All posts tagged: romcoms

Hugh Grant has left romcoms behind – but now he risks another kind of typecasting

Hugh Grant has left romcoms behind – but now he risks another kind of typecasting

Published by skeptic

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Ten years ago, if you’d asked anyone to sum up the constituent parts of a Hugh Grant movie, their answer might have gone something like this. Grant plays a charming posho with a knack for transforming even the most straightforward piece of dialogue into a bumbling collage of “erm”s and “aah”s. He exclaims “bugger!” a lot, often while bumping into various beautiful women. The floppiness of his fringe is inversely proportional to his level of caddishness (if his hair’s longer, he’s nice; if it’s shorter, run). And if Richard Curtis isn’t in the director’s seat, then his name is quite probably lurking somewhere in the credits. For a very long time, thanks to films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, Grant was synonymous with a particular sub-genre of romantic hero: one who lived in a nice part of west London and was good at swearing Britishly. …

Enough of the satire, dial down the rom-coms – Philomena Cunk is right: we need more stupid comedy | Viv Groskop

Enough of the satire, dial down the rom-coms – Philomena Cunk is right: we need more stupid comedy | Viv Groskop

Published by skeptic

Do we need more stupidity in our lives? With the state of the world as it is, the obvious answer is that we most definitely do not. But what if we need more stupidity in our comedy? The actor and comedian Diane Morgan argued last week that there is a crisis of stupidity in on-screen comedy: “Mandy [her show about an idiotically unemployable woman] is stupid. I don’t think there’s enough stupid stuff. Most [comedies] have always got a bit of drama or a bit of romance … you can spend a lot of money on having something look nice, but it doesn’t make it any funnier. In fact, I think it sort of impinges on it.” This is true. We need stupid, cheap, unpolished stuff. Also out this week is a new documentary celebrating the career of Steve Martin, one of the greatest standup comedians of the past century before he became known to a younger generation for Only Murders in the Building. Martin’s whole shtick as a comedian was in being as stupid …

‘Love is like crack’: Rye Lane star Vivian Oparah on romcoms, Emma Stone and her zany new comedy | Television

‘Love is like crack’: Rye Lane star Vivian Oparah on romcoms, Emma Stone and her zany new comedy | Television

Published by skeptic

How does it feel when, at 27 years old, with minimal acting training and only one feature film under your belt, you find yourself up against Emma Stone and Margot Robbie for best leading actress at the Baftas? “It’s insane, I feel mad,” says Vivian Oparah, the nominated star of last year’s hit indie romcom Rye Lane. “But I also still feel incredibly normal.” Oparah is slightly sleep-deprived when we meet in a cafe, in between her first time on Woman’s Hour and heading home to north London, where she has always lived. Ordering a coffee within seconds of sitting down, she perks up and feels warmly familiar, taking the time to chat about holidays, dating and Netflix’s One Day, which she is too scared to watch, because Normal People destroyed her and “love is like crack – it’s not a normal experience to be dealing with that level of emotion all the time”. It’s surprising to hear this reaction to romance. Although we’re here to talk about her freakishly fun new TV series, Dead …

‘Love is the best thing we have’: how we fell head over heels for TV romcoms | Television

‘Love is the best thing we have’: how we fell head over heels for TV romcoms | Television

Published by skeptic

An unashamedly romantic drama, following on-off lovers across 20 years. It’s a description that not only applies to the new Netflix adaptation of David Nicholls’ novel One Day, but also neatly sums up Channel 4’s Alice & Jack, which swoons on to television screens tonight. Yes, you wait ages for a decades-spanning love story and two come along at once, like buses painted love-heart red. Perfectly timetabled for Valentine’s Day, too. TV romance is back and viewers are falling for it hard. One Day has been Netflix’s most-watched UK show since it was released a week ago. Like Nicholls’ global bestseller, it revisits two will-they-or-won’t-they friends annually on St Swithin’s Day, 15 July, the date they first met at their graduation ball at the University of Edinburgh. The hit series isn’t just fan-pleasingly faithful to the novel but boasts a sublime soundtrack and superb performances. As the star-crossed protagonists, Dex and Em, Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod are a revelation. Woodall captures posh, privileged Dexter’s blend of easy charisma and itchy insecurity perfectly. Mod’s worthy, …