With 'Picture This,' Amazon Prime vies for a spot in the cringe movie canon
With 'Picture This,' Amazon Prime vies for a spot in the cringe movie canon Picture This' is the latest in the cringe canon. The new Prime Video film reaches for an authentic rom-com feel, but falls closer to the over-the-top cheese of Netflix movies like 'Falling Inn Love.'
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For nearly a decade, Hollywood has mourned the supposed death of the rom-com.
Authentic or not, a steady drumbeat has declared the mashup genre a shell of its formal self. Once boasting star-studded titles like "You've Got Mail" and "My Best Friend's Wedding," recent releases seem instead to bludgeon that classic sentimentality with overly saccharine dialogue or plots driven exclusively by sex scenes.
But emerging through the ashes is a new micro-genre: The cringe-canon.
If moviegoers can't hope for an expertly crafted soliloquy a-la "Bull Durham," the least they can expect is high production values and a few time-honored tropes. That's certainly the case for "Picture This," a new film starring Simone Ashley and Hero Fiennes Tiffin now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Ashley, whose romantic lead chops were sharpened in a "Bridgerton" stint, stars as Pia, a near-30-year-old whose family is ratcheting up the pressure to find "the one." With her younger sister's wedding looming, a spiritual adviser hired by her mother predicts she will find him in one of her next five dates.
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As Pia sets out to appease her parents (and save her failing art studio), she comes face to face with her ex-love Charlie (Fiennes Tiffin), who just so happens to be the wedding's best man.
In an endearing if slightly predictable blend of the enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity and old-flame tropes, the film manages to meet the cringe canon audience exactly where they are.
Ashley is believable as the headstrong eldest daughter, whose resistance to marriage at first keeps her away from the family jewels. Fiennes Tiffin, no stranger to a fan-fic tinged romance, is largely absent, appearing only intermittently to remind Ashley of what might've been.
The plot holes are glaring, but I must say I didn't care. I was having too much fun! That's the beauty of the cringe canon. It begs to avoid analysis. Sure, there are soft themes of female empowerment and a healthy commentary on the artificial timeline hoisted upon women. But mostly, it's just a joyful romp.
It has long-lost love, a choreographed dance at the end and an epilogue that ensures happily ever after (a guarantee in the genre). What more could you want?
Cringe-core acolytes can find similar titles dotting Netflix, including Christina Milian's "Falling Inn Love" and Jacob Elordi's "The Kissing Booth," − but "Picture This" has a special sauce. There's a certain raunch that some of its peers shy away from and a more authentic female lead, with certified chutzpah rather than a run of the mill "she's not like the other girls" vibe.
Whether a requiem is due for rom-coms or not, in the meantime there's at least a conveyor belt of cringe to feast upon.
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