What Movie is your Love Life? – Part 2
In Part 1 of What Movie is your Love Life? we examined how best to incorporate genres like period dramas and crime epics into your love life. In Part 2, we’ll continue with romantic comedies.
Romantic Comedy
If the movies that popped into your head were in the “When Harry Met Sally” and “Knocked Up” range, then these are the story boards for you:
Qualities to Incorporate: A great romantic comedy is like a great French lunch, light but satisfying. It breezes through the depths of the human experience but never glosses over it. Be fun, be spontaneous and be optimistic
Qualities to Avoid: A bad romantic comedy is bad candy. It’s so sweet it becomes cloying with a sporadic sophomoric joke that seems to come out of nowhere. Don’t be delusional in your happiness and don’t cover up negative feelings with jokes.
Magical Fantasy
If Frodo, Gandalf, Luke and Chewbacca get your juices flowing, then pay heed to the following:
Qualities to Incorporate: The best fantasies bring you into another world so vast that it seems an entire parallel universe. Continue your education and be open to sharing the wealth of knowledge you’ve picked up. Be open to creatures of all shapes and sizes.
Qualities to Avoid: At their worst, fantasies are didactic and rendered inert by the minutia of forced creativity. Don’t be miserly with your intelligence and don’t use it to hold yourself hostage from real emotions and companionship.
Surreal Fantasy
If the cinema that speaks to you is the likes of “Edward Scissorhands” and “Adaptation” then perhaps you want to think about this:
Qualities to Incorporate: The surreal is at once familiar and different. It brings a sort of quirky perspective and refreshing wit. Be funky and open to strange situations and people.
Qualities to Avoid: At their worst, these films get lost in trying to be weird rather than trying to be themselves. Make sure that your efforts towards individuation are not just rejections of “normal” life. Be you, not the opposite of “them.”
Animated Family
When we say movie and you say “Snow White,” “The Lion King,” “Shrek” or “Toy Story” here is what you want to be aware of:
Qualities to Incorporate: A great animated family film is innocent without being naïve. It sees the world with wonder and relishes even in the darkest parts of existence (often musically too!) Be joyful in love and constantly headed towards a happy ending.
Qualities to Avoid: A bad family flick is a marketing ploy masquerading as a story. Do not obfuscate your worldly ambitions with false joy and manufactured sweetness.
Read Part 3 of What Movie is your Love Life” for what to do with action and horror movie lovers.
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