The RomCom Dilemma

First thing's first: my birthday was fab. Lionboy made me cupcakes, my GHS coordinator baked me a cake, and my father brought home an elaborately iced red velvet cake (to make up for the whole forgetting/abandoning, didn't quite cut it, but it was a nice gesture). I went to a show in Denver and life was swell.

Now, moving forward to the main content of this post:

I have been up all night watching random shit on Netflix. I started with a racy drama about a call girl trying to make it in New York called "The Girlfriend Experience", which was quite bland and nowhere near as riveting or sexy as the little pop-up description box had led me to believe. Then, I started this flick called XX/XY which was just weird and reminded me too much of my own life and not in a good way. I had to shut it off, it was that bad. (When it comes to movies, even shittastic ones, I am not a quitter, so my stopping a film half-way through is a big indicator of cinematic shit levels)

Finally, I decided to watch "No Strings Attached" with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, because even in shitty roles, Natalie Portman is a babe. (Side note--"No Strings Attached" was actually much better than I thought it would be. It was pretty standard and the plot was typical, but not disgustingly so. Plus, Natalie Portman)

Now, as a movie connoisseur (you don't understand; I love movies), I appreciate all genres and eras of cinema and I strive to watch each new film with an open mind. The only genre of movie that ever gives me trouble are romantic comedies, particularly ones from this millenium. Though endearing and generally witty, I have issues with the whole genre and I am always hesitant to watch any newly released titles.

I blame this upon a little thing that I like to call the RomCom Dilemma. I don't know how universal the dilemma is, but it's generally applicable to my life. So here's the thing: Romantic comedies always remind me far too much of my own life, but then they end weirdly and abruptly. This sudden deviation from reality at the end of every romantic movie is always predictably placed and unrealistically written. To shorten, watching a romcom is like watching my past relationships, but with different endings.

This creates for me a dilemma: do I watch the film, knowing that it will leave my reminiscent and inevitably frustrated, or do I avoid the film, thereby avoiding any parallels that I may draw between the main character and myself, leaving myself to wonder about all other aspects of the film?

To be frank, I am sick of seeing my love life played out with different endings, however, in some cases, the rest of the movie makes up for it. Still, the choice is always ominous.

Heh.
#firstworldproblems

Julia