Along with The Drama, we have Splitsville, an anti-rom-com that premiered last year. Penned by the film’s stars Michael Angelo Covino (who also directs) and Kyle Marvin, the film follows two ambivalent couples—one teetering on the edge of divorce (Covino and Adria Arjona), and one in an open marriage as a preemptive measure (Marvin and Dakota Johnson). Because apparently, in the modern world, love and commitment aren’t real and cheating is an inevitable conclusion to our perfunctory relationships. It’s a depressing premise. After some wife and husband swapping, some open relationship experimentation, and more than a few squabbles, the couples end up right back where they started—with their original partners, still just as emotionally tepid.
Then there’s Oh, Hi, Sophie Brooks’ 2025 not-so-rom-com starring Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman as a couple who take a romantic getaway that spirals into a hostage situation as Gordon’s Iris ties up Lerman’s Isaac in a desperate attempt to get him to commit already.
And there’s more. Charli XCX is set to star in anti-rom-com Erupcja this year, a film that sees her blowing up her relationship with soon-to-be fiancé Rob (Will Madden) while stuck in Warsaw, Poland. Netflix’s Vladimir, like The Drama, had all the familiar rom-com tropes, and, like Oh, Hi!, got very dark when Rachel Weisz’s character ended up tying up her love interest. Just this week, Hulu dropped its first look at Alice and Steve, another anti-rom-com, this one about besties whose relationship implodes when he starts dating her daughter.
Looking back a couple of years, the anti-rom-com was already bubbling up. Last year’s best picture Oscar winner Anora set up all of the rom-com tropes before exploding them in a madcap frenzy. 2020’s cult hit Worst Person in the World was yet another film which proudly disrupted the “girl meets boy” rom-com formula, tacking on “girl leaves current partner for a new one, girl then decides neither were the sweeping romance she thought she wanted, and girl ultimately decides to spend some time alone focusing on herself.”
All of this begs the question: when did we all become so cynical that we can’t stomach a classic, by-the-book rom-com?
After all, there is still an appetite for love stories. The internet is filled with pleas to “bring back yearning.” But it seems that romance has been relegated to the schmaltzy period dramas (Bridgerton, Wuthering Heights) and teen rom-drams (The Summer I Turned Pretty). Which are, in all fairness, certainly delivering on longing looks, pining, and heady romance. Nevertheless, there’s a distinct lack of love in our comedies. Apparently, these days, we can only handle a love story that’s weighed down with heaps of angst and trauma. Meanwhile, the unironic, light-hearted rom-com has been replaced with cynicism and flippancy.
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