These romantic comedies may be problematic, but they deserve a closer look.
Or maybe the things that make them questionable arent as bad as they seem on the surface?
Lets do a deep-dive.
Clueless
Will you forgive these movies and watch them anyway, or relegate them to the rom-com graveyard?
Clueless (1995)
Were starting with a light one here.
Even at the time, viewers were at odds not with the movie, but with themselves.
Of course, incest is a big word.
Yes, Cher and Josh are siblings, but the relationship needs a lot of qualifiers.
First, theyre step-siblings.
Paramount Pictures
Theyre only step-siblings by a technicality.
While the sibling relationship was a hot-button topic at the time, age-gaps werent as much of a problem.
Take the movieSleepoverfrom 2004.
Paramount Pictures
Its only in 2023 that people are starting to wise up to how predatory these age gaps are.
InClueless, Cher is supposed to be 15.
(Yes, 15!)
Buena Vista Pictures
And Josh is not only in college, but hes several years into it.
Lets say hes 19 just to be generous (but hes more likely 21.)
Thats the biggest yikes of this whole movie.
Buena Vista Pictures
But do we all collectively forgiveClueless?
Because no matter what their relationship or the gap in age, its Paul Rudd.
And that man can do no wrong.
20 Century Fox
Weve all been there, crushing hard on a stranger weve never spoken to.
Well invent all manner of ways we meet and fall in love.
It makes those boring train journeysor classes, or workso much more interesting.
20th Century Fox
Crushes arent the problem here, though.
Its what she does with that crush after he ends up in a coma.
And, even worse, she ends up falling for his brother.
Because of course a relationship built on spectacular lies is going to end up okay.
At the time, morally gray characters just werent a thing in romantic comedies.
Lucy wasnt a good person, but even icky people find love.
Although hes played by the loveable Jack Black, hes truly detestable.
Its not like Shallow Hal was celebrated in its time.
All the complaints youre hearing about the movie have all been said even before it came out.
The fat jokes abound, and people werent having it in 2001.
The moral of the story is not to judge a book by its cover.
Hal is shallow precisely because hes a fat-shamer.
The audience is made to hate Hal, and not his fat counterpart.
