Courtesy of 20th Century Fox/ Everett Collection. NEVER BEEN KISSED, (L-R): Drew Barrymore, Leelee Sobieski, 1999. Yet as they kiss and make up on the bridge after a truly humiliating karaoke-fight in front of everyone they know, it’s basically impossible to do anything but cheer. Boo-Boo-Boo” to a Céline Dion concert, and he’s dragged-I mean, brought-her to Staten Island to meet his family after just a few days of dating. By the end, Andie has dragged “Benny Boo-Boo. Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey sold their characters with wit and panache-throwing themselves into the roles completely, but delivering certain lines with just a whiff of irony. He, meanwhile, is simply trying to prove he can make any woman fall in love with him. She’s a writer at a women’s magazine trying to carve out a space where she can write about subjects of substance-which, for the moment, requires her to ensnare a man and torture him to the point of breaking up. From the jump, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is precisely as frothy as it sounds-a film that centers on a Cool Girl, before the term came into vogue, whose chemistry with a mildly chauvinistic man’s man is undeniable even though their romance is doomed from the start. Only in the rom-com to end all rom-coms would you have leads named Andie Anderson and Benjamin Barry. A film this big and sweeping needs an anchor, and these two do quite nicely. We trace Toula and Ian’s relationship from the very first time they lay eyes on each other, all the way to Ian’s intimate proposal. But it’s the romance, which Vardalos pens so sweetly, that grounds it all. Each character is given so much personality and so much attention that My Big Fat Greek Wedding could be splintered into several offshoots following the antics of Aunt Voula (a rib-achingly funny Andrea Martin) or the headstrong Gus ( Michael Constantine), who can trace anything and everything back to Greece. It’s the definition of a romp, with kooky characters and their absurdist takes on life spilling out of every scene. Romance! Comedy! Culture shock! The secret healing powers of Windex! Vardalos’s ode to Greek culture in all its beauty and frustration focuses on the quest of her character, Toula, to get her family to accept her non-Greek partner, Ian (played by John Corbett). The joy of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring and written by Nia Vardalos, is that it’s actually several films baked into one. The important thing in life is who you end up connecting with that ends up helping you become the person you need to be.” -Savannah Walshīy Sophie Giraud/IFC Films/Photofest. “Who gets the girl-not only is it not the important thing in this movie, it’s not the important thing in life. “That’s really just a red herring,” Wu told Vanity Fair of her film’s outcome. But the film is far less concerned with who will emerge victorious in these efforts as it is the surprising friendship that develops between Ellie and Paul-two people who couldn’t appear more different on the surface. In this Cyrano-inspired tale, high schooler Ellie Chu ( Leah Lewis) helps a jock at her school ( Daniel Diemer) win the affections of the girl they’re both in love with ( Alexxis Lemire). But perhaps none has felt as needed as The Half of It-a proudly queer love story from Alice Wu, director of the 2004 cult classic Saving Face. Netflix has been credited with reviving the rom-com in recent years by distributing popular titles including Set It Up and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. But I said it.” Even wilder: the movie manages to prove just that. And to say that something is greater than a Jane Austen narrative is insane-unhinged of me-to do. “The fact that we did that feels miraculous, considering what we were up against.” Added Yang, “A Jane Austen narrative meeting an Asian American narrative meeting a queer narrative: Those three helices come together in a way that’s greater than the sum of their parts. “We made something really, really special and unique and gay,” Booster told Vanity Fair of his celebratory rom-com. Faced with a similar transformation is Howie ( Bowen Yang), whose burgeoning courtship with Charlie ( James Scully), gets mixed reviews from his friends, including Keegan ( Tomás Matos), Luke ( Matt Rogers), and Max ( Torian Miller). Set in the LGBTQ+ destination of Fire Island, Booster plays Noah, a proudly single nurse whose outlook on dating is rocked by the film’s Mr. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the narrative basis for this queer romantic comedy, written by and starring Joel Kim Booster. By Jeong Park /Searchlight Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection. FIRE ISLAND, from left: Tomas Matos, Joel Kim Booster, Conrad Ricamora, Matt Rogers, Margaret Cho, Torian Miller, 2022.
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