critical generic analysis: romantic comedy

romance

you think that 'love'—much like 'quantum physics', 'spirituality', 'the internet' and, to some degree, 'gravity'—is a memetic coalescence invented by humans to explain something that is currently incomprehensibly abstract, and is persistently referenced to as a single conglomerate to falsely concretize—as an abstraction-trumping security mechanism—an intuitive phenomenon that may or may not exist as humanity understands or experiences it and will change as humanity better communicates mutual subjective experiences and also as scientific studies better explain the phenomenon in more concrete terms

you feel uncomfortable that 'love' is a defining aspect of human interconnectivity, because of its nature as a presumed universal and humanity's linguistic inability to define it, despite its ubiquitousness, and think that the memetic transference of the concept may have developed into a highly flawed rhetorical device, confusing and inaccurately assigning an 'umbrella term' to a complex series of emotional responses and 'desires' that might be better communicated through more nuanced differentiation

but you perceive that 'love' is 'marketable' as a primary theme in various 'artistic media', specifically movies, and that, based on your interest in movies, love 'requires' conceptual dissection

however you find the trend of foregoing all rational story arcs when culminating romantic experiences occur and the resulting sense of 'transcendent euphoria' at the end of movies ungratifying

you feel that this sudden breakdown of rationale is jarring, and 'fucks' the movie's 'suspension of disbelief', but because [most romantic comedies] are generically prescribed the title 'romantic comedies', you think maybe this designation is a device that 'justifies' the dissolution of the story's coherence as long as intense, emotional sequences are periodically present between the middle and end portions of the movie


comedy

you think—based on your preconceived ideas about death, suffering, and existential despair—that life has an inherently, consistently bleak quality that is somewhat alleviated by communication that results in intentional paradoxes

you think that the bleakness-decreasing human instinct considered 'humor' seems to be the simplest response and most difficult to induced subtly in order to prolong combat against bleakness

your are an advocate for combatting bleakness

comedy exists, inherently, you think, in everything, if juxtaposed against an appropriately absurd idea

the very mention of 'love', for instance, at all, ever


romantic comedy

you perceive that the generic concept of a 'romantic comedy' is basically a title given to a movie that's primary focus is to embody the concept of 'romance' by narrating a two-plus interpersonal and possibly sexual relationship and approach it with a certain optimism that will allow the movie to conclude with a sense of euphoric, perhaps existentially impossible 'success' in the context of either a romantic pursuit or a romantic trial

however the nature of relationships, you believe, is fluid and ephemeral, perhaps unknowable, so the creative choice to end a story, regardless of the theme, by indiscriminately leading to the 'happy ending', because [in context] it 'needs' to end that way (happily ever after...), is inherently disingenuous and missing the nuance necessary be considered a 'reflection of the human experience'.

therefore you relegate 'romantic comedy' to a non-art status, in your mind, and will not address the concept or genre again

internet cinema zeitgeist phenomenon coverage: sebastian sommer interviews molly soda

molly soda
sebastian sommer

movie review: 'the future'

miranda july directs
herself
and hamish linklater



you arrive home after living abroad for five months

your brother asks if you've seen 'the future'?

'the movie? by miranda july?' you ask

'yeah,' says your brother

'no, but i've been wanting to'

'it's really weird'

'yeah, she's crazy'

'i got it on redbox, it's in the DVD player'

you go downstairs to the den and wrap yourself in a blanket and use the remote to turn on the DVD player

during the movie you try to discern what the title of the film 'means' or is referring to,

then you remember the title of miranda july's last movie was 'me and you and everyone we know' and vaguely remember a character saying 'me and you and everyone we know' or something like that during the movie

you expect this to happen in 'the future'

after the movie you discuss the themes with your brother

he thinks that the injured cat, the 'soul of the movie' is the worst thing about it

you think about an interview with miranda july in which she admits to never having seen 'lolcats' and think this may have informed, in a way, the movie's overall 'non-self-awareness'

you 'go mad' and contemplate stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping