What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?
Written by Jess Sweetman
These days it's popular to talk about the death of the romantic comedy. Blame what you want: women’s lib, rubbish scripts, streaming services, late stage capitalism, sex robots, or Taylor Swift - there’s angst all around us, and many believe this is evidenced by lower take-ups of films about the glories of love.
Personally, I think we need rom coms now more than ever - especially, given - well -YOU KNOW - the times we’re living through. I mean, how else does a person settle an angry central nervous system without leading to dereliction and a shattered reputation?
But while there is a popular view of what a rom com looks like - reflected in those ones churned out to perfection by Hallmark and its mimics - perhaps the industry at large needs to remember that our society’s idea of what romantic love looks like has changed. I mean - why should we waste 90-minutes of life seeing some rehashed movie about another poor woman leaving her job and city home for some schmo in a lumberjack shirt?
And it’s pretty inescapable that once you sit down to watch one of the classics that what passed for romance in the various golden ages of romcoms would probably now lead to a restraining order.
Shut this down NOW Lloyd, before I close the blinds and call the police.
But, while I have always been ridiculously cynical, I am also deeply romantic, which is why I’ve always found it necessary to search beyond what Hollywood alone has to offer. Luckily for me, I came of age during the 90’s and early 2000s, the first blossoms of the queer romantic comedy genre.
There were those with incredible scripts - like “Beautiful Thing” (Hettie Macdonald, written by Jonathan Harvey, 1996) and “Jeffrey” (directed by Christopher Ashley, written by my hero Paul Rudnick, 1995); There were the Sundance favourites - like “Late Bloomers” (Julia and Gretchen Dyer, 1996). Not to mention the golden age of Aussie romcoms, featuring quirky characters trying to find themselves as well as love, like Emma Kate Croghan’s 1996 film “Love and Other Catastrophes.” And then there was fare for the bi-curious, like “Kissing Jessica Stein” (Charles Herman-Wurmfield, 2001).
Later on I started to lean on Audrey Wells’ 2003 film “Under the Tuscan Sun”, which is really a romance between a woman and the villa that she’s rebuilding. And later on, of course, came John Cameron Mitchell’s gorgeous exploration of all things in the realm of sexuality and relationship in “Shortbus,” (2006) which is not for the prudish, but is for the wounded and those who want to find a version of love that doesn’t resemble a Hallmark film.
But, like me, all of these films are now as old as the hills, and even if they represent queer love, they’re representing queer love between young, thin, white people in a way that relies on heteronormative guidelines for what a relationship looks like.
The public face of love has evolved since then, man. Even in mainstream culture (okay, Netflix), romance is no longer viewed as just occurring between a guy and a girl, or two guys, or a couple of chicks, or even between a woman and her best female friend and an old Italian villa.
I mean, nowadays our society is much more open to throuples, the full spectrum of queer love, polylcules, normalised sexual exploration, furries, asexual chic, dancing Leather Daddies, Chappell Roan, open conversations about consent, Anne Summers, and therapy.
So where are the romcoms that represent the full spectrum of humans as well as the full spectrum of humans? Do we have access to the love stories that show love’s wider potential as happening to - well - everyone?
While Hollywood flounders, the indie short film world is already up and running. So here are a few romance films - from the sublime to the ridiculous - that offer a glimpse at a wider definition of love outside the one that’s been flung at us.
“my eyes are up here” - nathan morris 2023
MY EYES ARE UP HERE is a film about a woman trying to get the morning after pill after a fling, but having a simple task rendered complicated by idiots, is sweet and frustrating, and then sweet again.
The narrative is held together by the no-nonsense sensibility of the lead character, Sonia, steadfastly pushing her way through an embodiment of the social model of disability, while Ben, a sweet and rather spaced-out pretty boy, fall head over heels in love with her. We don’t blame you, Ben. Go for it! (In a mutually consensual way, obvs.)
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️🤍🤍
all the crows in the world, yi tang, 2021
Won the Short Film Palm D’or in 2021. The film centres on 18-year-old school girl, Shengnan, as she enters a night of adventure in adults' world.
It’s queer, and dabbles in romance for asexual people. It’s beautiful, and builds a sweet sense of nostalgia for having been the age when adulthood seems like an exotic country that you’re visiting for the first time. Oh and it has a hip hop dance sequence. It’s currently available on Kanopy so find a friend with a U.S. library card.
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️🤍🤍
yokelan 66, yi tang, 2022
Yi Tang also directed YOKELAN 66, This winner from AFI fest in 2023 is about a horny Chinese-American grandma trying to find love. Yang’s film appears on Youtube courtesy of Vogue China, and you can see why - the production design is gorgeous, so many textures and brilliant looking outfits contribute to making this film good enough to eat.
Oh and there’s food too - and who doesn’t love a good food film (hearkening back to the quintessential food romance film, Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink, Man Woman”.
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍
“roses”, coral knights (2024)
Clocking in at 15-minutes ROSES is a perfect little slice of happiness. Coral Knights’ film sees Rosa, a recent divorcee, wander through a picturesque Cornish town until a chance encounter in a bar with another woman opens up a world of possibilities.
Recently we’ve seen a few breakthrough films about middle-aged women, and often with older female actors, the audience have to suspend disbelief because there is so much pressure driving them to surgery in order to appear younger. So it’s really cool to see that as Rosa relaxes, and is invited to talk about herself, we can watch a woman lose herself away from the demands of the patriarchy, becoming truly beautiful in the process.
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating:❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
“to wendy who kicked me when i said i love you” dan castella (2017)
This is a gloriously pink British short romantic comedy. It owes a debt of gratitude to TV shows like “Spaced,” surreal in a way that makes it seem charming.
Amit Shah gives a great performance as the awkward British guy. In this case, however, he screws his colours to the mast and declares his love for the unique and eye-patch wearing chamber maid Wendy, who uses her job as an excuse to plane spot from hotel room windows. Their romance follows the usual twists and turns, and their journey to love is engaging and fun.
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍
“sister wives” louisa connolly-burnham (2024)
This movie is a lot more rom than com, that said, stick around for the most heartfelt of heartfelt endings. In 30-minutes, Connolly-Burnham builds a world around a strict polygamist cult in which two sister-wives, when given a moment alone from the house patriarch, explore their feelings for one another.
It gives all of the “Portrait of a Lady On Fire” vibes and more. Perfect if you’re mourning the suggested end of women’s rights, or - like me - you’re addicted to “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
“narrow path to happiness” (kata oláh, 2023)
This is a film I was lucky enough to catch at the Ake Dikhea Roma film festival in Berlin last year (highly recommended if you’re in the neighbourhood.) Unfortunately it’s going to be hard to see, as distribution has been interrupted by the rise of the far-right in Europe. The filmmakers and stars are still arranging screenings, however, if you happen to have a venue knocking around.
The documentary follows a young couple, Gergő and Lénárd, as they move from the Roma community that they grew up in, in Hungary, to Budapest, where they pursue their dream to make a musical about their lives.
I expected this film to be one of hardship, based on two people who are a minority within a minority, within a country led by homophobic, patriarchal, far right leadership. But instead the romance is everywhere - and the love between the two men comes with a force that should melt the hardest of hearts. It truly is a film about the magical power of love, changing minds and creating art, even against a backdrop of hate.
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
boot camp, john scott matthews (1998)
Yeah sure, whippersnapper, 1998 seems like a long time ago but it’s really not. “Boot Camp” must have been a final gasp for the New Queer Cinema movement - it brings the utter beauty of a leather daddy and a twink eyeing each other and connecting through an MGM-inspired song and dance number.
I mean, who doesn’t need this? If you are lucky enough to have a Kanopy login, check this out as part of the shorts block “The Best of Boys In Love.”
Cuddle-Snuggle-Chuckle Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
and in the end, love was all we needed all along…
See - love doesn’t just mean never having to say you’re sorry (also don’t ever solicit romantic advice from Ryan O’Neil), love can mean many different things to many different people and nearly every type of love deserves to be celebrated!
So if that doesn’t provide something for everyone who is feeling unrepresented, or just through with the conventional romance that gets shoved down our throats every year, well - you can just enjoy the incredible dancing below while you impatiently wait until tomorrow, when all of the heart-shaped chocolates will be half price.
Because there should be something for everyone this Valentine’s Day. We are all worthy of love and care and kindness and the more we remember that, well - maybe we’d remember that there’s something else called hope in the world.
