We’re in the midst of a romantic comedy resurgence and we’re not mad about it. Romantic comedies made us who we are. They gave us a vision of what love could be, the dreams that we could have, and the way that love could change us. Granted, we knew it was all about a movie and that it wasn’t real.
But it didn’t mean that we didn’t want the joyous moments to be real.
Hell, we’d even take the angst.
As time has gone on and we’ve grown older, we’ve been able to get the same feelings that movies once gave us through books. But it doesn’t mean that we still don’t get excitement from movies. It’s just been a long time since a movie felt like it did when we were younger.
But with Hollywood trying to recapture the nostalgia of the romantic comedies of the past, we’re embracing trying to find that also. And their latest venture? Well that would be The Other Zoey, which has released in theaters. It stars Josephine Langford, Drew Starkey, and Archie Renaux – three fandom favorites.
The movie is about, “Zoey Miller (Langford), a super smart computer nerd uninterested in romantic love, has her life turned upside down when Zack (Drew Starkey), the school’s soccer star, gets amnesia and mistakes Zoey for his girlfriend.” That’s not all there is to this film though. Rather than tell the truth, she follows the Doctor’s advice. She continues being “the other Zoey.”
We sat and spoke with the director of the movie, Sara Zandieh. She is an Iranian American filmmaker whose film, The Pool Party, won second place at the Tribeca Film Festival. A graduate of Columbia University, Sara’s directed both television and film.
We sat down and spoke with her for a bit, and we’re splitting it into two (because hey, lots of information).
Directing The Other Zoey for Prime Video (It’s out there on 11/10), Zandieh was able to draw on all of her romantic comedy favorites.
“I was breast fed on 90’s rom-com’s,” she said, “I was like a teenager in the 90’s.”
“I was a huge fan of Clueless, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sleepless in Seattle, The Birdcage,” she continued.
Rom-Com’s were a big part of her life. But when she talked about The Other Zoey, she said, “It’s a mix of a romantic comedy, a family comedy, and a coming of age. It’s kind of like the ultimate feel good movie.”
When we talked about romantic comedies and why we love them, she said, what I thought was a great answer. She said, “I think that the theme of love is all we got in the world.”
Which we can’t disagree with, and it’s something that we need now more than ever.
“It is truly the answer,” she said.
Love and finding your way through it is something that isn’t easy. But it is something that we feel like we all need in life. And so an escape is always a great thing, which is probably part of the reason that we escape a bit with romance as much as we can.
While we do have more with Sara (and will post tomorrow, but wanna give people a second to see the movie), we love this advice that Sara has for other women.
Sarah Zandieh directed The Other Zoey, and Matt Tabak wrote the screenplay. In addition to Langford, Starkey, and Renaux, the film stars Heather Graham, Andie MacDowell, Patrick Fabian, and Mallori Johnson. The film will be released in theaters, today, October 20th and will head to streaming on November 10th.
