Meet Cute: Tommy James on French Musicals, The Best 'High Fidelity' Outfit, and Renée Zellweger

"The way that she cornered that market, but at the same time, can get multiple Oscars — that’s ridiculous power."

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 TOMMY JAMES about his faves: including, but not limited to, French musicals, Ewan McGregor as a cruel editor-in-chief, The Young Girls of Rochefort, and more…

You can find Tommy on Twitter, at his portfolio, or more. He is a rom-com expert, as far as I can tell, and you should read/watch all of his wonderful work!

I used to write for Much Ado About Cinema before they closed. I’ve written for Vague Visages, Zavvi. I did a video for Little White Lies a couple weeks ago, and that was fun. That’s kind of my oeuvre. I will do anything that has a paycheck with it — I don’t really mind. I won’t say I have a deeper knowledge of films, because I’m still quite surface-level with it.

SO, WHAT’S TO LOVE ABOUT ROM-COMS?

Just comfort, really. If I want something that’s easy-going. There’s sort of a stigma towards them, because you look at them as kind of cheap, mainstream. But it’s kind of an umbrella term. Actually, it goes a lot deeper than that, and you can go a lot further with what you apply the term to. My relationship with that would be — I used to be snobby with it, but now I’m actually like, “You know what? I really do respect what they do in the film world.”

FAVORITE ROM-COM HITS

Most importantly: best meet cute?

For my money, is Solange and Andy meeting in The Young Girls of Rochefort. When she drops her music sheets, and he’s there and he picks them up and he plays the tune on the piano. Kind of fantasizes and yearns. I think that’s awesome.

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

Tim in About Time. He’s bumbling, he overthinks a lot. He is constantly yearning to change the past. It’s not the most positive or romanticized one, but he’s just a bit awkward and doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I quite like that.

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

Stay with me on this one, but Catcher Block from Down With Love. Ewan McGregor plays this awful, chauvinistic, misogynistic editor-in-chief of this men’s magazine. He is just awful in this. At the same time, he’s so charming. He’s maniacally manipulative with women especially, but he has this massive character development at the end. In his entrance, he jumps out of a helicopter! You can’t really get better than that.

Who’s your fave rom-com director?

It’s either Jacques Demy — I would say all musicals are rom-coms, at the end of the day — or Wong Kar-wai with Fallen Angels and In the Mood For Love. While they’re more so romance, they both make me laugh at the same time. Technically, they’re rom-coms. I rewatched Fallen Angels last week and that is a hilarious film. You wouldn’t think it, but this is a rom-com. Which is just a really bizarre way of pitching it.

What’s the best rom-com speech?

Tom Hanks, Sleeping in Seattle. Maybe? Yeah, that’s probably it. It’s a bit cheesy — but we like cheesy, don’t we? 

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

“You Make My Dreams Come True” in (500) Days of Summer is probably my favorite one. It’s a bit of a problematic film these days, but you know what? I don’t really care!

Who’s the leader of the rom-com world?

In spirit of making things a little bit spicier, rather than saying Nora Ephron, I think I would say an actor: which is Renée Zellweger. Only because of the Bridget Jones films and Down With Love, obviously. The way that she cornered that market, but at the same time, can get multiple Oscars — that’s ridiculous power.

Best rom-com outfit?

I’m going to be a bit left field with this one, and I’m going to say High Fidelity, but the TV show. And the green sweater vest, white t-shirt, the high-waisted jeans and the Dr. Martens. That’s pretty accessible. I’m this close to recreating it.

STUDYING ROM-COM THEORY

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

Well, it has to be comfy. Even if it has really, really grim themes in it, it has to be comfy in the sense that one can get endless enjoyment out of it. You can watch it, no matter how many times, and you can still go back to it. It has multiple readings as well. I like the multiple readings part, because you can watch it again and again and not get bored. As long as it has romance and comedy in it, then it’s a rom-com.

You mentioned all musicals being rom-coms, pretty much. Can you explain more?

Yeah, so I feel like a musical in general, it works synonymously. It works differently. It heightens the emotions. But I do think that all musicals are rom-coms. Any musical that focuses on romance is most definitely a rom-com, purely because of the comfort vibes and the music immerses you in the atmosphere. 

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

I’m going to say crime. Crime is so much fun because it adds an extra layer to the rom-com. It adds extra stakes to the romance as well. The legal aspect of imprisonment, or getting killed, or whatever — it’s in Fallen Angels as well, the crime aspect. It’s nice that you have this grim atmosphere of everything around, that the characters can still find love.

How do French rom-coms differ from English and American rom-coms?

The latter ones, the ones from the 1960s and 1970s, are so over-the-top and so colorful in comparison to the American rom-coms. Which are quite subdued, in the sense that they want to be realistic and draw an element of realism to it. Whereas the French musicals are so overtly over-the-top and vibrant, it’s almost overwhelming — but the good kind of overwhelming. I love the aspect that they’re so bold. It’s just so different. It’s so in-your-face, it’s aggressive in the fact that it takes over you. 

AND NOW, TOMMY JAMES’S VERY OWN ROM-COM

Je ne sais pas ce que je fais (in English, I Don’t Know What I’m Doing)

“You can find love in the Louvre.”

Dakota Johnson will make her directorial debut with Je ne sais pas ce que je fais, aka I Don’t Know What I’m Doing, a musical rom-com set in 2020’s Paris. She’ll star as Tommy, an American who moves to the City of Lights to work in art restoration at the famed Louvre. She dedicates her entire soul to the study of French art, proud to have finally nabbed her dream job. But things start to head south on a work trip with her irritating, lazy coworker Pierre (Louis Garrell), the son of the Louvre’s head curator, when Covid strikes Europe. Now stuck in Aix-en-Provence with Pierre and a mysterious, charming lavender farmer (Anna Karina), Tommy will have to figure out how to get back to Paris safely with the acquired painting — and her heart — in-tact.