Romantic Comedy

American Cinema: Romantic Comedy (1995)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Of the first five entries in the American Cinema series, this one here is without question the weakest as the subject itself is barely discussed and instead we get what feels like a prehistoric Dr. Phil episode. Garry Marshall, Susan Seidelman, Amy Heckerling, Robert Zemeckis, Nora Ephron and Peter Bogdanovich are interviewed in this episode as we start off in the 30s where we learn that women had just been voting a little over two decades and these screwball comedies allowed them to have full control of a film and often times give them top-billing over the men. From here we learn that there's always been a struggle to find love and that people continue to go to the movies to be reminded that it's out there in some form. From here we get a few more film clips but then we basically hear the guests talk about the political side of romance. I must admit that I found this episode to be disappointing for a number of reasons but the biggest is that everyone seems to be debating stuff that has nothing to do with romantic comedies. We hear stories of what people want from love, whether it's a political thing and why viewers are conservative. We hear very little about the movies themselves and it seems that they really want to focus on more recent films like LOOK WHO'S TALKING.