Groundhog Day Why Its The 90s Best RomCom (& 5 Alternatives)

Groundhog Day: Why It’s The 90s Best Rom-Com (& 5 Alternatives)

While Groundhog Day might be in the running as one of the best rom-coms of the 1990s, there are several other great contenders worth a watch.

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1993’s Groundhog Day is an enduring comedy classic that audiences still enjoy to this day. Bill Murray stars as a news reporter who gets stuck in a seemingly infinite time loop, forced to relive the same day, Groundhog Day, in Punxsutawney, PA.

The 90s were a great decade for romantic comedies, but it can be argued quite convincingly that the genre-bending Groundhog Day is the best of the bunch. To watch it once is to watch it over and over again, which makes its replay value all the more impressive. Of course, there are other films for whom a strong case can also be made.

10 Groundhog Day Is The Best: It’s The Perfect Balance Of Comedy & Romance

A common failing of romantic comedies is that they start out funny, but they get increasingly sappy and sentimental as they progress. Groundhog Day never falls into such a trap.

Thanks to the great screenplay by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin, and Bill Murray’s signature sarcasm, Groundhog Day remains a true comedy from beginning to end. The budding romance between Bill Murray’s Phil and Andie MacDowell’s Rita doesn’t come at the expense of humor.

9 Alternative: As Good As It Gets

Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both won Academy Awards for their lead performances in As Good As It Gets, one of the best films of 1997. James L. Brooks, most known for co-creating The Simpsons, is an accomplished rom-com writer and director as well, this being, by far, his most acclaimed film. Nicholson is a miserable misanthrope with OCD, and Hunt is a single mother and waitress who becomes his unlikely love interest.

It’s a standout film that, if not for being released in the same year as the Oscar juggernaut Titanic, likely would have taken home a Best Picture trophy.

8 Groundhog Day Is The Best: It’s A Mystery

The premise of Groundhog Day is that Phil is forced to relive the same day over and over again. No matter what he does, where he goes, or even if he lives or dies, the next day begins the exact same way every time. Part of what makes the movie so enjoyable is the mystery of why this keeps happening.

The audience’s journey towards cracking the case is Phil’s journey, putting us in the main character’s shoes the entire time. As much as anything else, Groundhog Day is a cosmic riddle, and after all, who doesn’t enjoy a good mystery?

7 Alternative: Jerry Maguire

Acclaimed director Cameron Crowe is also well established as a great director of romantic comedies. Jerry Maguire is the story of a sports agent whose crisis of conscience causes him to lose his job and open his own shop, trying to retain his high profile clients in the process. His only partner is Dorothy Bird, a single mother who becomes his love interest as they struggle to balance business with pleasure.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. nearly steals the film with his Oscar-winning portrayal of Jerry’s most prized client, a self-obsessed football player who holds Jerry’s feet to the fire.

6 Groundhog Day Is The Best: It’s A Fantasy

Beyond its premise being creative and original, what makes Groundhog Day especially endearing is that it indulges a common human fantasy of eternal life and unending opportunities to go back and correct one’s mistakes. Most people, at some point, ponder what they would do differently at certain points in their lives if given the chance to do it all over again.

Groundhog Day allows the audience to explore this question alongside Phil, which makes the main character a sort of vessel for audience members to evaluate their own existence through a whimsical, fantastical, romantic, and comedic lens.

5 Alternative: Reality Bites

1994’s Reality Bites is a delightful romantic comedy about a documentary filmmaker fresh out of college, who, along with her friends, struggles to transition into adulthood. Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder have fantastic chemistry together, and Ben Stiller co-star and directs his first feature directorial effort.

The film was a modest commercial success upon its release, but it remains a minor cult classic to this day and one of the best examples of a Gen-X rom-com.

4 Groundhog Day Is The Best: It’s A Fable

The audience, along with Bill Murray’s Phil, begins to wonder if the way out of this indefinite time loop is to grow as a person and be a better man. As Phil evolves as a person, a romance forms between him and his producing partner, Rita. In one episode, Phil overplays his hand with her and is punished by being forced to repeat the day over again.

The day Phil learns to truly love and appreciate Rita and his friends is the day he’s allowed to continue on with his life, making Groundhog Day a sort of modern fable.

3 Alternative: Chasing Amy

In 1997’s Chasing Amy, a comic book artist falls in love with one of his peers, only to have his hopes dashed when he finds out she is a lesbian.

The 90s were a different time, culturally speaking, from today. LGBTQ+ films were still largely considered taboo, and unfortunately, few of them were made. Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy was ahead of its time in that it explored these themes with confidence, acceptance, and humor, making for a terrific romantic comedy that has aged remarkably well since its release.

2 Groundhog Day Is The Best: It’s A Fish Out Of Water Story

Phil and his news team are city slickers who are forced to spend a day, which becomes an almost-literal eternity, in the folksy small town of Punxsutawney. The fish out of water dynamic is a source of great conflict and great laughs throughout the movie. Most memorably, Stephen Tobolowsky is hilarious as Ned “The Head” Ryerson, Phil’s old high school acquaintance who he struggles to remember.

Phil’s misanthropic, condescending attitude is exaggerated by his disdain for the small-town environment he escaped and is now stuck in, indefinitely.

1 Alternative: Grosse Pointe Blank

1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank is a perfect example of a “what if?” premise come to fruition. In this case, the story prompt would be, “What if a hitman falls in love at his high school reunion?” John Cusack stars as Martin Blank, who reunites with his high school girlfriend (Minnie Driver) at his 10-year high school reunion.

When he’s ordered to do a hit in town, he must balance his “professional” life with his new romantic endeavor, making Grosse Pointe Blank work both as a lighthearted romantic comedy and a darkly comic crime caper with fairly strong violence for a film of its kind. It’s a true original in every way.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/groundhog-day-best-90s-rom-com-alternatives/

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