![]() In both the broad strokes and the individual details, Molly and Joel’s star-crossed romance bears an unmistakable resemblance to Nora Ephron’s abysmal but extraordinarily popular 1998 smash You’ve Got Mail. Molly and Joel are sharing this story with Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), a couple with issues of their own that spill out in unseemly admissions of deep unhappiness on Kyle’s part. If Molly and Joel’s romance feels achingly familiar that’s probably because it hits all the beats of the typical romcom, from the meet cute to the climactic dash to the airport and/or wedding ceremony to prevent the love of our protagonist’s life from leaving forever or marrying the wrong person. The rambling, wonderfully digressive story provides a superhero origin story for the suspiciously familiar-feeling star-crossed romance between Molly (Amy Poehler) and Joel (Paul Rudd). With They Came Together, Wain has managed to breathe new life into the tired romantic comedy genre.David Wain’s 2014 romantic comedy parody ingeniously takes the form of a very long anecdote shared over dinner and drinks. I'd be very much interested in changing up the genre and exploring things that don't have to be, you know, jokes." But he responded, immediately and enthusiastically, in the affirmative: "I really have. Despite the strength of the cast, pulling that off was a challenge Wain explained that he and his team were "very brutal in the editing process," cutting everything "that didn't get big laughs."īefore Wain had to return to the set of Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital, I fired off one last question: "Do you ever consider making something other than a comedy?" In retrospect, it might have been flippant to suggest that Wain abandon the genre he's been working in for his entire career. By spoofing the genre, They Came Together also manages to generate more laughs than any rom-com in recent memory. For They Came Together, Wain "begged" Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, and Michael Black - all of whom appeared in Wet Hot American Summer - to "reprise their roles from the stage reading they did at the 2012 San Francisco Sketch Fest for no money."įortunately, they agreed, and the results are just as potent. Like his idol, Woody Allen, Wain has worked with the same general rotation of people in each of his five films. And the lower budget movies - Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, and They Came Together - had to be done so quickly that we had to mostly rely on what was on the page, allowing for improv where we could." We also had the time and the money to improvise a lot. When it comes to the sharp, natural-sounding dialogue of his films, Wain provided a detailed outline of how much is improvised: " Wanderlust, which we did in collaboration with Judd Apatow, had a lot more free improv and exploring on set because we were just trying out that philosophy of working. "The good romantic comedies are either hybrids of other genres, or they find a way to be fresh with the formula." When asked to name recent romantic comedies he does admire, Wain identified Knocked Up, 500 Days of Summer, The Proposal, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as quality outliers. "They're so hard to make now because the formula is so entrenched," said Wain. For the last decade, the romantic-comedy genre has rapidly deteriorated, producing almost nothing resembling the fare that Wain was raised on (and that They Came Together consciously emulates). Unfortunately, the gems Wain speaks so affectionately about are in the past. "All the Woody Allen movies, The Graduate, When Harry Met Sally, John Hughes movies." "Showalter and I love the great romantic comedies," he said. "The reason we made this movie is because, in truth, we are big, big fans of the romantic comedy." He insisted that he and co-writer Michael Showalter are poking fun at the genre not out of disdain, but with reverence. They Came Together is no exception in fact, it may be Wain's crowning achievement. From TV shows like The State and Stella, to movies like Wet Hot American Summer and Role Models, Wain has made a name for himself by writing and directing outlandish romps for more than 30 years. It's the kind of quick-witted response you'd expect from Wain, whose career has bounced from one comedic gem to the next. We looked at your Netflix queue, and we were like, 'What's his list of movies he's seen?' and then decided to make a spoof of that." Without a missing beat, Wain replied, "That's right.
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