Literary Tool Kit: RomCom Themes

This is the fourth (and last) in a series of blogs wherein I work to create a “literary toolkit” on writing the Romantic Comedy screenplay by analyzing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Some Like It Hot. This is adapted from an assignment I worked on for my graduate degree at SNHU.

What are they?

MERRIAM-WEBSTER DEFINES THEME AS “a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation.” I hate this definition. Talk about BROAD. It almost never helps me to think about the theme as a starting point because it’s so broad. Besides, the themes of screenplays are so open to interpretation that sometimes the films made from them have a different theme. Additionally, for rom-coms, the theme is generally something pretty obvious and related to the cliches surrounding romance, love, friendship, and family. Time and audience perspective can also change how the theme of certain films are interpreted.

Let’s take Some Like it Hot as an example. Back in “the day,” this film would probably have been interpreted by it’s author(s) as a film “about the Machiavellian lengths to which people will go to get what they want, which is never much nobler than money, sex, or self-preservation” (Wasson). The film is meant to please and entertain. Cross-dressing wasn’t some big political statement, it was a sight-gag. The lessons our characters learn are minimal, and honestly, they don’t change much from the beginning of the film to the end of the film. The whole film is about reversal and ironic humor. Nowadays, however, you can very easily draw the conclusion that the “enlightened” gender politics of the film were vastly ahead of their time, advocating for gender being a continuum rather than a binary -- a very modern idea, and one that is not even fully mainstream to this day. The film is so lacking in commentary that it can be interpreted in any number of ways. I personally think that’s some amazing writing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Forgetting Sarah Marshall has absolutely no nuance. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, but it certainly limits the ways that the film can be interpreted. I think the general theme one will come to realize about this film will be some variation on this: “The process of getting over a breakup is messy, and takes time, even when one is leaving a flawed, abusive, or deeply unfulfilling relationship.” The only debatable point there is probably the last part. You could argue that Sarah and Peter’s relationship wasn’t unfulfilling for Peter. But honestly, that difference isn’t particularly important. Getting through the breakup is the part that really matters in the story. This message, and the comedy of the screenplay, are communicated by the constant return of Sarah Marshall into Peter’s life. Just as he forgets about her, she comes back in. Much like how our minds always return to heartbreak when we’re mourning a relationship.

In my own writing…

Theme is probably always going to be a subconscious aspect of my writing. I can’t yet see a future where I will start from a theme as inspiration. I will say, however, that theme plays an important role for me when I'm outlining. I sometimes like to follow Blake Snyder’s beat sheet as a starting point to brainstorm my story structure, and one of the beats in that is “theme stated.” I don’t think it necessary for one’s characters to state the theme in every work one creates, but in practice, it is a good exercise to try to figure out a way to write the theme into the film’s dialogue. I may keep it and I may not, but it’s good practice. I think perhaps theme is much more important in other forms of creative writing than screenplay, but it’s definitely not completely beside the point. I’ll always keep the theme at the back of my mind while I’m writing so that I don’t write a scene completely out of left field… but it’s definitely in the back of my mind.

Also, I’ll certainly make sure to pick an appropriate theme for the appropriate genre. It’s not possible to write an effective romantic comedy with the theme “Love is overrated, you should put your effort into your career instead.” It would be extremely improbable, if not impossible, to write a rom-com in which your audience will feel satisfied if you choose an inappropriate theme.

Brainstorm time: 

I like the two themes of Some Like it Hot and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I find it interesting to think how these two themes could be combined. I’m not sure it could actually work, though. Perhaps this pitch using the theme would make for an interesting screenplay:

A genderfluid ex drug dealer who presents as a female decides to get out of a dangerous game in which they have found themselves. In order to escape this life, they break off their longtime relationship, move to a different area of the city, change their name, and try presenting as male instead.

Works Cited

• “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” By Jason Segel, directed by Nicholas Stoller, Apatow Productions, 18 April 2008.

• Hay, Lucy V. “5 Important Elements of Writing a Romantic Comedy.” bang2write, 20 Mar. 2013, bang2write.com/2013/03/5-important-elements-of-writing-a-romantic-comedy-by-james-rogers.html.

• “Some Like it Hot.” By Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, directed by Billy Wilder, Mirisch Company, 29 March 1959.

• “Theme.” Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 12 March, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theme. Accessed 22 March, 2020.

• Wasson, Sam. “Some Like It Hot: How to Have Fun.” Criterion, The Criterion Channel, 19 Nov. 2018, www.criterion.com/current/posts/6048-some-like-it-hot-how-to-have-fun.

Literary Tool Kit: RomCom Conventions

This is the third in a series of blogs wherein I work to create a “literary toolkit” on writing the Romantic Comedy screenplay by analyzing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Some Like It Hot. This is adapted from an assignment I worked on for my graduate degree at SNHU.

What are they?

“Literary conventions” -- to me, a literary convention is a writing technique commonly used in certain genre of writing. Thus, different literary conventions exist in poetry, novels, fables, historical dramas, screenplays, biographies, etc. I think that there is a risk of literary conventions being confused with tropes; however, the literary conventions are functional versus narrative. I think today’s audiences are quite likely to make the error of conflating the two due to our culture of critique and analysis. Social media has created an outlet for anyone to put their own analysis out there, regardless of how knowledgeable they are about literary terminology. I’ve certainly, in my time, heard the term “trope” used to describe a literary convention/technique.

The literary conventions of this genre are easy to identify. One of my favorite conventions is the use of personal misconception and miscommunication, which are frequently central to the conflicts of these films. “Opposites attract” and make for great comedy and chemistry. And people never know what they want. The woman might have a list of things they’re looking for; the man may want a “certain type” of woman. But through the magical process of falling in love, the characters always discover what they really want. These conventions haven’t changed in too many major ways since the conception of the genre, just as the process of falling in love hasn’t changed all that much. It’s a major part of the human condition, and always fun to watch, whether the pair is meeting as members of competing advertising firms, or through an online dating app. 

I especially like when b-story misconceptions/miscommunications are resolved in baffling and/or hilarious ways with little explanation. This happens a lot in the rom-com genre. The weird supporting characters also fall in love. It’s especially hilarious when the two characters are extreme oddballs. In Some Like it Hot, Jerry, the film’s other leading man, ends up being forced to go on a romantic date with Osgood, a millionaire, in order for Joe to sneakily use Osgood’s yacht to seduce Sugar. Naturally, Osgood falls in love with Jerry (aka Daphne in his female disguise), and asks Jerry to marry him. Jerry says yes, of course, receiving a diamond bracelet from Osgood. The whole mix-up is resolved in the end with Osgood, Joe, Sugar, and Jerry running away from the mafia together, Sugar and Joe falling in love, and this incredible exchange:

OSGOOD

I called Mama -- she was so happy she

cried -- she wants you to have her

wedding gown -- it’s white lace.

JERRY

Osgood -- I can’t get married in your

mother’s dress. She and I -- we’re not

built the same way.

OSGOOD

We can have it altered.

JERRY

Oh, no you don’t! Look, Osgood --

I’m going to level with you.

We can’t get married at all.

OSGOOD

Why not?

JERRY

Well, to begin with, I’m not a

natural blonde.

OSGOOD

(tolerantly)

It doesn’t matter.

JERRY

And I smoke. I smoke all the time.

OSGOOD

I don’t care.

JERRY

And I have a terrible past. For

three years now, I’ve been living

with a saxophone player.

OSGOOD

I forgive you.

JERRY

(with growing desperation)

I can never have children.

OSGOOD

We’ll adopt some.

JERRY

But you don’t understand.

(he rips off his wig; then

in a male voice)

Damn it, Osgood, I’m a man!

OSGOOD

Well -- nobody’s perfect.

Please remember. This film came out in the 1950’s. I think it’s one of the most perfect, hilarious endings to a romantic comedy of all time. 

This brings me to the second convention utilized in rom-com screenwriting: tension and release. Romantic chemistry is vital for convincing your audience that two people are falling in love. You need to build the feeling of “will they -- won’t they?” even when we know from our genre choice that they will (end up together). But, regardless of our ending being predetermined as a happy one, you must include moments of near-misses for the couple. “Moments” must be interrupted by another complicating incident that keeps our lovers apart. You gotta build up that tension and release. Give the audience hope, then pull it away. Preferably in a way that makes us laugh.

In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this happens over and over again in the form of Sarah and her new boyfriend. They show up at the most inopportune moments to remind Peter of his grief and block the progression of his relationship with Rachel. Sarah and William even show up during Peter and Rachel’s meet-cute. They’re a constant source of comedy and frustration for our main character and his blossoming relationship.

In my own writing…

As frustrating as these situations are in real life, I love narrative arcs based upon misconception and miscommunication. Especially when it’s well-founded, funny, or very unique to our characters. The premise of What’s Your Number? always makes me laugh because it’s based upon the misconception that our flighty main character has when she reads a magazine article stating that women who have had over 21 sexual partners are unlikely to marry compared to those who have had under that number. Of course, our main character here is at the 20 mark, so she becomes obsessed with the idea that she only has “one more.” Thus, she revisits every guy she’s ever slept with to make sure that they are not “the one.” Miscommunications, I think, are trickier than basic misconceptions about life or another person’s character. It requires one of your characters to be at least a little bit… well… shitty. The city girl has to write off the carpenter and inn-owner from the small town. The funny male lead has to write off the career-driven woman as a shrew for not laughing at his jokes. Someone’s gotta be a little bit shitty, and they have to grow over the course of the story.

In building tension, I think it’s important to select the correct setting. There needs to be a frenetic element to the goings-on of your story, or else the two characters would have ample time to sit down and talk out their problems. I think this is one reason that so many romantic comedies center around holidays, weddings, and other events. There is also usually a literal or invented “time limit” placed upon the characters’ lives. In some films, the time limit is very clear, for instance, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. In others, there’s a more general time limit of a holiday being over, or a wedding party going their separate ways, or the prospect that one has reached some sort of “limit,” sending them on a quest, such as the plot for What’s Your Number? Without some sort of limit, what spurs your characters into action? This is an issue that I, myself, have run into with some of my stories.

The comforting, and sometimes limiting thing about the rom-com genre is this need for time limit. Though some stories transcend this factor, they tend more towards the “rom” aspect of rom-com than the “com” aspect. (See The Notebook for an example of this. It’s humorous, but it’s more in the romance/drama/comedy genre with the comedy being the last and least important element). Slow burns work much better for drama than they do for comedy. Time-jumps, while they certainly occur, I think are much less important in comedy than drama. And they are usually a symptom of the story rather than a cause… if that makes any sense.

Brainstorm time: The Shut In

Feature film in which Charlotte, a novelist and shut-in, must overcome her agoraphobia and venture out into the world to attend her cousin, and best friend’s, wedding as Maid of Honor. Despite the fact that Charlotte has built herself a functional, if slightly lonely, life, she has finally run into an event which she cannot miss, and she cannot experience from her home. (While her cousin is perfectly willing to have wedding events at family homes, including the bachelorette party at Charlotte’s house, she must get married at the family Catholic church -- a cathedral-like massive church).

Upon hearing about the event, Charlotte’s best friend, Chris, who lives across the country, insists that she has to take him as her date to the wedding, as it is a perfect chance for them to meet for the first time in person, since they met almost a year beforehand in an online game. Chris doesn’t know that Charlotte has been a shut-in for the past three years. The subject, obviously, has been studiously avoided. The miscommunication here has been purposeful, though not spiteful. And I believe that I have somehow avoided the trap of making this miscommunication too shitty.

The first part of the film will include a montage of humorous attempts to get Charlotte out of the house, which eventually, will culminate in (limited) success by the time Chris arrives in town. Then, through a series of carefully-orchestrated events, in which Charlotte and her two best friends (one of which is the bride), design wedding events and dates around places which make Charlotte the most comfortable, and through the copious use of tranquilizers. While in comfortable settings, Charlotte and Chris have plenty of time to connect, though Charlotte is busy with helping out as the MOH. Then, during events outside of homes, Charlotte’s inebriation is covered by her friends, and her interaction with Chris is limited by this. We have cute moments of “will they, won’t they,” interrupted by friends, family, and wedding events. Chris finally discovers Charlotte’s “problem” when he surprises her the night before the wedding with a surprise movie date. He’s bought tickets, he’s rented a car, and he’s bought flowers. He’s decided he can’t wait to confess his feelings for her. Of course… she’s flustered, and she can’t go with him. The truth comes out.

In the end, Chris shows up at the wedding to find a sober Charlotte, terrified and shaking, and hiding in a closet. He convinces her to come out and join the wedding, which she does, and the two end the film with the decision to be together, Chris planning on moving to live in the area, and Charlotte promising to continue on the road towards rehabilitation.

Works Cited

• “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” By Jason Segel, directed by Nicholas Stoller, Apatow Productions, 18 April 2008.

• Hay, Lucy V. “5 Important Elements of Writing a Romantic Comedy.” bang2write, 20 Mar. 2013, bang2write.com/2013/03/5-important-elements-of-writing-a-romantic-comedy-by-james-rogers.html.

• “Some Like it Hot.” By Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, directed by Billy Wilder, Mirisch Company, 29 March 1959.

• “Theme.” Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 12 March, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theme. Accessed 22 March, 2020.

• Wasson, Sam. “Some Like It Hot: How to Have Fun.” Criterion, The Criterion Channel, 19 Nov. 2018, www.criterion.com/current/posts/6048-some-like-it-hot-how-to-have-fun.

Literary Tool Kit: RomCom Storytelling Elements

This is the second of a series of blogs wherein I work to create a “literary toolkit” on writing the Romantic Comedy screenplay by analyzing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Some Like It Hot. This is adapted from an assignment I worked on for my graduate degree at Southern New Hampshire University.

Content warning: I get a bit spicy.

Storytelling Elements: What are they?

Who the fuck knows? The elements that make a great story are nebulous. When you google the term “storytelling elements of romantic comedy,” you come up with this list (bang2write.com):

1) Something Fresh

2) The Protagonist

3) Understand Your Audience

4) Genuinely Funny Moments (whatever that means)

5) A Happy Ending

Thanks google. You know. For nothing. I would argue that this list is the same for any type of comedic fiction. So I’m left with trying to parse together a definition on my own. What are storytelling elements? They are the characters, the setting, the conflict, the theme, the narrative arc. We’re going to focus on that penultimate point (the theme) in its own section, so let’s focus on the two storytelling themes that I feel are the most significant for the rom-com genre.

The main expectation of the romantic comedy genre is that we anticipate a happy ending. The narrative arc should end on a high. People end up together, and they end up happier than they were before. At least for now. You should know, generally, what you are getting into when you pick up a romantic comedy. Some hijinks, some humor, and a happy ending where two people fall in love. Rom-com is generally not great literature or film. And that’s ok. Sometimes you want an emotional cup of cocoa. The world can be dark, and we need to counteract that with levity and silliness.

It also doesn’t really matter if this ending is shoehorned in. As long as the work is done during the body of the film, we can end with a time skip forward to get our characters together. Take Forgetting Sarah Marshall; our characters fall in love, but to get together, they just first do the work on themselves. Rachel must figure out what she wants to do with her life, and Peter has to… well, forget Sarah Marshall. He has to move on. So, at the end of the film, the two separate, Peter goes home, cleans up his house, puts on his Dracula musical, and Rachel, having moved back to California to continue college, shows up at a performance. The two get together right at the very end. We ultimately end on a happy note. 

The second storytelling element most important to this genre are characters. You must write likeable characters. They honestly don’t even have to be realistic. In many rom-coms, the man or woman are “perfect” in all ways but their love life. But, ya’ know... they can’t be too perfect. The best rom-coms strike the perfect balance. Their characters are flawed but lovable. Popular flaws may include, but are not limited to:

• Airheadedness

• Clumsiness to the point of medical concern

• Rejection of romance from prior painful experience

• Fear of romance from prior painful experience

• Being a workaholic/being career-driven

• Being poor (and a musician. These two are almost never mutually exclusive, except in the case of Music and Lyrics.)

• Being quirky and having a weird hobby (I’m looking at you, What’s Your Number?)

• Having “severe” anxiety

• Having strict parents

• Class divides (I would separate this from being poor, as the dynamic is a bit different)

• Being dead (seriously, what the hell, The Lake House????)

The characters in Some Like It Hot are flawed, but extremely likable. Jerry and Joe are poor, Jerry’s kind of dumb, Joe is a rake with a gambling problem, but they’re handsome and charming musicians. And, over the course of the film, through dressing like women, they become sensitive to the difficulties of what it is like to be a woman, thus they become increasingly likable to the audience. Plus they’re funny. Our romantic lead actress, played by Marilyn Monroe, is a standard gorgeous airhead who wants to marry a millionaire, but keeps falling for skeezy saxophone players.

SUGAR

Especially tenor sax. I don’t know what

it is, but they just curdle me. All they

have to do is play eight bars of “Come to

Me My Melancholy Baby” -- and my spine turns

to custard, and I get goose-pimply all

over -- and I come to them.

JOE

That so?

SUGAR

Every time!

JOE

You know -- I play tenor sax.

SUGAR

But you’re a girl, thank goodness.

JOE

Yeah…

In this scene, Sugar bluntly lays out for Joe her weakness, and ill-treatment from, saxophone players just like him. Earlier in the script, before he and Jerry had to go on the run dressed as women, we see Joe treat Nellie this way, using her to borrow money and her car, and standing her up on dates. He doesn't even say goodbye to her on screen, leading the audience to assume that he’s left her in the lurch.

The screenplay builds Joe up as a likable, charming rogue who changes his ways through the lessons of the film. In the end, he tries to get Sugar to give him up, even though he’s charmed her through lies, because he realizes that he’s just a “no-good saxophone player.” Everyone ends up together, happy. For now, at least.

In my own writing… 

Applying rom-com storytelling elements to my own writing should prove easy. I like both happy endings, and I prefer to write characters who, while flawed, are likable. I struggle much more to write characters my readers are supposed to hate. I feel, personally, that characters who are unredeemable are either one-note villains (in which case, I almost feel as if they’re less character than setting/conflict for our characters to overcome), or must be carefully crafted to tug at the readers’ heartstrings by having reverse-flaws. Yes, they’re unredeemable, but it’s because they loved someone so much that their death drove them insane. I feel like these types of villains don’t belong in the rom-com genre, and thus writing standard likable characters is right up my comfortable alley.

Of course, I like the idea of coming up with character flaws that are a little more complex than those I listed above. All of those feel a bit tropey to me. I would prefer to find a way to play on these familiar flaws in new ways. I have no problem with writing Hallmark rom-coms; in fact, I think baking these gooey, chocolate chip-filled cookie films would be an absolute pleasure. But I also want to come up with original characters that feel good to me. I’m a bit sick of the small-town boy meets city girl films that have been all the rage recently. I want to turn out something different.

Brainstorm time: Quarantined By Love

Short film in which a small surgical team are quarantined in an operating room upon the discovery that the emergency surgery car-crash patient has been exposed, and is beginning to show symptoms of the bacteria bacterium Yersinia pestis -- also known as the Black Death! During their mandatory 24-hour quarantine, two single doctors who actively dislike each other (Lydia is a super upbeat “heal-through-positive-thinking” general surgeon and Marcus is a “medicine is hard science only” brain surgeon) are forced to eat, evacuate, and take decontamination showers together in the small, cramped quarters of the operating room, along with the anesthesiologist, Lydia’s good friend, and two male scrub nurses who Marcus hangs out and plays sportsball with. Over the period of the short film, we learn that Marcus’s grandmother died when she refused modern medicine in favor of spiritual healing until her early-stage breast cancer had progressed beyond the point of no return. Lydia, in the end, concedes that the first step is modern medicine, but through her own examples of families torn apart when positive thinking failed them and medicine succeeded, she and Marcus eventually reach consensus and mutual respect. The happy ending will come when everyone is asymptomatic by the end of the quarantine, and Lydia ends up successfully asking Marcus out to dinner.

Works Cited

• “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” By Jason Segel, directed by Nicholas Stoller, Apatow Productions, 18 April 2008.

• Hay, Lucy V. “5 Important Elements of Writing a Romantic Comedy.” bang2write, 20 Mar. 2013, bang2write.com/2013/03/5-important-elements-of-writing-a-romantic-comedy-by-james-rogers.html.

• “Some Like it Hot.” By Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, directed by Billy Wilder, Mirisch Company, 29 March 1959.

• “Theme.” Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 12 March, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theme. Accessed 22 March, 2020.

• Wasson, Sam. “Some Like It Hot: How to Have Fun.” Criterion, The Criterion Channel, 19 Nov. 2018, www.criterion.com/current/posts/6048-some-like-it-hot-how-to-have-fun.

Why I Write Romantic Comedy… or at least, why I try

Growing up, my brother used to race go-karts. It was a passion and hobby not only for him, but for my dad, as well. The pair of them would go off many weekends for races, sometimes staying nights in hotels and participating in tournaments. My brother would come home all the time with these impressive golden trophies on heavy marble bases. Not to mention that he and my father's got to spend time of time together on these trips.

Meanwhile, back at home in Leesburg, my mother and I spent our weekends doing things together, as well. But my mother, having multiple sclerosis and an extreme sensitivity to heat, didn't really want to spend all that much time outside on the hot summer Virginia days. And, being a child of the great indoors who also hated the muggy Virginia summers, that was perfectly fine with me. Sometimes we sat together and read for hours on end, discussing our books and snacking. Other times we watched the movies that my dad didn't like. We'd watch romantic comedies.

It eventually became our thing. If I had to stay home sick from school we would snuggle in bed and watch RomComs. When I had dentist appointments where I had teeth pulled (4 at a time for my baby teeth, and not one of those bad boys fell out on their own), we would recover by drinking McDonald's milkshakes and watching RomComs. When my dad and brother went away for a race, we would spend the weekend watching RomComs.

For the entirety of our childhood, my parents refused to get cable television. Instead, we had those bunny ears that sat on top of your TV and reliably picked up about five channels. We didn't get cable until Verizon FiOS came around when I was in high school. I never watched the Teletubbies or Dexter's Laboratory or The Powderpuff Girls. Sometimes I watched the Simpsons, or WWE Smackdown (oh yeah I still have a secret love for pro wrestling, don't @ me), or Buffy ... but I never developed the commitment for a weekly tv schedule.

What we did have at home was an absolutely staggering collection of VHS tapes. My dad favored Westerns and Star Wars. With him I watched El Dorado, Silverado, Rio Lobo, McClintock, and more. I got to know John Wayne, John Ford, and Howard Hawks. I still love Westerns deeply, but the genre is all but dead. You can't really make those movies anymore. You can't really tell those stories. The sad truth is that they're culturally insensitive at best and outright racist at worst. They didn't mean to be. They are products of their time.

The RomCom, on the other hand, will never die. Falling in love will never be something humanity loses interest in or grows out of. My mom and I watched every movie Doris Day ever made. People in my class talked about crushing on Justin Timberlake and watching MTV, while my favorite leading man in movies was Rock Hudson. (My mom did quickly explain Hudson's homosexuality and the situation in Hollywood surrounding sexuality at the time. I think Rock Hudson actually was the first gay person I'd ever known about.) I found Tony Randall hilarious, and Tom Hanks charming, and I wanted to be Meg Ryan when I grew up. Those were the movies of my childhood. Watching them brings back the memories of lounging on my parents' water bed and laughing with my mom. And yes, often the old RomComs have antiquated gender roles and expectations for how men and women act… but I never really find them offensive. Especially since these roles and expectations are often the subject of ridicule. In Doris Day's movies, she's often the most competent person on screen. On purpose.

I write romantic comedies for my mom. When I think about how a scene should go, I think about what would make my mom laugh. What witty dialogue might make her smile. I don't write RomComs because I believe they'll win me an Oscar or make people think of me as someone who engages in Serious Business. No one who writes comedy, in general, should ever take themselves too seriously. Do you think the people who write popcorn Netflix or Hallmark RomComs ever give a single consideration of their work as Serious Business? No. Because too much of life is already far too heavy, and quite frankly, we all need a break.

To be frank, I've never been particularly impressed with people who make exclusively Serious Business movies. These often come across to me as decidedly and often deeply ingenuine. It's like someone decided at some point that the value of art and cinema comes from how it challenges us, not how it entertains us. I believe the true value if film lies somewhere in the middle of these two elements.

We often devalue the films that give us easy entertainment, and I think that's bull shit. Just because a movie's theme could be considered cheesy doesn't reduce the value of its story. A gritty film that challenges you to witness the horrors of war and mortality has no more inherent value than the film that cradles you and takes you on the journey as a couple falls in love and overcomes their differences. The human experience is what it is and we all are going to experience different aspects of life, good and bad, painful and pleasurable. Film represents that.

It's common for us, in western culture, to devalue the positive things. One negative comment on a social media post often outshines a dozen positive posts, for instance. We need to overcome this. It's okay to take a break. It's okay to focus on the positive things in life. Sometimes I feel the need to take on serious subjects, but if I were to focus on the depressing parts of life too much, I don't think I'd ever get out of bed.

I write romantic comedies because if I can make one person smile or laugh or feel, I've succeeded. And if that person is my mom? Well that's a better reward than any stranger or any competition or festival could ever give me.

My family <3