Rom-coms – love them or hate them, over the years they have remained a persistent genre despite their rebranding as ‘chick flicks’ which are not worth much critical attention. I personally believe that among movie genres, a love story with humour and personal development shouldn’t be seen as a red flag. They’ve managed to stay in pop culture for a long time, with clips of decades old movies constantly trending, and calls for sequels for love pairings long since established as ‘living happily ever after.’
When it all started
Even so, it may be a genre older than you might expect, as Emma C.C. helpfully traces its development throughout history which allows me a quick summary to share. Ignoring the genre formula dating back to Shakespeare, the rom-com movie model dates back to 1924. Beginning as category called a Comedy of Manners, it was first popularised in the ‘20 and ‘30s, following a rich person falling for someone outside of their social class and realising there is more to life than money. Following that, came the Screwball Comedies in the late ‘30s to ’40s with their fast-paced plots, slapstick humour and witty women beginning to show more agency in their story (partially due to its context alongside women’s rights and feminism of the period).
Then, came the Sex Comedies from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, centred around the main pairing’s sexual tension and differences (‘enemies to lovers’ and ‘forbidden romance’ trope lovers rise), as the industry became less strict on censorship and women’s sexuality began to be more explored. This led to the Radical Romantic Comedies of the 70s – focused less on an ‘idealised’ happy ending and adopting a more ‘realistic’ and cynical approach based on sex-appeal and self-fulfilment. Finally, reaching what we now perceive as rom-coms: the Neotraditional Romantic Comedy. In an entire reversal of its last conception in Radical Comedies, the Neotraditional Romantic Comedy centres the story on romantic love, this time with with “a much firmer stress on the importance of compromises and communication”, prioritising compatibility before sex.
the Rom-Com Fatigue
However, while this is how most of us conceptualise rom-coms today, a majority of critics believe we are currently in a stage after that – the Rom-Com Fatigue. Some of the reasons for this are outlined by Leah Asmelash. After their boom in the early to mid 2000s, rom-coms began to heavily rely on cliches, repeating the same stories with less chemistry, and depicting white heteronormative stories in a bid to sweep up the profits they had brought in the past. As less effort was put in, and they became less successful, they also lost their popularity and respect as a genre in the process. Moreover, the focus now is on big blockbusters (such as superhero franchises) guaranteed to rake in a lot of money, reaching a far ranging audience and pushing studios away from mid-budget movies. On the other hand, Netflix is attempting to personalise the viewing experience. This is where rom-coms have been reintroduced with movies such as The Kissing Booth, and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before – but often under the umbrella of Coming of Age narratives which engulf them. Romance has instead begun to be explored in long format – through series which can delve into characters over the course of multiple episodes and the evolution of their relationship over time in all its complexity without being as goal oriented as rom-coms tend to be, while also offering more space for diversity in the range of pairings. Overall, the rom-com has evaded cinema screens, even in its genre collaborations.
Feminist criticism and the introduction of the Bechdel-Wallace Test into mainstream evaluation of media also played a role, as audiences asked why women endlessly needed a man to save the day, or make her life worth living, in both rom-coms and films overall. This introduced a turn towards female bonds and relationships – which, as much as I love a good rom-com, I cannot understate how important that was either. It not only brings female ties to the forefront, but also diminishes the number of male love interests added for the sole purpose of speaking a few lines at the movie’s introduction and conclusion without adding anything else to the plot or character (except of course, assuring the audience that she is attractive with heteronormative aspirations). As well as this, Wesley Morris also identified a slump in the ’70s where rom-coms fell short before their next big success, and wonders, “Maybe that’s where we are right now: pragmatic, skeptical, in the mood for romantic tragedy, just like that previous ebb in the ’70s” – while also asking for “funnier and crazier and browner and gayer ones” in the next round.
The BookTok Solution
The film industry is in constant demand for a wide target audience and for a maximum financial return. The current popularity of book adaptations speaks to this with their guaranteed success from built-in fans, and ability to release more frequently by building on existing material rather than from scratch. Alongside this, there is a relentless nostalgia and cry for good, well-written and considered rom-coms, only growing louder. With all this in consideration, I think the next round of rom-coms may be just around the corner. Let me explain my thought process a bit further. With all these factors, in addition to romance books being at an all-time high on BookTok, I believe this is an easy opportunity for the film industry to capitalise on. Adapting any number of the current best sellers may prove to be a win-win – depending on which they choose to adapt. Ali Hazelwood alone, having released her first book ‘The Love Hypothesis’ in 2021 to massive success, now has seven romance books listed (some in progress). Their sheer numbers may even mean I get to see rom-com without knowing it was based on a book at all.
The need for rom-coms has left people overlooking how copy-pasted these stories can be, despite it being a factor in driving them out in the late 2000s. Leah Asmelash and Scottie Andrew’s article on ‘The anatomy of a romantic comedy’ can be read as a checklist showing how easily so many of the stories involve the same features and events. Yet, these are precisely the things people are filtering their reading by at the moment – book recommendations and feeds filtered by ‘enemies to lovers’, ‘meet-cute’, ‘forced proximity’, ‘fake dating’, and the list goes on and on. We have become so well versed in the same stories with slight variations, that you need only say “there was only one bed” for readers to understand a series of circumstances and feelings regardless of the characters or author involved (this includes travelling, transport break-down, awkward in-between relationship phase, denial and longing, someone insisting they ought to sleep on the floor, need I go on?).
Though I would hope for and enjoy new well-written rom-com movies to experience, offering new materials and setting off a series of new tropes to be explored and configured rather than existing as an amalgamation of existing tropes – it is not that those stories are always unenjoyable. At the very least, its rising success and ticketing potential would allow it a place to start. With a recognised need for depicting women’s lives with themselves and with each other in addition to the love interest, understanding relationships and forms of love that exist outside of dominant structures, I hope to see both some of my ‘chick lit’ books and some “funnier and crazier and browner and gayer” rom-coms soon.