Romanic comedies first started as a genre featured in silent films in 1924. Since then, rom-coms have become a staple in the movie industry. Everyone has seen romantic comedies and many enjoy watching them. As time goes on and cinematic styles change, romantic comedies lose their original appeal. While some have retained a few of the appeals offered by original romantic comedies, most have lost the warm feeling that was formerly associated with them. 

When you watch a romantic comedy from the late 1990s and early 2000s, you get a different feel than one from mid-2010 and on. Sophomore Iris Higham expresses, “In modern society, teenagers are accustomed to communicating through technology instead of face-to-face. I think that the issue with modern rom-coms is that with the technology, people don’t have natural chemistry in real life anymore because their fabricated persona online is what their partner sees. Whereas in the early 2000s or late 90s[…]People saw each other face to face and lived more in the moment.” The way that we live now is different, people are stuck on their phones. Watching these old romantic movies shows a part of life that we haven’t seen before. We have grown up in a world of technology and we can only see what seems to be real throughout love in these movies.

So when you watch: You’ve Got Mail(1998) or While You Were Sleeping(1995), they won’t feel the same as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before(2018) or The Kissing Booth(2018). Although these are all popular films and not necessarily bad, they’re just not the same. Higham continues, “Older rom-com feel very witty and cozy. I feel like everything flows very nicely and there are more special details whereas newer rom-coms feel very dull and cringe. I just feel as though older movies are more special and the people really care about romance.” 

The quality of the storyline and overall plot of the newer movies have greatly decreased over the past decades. There is no longer anything new or special in the new movies that come around. They are all the same cliches. The beauty and art of films have been tossed to the side. All most producers want is to make the movie that will end up making them the most money. The idea of the movies and the trailers seem like they would be good but the plot ends up being bland and overused. They’re watched because people enjoy the romance every once in a while but the storylines need more. The lovely creativity of older rom-coms is lost in the rushed production and repetitive cliches now being used.

At the end of the day, you can safely say that the romantic comedies from the 90s and 2000s are better than the newer ones. The older aesthetic paired with the vision of real romance is portrayed in some of the best ways ever seen. Real romance is like going to someone’s house to confess your love for them, not just asking for things over text or a purely physical relationship. But one that has emotional meaning. This has a larger effect on the people watching when it shows a type of love that people should aspire to have one day.