Podstruck: A Rom-Com Rewind

CATEGORY: THOU HADST ME AT GOOD MORROW This week we are kicking off our new Shakespeare bucket of rom-coms with the 1999 teen classic, 10 Things I Hate About You starring Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Allison Janney, Gabrielle Union and Andrew Keegan! This movie is a modern reimagining of the classic Shakespeare play The Taming of The Shrew and...

This week, Podstruck ventures into virgin territory by going to the movie theater in person and tackling the brand new Emerald Fennell movie Wuthering Heights, the Emily Brontë adaptation starring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, and Hong Chau. We discuss how this movie manages to be equal parts putrid and sexy, the opening that made us think of Jon Hamm, why Wuthering Heights makes way more sense wit...

SUBCATEGORY: CULTURE CLASH To close up our Culture Clash category we are covering the 2018 summer blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians starring an all star cast including Michelle Yeoh, Constance Wu, Awkwafina, Lisa Lu, Henry Golding, Jimmy O.Yang, Nico Santos, Gemma Chan, Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Remy Hii, Fiona Xie, Ronny Chieng, Chris Pang and more! We discuss how Jon M. Chu brought this book series...

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE As an exclusive bonus episode for our Podstruck Patreon subscribers AKA our Meet Cuties, we are talking through rom-com hot takes as submitted by our listeners, the Internet, and sharing a few of our own along the way. It's a debate-filled episode about beautiful dweeby men, Nancy Meyers' kitchens, Rizzo's divorcée vibes, kid side kicks, horny old people, the new...

This week Podstruck celebrates Valentine's Day with another rom-com in our Culture Clash category, this time the 1997 Salma Hayek Matthew Perry movie Fools Rush In. Joining us is Chelsea Devantez (Glamorous Trash, Basic, The Problem with Jon Stewart) who defends this movie with her life, from the Southwest setting to the fact that it's ballsy and progressive for when it was made. She also sheds li...

Today on the pod we launch a new collection of romantic comedies that involve people falling in love despite a culture clash with a box office banger, My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Gia Carides, Andrea Martin and even *NSYNC star, Joey Fatone! We discuss why despite this movie lacking conflict and a typical movie structure, it stil...

We're popping our TV show cherry this week with the HBO hockey sensation Heated Rivalry. Elena and Chelsea talk about why this gay sports love story has taken the world by storm, including Connor Storrie's ability to learn Russian, Hudson Williams' ability to communicate the book's inner monologue on his face, and all of the incredibly hot butts. Plus we discuss the parallels between this show and...

It's our final episode of the subcategory "Rom-Com Icons" and we're covering the Frank Capra movie that swept at The Oscars, It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. And we are joined by our editor Nick Duke (Cinestory Writing Fellow, Second round at the Austin Film Festival, and a Screencraft Fellow) to break down what parts of this pre-Code Hollywood rom-com still work...

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE As an exclusive bonus episode for our Podstruck Patreon subscribers AKA our Meet Cuties we are covering the BRAND NEW Netflix movie People We Meet On Vacation based on the book by Emily Henry. We dish on all the major changes from the book to the movie, we explain why Emily Bader might be the next Julia Roberts, we talk about the pros and cons of road tripping an...

This week Podstruck continues the Rom-Com Icons collection of pioneering romance films with The Philadelphia Story. Ben Joseph (Dropout) and Ellie Race-Moore (Dropout) join Chelsea to talk about this Katharine Hepburn / Cary Grant / James Stewart classic about multiple men falling in love with a Philadelphia heiress. We dish on how this movie came together due to the power and vision of Hepburn, w...

Happy new year to the Podstruck community! This week we’re kicking off 2026 with our Rom-Com Icons category - beginning with a classic romantic comedy from 1960: Billy Wilder’s The Apartment . This movie stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray, and was nominated for TEN Oscars though only won a measly five, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, proving that rom...

CATEGORY: HORNIER FOR THE HOLIDAYS For our final holiday movie of the year, Chelsea is joined by returning guests Catherine McCafferty & Margaret Kaminski to discuss 'Happiest Season,' the Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis queer rom-com from 2020. It's a romance that has us screaming RUN, but then we stay for the side characters who we can't get enough of. And we ask whether there was a vers...

CATEGORY: HORNIER FOR THE HOLIDAYS Today Elena and Chelsea rewatch the Will Ferrell holiday favorite 'Elf,' which is only a little bit of a rom-com but that's probably for the best. Joining the Podstruck hosts is Matt Buechele (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) who discusses the appeal of NYC in the fall, the creepy babysitter vibes Zooey Deschanel gives off, the underrated musical score, an...

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE As an exclusive bonus episode for our Podstruck Patreon subscribers AKA our Meet Cuties today we're discussing the Netflix holiday rom-com Love Hard, featuring Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang. Chelsea and Elena dive in to figure out why this 2021 movie feels extremely 2009. Do we love it, hate it, or hate that we could've loved it but only liked it? And how big is...

CATEGORY: HORNIER FOR THE HOLIDAYS Welcome to season 2 of Podstruck! We are kicking things off with The Family Stone, a movie that hits even harder after the passing of Diane Keaton. It's a movie for anyone who loves strata, stress, and a brother/sister swap. Elena and Chelsea debate whether Luke Wilson and Sarah Jessica Parker have chemistry that revs our engines, we shout out Rachel McAdams' var...

PATREON EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW Today we are announcing our first annual superlative awards! Who wins the Walter White Award for Insane Chemistry, or the Cold Wet Wipe Award for Least Chemistry? We will let you know! And please chime in and let us know who would win your awards?! Is Uma Thurman's wardrobe in "The Truth About Cats & Dogs" incredible or Amelia Bedelia come to life? What do you think i...

CATEGORY: ENGAGED TO THE WRONG DUDE For our final movie in Season 1 of Podstruck, we're revisiting the Cher and Nic Cage classic, Moonstruck, which just so happens to be our namesake inspiration! Elena and Chelsea are joined by Rose Surnow (Pivoting, Marvel) to talk about how every line in this John Patrick Shanley movie is a masterpiece, why the chemistry makes us feel like there's a furnace in o...

CATEGORY: ENGAGED TO THE WRONG DUDE                                                     This week we cover 'Sleepless in Seattle'! The 1993 Nora...

CATEGORY: ENGAGED TO THE WRONG DUDE We're kicking off our new rom-com theme Engaged To The Wrong Dude with the Adam Sandler Drew Barrymore 1998 classic 'The Wedding Singer.' Allie Goertz (Mad Magazine, MST3K) joins us to talk about why we love all the butt grabbing, the pros and cons of blue eye shadow, the insane chemistry between Adam and Drew, feminist Billy Idol, which plot point felt straight...

CATEGORY: LOVEY DOVEY TIMEY WIMEY Our final movie in the collection of time travel rom-coms is the 2013 gentle charmer, About Time, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. And for this sweet but meandering movie, we're joined by writer and podcaster Jordan Morris (Jordan, Jesse, Go!, Free With Ads, Bubble, Youth Group) who brings up PG-13 Sex Poses, the incredible bargain that is Love Actual...

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE Listen to the beginning of an exclusive bonus episode for our Podstruck Patreon subscribers AKA our Meet Cuties covering the 2020 time loop rom-com, Palm Springs. Chelsea and Elena discuss how this Hulu movie builds on Groundhog Day and yet finds ways to make the time loop feel completely fresh. It's a movie jam-packed with synchronized dances, J.K. Simmons hunti...

CATEGORY: LOVEY DOVEY TIMEY WIMEY The time travel rom-coms venture into time loops this week with the groundbreaking philosophical masterpiece, Groundhog Day, a movie that destroyed the friendship of Bill Murray and Harold Ramis but made America fall in love. Chelsea and Elena talk about the days they wish they could repeat forever, whether Ned Ryerson is the Devil and the groundhog is God, how ma...

CATEGORY: LOVEY DOVEY TIMEY WIMEY To kick off our new collection of time travel rom-coms, we're joined by comedian Demi Adejuyigbe (The Good Place, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Gilmore Guys) to cover our third Meg Ryan movie - 'Kate & Leopold.' We rewatch this underrated movie about a Duke in the 1870s (Hugh Jackman) falling through a portal to modern day NYC and finding love, and tal...

CATEGORY: BFFS WHO ARE DTF For the final rom-com in our friends-to-lovers theme BFF's Who Are DTF, we watch the 2005 Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris movie 'Just Friends.' This movie is a throwback to a time where the worst thing that could happen to a guy was getting "friendzoned" since apparently women were only suitable as friends if you got to also have sex with them. But are the character...

CATEGORY: BFFS WHO ARE DTF This week we are joined by comedian Alex Song-Xia (The Tonight Show, Rick & Morty, Praise Petey) to cover the next rom-com in our BFFs Who Are DTF bucket, "Always Be My Maybe." This movie has an all-star cast with Ali Wong, Randall Park, Michelle Buteau, and an Oscar worthy cameo by Keanu Reeves! We cover whether Randall Park's character is even worthy of Ali Wong's,...