Episodes
Quick Look: the Trope-y Romcom Goodness of Love at First Sight
I'm not a snob when to comes to romantic tropes. I don't discriminate: the more outlandish the better, and I love them all. Every beat might be as familiar as the back of my hand, but my attitude is: bring it on again. It's e...
Romantic, Painterly Psychological Thrillers: The Essex Serpent/The Beguiled
Is it Halloween yet? If it's getting cooler where you live, too, let's brew some tea or pour some hot chocolate or hot cider and snuggle on the sofa with two of the most atmospheric, painterly, creepy yet oddly feminist and r...
Love Bomb: You Hurt My Feelings
I'm a huge fan of the films of Nicole Holofcener, and her latest is another lo-fi, funny, thoughtful story for anybody who's ever tried to make a romantic, platonic, sibling or parental relationship thrive. Is it ever okay to...
Surf's Up: the Sensual Romance of Surfing
Ever since I first saw 1959's Gidget rerun on TV, I thought surfing and beach culture looked like the most fun you could have all summer. I might be an outsider still but my surf crush continues with every surfing movie or do...
Romance Replay: Year Round Holiday Magic: The Bishop's Wife
Summer is kicking my butt, and I desperately need to chill. Let's celebrate Christmas in July and enjoy a replay of one of my favorite episodes, about one of my favorite classic holiday movies: the romantic and spiritual The ...
Reunited in Love
It's almost reunion season — translated into stories, that theme seems to always include unrequited love and crushes, frustrated ambition, embarrassing attempts to impress, reliving lost youth, and shattered dreams. Some are ...
Quick Take: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
This minor Woody Allen film asks a really pertinent question for a romance podcast: do we fool ourselves by looking to the stars, horoscopes, psychics or fortune tellers to comfort and convince us that love is out there waiti...
LGBTQ Love: Supernova/The Prom
I'm taking a closer look at two emotional and exhilarating romantic LGBTQ love stories to celebrate Pride Month. These movies are very different in tone, but are equally heartwarming and visually exciting, with incredible per...
Raunchy Medieval Romcom: The Little Hours
It's difficult to describe the tone of this bawdy, outrageously gigglesome medieval romcom: it's played straight, for laughs, while deeply subversive, satirical and quietly hilarious, just like its 14th century source materia...
Bros-mance
Bros was a bit of a box office disappointment, but it's a fabulously funny, honest and sexy gay romcom. Fire Island may have gotten there first by also showcasing an entirely LGBTQ cast, but when it's about romcoms this good,...
Sexy Dad Bod: the Evolution of George Clooney
What more could be said about witty, gorgeous George Clooney? For a long time now, George has been a worthy modern day Cary Grant, with all of the bantering sexy suave of that classic film icon. But I've noticed in more recen...
Breakups and Makeups: High Fidelity/Rye Lane
The only romantic breakups I "enjoy" are fictional ones, especially if the couple makes up after learning something valuable about themselves and their partner. Nothing better than romantic reconciliation, but sometimes the h...
Beautiful Survivor: Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
Warning: major gushing ahead! In this episode, I'm taking a look at the new two-part documentary Pretty Baby, all about the life and career of Brooke Shields. I think it's safe to say she was my first girl crush, and I still ...
Connecting the Dots: Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne
You know what would be fun? A trip to a planet where women's pleasure is a priority, and the fluidity of relationship styles, sexual orientations and identities is embraced at all times! In other words, let's journey into the...
Romantic Heartache & Lessons of Love 2: Hadestown/Ironweed/The Red Shoes
It's part two of our exploration of sad romances. This time, we look at the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Hadestown, which is--like Moulin Rouge--based on the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I look at another ill-...
Romantic Heartache & Lessons of Love 1: Moulin Rouge
Sometimes all you want is a good cathartic cry, especially if it's over love and heartbreak. In this two-part episode, I'm joined by romance writer and fellow heartache aficionado Mariah Cotnoir to explore two tragic love sto...
A Different Valentine: the Romantic Drama of Dating Shows with Every Rom Com
I'm back with fresh episodes featuring slightly offbeat romance, just in time for Valentine's Day :-) First up, a conversation with Jennifer Howell, the producer and cohost of the Every Rom Com podcast about the romance, dram...
Romance Rerun: Romance After Dark
My final rerun this month is one of the spiciest episodes I've ever done — it's story time for adults. So if you like your romance sizzling hot and kinky, put the earbuds in and enjoy! Support the show Thanks for listening! C...
Romance Rewind: Bedroom Therapy
I'm taking a tiny break this month to plan ahead and I'm re-running some of my favorite episodes from last year. First up, Bedroom Therapy, featuring the sexy and heartwarming movies Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and The Sessi...
Quick Take: How to Please a Woman
I am starting the year as I mean to go on, celebrating another mainstream movie, much like Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, that is focused on womens' capabilities, wishes, desires and pleasures. And not as a subplot, but centra...
Year-Round Holiday Magic: The Bishop's Wife
So many holiday films in my rotation every year, and my favorites tend to be classic movies: absorbing emotional stories full of romantic, platonic and familial love, redemption arcs, and endings with joy and hope. The Bishop...
A Musical for the Lovelorn: Cyrano
"Yes, I'm in love. I dare." Oh this movie. I'm sobbing at the drop of a hat lately, and it turns out that a heart in love and cracked wide open is the perfect foil for Joe Wright's glorious, lush, emotional film, Cyrano. This...
Quick Take: Kevin Can F... Himself
This dramedy-within-a-sitcom show is all about settling in life, marriage and relationships, especially romantic relationships, and then waking up to who you are and what you really want and need. I can't stop thinking about ...
Dating Romcoms: He's Just Not That Into You/How to Be Single
If you're the one person on the planet who hasn't heard: I've been on dating apps, and wow, I need to process. Let's do it together, shall we?! There's nothing more amusing than a dating romcom full of romantic disaster, then...