As a lifelong lover of the much-maligned romantic comedy, I’ve always found it funny when people dismiss the genre as being too “unrealistic.” Those detractors aren’t necessarily wrong—they’re just mistaking a feature for a bug. Rom-coms aren’t aiming for realism and failing. They’re purposefully utilizing a…
A lot of us traveled over the holidays, but Moonlight director Barry Jenkins had been on the road for several months even before that. On January 3, he was finally headed home after an extremely long jaunt, finding distraction on Twitter:
More than 20 years removed from all that unsavoriness from the mid-90s, actor Hugh Grant has more or less transformed back into the charming British gentleman we all thought he was. Just see the above interview with Graham Norton, which finds Grant detailing with no shortage of approachable elegance his story of…
The Love Actually sequel, Red Nose Day Actually, finally aired in the U.S. last night as part of NBC’s Red Nose Day Special, and it provided a variety of sweet codas for the various characters, as well as one merciless Piers Morgan burn. To that latter point, the short reunion ends with Hugh Grant’s Prime…
After plenty of teases, we’re finally getting a trailer for the Love Actually reunion/mini-sequel that features actual footage of the Red Nose Day special. So what’s changed for our heartsick Brits (plus Laura Linney)? Well, it’s a little harder for Hugh Grant’s prime minister to groove, Bill Nighy’s Billy Mack is now…
The first trailer for the Love Actually reunion orchestrated for Red Nose Day simply featured Andrew Lincoln recreating his iconic confession of love. The latest brings back a whole host of famous cast members—also wielding poster board—to advertise the charity event and insult Colin Firth. Set to the movie’s theme…
Like many people who watched Love Actually, we have lingering questions about the 2003 film. For example, did Harry and Karen stay together after his sort-of infidelity? They’re spotted together at the airport, but did she really forgive him? Also, were Sam and Joanna able to work out some kind of long-distance thing?…
Every generation likes to think that they discovered the concept of appreciating things ironically. But the truth is, bemused hipsters have been laughing at comically inept entertainment since before Tommy Wiseau was born in whatever Eastern European country he actually comes from. A great example is Florence Foster…
Meryl Streep has assumed all manner of accents and mannerisms (and Kurt Russells) to play real-life characters (and approximations) throughout her career, but her latest film sees her feigning a significant lack of talent to embody the biopic’s subject. Streep plays the titular socialite in Florence Foster Jenkins, a…
Before Bridget Jones’s Diary, “chick lit” had a soggy connotation, like a Hallmark novel with an edgier cover. For this eventual mid-’90s bestselling bombshell, British writer Helen Fielding combined a series of columns she wrote for The Independent. Hired to write about her life as a single London girl, Fielding…
Like everyone else in the world, The A.V. Club was devastated to learn of the recent death of English stage and screen star Alan Rickman. While he is getting many (deserved) memorial tributes for his iconic turns as Harry Potter’s conflicted Severus Snape, Galaxy Quest’s magnificent Alexander Dane, and even Sense And…
With the Bond series firmly committed to reinventing 007’s mythos in a contemporary setting, Guy Ritchie is going back to where our fascination with spycraft began—the ‘60s, when the coolest spy on the small screen was The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: With Jessica Hausner’s peculiar period piece Amour Fou coming to theaters, we extend our hand to other 19th-century romances.
The Rewrite stars Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei in a semi-romantic comedy written and directed by Grant’s frequent collaborator Marc Lawrence, and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment. In other words, it’s poised to become one of the biggest rom-coms of 1998. But barring the invention of time travel, The Rewrite…
There are many videos out there that proclaim to expose how some beloved film is actually deeply flawed, riddled with plot holes or continuity errors, or the story behind its making is “even more interesting than the film itself.” From Cinema Sins to Honest Trailers to How It Should Have Ended to certain Cracked.com…
There were rumors a few years ago that Hugh Grant wasn’t happy with the script for Bridget Jones’ Baby—the third film in the Bridget Jonesiverse—but, despite some complications that required the movie to be delayed, we reported that Grant was “really, seriously, honestly committed” to the movie. Now, though, Grant has…
Hugh Grant could probably play serious roles, but why should he bother when there are so many romantic comedies that need a wry, slightly rumpled lead? Grant’s latest project is The Rewrite, a film written and directed by Marc Lawrence, who also penned and helmed previous Grant smashes Two Weeks Notice and Music And…
