the groundhog day project

Clearly, Toy Story is built around the whole "buddy picture" sort of structure, but that's close enough to the romance genre, specifically romantic comedy, that I figured it's time to share this: For the record, I did not draw that. It was drawn by a deviantart user who seems to be named May Pong, lives in Brunei. And, if seeing Buzz and Woody kissing like that bothers you, you really shouldn't read the rather brilliantly titled "And Beyond" by Kass , a fanfic in which Woody realizes he has fallen in love with Buzz and Buzz overhears him breaking up with Bo Peep and one thing leads to another until eventually, Buzz plays with Woody's pull string and Woody pushes Buzz's buttons. Seriously though, I think there's more to it than some playful imagining or adolescent fantasy. (And, I'm not suggesting that Toy Story is feeding into homosexual references like, say, Planes, Trains & Automobiles , even though Woody is clearly jealous b...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a romantic comedy. I mean, structurally. Tripping over the trunk, accidentally stealing the cab, ending up next to each other on the flight—this is the meet-cute for Neal and Del. In Hinnant’s (2006) terms, this would be the courtship model that begins with “an atmosphere of bitter animosity. It involves the initial antagonism of an improbable pair of lovers who will only slowly come to appreciate in one another the sterling moral characteristics prized in the courtship novel” (p. 297). Now, for Neal and Del, it’s a little more one-sided than that. Del is the friendly one in this pair, Neal the standoffish one. Del just asked Neal, “You want to take a shower?” Neal misunderstood and thought Del wanted them to shower together. Or did he misunderstand? Seriously, just imagine Steve Martin’s Neal as a woman, like the Sally to Del’s Harry. They share a bed their first night together. And, Neal has to sleep in the wet spot. Dowd and Pallotta (200...

Today, some complaints. Or nitpicks, I suppose. One is simply an issue with the time (in terms of setting) of the film, the other deals with character motivations. Both relate to time. The La Boheme performance is Monday, November 15. The poster we see being put up at the start of the film says as much. The problem is this: November 15 was not a Monday. Moonstruck was filmed in December 1986 and released in December 1987. November 15 in ‘86 was a Saturday, ‘87 was a Sunday. 1988 was a leap year, so November 15 was a Tuesday. Thing is, because of that leap year, the last time November 15 was a Monday was in 1982 and the next would be 1993. It’s a minor detail but you’d think someone in the prop department would check when the film was set. This only bugged me because I was thinking about the timing of the film. Johnny proposes to Loretta on Saturday night, then she drives him to the airport, stops at the store for champagne—where the husband and wife running the place seem about t...