Romantic Comedies Women Cannot Miss

Screenwriter Hallie Meyers-Shyer shares her top picks—they’ll make you believe in love again. (And add to your Netflix queue immediately!)

Twentieth Century (1934)
The Gist: Down-on-his luck Broadway director Oscar Jaffe tries to win back his former-ingenue Lily Garland, now a Hollywood star, when chance reunites them on the same train.
Meyers-Shyer Says: "There are so many forces of comedic geniuses at work in this great screwball romantic comedy, it's crazy—and I love that most of the story unfolds on a train ride."

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
The Gist: A dramedy about the romantic escapades of three sisters as they unfold from one Thanksgiving to the next.
Meyers-Shyer Says: "Woody Allen expertly weaves together the intertwined lives and relationships of these complicated characters. I'm obsessed with this movie!"

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Gist: Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord's wedding is turned upside down when her ex-husband, Dexter, and a gossip reporter show up uninvited.
Meyers-Shyer Says: "Jimmy Stewart won the Oscar for his part in this classic love triangle. Romantic comedies don't get much better than this."

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

The Deal with ABC's New RomCom 'Mixology'

ABC wants you to make a date with Mixology, its new series about a group of singles who find themselves in the same bar on the same evening. One of them is Jessica, the single mother played by Alexis Carra. BFTV recently spoke with Alexis to get the scoop on Mixology and where on the network you've seen her before.

"It is really a romantic comedy with a twist," she said. "It's about ten singles that end up in a bar. Some of us come alone and some of us come with our friends. The series is about the mixing and mingling, and it's a question of who ends up with who, and what each character learns about themselves. It takes place in one night, and each character has flashbacks, so the audience learns how they came to be [there]."

"We've shot everything," she added. "I definitely am forbidden to share any kind of pairings, but I will say I think episode three is one of my favorite episodes, and where the audience will get to see the heart of the show and the characters."

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

RomCom Films for Valentine's Day

It’s a common misconception that male viewers aren’t interested in great film romances. But just because premises involving Katherine Heigl as a saucy bounty hunter fail to generate considerable enthusiasm in the male demographic, that doesn’t mean the more bellicose sex is completely cold and unfeeling.

Valentine’s Day, for all its pageantry and commercialism, is always a good time of year to revisit some of the great films out there with a primarily romantic bent. Some of these are more comedy than romance, and others have sci-fi, musical or sports-related twists, but every one of them is an excellent film in its own right that your boyfriend, husband or otherwise male object of interest probably wouldn’t mind watching this Valentine’s Day.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

 

 

RomCom that Captivates

FLORENCE – The world-renowned Aquila Theatre Company returns to the campus of the University of North Alabama for a lively and longstanding annual theatrical tradition.

Aquila’s traveling troupe of players will revive and reinterpret one of William Shakespeare’s most captivating and romantic comedies – Twelfth Night (or, What You Will), There will be one performance only at Norton Auditorium on Monday, February 10 at 7pm.  Aquila performs a full-scale Shakespearean production at UNA each spring semester through the sponsorship of the Albert S. Johnston Endowment in the UNA Department of English. 

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

A Ronda Rich Novel Based RomCom

Ronda Rich said she never writes anything in her column that would cause her embarrassment if her pastor read it. So, when it came time for a television movie adaption of her book, “The Town That Came A-Courtin’” she made sure the film stayed true to the clean content of her writing.

“If you’re looking for good wholesome family entertainment, with no sex, violence, or cussing, then you’re going to enjoy this movie,” said Rich, whose columns appear Sundays in the Citizen’s East Metro section.

“The Town That Came A-Courtin’,” a romantic comedy about a community’s love for their mayor and how that appreciation plays out in the life of an author visiting the town, airs on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 7, 9 and 11 p.m. on the UP network.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

'That Awkward Moment' Spins on Male RomCom

(Reuters) - Actor Zac Efron navigates the tangled, complex web of dating and the New York singles scene in "That Awkward Moment," a film that puts an uncommon spin on romantic comedy: the male perspective.

The movie, due to open in U.S. theatres on Friday, follows the lives and loves of best friends, 20-something men in the big city trying to remain emotionally unattached as they manoeuvre the tricky terrain of jobs and relationships.


"This is the first look, I think, of what it is like to be a guy dating at our age and what it's like to be out there," said Efron, 26, who is also an executive producer on the film.

"Sometimes it takes your best friends to get through it," added the star, who shot to fame in the Disney "High School Musical" TV movies and more recently starred in the historical drama "Parkland" and the thriller "The Paperboy."

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

The Growth of Cinematic Romance

The year 2013 wasn’t a good one for the romantic comedy.

Pickings were slimmer than they’ve ever been, and the few entries that did garner some attention—like Admission, Austenland, and Baggage Claim—weren’t your typical rom-com, nor did any of them make more than $25 million at the box office. The Atlantic’s own Christopher Orr wrote extensive autopsies of the failing genre, and his critique of Love Actually (as a classic and romance) inspired think-piece wars. The rom-com’s cause of death, he wrote, is not just a dearth of willing (or talented) stars, studios and audiences, but the fact that there are no longer “[obstacles] to nuptial bliss for the budding couple to overcome.” According to Orr, “new complications must be invented, [and] test-driven”—which nobody is invested in doing anymore.

With these kinds of conversations painting a grim picture around what isn’t working in cinema’s most visible form of amour, it’d be easy to believe all romance has vanished from the movies.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?