As Little Dwayne blasts from an iPod mix as a tattooed youth strolls through Facebook on their MacBook chatting about their day with a new crush. We’ve moved beyond the days of Frank Sinatra and who “truly” won the Nixon/Kennedy debate (but all know who really won). Times have changed but have they in the world of Rom Coms?

What are the recurring themes and motifs?

Montages, montages, and more montages. You can’t go wrong with a montage set to the cinematic equivalent of department store music. There are a few types o’ montages in these films. The initial dating montage; where they gradually get more comfortable with each other and kiss for the first time. The falling in love montage; where they start having sex, having brunch, and incorporating them into their family and friend circles. The falling out of love and the breakup montage; these are similar enough but slightly different. When you break it down it’s the man is alone and/or hanging with his friends but something is amiss, same happens to the girl. Finally there’s the getting back together montage; where they rekindle the romance that had faded, get married, and/or have a baby.

On the topic of friends, in the old films the man is a strong manly man loner with no friends because men don’t need a support system of friends with similar interests that can help you out. Things are a little bit different this time around. Dudes have a few best buds, 2 to 3 usually. These friends fit into a few categories. The Black friend, he is Black and usually seen with his buds or with Black women. Only Black, he is never Korean or Mexican or Estonian or anything else. It’s good to see some diversity but there be more. For example Ludacris in No Strings Attached. The loser friend, he is more of a loser and fatter than the main character, typically there is a joke about porn at him. Also he is single or a failing relationship. For example, Josh Gad in Love and Other Drugs. The weird friend, similar to loser friend but he’s more weird than lonely possibly a stoner. For example Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook (he’s the main character but this combined the main guy with the weird friend type). One of the main things keeping all these guys friends is basketball. If they aren’t shown playing basketball, you see them coming from playing it. Universally the friends are bro douchebags that don’t wanna get tied down in a relationship because come on, being in a happy stable relationship is horrid.

Instead of courting each other in a very chaste and traditional manner, people be fuckin’. The two lovers tend to start out as sex buddies but it doesn’t stay that way. The guy develops feelings first. Men can fall in love too but women also like sex. This causes conflict. She doesn’t want to ruin the situation. However eventually she realizes that she loves him too. I need to mention again like in the prior article, the movies I watched were heteronormative, a man and woman fall in love. Back to the article, the formula is reversed in who falls in love first. So that’s an improvement.

There are two more, one that’s really glaring and the other is odd. Their family life isn’t always bright and cheery when you take a closer look at their family situation. The glaring one was the successful sibling that has it all. They either are getting married or happily married already. This of course makes our lovers jealous and realize they need to find love to be a full, validated person. For example Josh Gad in Love and Other Drugs, he’s both the loser friend and successful sibling. Or the sibling can be super rich, like Josh Gad, because you can only be happy with you are rich and married. The odd theme I noticed was the guy has a strained and complicated relationship with his dad. It isn’t talked about and barely explained, if at all. It doesn’t go much beyond this.

So in modern Rom Coms, dudes and dads don’t get along, dude’s friends think commitment is for wimps, there is no such thing as too many montages (Love and Other Drugs has at least 5, it’s insane), and people be fuckin’.

Is the romance creepy at all?

Here’s the thing it isn’t. Maybe it’s because I’m comparing these films to films like The Apartment but dudes can be a little overbearing which is about it. The worst thing that happened in this regard is the guy shows up at her job unannounced a couple times but it’s discussed between them shortly after this. It is creepy behavior but at least he isn’t memorizing her address and social security number. You even get to see how they court each other from the female perspective, which is barely explored in the old films. So it isn’t that creepy really. Again, the dude can be a little overbearing but he is not a disgusting, grotesque monster in human flesh like C.C. Baxter.

Will there be a “Happily Ever After?”

It’s possible. They both appear to respect each other and treat each other like equals. This is better than say something like The Apartment. This probably taints my opinion of modern Rom Coms. There could be a “Happily Ever After,” but it depends on the specific situation.

In Review

The film I liked the most was Charade. I know it’s bizarre I picked one of the old ones. It manages to be part thrilling adventure and part Rom Com but balanced well. It did in fact have some not great aspects but it is tolerable and the overall movie is just a fun delight. Audrey Hepburn is great, Cary Grant is almost as good as her, but Walter Mathieu steals the show though.

The film I was most disappointed by was Silver Linings Playbook. It isn’t bad but it sure isn’t good. The performances were good enough but it managed to be boring. It’s just a meh, average movie. I’m probably not the right person for it.

The film I thought was complete garbage was…The Apartment. You know why.

In 50 years Rom Coms have really evolved. Unlike Dystopian Future movies, the differences are as clear as day. It’s really insane to see what was once considered romantic in mainstream films a mere 50 years ago. Women went from being the helpless victim to a real person and not a plot device. They are still portrayed in an unequal less dynamic way compared to men but things are looking much better than they were. They aren’t being kept in a stranger’s apartment anymore. They can be people and actual characters with agency. Up next, I will tackle another genre but that will be revealed in due time.

What do these futures have in common with each other?

The best/worst recurring motif is computer technology. They so wildly mis-predicted where technology was going in the best way. It’s pretty amazing. Computers at that time were still the size of a room and they predicted…they would stay exactly the same. Other pieces of technology are giant-sized or shrunken but the most technological thing of the 20^th century remained exactly the same. Except they had one major change, that made them terrifying overseers keeping humanity in line, the ability to speak. The most evil thing that a computer could possibly do is sound kinda like Dalek but not enough that it’s violating copyright. Also they kept humanity in line via many evil methods like deciding who lives and dies and other boring stuff like that. I imagine that was revolutionary and mind-blowing at the time but now it doesn’t quite have the same effect. Basically, it’s like CG now. Much like a beer, it doesn’t age well.

Some other themes are the rise of mega-corporations, the popularity of reality TV and the extinction of religion. You could say part of this is happening right now as you read this. The recurring theme for these businesses isn’t profit but morality…? These companies make society more moral and peaceful. How do they do that exactly? They create games involving people hunting and killing other people. It’s a mixed message but they tricked governments into giving them money somehow. I don’t understand how they even started. How does one propose creating a LLC that produces corpses? It raises questions and once you start breaking down it stops making any sense. Religion appears to have been replaced by these mega-corporations.

According to these films, people at the time were afraid of religion disappearing, computers talking, and corporations creating and policing morality. Two of these are legitimate and understandable fears. The other is talking computers.

How close are we to these futures?

Naturally looking at these films you’ll start to wonder, if it’s just around corner. Reality TV is unfortunately still very popular. It begs the question, where is reality TV heading? We have shows about Honeys’ Boo², Dynasties of Ducks, Cats of Fishing and Gene Simmons’ Jewelry. It’s only a matter of time until they’re completely out of ideas and revert to gladiator style fights for our entertainment. It appears on its last legs now but imagine, in 50 or 60 years what will it morph into?

The omnipresence of cameras recording every detail of our dull lives was spot on. However, we adjusted very quickly and seemingly don’t care or mind. In the movies, cameras are everywhere. Some are hidden and some are staring you in the face. In theory it is possible to record every second of a person’s life using security cameras, cell phones, laptops, camcorders, GoPros, webcams, google glass, etc. I think we should start giving a shit a little at least I mean, privacy is great. When you’re alone you can do anything…anything without the prying eyes of society judging you, privacy is necessary for us to function. Enough of that, cameras are everywhere and that was eerily accurate.

The status and power that corporations have is mentioned in the previous section. However, it appears corporations are unstoppable and growing stronger. I hate to say it but according to the 1960s version of a dystopian future…we are living it as you read this. I’m sorry this is how you learn. We can start by throwing away our phones or we can start tomorrow.

Would it be fun to live this future?

I saved the best for last. This is not a simple question of yes or no it requires some thought and patience. There are multiple things to consider here. According to the sections above this future involves mega corporations that produce morality through corpses, cameras constantly watching us, computers that talk in gravelly voices, and reality shows where people do ridiculous things against their will. On top of that everything has just slightly more rubble than now. It’s not a complete wasteland but it’s nearly done recovering through a disaster, compared to modern ones.

Since things aren’t as bad as they could be, this future might be worth it however. Here is my reasoning, it may appear bad but living in an oppression future would have one great benefit. That is, amazing Hip Hop and Punk Rock. Since the economy is not so great and people live in impoverished conditions, that breeds anti-establishment and honest music. I would want to live in this future. The music would be so good it’s worth the potential of being involved in a life-or-death reality show, oppressive corporations, and computers talking to me with creepy gravelly voices.

With all that said, Part 2 is coming soon. I’ll take a look at the modern idea of a dystopian future with The Hunger Games, Snowpiercer, and Doomsday.