IndieWire's The 50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time
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There’s something uniquely cinematic about romantic comedies — something that makes them a natural fit for the movies, and vice-versa. There’s a special alchemy that allows us to believe in the magic of meet-cutes, happily ever afters, and all of the agonizing contrivances that tend to pop up between the two; that gives storytellers permission to transpose the stuff of operas and fables into the fabric of real life.
On paper, a film like “Pretty Woman” might be a retrograde fairy tale about a hooker with a heart of gold and the rich businessman who can afford it, but the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is so explosive that you surrender to the sentiment of it all. It’s hard to imagine how the mismatched couple in “Something Wild” might possibly sustain a lasting relationship after the credits roll, but where that movie leaves you — and the journey it takes to get there — is so thrilling and alive that you can’t help but trust it. Literally nothing in “Love Actually” makes sense if you stop and think about it for even a few seconds, but love, actually, always seems to add up in the moment.
Richard Curtis’ magnum opus was a British production (in case you couldn’t tell), but even some of its many storylines find something naggingly American about the aspirational nature of the rom-com genre. No other country is populated by such radically different strangers, nor so enriched by the unexpected collisions between them; from “Bringing Up Baby” to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” Hollywood has always been eager to sell the idea that we’re all just one chance encounter away from happiness. That might help to explain — if only in part — why the rom-com canon is as white and heteronormative as the history of the American film business, and why that canon is ripe for re-evaluation now that Hollywood doesn’t see the same value in the genre that it once did.
Of course, the romantic comedy is also something of a universal language, and other film industries (Bollywood most of all) have been churning these stories out for local audiences faster than we can hope to keep up. Fingers crossed that we find a way to disentangle “foreign cinema” from the arthouse, because there are so many mainstream hits from around the world that never make it to American screens.
In that light, IndieWire’s list of the 50 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time is more of a start than a final statement; it’s a living document that we’ll change up and add to as time goes by. One thing that will stay the same, however, is that rom-coms have a recognizable grammar all their own; meet-cutes, montages, banter, a weird preponderance of journalists, sex scenes that always indicate a dark turn at the end of the second act… these aren’t just love stories that happen to be funny, they’re a sacred art unto themselves. And these are 50 of the masterpieces that prove it.
By David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, Kate Erbland, Anne Thompson, Chris O'Falt, Zack Sharf, Jude Dry, Ryan Lattanzio, Tambay Obenson, Tom Brueggemann
Feb 14, 2020 10:00 am
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1 new
The Philadelphia Story
1940, in 22 top lists Check -
2 new
Broadcast News
1987, in 10 top lists Check -
3 new
Modern Times
1936, in 30 top lists Check -
4 new
Something Wild
1986, in 5 top lists Check -
5 new
It Happened One Night
1934, in 29 top lists Check -
6 new
When Harry Met Sally...
1989, in 16 top lists Check -
7 new
Bringing Up Baby
1938, in 23 top lists Check -
8 new
Roman Holiday
1953, in 14 top lists Check -
9 new
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2008, in 1 top list Check -
10 new
Pretty Woman
1990, in 12 top lists Check -
11 new
Moonstruck
1987, in 10 top lists Check -
12 new
His Girl Friday
1940, in 22 top lists Check -
13 new
Monsoon Wedding
2001, in 8 top lists Check -
14 new
Groundhog Day
1993, in 22 top lists Check -
15 new
Clueless
1995, in 8 top lists Check -
16 new
The American President
1995, in 1 top list Check -
17 new
Jerry Maguire
1996, in 8 top lists Check -
18 new
The Lady Eve
1941, in 20 top lists Check -
19 new
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
2001 — a.k.a. Amélie, in 27 top lists Check -
20 new
Punch-Drunk Love
2002, in 12 top lists Check -
21 new
Notting Hill
1999, in 6 top lists Check -
22 new
The Shop Around the Corner
1940, in 14 top lists Check -
23 new
Rangeela
1995, in 1 top list Check -
24 new
Shakespeare in Love
1998, in 12 top lists Check -
25 new
Muriel's Wedding
1994, in 3 top lists Check -
26 new
Sabrina
1954, in 5 top lists Check -
27 new
Boomerang
1992, in 1 top list Check -
28 new
But I'm a Cheerleader
1999, in 3 top lists Check -
29 new
Knocked Up
2007, in 4 top lists Check -
30 new
Harold and Maude
1971, in 22 top lists Check -
31 new
Something's Gotta Give
2003, in 2 top lists Check -
32 new
Eagle vs Shark
2007, in 0 top lists Check -
33 new
Shall we dansu?
1996 — a.k.a. Shall We Dance?, in 4 top lists Check -
34 new
Desk Set
1957, in 1 top list Check -
35 new
Think Like a Man
2012, in 0 top lists Check -
36 new
She's All That
1999, in 0 top lists Check -
37 new
Annie Hall
1977, in 34 top lists Check -
38 new
Kissing Jessica Stein
2001, in 1 top list Check -
39 new
The Big Sick
2017, in 2 top lists -
40 new
Go Fish
1994, in 2 top lists Check -
41 new
Yeopgijeogin geunyeo
2001 — a.k.a. My Sassy Girl, in 3 top lists Check -
42 new
High Fidelity
2000, in 3 top lists Check -
43 new
Belle Epoque
1992 — a.k.a. The Age of Beauty, in 5 top lists Check -
44 new
Obvious Child
2014, in 1 top list Check -
45 new
Bend It Like Beckham
2002, in 2 top lists Check -
46 new
13 Going on 30
2004, in 1 top list Check -
47 new
Daan san nam nui
2011 — a.k.a. Don't Go Breaking My Heart, in 0 top lists Check -
48 new
Ruby Sparks
2012, in 0 top lists Check -
49 new
Sleeping with Other People
2015, in 1 top list Check -
50 new
Love Actually
2003, in 3 top lists Check
Last updated on Mar 2, 2020; source