San Filippo Describes History of Rom Coms: CNN

Visual and Media Arts associate professor Maria San Filippo shared her expertise for the article “A genre reborn: Inside the evolution of the rom-com,” which examines the roll of romantic comedies in American film over the decades.

While the author says the genre is declared “dead” from time to time, it is now “reborn,” pointing to `Netflix’s “Easy, “Amazon Prime’s “Modern Love,” and Hulu’s remake of “High Fidelity” as today’s examples of its new look.

Romantic comedies, San Filippo said, tend to be narrowly defined — often considered to be chick flicks and nothing more. This narrow definition of the genre, combined with the fact that the films are also most often targeted toward women, feeds into the idea that they are better left dead, she said. And, if the movie is actually good — critically acclaimed or widely lauded — it’s less likely to even be called a romantic comedy in the first place, San Filippo said, pointing to films such as 2013’s “Her.”

San Filippo is also editor of the collection “After ‘Happily Ever After’: Romantic Comedy in the Post-Romantic Age.”

Read the CNN culture piece.