Bad Romance Podcast

This week we took a deep dive into the new Netflix romcom The Kissing Booth . It's adorable and sexist! Sweet and horrifying! The leads are dating in real life, so that's kind of cute, right? Almost makes how scary their dynamic is in the film okay because there's no way it's like that in real life... right? Also: It's a stage, not a booth! The title doesn't make sense!

This week we groaned through 1996's The Pallbearer, a Graduate knockoff with the misfortune of starring a sentient wet paper bag. The love triangle doesn't work. The themes don't hit. Toni Collette, Barbara Hershey and Carol Kane are wasted. But hey, at least Matt Reeves doesn't make romcoms anymore. A blessing!

This week we tried to tackle 2005's The Family Stone . It really is the romantic comedy holiday movie TO THE EXTREME. See also: Love Actually (which we'll cover eventually, maybe). We've got familial conflict, romantic conflict, culture clashing and a sick relative! The Stone family is a liberal with a capital L, everyone hates Sarah Jessica Parker for some reason and Dermot Mulroney is the secret...

This week we finally dipped our toe into the Mary-Kate and Ashley Empire with 1998's Billboard Dad . Surprise! It's actually a plausible romantic story for adults trapped inside a movie for kids! The leads are attractive, look good together and mesh well as a couple. The main thing lacking in the film is... Mary-Kate and Ashley. It pains us to have to say this... but we wanted more adults in this...

This week we took it easy with one of Hilary Duff's more forgettable vehicles-- 2005's The Perfect Man . It's a weird movie where a teenage girl makes up a fake dream man for her very beautiful and shockingly desperate mother. Chris Noth looks bored and lost post-Sex and the City. Heather Locklear has to pretend she isn't gorgeous. It's all strange. But at least Ben Feldman is in it, and he's very...

This week we tried to tackle 1999's Simply Irresistible . This sort-of musical and sort-of romance stars Sarah Michelle Gellar at the height of her power and that one guy from The Boondock Saints. It occurs in a mirror universe where Patricia Clarkson would lust after Dylan Baker, Sarah Michelle Gellar would be jealous of thin blondness of Amanda Peet and anyone would care this much about a giant...

This week we tackled a new release: I Feel Pretty . I know our listeners probably expected us to hate it... but that's not actually the case. It's really naive and broad--but pure of heart. And we really appreciated that. The script is mediocre, but the performances are great. Michelle Williams BROUGHT IT. And the romance we discuss is actually... good and healthy? On this show?! It's wild times,...

This week we try to make sense of The Heart Specialist , a film that premiered at the Boston Film Festival in 2006 but didn't hit theaters until 2011 (to capitalize on Zoe Saldana's rise to stardom in Avatar ). It's unfocused, disjointed, oddly-edited and yet... it made us laugh? We're probably both going mad, and this is probably the worst film we've done so far, but we actually didn't hate this...

Jenny's Wedding is ALLEGEDLY a lesbian romantic dramedy from 2015, and is APPARENTLY on Netflix, and SOMEHOW has a cast that includes Tom Wilkinson, Katherine Heigl, Grace Gummer and Alexis Bledel. It's also been told to us that it does in fact take place on planet Earth, but it's tough to confirm these speculations. Somehow, someway, Macklemore is to blame for this

Wow, just wow. This is a rare case on the show where a film lived up to its expectations. It's really just as bad as everyone says it is, and all the dragging that's gone on through the years is entirely justified. Kelly Clarkson doesn't want to be there. Justin has very little screen presence, despite being a better actor than her. Anika Noni Rose is the only actor in this that comes out unscathe...

This week on the pod we talked about the sexism that holds Life or Something Like It back from being a good film. Angelina Jolie plays a delightful human being who everyone seems to hate because she's... thin, blonde and goal-oriented. That's it. She's not a secret racist or anything. Just an evil blonde. Hiss! Edward Burns plays the "love interest" who negs her into losing her confidence. Swoon!

This week we decided to go back to the early 90s with 1992's The Cutting Edge , starring the very strange pairing of Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney. As a film, it's pretty okay. But as a romance, it doesn't work at all. This film is a great example of how a male director and male screenwriter can put their heads together and still not understand women to save their lives. Moira Kelly deserved better...

This episode we tried to find depth in the very shallow Leap Year. It's a film that answers this question: What if Claire and Bender from The Breakfast Club were older, very boring, and met in Ireland for some reason? It's a story about a woman being bullied into love and we don't even have an 80s sheen and iconic soundtrack to mask the cringe and make it feel cool. It's very, very bad.

This week we experienced the very strange 2001 remake Sweet November . Now, we haven't seen the 1968 original, but the 1968 original doesn't have a completely off-the-wall Keanu Reeves performance, so it probably succeeds more as a romance. Don't get us wrong--Keanu did a great job. We're just not quite sure what movie he thought he was in.

This week we decided to dip our toe into bad melodrama with 2000's Autumn in New York. It's the classic tale of a patronizing middle-aged man dating a terminally ill 22-year-old young woman who is most definitely too good for him. Someone in 2000 really thought Richard Were and Winona Ryder were a good romantic pairing. Someone in 2000 was wrong.

We're just not that into this movie. Fun Fact: The moment we finished recording, I actually did throw up. The only good thing about 2009's evil demonic egg that is He's Just Not That Into You is that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston are good in tit. Everyone else is terrible.

This week we watched 2015's Playing It Cool aka The Marvel Off-Time Hangout Movie. Captain America has to write a romcom script for The Falcon. Cap is in love with a woman, but she's engaged to Mr. Fantastic. Caps best friend in this universe is Venom for some reason (along with Peter Parker's teacher and Legion's bud Lenny). And somehow, with all this talent... it's about as romantic as an iPod c...

Just in time for the most upsetting holiday of the year, Bronwyn and Jourdain decided to tackle their most-requested film: 2011's Something Borrowed . It's a romcom that hinges on the idea that blonde women oppress brunette women and that it's justifiable to steal a blonde woman's fiancé as reparations! Yes! Seriously! This is one of the few cases where we totally understand why everyone hates thi...

Joined again by Kyle Kallgren, we looked into Tina Fey's most misbegotten starring vehicle to date. It's a film all about how war is hot and sexy and fun and everyone is white.

This week, it's a weird case. We took a deep dive into 2009's Bride Wars and how it's bad... but not as bad as everyone says it is.

William H. Macy's The Layover is possibly the worst film we've ever discussed on the show.

We decided to kick off 2018 by doing a good romance for once! This week we gushed about 2017's The Big Sick, a great romcom made by one of the cutest married couples in the entire world.

Tis the season for Jourdain and Kyle to discuss the creepy holiday romcom The Santa Clause 2. It's the wackiest take on The Taming of the Shrew ever put to film.

This week we revisited an old favorite that didn't age well. It's 2002's Sweet Home Alabama, a romantic comedy that is... obsessed with the Confederacy and explosives.

A nightmare.