Deception has been a staple of romantic comedies since the beginning, so it makes sense that Woody Allen’s mockumentary about an enigmatic man who compulsively imitates everyone around him eventually turns into a love story. Seemingly riffing on his reputation for playing the same character in every movie, Allen stars as human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a forgotten minor celebrity of the 1920s and ’30s, while Mia Farrow plays Dr. Fletcher, the psychiatrist who ends up falling in love with him—an inversion of the usual dynamic between deceiver and deceived. Using black-and-white footage, doctored photos, and interviews with high-brow talking heads and real-life celebrities from the Jazz Age, Allen creates a clever alternate history that is, in a way, its own act of deception—namely, a cover-up for the fact that this is one of his most personal and self-critical projects, allegorically addressing his sense of Jewish identity, his high-brow aspirations post-Annie Hall, and his attempts at imitating his favorite directors. Sure, the love story is arguably the least interesting thing about Zelig, but this is still a fascinating work by a writer-director whose rom-coms all but beg to be read personally. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]
The best romantic comedies, from The Apartment to Zelig
From The Apartment to Zelig, our alphabetical list of the best rom-coms gives you plenty of options for a perfect Valentine's Day movie marathon.
Artwork: Nick Wanserski
Chemistry is perhaps the most elusive of all cinematic ingredients. Critics can point to craft in elements like directorial technique, set design, editing, and the rest; great acting can be taught, and recognized as such. But chemistry is out of everyone’s hands. Either people have it with one another or they don’t. Until you get two people together and watch the sparks fly, it’s a complete X factor. But to take that essential romantic ingredient and add comedy on top of it? It’s like trying to film someone performing a flawless tightrope walk while simultaneously walking a second tightrope yourself. Thus, The A.V. Club has compiled the following A-to-Z list of the most essential romantic comedies, to highlight the brilliance and difficulty of this remarkable cinematic balancing act.
It should be noted that the rules for what movies qualify as a rom-com are tough to articulate: At a certain point, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s rule about pornography comes into play: We can’t define “rom-com” precisely, but we know it when we see it. Hence, something like The Graduate fails the test, while Punch-Drunk Love’s fundamental humor and romance at its heart allow it to make the cut. Plus, there are certain lauded qualities of contemporary rom-coms (such as the “comfort food” consideration) that rank as less meritorious in the evaluation of great cinema. Still, the below films all demonstrate the requisite ingredients in spades—and anyone not seeing their own treasured rom-com nominees is encouraged to make the case for them in the comments. Fighting for the object of your affection? That’s amore.
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