Scott Meslow is a senior editor at The Week magazine and a writer and critic for publications including GQ, New York magazine, and The Atlantic. From Hollywood with Love is his first book.
No Hollywood genre has been more misunderstood—or more unfairly under-appreciated—than the romantic comedy. Funny, charming, and reliably crowd-pleasing, rom-coms were the essential backbone of the Hollywood landscape, launching the careers of many of Hollywood's most talented actors and filmmakers, such as Julia Roberts and Matthew McConaughey, and providing many of the yet limited creative opportunities women had in Hollywood. But despite—or perhaps because of—all that, the rom-com has routinely been overlooked by the Academy Awards or snobbishly dismissed by critics. In From Hollywood with Love, culture writer and GQ contributor Scott Meslow seeks to right this wrong, celebrating and analyzing rom-coms with the appreciative, insightful critical lens they've always deserved. Beginning with the golden era of the romantic comedy—spanning from the late '80s to the mid-'00s with the breakthrough of films such as When Harry Met Sally—to the rise of streaming and the long-overdue push for diversity. setting the course for films such as the groundbreaking, franchise-spawning Crazy Rich Asians, Meslow examines the evolution of the genre through its many iterations, from its establishment of new tropes, the Austen and Shakespeare rewrites, the many love triangles, and even the occasional brave decision to do away with the happily ever after. Featuring original black-and-white sketches of iconic movie scenes and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers behind our most beloved rom-coms, From Hollywood with Love constructs oral histories of our most celebrated romantic comedies, for an informed and entertaining look at Hollywood's beloved yet most under-appreciated genre.
From Hollywood with Love tracks the rise, fall, and rise again of the romantic comedy genre (it says it, right there in the subtitle!). Tracking rom-coms from the 80s to the '10s, Meslow takes a holistic approach to understanding the rom-com genre. Each movie is broken down to its components: the screenplay/screenwriters, the directors/producers, the actors, the reception. Putting it like this makes it sound dryer than it is—by diving into each of these parts, we can understand why the rom-coms we love work as well as they do. What makes it even better is that we can track these characters as they journey through Hollywood and the evolution of the genre.
Along the way, fun sidebars and incredible illustrations support Meslow's arguments and commentary. The illustrations are of our favorite movie moments, and serve as introductions to chapters about those films. The sidebars provide extra notes on the film, and have a very "exclusive" feel to them. Each chapter about a film is followed by a look at one specific actor who helped change the genre, giving the entire novel a layered and well-researched element. I wouldn't want to read another book about the rom-com genre—this one absolutely covered it.
More than just analyzing the rom-com, Meslow also takes a critical look at Hollywood itself. At the beginning of the rom-com era, whiteness and heteronormativity reigned. Now, with the reinvention of the rom-com, that is fading into the background to bring stories never been told before to the spotlight. While I believe Meslow could have been even more critical of Hollywood's faults, I agree with what I think he feels—that simply we're at the beginning of all of this work, and it's more important to champion that work rather than remain pessimistic in criticism. Either way, I absolutely will take this reinvention of the rom-com genre, because it brings fresh stories, dynamic actors, brilliant writers, and more relatable content to the silver screen.
This book made me want to rewatch all of my favorite rom-coms, and added even more of "need to watch" movies to my list. If you're a rom-com lover, this book is for you. And, while you're at it, gift it to the skeptic in your life. Its charm and energy will surely convince them over to the right side.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment