Glad I Meta

It’s funny - I like rom-coms as a genre, but not any specific rom-coms (made since the 50s). That kind of makes Isn't It Romantic (2019) perfect for me. It’s a meta-rom-com.

It stars Rebel Wilson as a passed-over junior architect. Everyone in the office wants her to get them coffee or fix the 3D printer. That is except her assistant Betty Gilpin, who spends all her time at work watching rom-coms on her computer, and Andy DeVine, her fun office buddy. Even when she gets the courage up to go into a meeting with a top client, Liam Hemsworth, he just asks her to get him some coffee. But she hits her head in a mugging, and wakes up in a different world.

It’s a world where doctors are handsome and kind, where New York doesn’t smell like garbage, and people will stage a dance number at the drop of a hat. She is in a rom-com world. In this world, Liam Hemsworth finds her delightful, which isn’t so bad, but kind of freaks her out. Gilpin is her office enemy, and her next door neighbor (Brandon Scott Jones) is a screaming Scott Thompson type gay man. DeVine, who spent his time in the old world staring past Wilson at a lingerie model billboard, now finds himself dating her (Priyanka Chopra). It’s very confusing and Wilson doesn’t like it at all. She decides that she can only get out by finding her true love.

I don’t think I’ve seen Wilson before - she’s pretty much what I expected: prickly cynical fat girl with self-esteem issues. I didn’t realize that she’s Australian, which I guess is neither here nor there. Anyway, I liked what she was doing here. Likewise Andy DeVine, with a rubbery comic face. The script seemed pretty tight, too. Rom-coms are based on a series of rules and constraints, and seeing them both mocked, subverted and fulfilled was somehow satisfying to me.

We’ve seen another one of Todd Strauss-Schulson’s movies: Final Girls. Which is a meta-horror movie. I wonder if that’s his niche.