Romancefest 2020: The Wedding Year

Written by Donald Diego. Directed by Robert Luketic. Starring Sarah Hyland, Tyler James Williams, Jenna Dewan, Matt Shively and Anna Camp. USA, 2019

A couple’s brand new relationship is put to the test when they find themselves faced with seven weddings to go to in just one year.

This movie ended in a better place than where it started. At the beginning, I was worried this was going to be another soulless act of cynicism like “F the Prom” but halfway through the movie started to surprise me and it got to a place where I actually cared about these people. I had no doubt they’d end up together, but it got me to root for them, which is more than I can say for a lot of similar movies. A lot of the wacky wedding hijinks are pretty sitcommy but the stuff at the back end of the movie where the lead character actually grows and changes is pretty nice and at 90 minutes, worth waiting for.

Romancefest 2020: The Heavenly Kid

Written by Cary Medoway and Martin Copeland. Directed by Cary Medoway. Starring Lewis Smith, Jane Kaczmarek, Jason Gedrick and Richard Mulligan. USA, 1985

A greaser dies in a car race and is sent back to Earth on a mission to help a high school kid with low self esteem become “cool.” If he can accomplish this, that’s his ticket to heaven – or “uptown” as they call it. Things become complicated when the kid starts to get cocky and the greaser discovers he’s connected to the kid in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

This is where it gets confusing. The movie says it takes place in Present Day, which would be 1985. But the greaser looks and acts like he died in the 50s. Turns out, the kid he’s helping is his son. So if the kid is, let’s say, 16, this would mean the greaser would have had to have died no earlier than… 1969? 1968? I guess that’s fine, but they’ve got him all dressed up like the Fonz and the opening scene looks like it comes from Rebel Without a Cause. Dude’s never heard of marijuana before and he was a teenager during the summer of love? Get out of here.

Anyway, that’s not the point of the movie, but it preoccupied me. Otherwise, the movie’s pretty fun. It’s a fun idea for a premise, and the way the romance between the dead guy and his now-grown high school love progresses, it goes places that I didn’t think it was going to when it started. There are moments of actual emotion, here, hidden among the easy jokes.

Romancefest 2020: Destination Wedding

Written and Directed by Victor Levin. Starring Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. USA, 2018

The brother and ex-girlfriend of the groom meet on their way to a destination wedding and bicker their way through the rehearsal dinner, the ceremony and the reception. They also fall in love.

With the only two speaking roles in the film filled by Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves it is no wonder I liked this movie. The dialogue is sometimes a little overwritten but I’d rather take a little bit of that than a bunch of clichés, and you won’t find many here. I mean, the basic idea that they hate each other at first and then fall in love is a tale as old as time, but all the specifics are very unique to these two characters and I never got tired of listening to their conversations. It’s funny because I checked out a review of this movie after I saw it and the first one I saw said how insufferable the two leads are, and how they couldn’t stand having to listen to them complain, etc. So I guess this isn’t for everyone. But it was for me! I haven’t seen Keanu Reeves in anything other than action movies in a long time, so this was nice for a change, and he and Ryder have easy chemistry with each other.

Romancefest 2020: F the Prom

Written by Benny Fine, Rafi Fine and Molly Prather. Directed by Benny Fine. Starring Danielle Campbell, Joel Courtney, Madelaine Petsch and Cameron Palatas. USA, 2017.

With the help of her childhood friend, the most popular girl in school recruits a motely crew of high school rejects to ruin the prom when she catches her best friend and boyfriend making out in the hall. But deep down she wishes she could be prom queen. Will she destroy prom? Won’t she?

Who cares. You guys, this might be the nadir of Romancefest. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I should have known to steer clear of this movie. Well, I watched it anyway. Sorry. Now you don’t have to. It’s not very good. It’s mean spirited. It acts like it’s rooting for the underdogs, and then makes fun of the underdogs. The tone, while always mean, flies all over the place, with some scenes that are cartoonishly funny, like a parody, and others that seem to take place in the real world. The credits said this was a Fine Brothers Production, so I thought, who are they? Well, I looked it up, and it’s hard to tell sort of but I guess they sued some people claiming they invented the idea of reaction videos? So anyway, they made it. It’s kind of a bummer because the young cast is talented and there’s even a Degrassi joke. Someone should bring back Degrassi.

Romancefest 2020: The Perfect Date

Written by Steve Bloom and Randall Green. Story by Steve Bloom, based on his novel. Directed by Chris Nelson. Starring Noah Centineo, Laura Marano, Odiseas Gerorgiadis, Camila Mendes and Matt Walsh. USA, 2019

A high schooler obsessed with getting into Yale starts an app-based business offering himself up as a date-for-hire.

Noah Centineo, the love interest in the “To All the Boys…” movies is front and center here as the star, and he’s a lot more charming as a comedic lead than as the object of affection. This movie gets the basic premise over with within the first few minutes – I thought the whole thing would be about him getting paid to take a “difficult” girl out to a dance, but it turns out that’s just the inciting incident that propels the rest of the movie, so that was a pleasant surprise. There’s nothing ground breaking here, but it’s a better-than-average rom-com with some legit laughs and a lesson to learn that’s not really rom-com based – sure, there’s romance and there’s comedy, but the protagonist’s central dilemma is not relationship-based, but rather a struggle to find his own identity.