Last week, Dan Kois wrote a love letter to BroadcastNews , calling the 1987 film the “smartest romantic comedy of the past25 years.”
We decided to turn the assessment over to you. Afterwe solicited nominations on Twitter and Facebook, Kois chose 15 finalists, which ranged from expected classics like WhenHarry Met Sally to offbeat (and controversial) choices like 2002’s Secretary ,a sweet little valentine to sadomasochism.
Nearly 14,000 of you votedin our poll , which closed last night. So did Brow Beat readers agree withKois’s selection?
Not in the slightest.
Broadcast News wasthe fourth-worst performer of the bunch, with just 360 votes. Only BabyBoom , JerryMaguire , and NextStop Wonderland got less love.
When Harry Met Sally madean impressive showing, but GroundhogDay is the film that captured your hearts — along with 16 percent of the votes — despitethe fact that several commenters grumbled the screwball fantasy didn’t meetthe appropriate genre criteria. Readers also quibbled with our inclusion of BeforeSunrise and SayAnything (they’re dramas, not comedies); LoveActually (it’s “an ensemble picture”), and Secretary (“an erotic drama with comedic elements”). And many hadcherished films whose rejections from the list were taken incredibly personally( EternalSunshine of the Spotless Mind and FourWeddings and a Funeral being the ones you felt the most for).
Kois responded to the protests with the following:
To everyone who posted in thecomments enraged that I nixed or ignored your favorite romantic comedy, you’reright! Rom-com love is so deeply personal that to try to understand another’slove for a movie you view as a cheese-splosion just may be futile. One man’s Notting Hill is another man’s Love, Actually — AND VICE VERSA.
Thanks for voting!
And with that, happy Netflix-ing to all of you starry-eyed loversout there. For everyone else, Blue Valentine is still intheaters.
