💌 a love letter to '90s rom coms
thanks for giving me sky high expectations and nurturing my hopeless romantic
happy day eight of consistent writing 💓 i was going to write abt revenge or something but that’s a bit depressing (it’s coming lol) and i wanted to write something a little more fun!! so here we are - writing a love letter to some of my favorite movies in my fav genre, rom coms.
the title is actually a bit of a lie - a lot of the movies i’ll reference below are actually early 2000s (which i was pretty shocked to find out!). nonetheless, in my mind they are all the same time period - makeovers, landline phones, too much pink (not that that’s a bad thing).
here are some of my favorite movies in this genre:
each of these movies are slightly different and my list/definition of the ‘90s rom-com, again, is quite different from what some others have said. they’re all iconic in their own way - she’s all that had me playing kiss me by sixpence none the richer on repeat, 10 things i hate about you has that absolutely iconic poem where it turns out, she doesn’t really hate him at all. with that being said, i want to focus on clueless and legally blonde a bit more, if only for their strong female leads.
legally blonde is the movie that gave us this iconic moment below, the power to reclaim pink, and most importantly, the knowledge that you can be both girly and fearlessly intelligent (oh, and that if you want to be a partner at a law firm, you need to dump your JD Vance looking boneheaded boyfriend ASAP - no offense, Warner).
legally blonde is my comfort watch - the movie i turn to when everything seems impossible and it’s time to get to work, both literally and metaphorically. elle is inspiring and smart on the books and in her own way - and most of all, kind. she could have taken a lot of the stereotypes thrown her way negatively (that she was too blonde, too ditzy, too un-Vanderbilt-ish to go to Harvard Law School) but instead, turned them into her fuel to get to work and be an inspiration to others. she befriends her frenemy and saves the awkward guy just because.
the movie is oftentimes unrealistic - she should’ve applied to some safeties (!!) - but the core message is there: you have to be authentically you to get to where you want. elle doesn’t always embody this message - she first goes to Harvard for her boyfriend. but the movie celebrates what it means to perfectly be a girl - messy, sometimes doing things out of spite, without giving up your sparkles and wardrobe. in other words, she’s her, elle woods, fashion icon, LSAT crusher, and ultimately, valedictorian of her class at Harvard Law. throughout the process, whether in california or in hypothetical boston (the actual movie was mostly filmed in california + london - CULA was actually CalTech, which is so cool!!), she embodies who she is and dreams big.
now, on to cher of clueless. another part of what i love so much of cher is that yes, she’s ditzy, obsessed with shopping, but also driven and ambitious. sometimes that doesn’t manifest quite right (aka kissing up to her teachers just to get a good grade) but she knows the importance of good grades and even more importantly, her self worth (as if!). even while her speech gets misinterpreted, she’s still saying something real about international relations lolll. she’s lowkey who i want to be - party girl (??), yet serious about her studies. and i want her wardrobe of course.
that’s it from me for today :) a shorter little love letter to two movies i keep returning to and that tell me it’s okay to be me - to be hung up on boys sometimes, make questionable choices, but to stick to what i feel and what i know. thanks for reading as always!!
see you tomorrow ~~
Karen