''Romantic Comedy'' is a 2019 British documentary film about

romantic comedies Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Romantic comedy e ...

, directed, edited and narrated by

Elizabeth Sankey Elizabeth Sankey is a British filmmaker and musician, best known for her film ''Romantic Comedy''. and for playing in the indie-pop band Summer Camp. Music career As part of Summer Camp she has released four albums and the soundtrack to the fi ...

, whose band

Summer Camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

contributes songs. Sankey's bandmate

Jeremy Warmsley Jeremy Warmsley is a London-based musician, composer and film producer. Biography From 2005 to 2009, he worked as a solo artist, recording two albums for Transgressive Records and touring with Regina Spektor and The Shins. Since 2009 he has wor ...

co-produced and composed the film's original score.

Synopsis

The film features extracts from hundreds of films, including ''

The Holiday ''The Holiday'' is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers. Co-produced by Bruce A. Block, it was filmed in both California and in England and stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as Iris and Amanda, ...

'', ''

When Harry Met Sally ''When Harry Met Sally...'' is a 1989 American romantic comedy film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron. Starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby, it follows the title characters from the time they meet ...

'', '' While You Were Sleeping'', ''

The Big Sick ''The Big Sick'' is a 2017 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Michael Showalter and written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani. It stars Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, and Anupam Kher. Gord ...

'', ''

Kissing Jessica Stein ''Kissing Jessica Stein'' is a 2001 American independent romantic comedy film written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, and directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. The film also stars Scott Cohen, ...

'' and ''

The Broken Hearts Club ''The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy'' is a 2000 American romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Greg Berlanti. It follows the lives of a group of gay friends in West Hollywood, centered on a restaurant owned by the fatherly ...

''. The production made use of

Fair Use Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...

guidelines to legally include these clips. Other contributors to the film include actor

Jessica Barden Jessica Amy Barden (born 21 July 1992) is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her role as Alyssa Foley in the Channel 4 comedy-drama '' The End of the F***ing World'' (2017–2019). She received a B ...

, director Charlie Lyne, writers Laura Snapes, Anne T Donahue, Simran Hans, Cameron Cook, Brodie Lancaster and radio producer Eleanor McDowall.

Release

The film premiered at IFFR 2019 and went on to play at festivals such as SXSW 2019 and

AFI AFI may refer to: * Actual flip-angle imaging, a type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2017 album), the tenth ...

. It was distributed in the UK by

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

Reception

, ''Romantic Comedy'' holds a rating of on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on reviews. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' reviewed ''Romantic Comedy'', rating it 4/5 stars and writing "engaging documentary reclaims the genre from snooty cinephiles – and proudly pronounces ''When Harry Met Sally'' a masterpiece".

References

External links

* *{{rotten-tomatoes, romantic_comedy, Romantic Comedy 2019 films British documentary films 2019 documentary films Documentary films about films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films Films scored by Jeremy Warmsley English-language documentary films British collage films Essays about film Films directed by Elizabeth Sankey