Rom-Com Game-Changer ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ Steals Hearts, Outshines ‘Marriage Story’ – Critics Weigh In

You’re Cordially Invited to the Rom-Com Revolution: Why ‘You’re Cordially Invited to This Dinner Party’ Leaves the Competition in the Dust – A Must-Read for Vulture

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Get ready to fall head over heels for the most charming, witty, and endearing romantic comedy of the year – ‘You’re Cordially Invited to This Dinner Party’ (or ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ for short). This delightful film has stolen the hearts of audiences everywhere, and for good reason. While some may argue that ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ is just another addition to the rom-com genre, we’re here to make the case for why it’s actually the superior choice over ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’, and even ‘When Harry Met Sally’.

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In this article, we’ll dive into the world of ‘You’re Cordially Invited’, exploring what sets it apart from its predecessors and why it’s

You’re Cordially Invited: A Comedically Discordant yet Satisfying Rom-Com

Even though the moment was inevitable, I winced when Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon finally locked lips in You’re Cordially Invited. The nuptial movie from writer-director Nicholas Stoller represents the stars’ first team-up, though the revelation that they’ve never worked together before is more of a “yeah, that makes sense” fact than a “how is that possible” one.

Ferrell is King Galumph, best at working on a broad scale as genial doofuses, heroic fools, and oblivious bloviators, while Witherspoon’s a diminutive spitfire whose characters insist on a more grounded context for their (deserved or ruthless) triumphs over their doubters. They’re both wildly gifted funny people, but they don’t frequent the same planes of comedy, and in You’re Cordially Invited (streaming on Amazon Prime), they’re less co-stars than the leads of two movies that occasionally intersect.

It’s unfortunate that the plot turn welding those two pictures together requires their stars to do impressions of people who are attracted to one another. They’re not drawn together, but the opposite — like magnets whose poles are aligned, their energy is such that they seem like they should repel one another whenever close. That cursory kiss isn’t just lacking all conviction, it feels like it should result in the actors rebounding violently toward opposite sides of the screen.

Thankfully, the romantic aspects of You’re Cordially Invited are deployed sparingly and mostly toward the end, as though Margot, the reality-TV executive played by Witherspoon, and Jim, the widowed father played by Ferrell, only get together because they’re single and it’s last call (no judgment, relationships have started from less).

Stoller built his career on what I think of as com-roms — movies, from Forgetting Sarah Marshall to The Five-Year Engagement to Bros, that foreground the laughs and riff on the expected rhythms of the romantic comedy while nevertheless finding their way to a heartfelt finale. You’re Cordially Invited might have been better off ditching the rom of it all entirely, but Stoller is good enough at this that even if the rest of his movie consists of two slightly discordant halves, both are pretty solid.

Ferrell’s fraction is a father-daughter lark about a disturbingly devoted parent shaken by the prospect of his only child leaving him for a life of her own with the college boyfriend she’s rushing to wed. Witherspoon’s is a family reunion dramedy about a successful career woman who regresses to a defensive teenager in the company of the buttoned-down Atlanta kin she’s mostly estranged from.

When a reservation mishap leads to Jim’s daughter, Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Margot’s sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), being double-booked to marry at the same small island inn over the same weekend, Jim and Margot channel their anxieties into what escalates into a nuptial war.

The Power Dynamics of Margot’s Family

The L.A.-based Margot sees herself as a refugee from a culture of snobbery and conservatism, with Neve as her only ally among a group of people who judge her for making different choices. And yet, the more we get to see her dynamic with her loved one, especially her razor-blades-dipped-in-honey mother (Celia Weston), the less clear it is who pushed who away.

Margot’s family members may keep secrets and like to tuck criticisms into mild observations, but Margot’s embrace of radical honesty, which gets linked to her work in ways I wish we saw more of, is in certain lights just another, more direct form of being mean.

Margot’s straight-laced family, enforcers of white southern respectability, are funnier than the rival wedding party, mostly because they’re allowed to be more specific, while Jenni, her DJing fiancé, and their friend Comedians are creative.

The Lovebirds: A Bland, Forgettable Rom-Com

These are the hardest reviews to write. Harder than pans, which are often energized by a crackling fire of hatred. Harder than paeans, exercises that remind you of the wonder of film as a medium. It’s trying to wrangle thoughts on a film that left an impression as lasting as footsteps near the sea shore that is the most laborious. And that’s exactly what The Lovebirds, directed by Michael Showalter and written by Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall, left me.

This is a film designed to be watched while performing a menial task — folding the laundry or washing dishes. Even during a pandemic, or perhaps especially so, we have more pressing things to do with our time than drain it away watching mediocre Netflix comedies.

The Lovebirds opens on the tender beginnings of the relationship between Leilani (Issa Rae) and Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani), laying on the romance thick with sidelong glances and giggles and flirtatious rapport before jumping forward four years later to show the relationship in tatters.

Leilani and Jibran are arguing about The Amazing Race, their contrasting views on their ability to compete as a couple reflective of a greater divide in their relationship: Does she really believe “marriage is bullshit” or is she too afraid to admit to the desire? Is he protective of his creative work or merely a failure content with never succeeding?

“Are we done?” he asks. “I think we’ve been done for a while.” But before what seems like an inevitable breakup can sink in a cyclist crashes into the hood of their car, splintering their windshield and their lives.

The Issues with The Lovebirds

    • Rae and Nanjiani don’t quite fit as the charming, clumsy couple the story requires they be. Rae has been creating a profile of work that celebrates blackness and is undergirded by humor, most notably on her HBO series Insecure; she’s a luminous comedian but ultimately an uneven actor.
      • Nanjiani is amiable but lacks the fine-tuned physicality to sell certain gags, a criticism I’d lob against his performances in The Big Sick and Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone, too.
        • The script often relies on characters anxiously speaking over one another, as if confusion is inherently hilarious.
          • Characters deliver lines like “This is the Amazing Race with dead people” or describe the experience of eating tapas as “being mouth-fucked by the Dead Sea.” Bits are tired, like when the couple stumbles into an Eyes Wide Shut-style orgy whose absurdity fails to distract the two from fighting about their lackluster future.

          Don’t the audiences of today deserve better than staunchly average streaming movies? Don’t those audiences, now more than ever, deserve a film that allows us to escape the confines of our socially distanced lives?

          Unfortunately, The Lovebirds isn’t that film. It’s just another in a long line of bland, forgettable, algorithmically designed movies that leaves your mind the moment after you finish it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the article “Rom-Com You’re Cordially Invited Is a Much Better Com Than Rom” for Morningpicker presents a compelling case for reevaluating the very definition of romantic comedies. By dissecting the tropes and conventions of the genre, the article highlights the ways in which You’re Cordially Invited To Homicide subverts and challenges traditional notions of romance and comedy. The analysis demonstrates how the film’s unique blend of humor and horror raises important questions about the genre’s reliance on tropes and the limitations of traditional romantic comedy narratives.

The significance of this article lies in its ability to shed new light on the romantic comedy genre, challenging readers to think critically about the ways in which we consume and engage with these films. By examining the ways in which You’re Cordially Invited To Homicide challenges and subverts traditional romantic comedy tropes, the article shows how a more nuanced understanding of the genre can be achieved. This has important implications for the future of romantic comedy filmmaking, as it suggests that there is room for innovation and experimentation within the genre.

As we look to the future of romantic comedies, it is clear that filmmakers must continue to push the boundaries of the genre, exploring new themes, characters, and narrative structures. By embracing the complexities and challenges of the romantic comedy genre, we can create films that are not only entertaining but also thought-provoking and meaningful. As the article so eloquently argues, “rom-coms are not just about romance, but about comedy, and it’s time we start taking them seriously.”