February 9th, 2009
In what I’m assuming is a Valentine’s Day week tie-in, the folks over at the Onion AV Club have compiled a list entitled “Romance minus the Schmaltz: 29 Falling-In-Love Movies We Actually Believe In”. It’s a typically sharp list, with a few of my favorites, including ANNIE HALL, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
No THE APARTMENT, though? C’mon, Onion — it’s one of the — if not THE — greatest romantic comedies of all time.
And I do confess to liking LOVE ACTUALLY, but it definitely has a large amount of schmaltz distributed among its many storylines (which is one of its strengths.)
Any romantic picks from you folks?
December 10th, 2008
The gang over at SpoutBlog has listed what they consider the 10 Most Romantic Films of the Past 10 Years, and I have to give them points for including a few non-obvious choices.
Sure, THE NOTEBOOK is there (which, if you ask me, belongs on a list of the 10 Worst Films of the Past 10 Years), but they also included WALL-E, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, COLD MOUNTAIN (continuing the “Mountain” theme, apparently) and two of my own faves, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. I’ve mentioned before how much I love ETERNAL SUNSHINE (definitely one of the best movies of the last 10 years and also one of the best relationship movies of all time), and it’s nice to see someone remember Paul Thomas Anderson’s wild, brilliant PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, one of the few movies that shows how falling in love is not unlike going insane. Also, it’s Adam Sandler’s best movie.
By a long, long shot.
