On "romcom rage".

Justine Larbalestier has a thought provoking post about romantic comedy movies that, as you can tell by me calling it "thought provoking", provoked me to think.

I can't say I disagree with the things that annoy her about the movies. I, too, am more than a little tired of the parade of self-absorbed, materialistic, shallow, clumsy, cloying heroines that flounce across the screen like a copy of a copy of a copy of Julia Roberts, strangely helpless and childish.

I mute the advertisements for Confessions of a Shopaholic because the idea of it, especially in this economy and climate, sickens me. I'm out of a job and counting pennies, and the idea of a job going to a woman who has to Google what finance is and then buys things at the counter just because they're pretty without knowing what they are just makes the urge to destroy furniture rise.

Nor can I say I enjoy romantic comedies as a genre of movie, not because I don't enjoy romances, but because I think most mainstream American comedies are mean spirited, ham handed, and half witted.

Actually, I think most mainstream American films of any genre are idiotic. Let's face it, mainstream Hollywood just isn't very smart. Even our Oscar winning films are disappointing, intellectually. If romance comedies aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, well, neither is anything else.

( There's a but here, as always. And the but is beneath the cut. Rhyming is just an extra service here at Casa Del Meg. )