When Edgar Wright was dropped from the ‘Ant-Man’ project due to a combination of creative discrepancies and the need to pay tribute to one of his friends with ‘Welcome to the End of the World’, Marvel did not hesitate to replace him with Peyton Reed. . A less exciting and interesting director on almost every front, but tremendously effective within the studio system and with undoubted hand for comedy.
That is why it feels partly a missed opportunity that ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ renounces the humorous dynamics (although something remains) for highly affected dramatic moments that work less organically (it’s not that I don’t know how to do it). , has directed notable episodes of ‘The Mandalorian’). Reed has a remarkable talent for mainstream comedysomething that he showed in appreciable jewels such as ‘Down the love‘.
love and other wars
Available on Disney+ (and also for free with ads on PlutoTV), this romantic comedy with Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor had the misfortune of facing ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ at its premiere, a difficult obstacle to overcome. Although it is true that her ambitions and tone made her somewhat unconventional for the average viewer, who came across a daring satire of 1960s America and the wars of the sexes.
Zellweger plays a feminist writer who is causing a stir with her book “Down with love”, which encourages other women to reject relationships with the opposite sex on the basis of love, using substitutes such as chocolate (wink, wink) and looking instead for professional success and casual sex in the same way that men do. Something that people like the star reporter and womanizer played by McGregor see as a fraud and will try to dismantle it by conquering the writer.
Through a replica taken to the extreme of the aesthetics, rhythm, music and behaviors of the sex comedies of the late fifties, especially those of Rock Hudson and Doris Day like ‘midnight confidences‘ either ‘pajamas for two‘, Reed does a sharp satire that turns said films on its head. More than a trip back in time, it manages to subvert that movie model to restore a certain agency to the female characters over their sexual freedom.
‘Down With Love’: Charming and Smart
That makes ‘Down with love’ hold up especially well over time, and that his steps through certain conventions of the most modern romantic comedy are accepted instead of being seen as concessions to the viewer. He is able to reach the expected destination, but he finds corners that he can turn so that the film communicates different things.
And, as if that were not enough, she is funny and charming. The replica of the elements of that classic cinema (those sets, those broken screens, the frenetic and fabulous music of Marc Shaiman) are well used and the satire is always present. Zellweger and McGregor are fabulous in their over-the-top roles and have great chemistry. That it went unnoticed is a shame because it is one of the best romantic comedies of this centurygiving another meaning to the rules while continuing to shine in the same game.
In Espinof | The best romantic movies of all time