Avidly is thrilled to present a special issue, guest co-edited by Stephanie Hershinow. We made an open call for writers to submit essays making the case for the best genre beats, which, because these are rom coms, often means the worst genre beats. Because all rom coms are infinitely full of bests (/worsts) this list is necessarily incomplete; you’ll note it hardly advances out of the 90s, or into the superlative territories mapped out even by Julia Roberts or Ali Wong. We invite ongoing and vigorous contestation of all bests and worsts; in fact, perhaps its this ongoing generation of contestable intensities that keep so many of us returning to rom coms, at hard times.
Stephanie Hershinaw and Sarah Mesle: Team “We refuse to feel strongly about romcom vs Rom Com vs rom-com”
Best Corporate Allegory: Sabrina (1995)
“Sabrina (1995) receives such a thorough 90s-corporate makeover partly because Sabrina (1954) was also preoccupied with corporate mergers.”
Danielle Spratt
Most Tender Grief: The Family Stone (2005)
“The Family Stone is the best RomCom about a parent dying. How can I argue this?”
Sophie Corser
Best Longing Look: Clueless (1995)
“My daughter murmured as Cher walks down the staircase, ‘he’s staring at her because he knows he loves her.'”
Johanna Winant
Best (Worst) Break Up: The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
“Breakups happen all the time on-screen; fancy meals often set the stage for romantic disasters. But they’re not supposed to happen like this.”
Elizabeth Alsop
Most Fatalistic Relation to Christmas: While You Were Sleeping (1995)
“‘We didn’t get to celebrate Christmas,’ the patient’s father explains when he invites Lucy to a family party that has delayed because one of them is—still—in a coma.”
Annie Berke
Most Medieval: Return to Me (2000)
“In this carnal fixation, medieval love literature is at odds with most modern rom-coms, with their PG ratings and aspirationally-decorated interiors.”
Michelle DeGroot
Most Horrifying Happily-Ever After: Kate & Leopold (2001)
“It’s Kate & Leopold’s weird handling of choice that makes its ending so upsetting.”
Monique Laban
Most Illogical Display of Love:The Cutting Edge (1992)
“Here’s the thing about the ‘Pamchenko Twist’: it’s impossible.”
Emily Newman
Best Chase Scene: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
“And this, we are surely meant to feel, is what romance should be more like.”
Nora Gilbert
Most Collective Rom Coms: Socially Distant Movie Night
“An Oral History of Socially Distant Movie Night: 3 Years, Nine Months, and 182 Movies (mostly rom-coms).”
by Jennifer Ho, Caroline Kyungah Hong, Briallen Hopper, Leah Abuan Milne, Amy Wan, Amanda Watson, and Sarah Woodford
