Meet Cute: Saffron Maeve on the 'Mamma Mia' Jumpsuit, Geraldine Viswanathan, and 'Letters to Juliet'

"I would literally walk home during lunch in high school so we could watch rom-coms together. (I was not popular in high school.)"

meet cute is a segment where we talk to folks about their favorite rom-coms, their hearty hot takes, and more. this week, we talked with entertainment writer SAFFRON MAEVE about her faves: including, but not limited to, Geraldine Viswanathan, Lily James’s Mamma Mia outfits, Letters to Juliet, and more…

Hi! I’m Saffron Maeve. I’m a Toronto-based writer and entertainment journalist, which basically means I don’t know how to shut up about movies. I’m a staff writer at Lithium Magazine and my freelance work can be found at Little White Lies, Girls on Tops, Adolescent, and Film Inquiry, among other corners of the internet. I keep a tidy little portfolio of my favourites at saffronmaeve.com. I am (unfortunately) also always on Twitter dot com @saffronmaeve.

I grew up watching rom-coms with my Mom constantly. Notting Hill, Confessions of a Shopaholic, 13 Going on 30, you name it. I would literally walk home during lunch in high school so we could watch rom-coms together. (I was not popular in high school.) About a year ago, when I started taking film classes, I became desperate to prove that I had Good Taste (as in, nothing frivolous or fun)—I gushed about movies I barely understood to impress boys I didn’t even like. Thankfully, I quickly fell away from that and have spent the last two months exclusively watching rom-coms! Growth! 

FAVORITE ROM-COM HITS

Most importantly: best meet-cute?

I know it should be Before Sunrise, but it’s absolutely, unequivocally, Rebecca Bloomwood and Luke Brandon at a hot dog stand in Confessions of a Shopaholic. She’s frantically trying to exchange cash for a cheque so she can afford a pricey green scarf (already split among maxed-out credit cards) for a job interview. He’s trying to buy lunch. She lies and says the scarf is for her sick aunt. The vendor laughs as Luke coolly hands her a $20 bill and walks off. “That means you just paid $23 for a hot dog!” she says, baffled. “You want your scarf, I want my hot dog. Cost and worth are very different things.” he philosophizes in his silky British accent. 15 minutes later, she walks into her interview wearing the scarf and, of course, Luke is the interviewer. It’s perfect.   

Who’s the #1 rom-com character that you identify with?

Until about a month ago, I’d have said Olive from Easy A or Sophie from Letters to Juliet, but now, I see myself most in Lucy from The Broken Hearts Gallery. She’s much more optimistic than I am, but she’s always just trying so hard. A hot, determined Indian gal who has trouble letting go of her past? Come on.

Relatedly, who’s the best rom-com journalist?

On pure instinct: Joe Bradley from Roman Holiday. His studio apartment! His oversized suit! His teary eyes! Him!!! On reflection: my whole personality is based on Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday. So both? I’m way too indecisive for this. 

Who’s your fave rom-com director? 

A three-way tie (sorry!) between Stanley Donen, who made some of my favourite rom-com musicals, Nora Ephron, who is to blame for my obsession with New York, and Gary Winick, who I know nothing about except for the fact that he directed Letters to Juliet, 13 Going on 30, and Bride Wars (which all rule).  

What’s the best rom-com speech?

I love the speech at the end of The First Time (a formative film in the Saffron Cinematic Universe), where Dave tells Aubrey how he feels. It manages to capture all the clichés we’d want from a rom-com speech, but is delivered with the right amount of teenaged confusion to feel fresh: “All I want, like, in the world, is to just keep talking to you. I wanna know how your day was, where you wanna eat, and I wanna argue with you. I wanna hear all your theories, even the ones that are just completely, you know, wrong. I really think that if you’d just be willing to continue having this conversation with me, then we can figure the rest out.” So true, Dylan O’Brien!

What’s the best needle drop in a rom-com?

That’s so difficult! I absolutely love the dreamy pool scene in The Edge of Seventeen where “The Dickhead Song” plays over shots of Erwin and Nadine underwater. Lyrics like “You’re a dickhead / I hope you’ll soon be dead” really illustrate just how comfortable they are in each other’s company. Also, there are Mitski needle drops in both Someone Great and The Broken Hearts Gallery that feel tailor-made for me. 

Who’s the leader of the rom-com world — actor, director, writer, etc.?

I feel like I have to give Molly Ringwald and Meg Ryan their dues for their respective contributions to the rom-coms of the 80s and 90s. But my true rom-com Royal has to be Julia Roberts. Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, even Eat Pray Love... She has the range. 

Best rom-com outfit? Any idea on where to find it?

How annoying would I be if I said Audrey Hepburn’s Beatnik-glam in Funny Face? I love a head-to-toe black outfit. But, no, it would definitely be her strapless red dress/white-glove combo on the Daru stairs. It’s gorgeous. I would wear it to the grocery store. Lily James’ flared denim jumpsuit from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is also a dream.

STUDYING ROM-COM THEORY

Toughie, but important: to you, what makes a rom-com a rom-com?

Aside from a lovey-dovey plotline, I think all rom-coms are bound by urgency. Something goes horribly wrong, everything is on the line, and when it all goes to shit, the person you’re meant to be with is waiting for you on the other side. A rom-com is just a well-dressed thriller, honestly.

You wrote this personal essay last year that I loved, about film scores. What should a score look like for a rom-com?

Thank you! Well, I’m a crier, I love to cry. Sad scores are always my go-to, even for rom-coms. Michael Andrews’ score for The Big Sick is a lovely and poignant example. Amie Doherty’s score for Happiest Season is gorgeous too. But if I’m ever going for a purely feel-good score, it’s easily The Princess Diaries.

What’s the best genre to pair with a rom-com?

As someone who was questionably obsessed with Warm Bodies at 13, I can’t not mention the zom-rom-com. But I also love a good fantasy-rom-com like Ella Enchanted or a kitschy sci-fi-rom-com like Earth Girls Are Easy (both of which I unironically gave 5 stars to on Letterboxd). 

You also write about old films and new films alike — do you prefer an older rom-com or a newer one? Is there a specific era that feels like a “golden age” for rom-coms?

It’s funny because I don’t see old and new rom-coms in the same light at all. I would never compare, say, Sabrina to Obvious Child because they feel so different stylistically. 

I love screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday because the stakes always feel so high and the worlds are so familiar yet foreign. That decade-long stretch was definitely a golden age for the 20th century rom-com. But for a Friday night-in (a.k.a. every night for the last eleven months), I’m more inclined to go for something from the noughties or 20-teens. I love watching protagonists cry while scrolling through their ex’s socials because same!!!

AND NOW, SAFFRON MAEVE’S VERY OWN ROM-COM

I’m Not Calling You a Liar

“Honesty is the only policy.”

Saffron (Geraldine Viswanathan) is a driven fact-checker for the New Yorker. If she’s not toiling away at her healthy stack of random biographies, you’ll almost always find her highlighting articles up a storm, catching inaccuracies like fishermen catch trout. Cut the falsities, locate the truth, publish honestly. To Saffron, fact-checking is an easy skill: there is true, and there is false. Plain and simple. But then there is Tom (George MacKay), a new source for a long-form story she’s fact-checking about missing books in New York City libraries. A charming librarian, Tom sees a bit of a blur between what’s “true” and “false,” oftentimes creating grandiose lies to throw Saffron’s researching for a loop. When she starts digging deeper into the case, investigating with Tom (who she assumes, now, must be a pathological liar), she realizes there may be bigger forces at play in the mystery of the missing books. Piecing through the stacks with one another, peering over books and through shelves, Tom and Saffron argue over the value of honesty in non-fiction writing.