Double Feature: Isn’t It Romantic (2019) & A Nice Girl Like You (2020)

A bit behind than usual but its time to start up the Valentine’s Romance Marathon. While it might not all be rom-coms throughout, it seems like a decent way to start up with two that revolve in that territory.

Lets check it out!

Isn’t It Romantic (2019)

Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson

Cast: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, Priyanka Chopra, Betty Gilpin, Brandon Scott Jones, Jennifer Saunders

A young woman disenchanted with love mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy. – IMDB

If Pitch Perfect didn’t do anything for you, it sure did help pitch a fun pairing of Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine as we see them pair up again as friends and colleagues in Isn’t It Romantic. Of course, there’s a little bit more to it. What does stand out for Isn’t It Romantic is the anti-romcom theme that it starts with as a childhood naive fantasy about romance quickly gets knocked down by the mother and in adulthood, this notion of how romantic comedies formula is broken down for its unrealistic elements. The way its executed with the character getting knocked out and waking up to this new version of New York where everything goes well for her and yet also opens her eyes to a world where she comes to a realization about herself. Even in a perfect world, nothing is as perfect as it seems.

Isn’t It Romantic was a blast to watch. Rebel Wilson, Adam Devine paired up respectively with Liam Hemsworth and Priyanka Chopra actually make for some fun bits. To be fair, the humor is done really well by the sarcastic humor on Rebel Wilson’s part that matches with the tone of the film so well. The romance isn’t actually too forefront but the film’s negative feeling to the romantic comedy formula does slowly blend into a norm which makes the whole progression of events pretty fun.

Overall, Isn’t It Romantic is really good. Call it anti-romance or anti-romantic comedy but it manages to embrace that with the right person perhaps all that doesn’t matter so much.

A Nice Girl Like You (2020)

Directors: Chris Riedell & Nick Riedell

Cast: Lucy Hale, Mindy Cohn, Jackie Cruz, Leonidas Gulaptis, Adhir Kalyan, Stephen Friedrich

After being accused of being too inhibited by her ex-boyfriend, a violinist creates a rather wild to-do list that sends her on a whirlwind journey of self-discovery. – IMDB

A Nice Girl Like You honestly is nothing to call hime about. As a romantic comedy, it definitely feels rather by the books. For one, I personally haven’t often liked a movie about someone making lists after a certain event to go wild and experience everything they haven’t. However, A Nice Girl Like You does use the awkwardness of always randomly meeting this guy whenever whatever she is trying goes horribly wrong and its a case of whether she can save the situation or not which makes it all the more entertaining to watch.

To be honest, the movie plot itself did offer a few chuckles. Perhaps the element that adds the most to the film is Lucy Hale and the rest of the cast. They do add quite a bit to the whole film. Its helps that each of her friends have a different sort of personality. They conveniently all can help her out in some part of her sexy to-do list. There’s even Jackie Cruz who played Flaca in Orange is the New Black who is rather entertaining to watch. These friends actually add a bit of personality to the film as well. Of course, romantic comedies are also about the chemistry and while the scenes were not so frequent, they was a decent level chemistry between her and the male lead Leonidas Gulaptis who plays Grant. Plus, his character is rather fun to watch as well.

Overall, A Nice Girl Like You is fairly normal rom-com fare. The film is based on a novel called Pornology so it makes me wonder how the book differs. With that said, this film stands out for the separate moments of embarassment or awkwardness which offers some laughs and a cast that does help make the whole story fairly entertaining.