Film Articles
Beyond “Chick Flicks”: Taking Romantic Films Seriously
In this article
“Chick flick” says more about how a movie is marketed than how it works. It can group together romantic comedies, family dramas and coming-of-age stories that have very different interests. A more useful question is what the film does with desire, embarrassment, friendship and change.
Look at the construction beneath the romance
A romantic comedy has to make attraction believable while giving its characters reasons to resist it. Watch the timing of an interruption, the misunderstanding that shifts a scene, or the moment a character stops performing confidence. Those are decisions about writing, acting and editing, not a lesser form of filmmaking.
Clueless (1995), adapted from Jane Austen’s Emma, offers a useful example of an older story finding a new social setting. Rather than treating its fashionable surface as the whole film, ask how confidence and self-knowledge differ. A character can be very good at explaining other people and still misunderstand herself.
A coming-of-age story is not automatically a romance
Lady Bird received five nominations at the 2018 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and directing. Its recognition is one reason to question a label that can make stories about young women sound interchangeable. A film can include dating while giving equal or greater weight to family, class, place and the wish to leave home.
Try describing a film without mentioning a couple. If the description still captures its main conflict, “romance” may be only one part of the experience. That distinction helps when choosing something to watch with someone who wants a love story rather than a broader character drama.
What makes one worth revisiting?
- Specific people: do the characters have interests and obligations beyond finding a partner?
- Earned change: does the ending grow from something they learn or do?
- Comic detail: do small reactions remain funny after the surprise is gone?
- A point of view: does the film invite you to notice a social rule you normally take for granted?
These are useful standards for any enduring film. Browse our Romance DVDs when a relationship is the main attraction, or explore Drama DVDs for a wider range of character conflicts. The two collections remain separate so you can choose the kind of evening you want.