Falling in Love Montage

After covering 158 non-Ryan-Reynolds movies, we owed it to our listeners and ourselves to tag the guy in. So here he is: beloved Canadian leading man Ryan Reynolds in the 2008 "Brooksy" feature Definitely, Maybe, a movie that -- if you used only this episode as evidence -- you would swear was maybe* like our favorite movie ever?   *if not definitely

The sequel being imminent, it's become fashionable to revisit The Devil Wears Prada with a 2026 lens. So I guess that's technically what we're doing? I don't know; we watched the original 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada, and this podcast episode is us talking about it.

To celebrate its 40-year anniversary -- and the 10-year anniversary of us somehow not covering the movie already whoops -- we brought back Amy Pascale, pHD (physician[?] on Howard Deutch), to discuss the beloved teen rom-com-dram Pretty in Pink.    Check out Amy's Etsy store, or check out her podcast Ladies Love Paul Rudd!

After a decade of podcasting together, we take a moment to reflect back on the many things that have transpired since our first episode. From the challenges of audio recording and editing to the joy of rewatching some of our favorite films and the sometimes cringe, sometimes delight of watching new ones. However, nothing has been as impactful as connecting with listeners, having the opportunity to join a network of incredibly talented people, and the privilege of hosting some of the most remarkable guests.  But mostly we just play games and bemoan how after ten years, we still have the same unhinged and mentally feeble sex predator in office. If that interests you, have a listen. You can find Helen's playlist here: Stand-out songs from every chick flick covered on the (now 10-year-old!) Falling in Love Montage Podcast! Spotify playlist Tidal playlist A heartfelt thank you to the incredible individuals who have joined our programming over the years. 🫶🏼 You put the Falling in Love in Falling in Love Montage Podcast! Kat Grier, Karen Wurl, Frances Chang, Hooks Morgann, Jessie Cooper, Nicole Kemper, Malcolm Nygard, Erin Gambril, Owen Choules, E LaStar, MC Williams, Ollie Brady, Tracy Tanoff, Vanessa Riley, Ariel Azzara, Ryan Lynch, Megan Griffin, Bill O'Donnell, Juha Heikkilä, Tara Thoma, Elle Riccardi, Ryan Healey, Nick Wood, Jon Biegen, Whitney Segars, Allyson, Mariela, Lauren DeBlasi Jackson, Brian Flanagan, Amy Pascal, Phil Gonzales, Tim Hulsizer, Millie De Chirico, Dan McCoy, Michael M. Rader, Gena Radcliff, Jan Thrapp, Shane Kearney, Gloria White, Sarah Norton, Angel Kofsky, Shannon Campe, Marisa Macias, Mitchell Anderson, Matthew Mammola, and Matt LaStar. 

Valerie and Helen welcome first-time guest Marisa Macias to talk about fifth-time (to the podcast) Richard Curtis classic Notting Hill, gay awakenings, and who the most well-known Welsh person in America is. It's nice! Surreal, but nice.

You fell in love with us on the radio* -- you weren't expecting it, and you couldn't help it. It was the sound of our voices, the things we said. And suddenly, you knew -- you weren't satisfied with the chick flick discourse your other relationships were providing. From there, you followed us, over the airwaves and across the country, until we finally, finally covered Nora Ephron's 1993 more-than-classic Sleepless in Seattle. It was our second foray into the Tom-Hanks-Meg-Ryan-iverse, and you were destined to hold our hands as we went.  *podcasts are sort of like radio, whatever, leave me alone

Have yourself A Merry Little Ex-Mas. Or at least a podcast episode about the 2025 movie of that name, which is what this is.

After going almost a full year without covering a new Lindsay Lohan movie, we were desperate -- and fortunately for us (and you!! wink! 😉!!) the universe gave us Freakier Friday. Nothing was going to stop us from covering it -- not even the fact that we haven't covered Freaky Friday. Beloved Lindsay-Lohan-correspondent Sarah Norton joins us as we gush about -- but don't fully spoil -- this highly relatable tale about waking up in your mother's body just two days before she is due to marry this really handsome British chef guy. Just like we did when we were kids.  Check out Part 1 of Sarah's hit (and Ari-approved) TikTok on Wicked!

It's mwa-ha-ha season yet again, and if you thought Diablo Cody had mwa'd her last ha with Jennifer's Body, we are like annoyingly excited to correct you by talking about the 2024 "coming-of-rage" dark rom-com Lisa Frankenstein -- a piece seemingly made exactly for our '80s-minted eyes, and a movie that is, if Lisa Frank should somehow be reading these show notes, really just a straightforward remake of Weird Science and nothing to do with her intellectually property in any way ha ha

We are a podcast that often covers peoples' underrated comfort movies, and this time we finally tackle the long neglected Valerie-comfort-watch (and Jesse-Spencer vehicle!) Uptown Girls. If that's not a comfort movie for you, 1) why not, it's sweet and fun, and 2) we hope you take some comfort in the knowledge that we'll talk about a different movie next month. Probably.  OK, there's a non-zero chance this will just be an Uptown Girls podcast moving forward.

Dear listeners -- some of whose names we know -- thank you for helping us celebrate Valerie's birth month by listening to our episode covering 1990's Joe Versus the Volcano. We forgot how wonderfully bonkers this movie was. Thank you for listening. 

For the month of 'ly in the year of our lord '25, we assigned ourselves some summer school. Kind of a lot of summer school, in fact.  Making his first FiLM appearance since we covered Frozen in 2017, Helen's son (and Valerie's nephew!) Elam joined us, this time to discuss three whole movies -- if you consider the High School Musical movies to be movies. We truly are all in this together -- and by "this," we mean High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Was this the most fun we've had in a while? BET ON IT (bet on it) bet on it (bet on it)!

For June, we really wanted to bring you something queer. Like gay queer. And I believe we've done that, but also, as a fun bonus, it turns out we've brought you something weird queer as well. So this episode -- and this movie -- lives in that cozy, perfect, Venn-diagram-intersection of good queer things.  We talked about Yorgos Lanthimos's gorgeous dark/etc. comedy, The Favourite. To make an otherwise unsettling Pride month better. But still kind of unsettling. But, like, unsettling in a cool way. Happy Pride.

We gave you exactly one month's notice that we were going to cover the underrated 2002 cutie vehicle Two Weeks Notice for May ("Sandy summer," we called it, very cleverly). So if this surprised you, I don't know what to say. 

It's been 25 years since the globally beloved Miss Congeniality came out, and it's been 9 years since this only-just-slightly-less-globally-beloved podcast first started. And I don't really remember where I was going with that, but that's the timeline. Anyway, we're finally bringing you what you really want -- a frank, 2-hour discussion of the Sandra Bullock beauty pageant classic, and eventually, somehow, world peace.

It is March, and we are sisters, and that technically makes us March sisters. So this time the "March sisters" pulled in an extra honorary sister to finally fall into the warm embrace of Greta Gerwig's Little Women (2019). Joining us is Shannon Campe of Little Women: A Modern Audio Drama, whose expertise and contagious fanaticism have helped us realize we were no longer little girls.   Check out Shannon's own fabulous Little Women adaptation at www.littlewomenpodcast.com.

When we covered Bridget Jones's Diary for our first-ever episode on Galentine's Day in 2016, we couldn't have known the world would give us the incredible gift of a fourth Bridget Jones movie on our very anniversary nine years later. But that's where fate finds us today, watching Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy -- happy, heartbroken, and humbled that we have gotten to do this for going on ten years now.

It's a new year and, ugh, a new world, and to celebrate and distract from that, we've brought you the absolutely bonkers bouquet that is Tom Hooper's infamous 2019 masterwork Cats.  While taking on this movie was no small feat, it was an incredibly easy choice* -- this episode is dedicated to the memory of James Petrosky, a magnificent person, friend to the show, and the greatest advocate for Cats (2019) this side of the Russell Hotel. *And yes, a Jellicle one as well   If so moved, you can donate to the wonderful hospice where James spent his last months and days, or to a hospice local to you.  Check out James's blog, including just some of his thoughts about Cats.

As a holiday gift, Netflix brought Lindsay Lohan back -- for, like, a real movie this time. So what choice did we have but to dive back in to the Lohan-iverse, bringing along our fetch-as-heck friend and Lindsay Lohan correspondent Sarah K. Norton for Christmas company? We ate this 2024 Atlanta-set rom-com up like so many chocolate cookies (or some other direct reference you'll only fully get if you watch Our Little Secret and/or listen to this episode). Check out Sarah and her husband's podcast Never Grow Up!

We finally discover the secret reason Helen made Valerie wait nine years to cover the very-2006, adapted-from-Shakespeare (?!?) teen revenge comedy John Tucker Must Die -- she has a condition* that makes her call basketball "football," and it's very painful and embarrassing.  *being dumb   And as promised, here the show note where we ask you to email us at [email protected]. We looked up our email address, and we're pretty sure this is it!

This very special Halloween episode delves into the story of two close-but-disparate sisters and how they found themselves shunned by their community because of their unusual background -- they were bitches who had either never before seen Practical Magic, or they thought it was silly, or both. Join us as we come to terms with every wild thing the beloved 1998 rom-com-fantasy-crime-drama-cult-classic-Margo-Martindale-vehicle Practical Magic stands for and find ourselves maybe grabbing our proverbial brooms to join the coven. Do we make ourselves as silly as the film we're discussing? At least. Are we able to keep down these midnight margaritas? Mostly. Will our listeners burn us at the stake for transgressing against the Owens women? Well, that's up to you.

You asked for it (we think? It would have been a long time ago; we could be wrong. Someone definitely asked for it, we're pretty sure), and after a mere half-dozen years, we did it -- Michel Gondry's beloved sci-fi dram-rom-com Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And for the discussion, we brought someone unforgettable -- poet, host of the Ku-Popup Open Art Showcase, and romantic lead to cohost Helen -- Angel Kofsky!   Check out the Ku-Popup Open Mic and Art Showcase, Thursdays at 8pm ET on Angel's Twitch channel and/or in their Discord. 

For Valerie's  ~b i r t h  m o n t h~ we are covering the maybe universally beloved but also possibly largely unknown (?? we don't know!) romantic drama classic (???) Untamed Heart. We have a great time talking about this '90s gem that's a little bit urban Nicholas Sparks, a little bit Moulin Rouge/Tarzan/Splash, and all schmaltzy Christian Slater Nature Boy, all the time.

Dog mom, (cool) Disney adult, and generally fabulous person* Sarah K. Norton joins us as we travel, with Netflix's help, to Ireland for summer vacation. Will Lindsay Lohan's Maddie end up with the European faux Property Brother, or will she end up with Jimmy from Downton Abbey? Will she ever write the great Irish-American novel? Will she fall off the Cliffs of Moher, hit her head, and end up in Falling for Christmas again? *and presumptive new Lindsay Lohan correspondent! Check out Sarah and her husband's podcast Never Grow Up! Donate or learn more about Equality Florida here.

Two musical-loving, straight-passing white women extend their lives by wading deep into drag culture in this Pride episode in which Helen and Valerie cover the 2004 romp Connie and Carla, the largely forgotten Nia Vardalos rom-com in which two musical-loving, straight-passing white women extend their lives by wading deep into drag culture. Donate to Fanaticure's June 2024 Pride charity drive for Equality Florida here. Since June is almost up, we at FiLM will also be donating $1 to Equality Florida for each July 2024 download of this episode. Thank you for your support!  Fanaticure can also be found on Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, and on her podcast Two Lacquered Ladies.   

Welcome to Debbie Country, where Cameron Crowe is the next Martin Scorceez and the podcast hosts are admittedly pretty biased in their fervent -- albeit grungy and nostalgic -- love of the 1992 romantic comedy Singles.  Reach out in the Falling in Love Montage Podcast group on Facebook if you want to be an early investor in our musical adaptation (don't tell Cameron 🤫)!

Cohost Helen has gotten her own groove mostly back after having to skip March, and we are finally here with 1998's How Stella Got Her Groove Back. We haven't covered an adaptation of a work by the iconic and complicated Terry McMillan since we talked Waiting to Exhale in episode six, so if you yourself were waiting until now to exhale, we hope you've been resting peacefully these last eight years. We had a lot of thoughts and feelings about this one, but we still managed to keep this conversation under 90 minutes -- you hear that, everyone involved in bringing How Stella Got Her Groove Back to the screen??

It's March y'all, officially Spring, so in honor of that, we're going to spring a surprise on you and switch up our regularly scheduled programing. We're looking forward to discussing the 1998 McMillan classic How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but in the interim, please enjoy a throwback from August 2019 when we were on our beloved podcast network, Flying Machine.

Leap year only comes around every four years, and this year -- our 8th anniversary -- marks the second leap year we've experienced as a podcast. We couldn't think of a better time to finally bring you an enthusiastic discussion of the oft-mentioned 2010 rom-com Leap Year -- but we didn't do that. Instead, we're here with an enraged dialog about the best-forgotten 2010 rom-bomb Valentine's Day. The movie about the holiday Valentine's Day. The one that happens every year. Enjoy. ❤️

It's the 20th anniversary of the beloved film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's The Notebook, and that means we and our podcast are really old, and that means it's time to finally cover this movie.  Join us as we ascend the figurative ferris wheel that is this 2004 romance. Do our pants get pulled down? Do we fall in love? Has this metaphor already worn itself out? 

For a podcast that has never covered a Hallmark movie in its 7+ years of existence, our fans sure love to throw Hallmark holiday movie memes and articles our way. Now it's our turn -- see how much you like it* when we throw Hallmark holiday movie content at you, haha!  Yes, for this holidaymonth, we are talking about the holly-jolly, gay-appareled, made-for-TV stone-cold Hallmark masterpiece, The Christmas House. Is it destined to be a holiday classic, or is it merely a 90-minute makeover montage? Unwrap this gift and find out! *we hope a lot

Aristotle and Holland Taylor once said, "The law is reason, free from passion." Valerie and Helen once said, "Oh man, we really should cover Legally Blonde at some point."  And six or so years later, here we are -- covering 2001's beloved Legally Blonde with long-overdue repeat guest, beloved Vanessa Riley from The Square Roots Podcast.  Habeas corpus! 

To round out our whirlwind 2023 sampling of various Bennet and Darcy types (a Darcuterie, if you will), we've brought back our bestie and official Austen correspondent Tracy Tanoff for the third time/adaptation this year. Spooky month brings us to our likely last Pride and Prejudice for the foreseeable future -- the 2016 action-comedy-horror-chick-flick Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Will Charlotte become a zombie? Will love conquer all? Is Helen a dirty Wickham apologist?? Find out on this month's exciting episode! Find Tracy on Bluesky at @haveloved.bsky.social, and hear more Tracy on this year's episodes on Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Fire Island, or our other classic Austen episodes, Emma (1996) and Sense and Sensibility. Our spooky theme song was put together by the very talented Jon Biegen -- you can find him at @jonbiegen on all socials. 

We waited a long time to see our oldest friend grace the silver screen and make it pink, but Barbie is here now, and we are glad to be able to bring our OK-maybe-not-as-objective-as-they-could-be thoughts to you in this, the year of our Lord*, 2023. *Greta Gerwig

It is the dog days of summer and we have dog mom and Atlanta comedian Gloria White joining the pod to discuss the 2006 ultra chick flick, Something New. Bonus: Listeners who imbibe can take advantage of the opportunity to drink every time we crack a title pun. ✨ Check out Gloria on Instagram Find her on all the socials, look for the handle "glow07" ❤️ Listen to Gloria on a recent episode of One Fry Short

We had such a gay old time covering Pride & Prejudice earlier this year that for Pride month, we wanted to have an even gayer, new time -- so we grabbed our beloved Austen correspondent Tracy Tanoff to talk about the 2022 loose P&P adaptation Fire Island. Does Elizabeth find her Darcy? I don't know who those people are, but I can tell you I've got my eye on Noah and Will. (Hahaha, this is a ruse, as I have watched the movie and actually know what happens! Spoiler alert: lots of beautiful super-queer shit).  Check out Gay Austen, per Tracy's recommendation, and then watch Fire Island on Hulu -- twice in a row, if you're cool.

It's been 23 years since Bring It On brought its cheer to the world, and it's been something like 6 years since we had our beloved friend and cheerleader-lover* Owen Choules on to talk about a chick flick with us.  So do we do a high kick and delight in this classic, or do we give it the spirit finger? Does Owen still tolerate us? What is team captain Torrance's connection to the dad from The Shining? Listen to find out! Rah!     *Yeah, he won't object to that descriptor at all, probably

For better or worse, 1998's Can't Hardly Wait is a quintessential exhibit of 90s High School cinema. A movie with almost as much cringe as it has stars. Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont weave a magical story wherein Kenny Fisher gets the girl, Jenna Elfman gets the cab, and Amanda Beckett gets to stand up for herself, for like, at least a minute. And who knows, there's always a possibility of a sequel with less Smashmouth and F slurs.   

You are all cordially invited to the wedding of us and Maya Erskine (pending her consent) - and surprise - you're the toast master too. We're here to talk about Plus One, which is fresher than diner fish* . *Fish you order at a diner, but why would you do that?!  

It is a truth universally acknowledged that two women in possession of a chick flick podcast must eventually cover 2005's Pride & Prejudice. Fan favorite and Jane Austen correspondent Tracy Tanoff joins us for truly the most exemplary podcast she's guested on in in many years.  For more Austen fun, check out Tracy's Fine Curated Links! On the autism spectrum and Pride & Prejudice The Lizzie Bennet Diaries The Jane Austen Universe Black Girl Loves Jane Gay Austen Sasha Sienna's Jane Austen Book Club

To start 2023 off on the right route, we wanted to talk about best friends with a best friend. So we brought FiLM fave Malcolm Nygard on to fan-girl out with us over the ultimate road trip movie, Thelma & Louise. Check out Malcolm's thoughtful Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/theoscargrouch/ and see if you can spy a chick flick or two in his top ten. Thelma & Louise is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and geez, Louise, do we ever recommend you watch it.

It's what you were all hoping for, I'll keep telling myself -- for the holiday season, and to close out 2022, we covered a new Christmas classic, Falling for Christmas, starring Lindsay Lohan. We not only talked about it, but we also watched it! And if you don't listen and enjoy, magic Santa will push you down a mountain.  We'll be back next year with not this movie. Happy New Year, FiLM buffs! And for no particular reason, here's Ben @palmertrolls on Candace Cameron Bure. 

It's November for a few more hours, and we are thankful to be here with you, talking about another problematic (!) fave (?), 1999's Never Been Kissed. We shouldn't say this because we're your teacher hosts, but it's totally rufus.  Sorry in advance for Helen's questionable audio -- she was recording on an iPhone from a frilly pink bedroom in South Georgia. Happy N[e]vember Been Kissed! Nailed it.

Years ago, a pair of sisters came together on Halloween to talk about Hocus Pocus. We thought the story ended there. We were wrong. Those lovable sisters are back, making magic, once again, because Disney dug up the past with Hocus Pocus 2, and like a bajilliondy people watched it, and we figured, One Way or Another, we could get some easy spooky-month downloads. Itchita kupita melaka mystika.  Hocus Pocus 2 is currently streaming on Disney+. Check out our friend Jon Biegen at jinglejon.com, for all your podcast-jingle needs.

This time Valerie's just getting over COVID, and she still managed to watch, talk about, and edit an entire podcast episode on the Definitely Underrated Fun Film, 2015's The DUFF.

Whether we say it directly or not, both of us are still a little bit waiting to see if and when Mary Poppins will fly down to us and reveal we are secretly princesses.  What we are in the meantime is chick-flick podcasters, so this month we decided to podcast about the 2001 chick flick The Princess Diaries. It's also our third Disney film this year, and our third Sandra Oh film this year, so. Yeah. Happy August, commoners listeners. 

If you've been spontaneously crying as of late, and want more of that, this is the podcast episode for you. It's the last day of Pride month, and while we have failed to deliver a focused conversation about a piece of queer cinema, we are delivering on our mother's dying (to be determined) wish to discuss a personal favorite of her's - thus, a house-hold favorite of ours and a staple of our childhood — 1995's Sense and Sensibility.  We are joined by our best friend/Jane Austin correspondent, Tracy Tanoff, for a (some may say) overlong celebration of Emma Thompson's adaptation. Catch Tracy streaming here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCTW4vTLi-wK5QEe14SI9keQ, and catch us crying eternally, everywhere. 

We put this month's movie up to a vote, and if the votes told us anything, it's that 1 thing you hated about us is that we hadn't covered the classic '99 teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You yet.  Well, now we have. Helen's bestie Jan Thrapp joins us again to talk about Shakespeare, our motives behind the various colors of underwear we possess, and Andrew Keegan's California cult. And we maybe introduce a new FiLM award. 10 Things I Hate About You is currently streaming on Disney+. Check your local animal shelters for information about fostering animals.

It was Helen's birthday this month, so this time, we covered a movie she wanted to cover! ...Just like we pretty much always do, whoops.  Anyway, the movie Helen wanted to cover this time was the 2007 Disney spectacular Enchanted. Did we find it enchanting? It's a safe bet to say we did, but obviously these notes are meant to promote the episode, so officially you'll have to listen to the episode to find out!!  Oh, also, it's finally getting a sequel later this year, so let's pretend we knew that and planned it, going in.

What do you get when you cross an embarrassment of pandas with embarassing podcasters?  This. This is what you get.  We had a box full of kittens-like good time discussing Domme Shi's 2022, unapologetically titled Pixar hit, Turning Red.