We ring in the end of the year with a discussion on the 2011 ensemble New Years Eve. With so many characters and so little in the way of plot or character development, the film celebrates the end of a year and the beginning of a new one with punch-in-the-face-style romances and bloated resolutions from people we don’t care about. For those who longed for Hilary Swank and Jon Bon Jovi to act side by side, Garry Marshall was listening.

For this very special New Years episode we got a little help from our friend J.M. McNab from Rewatchability.

Happy New Year!!

Episode 44 – NEW YEAR’S EVE

Join us for another episode celebrating the holiday season with the 1995 film While You Were Sleeping. After a great debate on Love Actually, it’s nice for us all to agree on how delightful this film is… and our crushes on Bill Pullman. While most holiday films focus on the build-up to Christmas, this one steps away to show the days after spent with family and friends, which many take for granted. It teaches us to appreciate those moments, even if they are riddled with bad advice on how to lie about being engaged to a guy in a coma.

This week we also take note that, yes, Sandra Bullock did narrate every 90’s movie that Morgan Freeman wasn’t available for.

Episode 43 – WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

You know it, you love it, we… are pretty divided on it! It’s the favourite holiday rom com, 2003’s Love Actually. It’s hard to summarize our longest episode to date, so we’ll just say there’s lots of yelling, lots of swearing, and more characters being called “dum-dum” than ever before!

So if you real-ly love Christmas, come on and let it… snow.

Episode 42 – LOVE ACTUALLY

Join us this week as we discuss one of the most depressing holiday movies ever, 1960’s  The Apartment! Directed by Billy Wilder and starring a very young Shirley MacLaine, a still-pretty-young Jack Lemmon, and a “Yeah, he’s kinda old already” Fred MacMurray, the film really focuses on the sadness that some experience around the holidays. While it tackles some very serious issues like depression and suicide, it is still a very funny romantic comedy at heart. Will Miss Kubelik choose love or security? Will Mr. Baxter choose love or success? Will Mr. Baxter’s sheets finally get washed?! These and other questions answered, this week on What She’s Having.

Episode 41 – THE APARTMENT

We kick off December with the 2001 film Bridget Jones’ Diary, because, what better way to start the holiday romantic comedy season than with a fun-loving, kind of sloppy, hopeless romantic female icon like Bridget Jones? It’s been awhile since the phenomenon of the book-turned-major film starring Renee Zellwegger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant was the talk of the town, so we reflect on the big questions:  Is Mark Darcy delightfully frumpy, or just super boring? Why do British romantic comedies always try to pretend London is snowy at Christmas? Are Bridget’s friends terrible people? Is Bridget’s staple of a ‘real’ woman still relevant today? We’re gonna ponder it all over a couple bottles of wine. Jones-style.

Episode 40 – BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY

Check out our latest episode as we take a look at a growing sub-genre, the “bromance” (or “bromantic comedy”, if you will), with perhaps one of the earliest of its kind, the 2004 film Sideways. Featuring unlikeable characters doing unlikeable things, with a hint of road-trip, male-bonding, budding romance, this wine-fest/character study maintains a gentle, thoughtful air… and even with all that drunk driving. So much drunk driving.

Also, do you remember that Paul Giamatti was in Private Parts? We sure do.

This week we welcome back special guest Rob Laronde from Rewatchability.

Episode 39 – SIDEWAYS

Join us for our latest episode where we discuss the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story, that boasts vintage Hollywood cache with the likes of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and the very funny Katharine Hepburn. While the film revived Hepburn’s career in Hollywood, it is still to this day a top ranking film on many major lists of the all-time best romantic comedies… which shows that a lot of people are surprisingly okay with some light domestic abuse. That aside, Jimmy Stewart as a romantic interest (and playing drunk) is delightful– and he didn’t sock anyone. Just sayin’.

Episode 38 – THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

Note: Please try to ignore the intermittent clanging during the podcast, unfortunately it’s the heater in the apartment we record in– it’s getting cold in Toronto.