4. Romances Set In "The Real World"
Films going semi-meta and referencing their own genre explicitly is a great way to reignite an already covered idea. Scream extended the life of the slasher genre by highlighting the tropes everyone was well aware of, while Kick-Ass positioned itself as a reaction to the popularity of superheroes. Both these films were keen to emphasise they were in the real world without losing what made the genre beloved. Where this tact doesn't work is in romances. You cannot say a film is not the usual Hollywood schmaltz and then proceed with ninety minutes of Hollywood schmaltz that occasionally goes "this is the real world". By far the worst offender is The Fault In Our Stars, a film that opens with an irritating narration saying this isn't a movie story. And then things get so fantastical we have a scene where the two main characters make-out in the room where Nazis took away Anne Frank and everyone around claps. But it's not just the cancer drama that commits these crimes; it seems like every rom-com must comment on "real relationships" to avoid appearing cliché, which is now a cliché on its own. There is one stand-out case and it doesn't do it in an overly overt manner. (500) Days Of Summer is, by its own admission, "not a love story" and then delivers a story with an ending you can kinda see happening in real life.