't have anything new to contribute (except cadet kelly, so maybe i do win). i don't think i even have ten, i just have 10 things i hate about you, penelope, easy a, oh wait does aladdin count? I THINK ALADDIN COUNTS. and silver linings playbook! i sortof feel like putting atonement as a romtrag (why isn't that a term?) but i feel like i'd get slapped for making that joke. also for a long time, ice princess was in this list, i don't know why. i know that movie better than anyone has any reason to.

i can contribute a bollywood romcom though! yeh jawaani hai deewani. it is a PERFECT romcom, i spent about 8 months of this year obsessed with it, both before and after i saw it. also i'm really into the lead actors' irl history, i will elaborate if you're interested but basically: perfect romcom.

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I HATE ICE PRINCESS ON PRINCIPLE, idk if we can be friends anymore.

Silver Linings Playbook! It's funny because I never would have thought of that as a romcom, but it... totally is. ALSO YES PLEASE TELL ME ALL ABOUT YOUR BOLLYWOOD ROMCOM/THE ACTORS' HISTORY. Like obviously I asked this question for science reasons/to confirm my friends have generally better opinions than ~the internet at large~, but it's also great for backdoor recommendations.

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WAIT WHAT PRINCIPLE IS THAT. it's weird, me and that movie, i saw it on a plane the first time and was like, "eh". and then i randomly rewatched it a few months later and it became a constant rewatch thing? i think i just liked that it was so contained that i could know every part of it? and it has JOAN CUSACK, and michelle trachtenberg, and hayden patt's big ball face before it lost its ball. :\

you know what, silver linings came out and all i knew about it was OSCAR NOMINATION. and then i heard it described somewhere as a romcom, and i was like, it's a..... romcom? it just never occurs to anyone bc what kinda romcom deals with mental illness.

OKAY, my bollywood romcom is so precious, and it resonates with me for so many reasons, and a huge one is that i overidentify with both leads? like, the guy's thing is WANDERLUST, and the girl is the shy bookish girl who has never done anything and doesn't find it easy to be around people and on impulse decides to go on this trek to the mountains, and the guy's there, and they were old

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Lame I-used-to-be-a-figure-skater principle. I've never seen it, I was just ~super offended~ that the premise was "she's really good at math, which makes her capable of all this without years of practice!" The fact that I liked a lot of people in the cast only served to offend me more????

Well, and people expect romcoms to be bad and kitschy, not to be taken seriously. The mental illness thing definitely plays into that, and the fact that the original novel was written by a man probably helps too.

THE MOVIE SOUNDS PRETTY DARLING AND I'M DEF GONNA WATCH IT, but o m G that lead actor backstory is the stuff of great feelings. LIKE. Just. "Overly comfortable with an edge", is there anything better???

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ohhhhhh. but see, that's something i think is fun to watch.... at least i did in this movie! i mean, prodigies basically exist so we can have fiction stories like this. then again, it offends me in fiction when rich ppl are like to their errant sons "THAT'S IT, YOU'RE GOING TO THE OFFICE TOMORROW" and i'm like BUT HOW WILL THEY KNOW WHAT TO DO THERE

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I mean like, to be fair... I haven't seen it. But it always bugged me that they did it in a "she can do it because she figured out the MATH" way, because I was already sensitive about how figure skating was not perceived as a sport. I don't know. I was a teenager. Sometimes these biases are long-holdovers. But hahahahahah see, that doesn't bother me! We all have our things.

V. good counterpoint with Nicholas Sparks, yikes.

Omg I avoided When Harry Met Sally for like, a LONG time because I was afraid of 80s hair, and like... it's a little ridiculous, but it's still such a good film. He really is not cute though :/ She was so pretty back then though... I love her early two movies with Tom Hanks. ALSO I LIKE HIS GIRL FRIDAY FINE, but it's definitely not a fave -- I think I would do Bringing Up Baby first. It's RIDICULOUS, in the best way.

WHAT BOOK!

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oh. WAIT. i did it again. i was talking about ella enchanted! i can not seem to stop doing that!!!!1! enchanted is so good. ella enchanted ruined the greatest book ever. also now i keep remembering shit. nodody mentioned two weeks notice!! i'm never sure how much i actually like that movie, but the beginning was perfect. also nick and norah! michael cera is eh, but kat dennings is such a glorious human.

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omg LOL okay that makes way more sense. I STILL GET SUPER OFFENDED WHENEVER I THINK ABOUT IT TOO!!! I hated it on principle for a really long time, and then one time I decided to hatewatch it so I could hate it with full knowledge of it (because it came on tv one night, I did not seek it out) and it was so awful I had to turn it off in the middle. I think the thing about Two Weeks Notice is that it starts out great and then falters?? So if it's easy to beat up if you're making a favorites list. Nick and Norah was cute though, I forgot about that one. That was back when I could still deal with the Cera.

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it's really like a big slap in the face. WHY EVEN WOULD YOU. i mean, hugh dancy helps. and as you wish oppa. and hattie!! i LOVE the way hattie's actress hatties. SUCH A PERENNIAL SHAME.

nick and norah didn't blow me away, but i remember thinking i wanted my life to have the vibe that that movie had? so i guess it did something right. also that kiss at the beginning - the way kat dennings' face interlocks with another human's is a thing we mortals are blessed to behold.

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AUGH SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

SHIT, SON, but is that too recent a moviegoing experience for me to know how much I love it over time???? i have only seen the once in theaters so farrrrrr

ugh, i'm really excited for me and Alex obviously going to Catching Fire again next week. (This comes up because it reminds me that it is obviously NOT a romcom but is definitely all up in my feelings headspace)