God, I hate a romantic comedy. The two people who argue a lot at the beginning are going to be together by the end of the film, with lots of pointless shenanigans having taken place in the meantime. More arguments, increasing amounts of flirting, and attempted (and failed) misdirection of the audience all take place in the middle third of the movie.
I can’t stand it.
In the days when I would still agree to watch them, I would will the director to take it a different way. To subvert the genre and give me a genuinely shocking ending where the ‘couple’ agree with each other that they’ve done so much disagreeing that getting together at that point would be misguided at best. Or where one of them would join a polyamorous commune, leaving the other weeping and heartbroken.
Enough sickly happiness!
Yet the wild success of romcoms mean that I am very much in a minority, and I imagine that this can only be because of my own aromanticism. If I cannot comprehend the attraction of romantic relationships, then dedicating 90 minutes of my life to watching a hapless couple seek one is always going to be a disaster. I only wish I had known about the existence of aromantic people years ago, and put two and two together before yet another friend suggested a trip to the cinema to go and see the latest beautiful woman fall embarrassingly in love with an inept but somehow charming leading man.
But if you know of any brilliantly subversive rom coms, however, let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.