Esther Zuckerman

Can we talk a little sort of like larger rom-com theory here, Esther?

Well, I just, the modes of rom-com and sort of like what we each believe in, in terms of like what makes a fruitful rom-com.

Okay.

There is a thing this movie does that I value greatly, and I realized while watching it how few examples I could think of of this being utilized, which is I am often frustrated by the rom-com that is predicated on a lie.

Yeah, sure.

You know the lie is going to get busted.

They fall in love and it's just kind of an annoying tension until they get to the conversation and they blow up and someone has to come apologize for being mad about a thing they should have been mad about in the first place.

Yeah.

Right?

This movie is they're in the same lie.

Yes, right.

They meet each other basically forming a lot.

Right, right.

But they're 100% on the same page within that, which is so much better as a kind of like pressure cooker for tensions to develop.

He's not telling her something.

What's interesting to me is Lady Eve, which I think is as good as any rom-com ever made.

Does the triple lie at least?

And yet it almost feels like it pushing it that far is a commentary on how many rom-coms were already built upon lies at that point.

Yeah.

Like it feels like the postmodern version of like they're just going to keep fucking lying to each other.