From Girls to a girl, Lena Dunham’s new Netflix show is a salty, sharply observed romantic comedy about a dreamy New Yorker, Jess (Megan Stalter), who moves to London hoping to find love amid a Merchant Ivory fantasia of posh country estates and men in Georgian finery. Instead, she finds herself navigating Hackney estates, coked-fuelled west London parties, and media hipsterdom with chilled-yet-complex indie musician Felix (Will Sharpe). True love, it turns out, is a path littered with trustafarian eco-warriors and snooty French exes.
Like its protagonist, Too Much is a show with a burning love for the genre, with frequent nods to romcoms from Pretty Woman to Richard Curtis. The door from Notting Hill even makes a cameo appearance.
But what are the romantic comedies that make Too Much’s own writer-director weak at the knees? We asked Dunham to pick her three favourites.
3. Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
‘It doesn’t seem like a romantic comedy, but it is: a musical romantic comedy. I’ve watched it again and again – it was one of the first times I was just rooting for the love story. I’m sure someone will say it doesn’t count, but I defy you not to cry at the love story with Janet Leigh. And I defy you not to cry at watching Kim and Hugo find their way to each other after Conrad Birdie messes the whole town up.’
2. My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
‘I love it because it’s romantic, it’s unexpected and it tells the age-old story of women and their gay best friends in a beautiful way. That, for me, is the true love story of that movie. I like that it’s taking the genre and upending it a little bit. And the cast is to die for.’
1. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
‘Number one for me is a Working Title special. It’s about when [a movie first] hits you and when I saw Four Weddings, I thought it doesn’t get better than this. I wanted to be with these smart, funny, complicated people. I wanted to go to four weddings and one funeral. I wanted to do it all. Also, it’s the OG of American girl/British man [relationship dynamic], which is what I’m going for [in my life].’
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