STREAM THIS WEEKEND: When Harry Met Sally 🥂 & Set it Up 🍕
Happy Thursday and happy cuffing season! Whether you’re turning that summer fling into something more, taking the next step in a relationship, or happily self-partnered here are a couple of rom-coms that will make remind you that it’s not so easy to quit loving you. Plus, they’re both set in New York City, which always makes a movie better.
Some housekeeping: I’m covering the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Follow me on Twitter for updates! Baby, I am not going to miss that plane.
Have a terrific weekend!
When Harry Met Sally… 🥂
Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) share a ride from Chicago to New York City where they’re both starting new chapters of their lives. Over the course of their journey they discuss love, sex, and friendship — little do they know that conversation will go on for eleven years. Here’s the trailer.
Why you should watch it: When Harry Met Sally, along with Moonstruck, is the quintessential New York romantic comedy. There are artifacts of the city throughout the film — most notably the “I’ll have what she’s having scene” in Katz’s — but what makes it a true New York City film is the serendipitous way the plot unfurles. The movie plays out in moments where you find youself thinking, “how is this real?” but somehow it is.
However, this isn’t a grand once-in-a-lifetime love-at-first-sight romance. The not so passively aggresive antogonist banter between Harry and Sally never rings false and the way their relationship develops avoids almost all rom-com cliche. There’s a reason When Harry Met Sally has endured this long. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are irresistable and the film’s thesis about love is still relevant today. 96 mins.
Set it Up 🍕
In a play on the classic The Parent Trap formula, Set it Up follows two burnt out assistants (Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell) who hatch a plan to get their respective bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) off their backs by getting them to fall in love with each other. Of course, that takes a lot of time, energy, and dollar slices of pizza — all the necessary elements to fall in love. Here’s the trailer.
Why you should watch it: Anyone that lived through the 80s, 90s and early aughts has a soft spot for the perfect romantic comedy. The kind that has sharp one-liners you can work into everyday life and characters whose lives that you could only aspire to in unrealistically large apartments and scenes that make your heart flutter at the thought of them happening in real life.
Set it Up mines those tropes and makes me feel nostalgic for those breezy rom-coms. And while it hits a lot of those familiar plot beats, the movie surpasses other contemporary rom-coms because director Claire Scanlonand the charming leads have a great sense of comedic timing and the propensity for subtle, but effective physical comedy. It's one of those movies that you'll want to come back to over and over again. 91 mins.
📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.