500 Days of Summer (2009)
In a genre that’s built around the well-known format of a first meeting -> crisis -> catharsis, this movie is almost a complete antithesis. This is exactly why it’s one of the most brilliant and important rom-coms made since Nora Ephron’s masterpieces.
A story about an unattainable girl and a guy that doesn’t believe in love, that is constructed as a nonlinear narrative, moving between the lows and highs that only love can bring.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Grotesque characters? Check. Sex jokes? Check. Nudity? Check. Happy ending? Check check check. This movie does the seemingly impossible – because it a men’s rom-com.
While other movies give us the usual neurotic heroine that spends her evenings eating ice crime in front of the tv (until a new hot guy enters her life), Sarah Marshal gives us her male version: a brokenhearted silly hero, that gets stuck in Hawaii with his ex and her douche boyfriend.
Amelie (2001)
With all due respect to Hollywood rom-coms, the biggest experts on love are the French. Amelie is a female version of cupid, and we watch her wandering the streets of Paris, trying to find the lid for every pot.
The average cynical movie watcher might struggle at first to delve into this sugary tale, but it’s worth it, as the sweet taste will stay long after the end of the movie.
Clueless (1995)
Honestly speaking, most romantic ‘comedies’ are not actually funny. It’s difficult to find good movie that manages to be moving without using tear-jerking breakups and dramas.
Clueless is one of the only rom-coms that continues the great When Harry Met Sally tradition and is both funny, romantic - and fun. A real fairytale story about a pretty girl who learns to accept and love her true self, with the help of the guy she loves.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
With Nora Ephron’s writing, Rob Reiner’s directing, the perfect chemistry of co-stars Billy Cristal and Meg Ryan, and scenes like the iconic deli scene (“I’ll have what she’s having”),
there’s no wonder this story about a friendship that turns into love became a rom-com legend, and it even stood the test of time.
