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30-04-2025
- Entertainment
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23 Movies That Are Considered Romantic But Are Actually Low-Key Soooooooooooo Toxic
Reddit user phantom_avenger recently asked the members of r/moviecritic, "What movie is considered 'romantic' when in reality it's very toxic?" People quickly filled the thread with their hot takes on beloved rom-coms and other supposedly "heartwarming" films (that perhaps didn't age so well). Here's what they shared: 1. " 50 First Dates. She's incapable of having any romantic relationship because of her condition, and he basically took advantage of a woman with a mental disability. Imagine the absolute torture she endures daily, waking up to realize she has a husband and child she's completely incapable of remembering. She will have to endure that torture the rest of her life." 2. "How about While You Were Sleeping? She literally allows the man and his family to think she is his secret fiancée, and then she falls for his brother. WTH?" — Animated-Opinions24 " Sandra Bullock works for mass transit and saves a regular rider, whom she has a crush on, after he was mugged, but he ends up in a coma. His family thinks she's his fiancée, and she just goes with it. She falls in love with the coma guy's brother after spending so much time with his family. After the coma guy wakes up, they work up to his wedding while everyone thinks he has amnesia since he doesn't recognize Bullock, only to have her back out last minute confessing everything, and she ends up with the brother in the end." — ManateeGag 3. " Mrs. Doubtfire. It turns out that Daniel was always capable of being a good parent and taking actual care of the family; he just chose not to until his wife got fed up. Then, instead of accepting that being a lazy man-child has consequences and trying to prove himself the right way, he commits fraud and deceives this entire family and the court. Still one of my favorite movies though." 4. " Never Been Kissed. A teacher has feelings for a student, yet is angry she 'lied to him' about being an adult undercover in the school." 5. " Big. It's a young boy trapped in a man's body. He kisses and has sex with a woman, and then, after she learns the truth, she still wants to be with him when he's older. I enjoyed the story when I was younger, but it left a bad taste in my mouth after rewatching it. Who thinks of and writes that stuff?" 6. " Overboard. Kurt Russell kidnaps Goldie Hawn and forces her into domestic slavery." — AdWonderful5920 "This. I remember watching that movie when I was a kid (I was born in 1993, so I saw this movie sometime in the 2000s), and I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that he kidnapped her, and she stayed with him?" — mh0326 7. " Four Weddings and a Funeral. Carrie (Andie MacDowell) is awful to Charles (Hugh Grant). She invites him wedding dress shopping when he clearly fancies her, and this is after they have slept together, and then invites him to her wedding too. Then she shows up to his wedding, assuming this is unexpected based on his reaction, and then blows that up. She is a horrible, self-absorbed, narcissistic person. 'Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed.' WORST line delivery EVER!!" 8. " My Best Friend's Wedding. I'm glad she didn't get him in the end." — cbunni666 "I just feel bad for Cameron Diaz, who DOES get him in the end. Dermot Mulroney's character is awful. He continues to openly flirt with Jules, and one of his marriage conditions for his 20-year-old fiancée (he's 30) is that she quit college to follow him around as he writes about baseball. While Jules is terrible, she's kind of doing the girl a favor by trying to split them up." — DumpedDalish 9. " Dirty Dancing. Baby was like 17, and Johnny was like 25. It was completely inappropriate, and whether he knew it or not, he was taking advantage of an extremely naive teenage girl who was still in high school. I get that it was her coming-of-age story, but what parent wouldn't be trying to keep their teenage daughter from hanging out with a bunch of adults almost 10 years older than her, who were hanging out all night drinking and partying?" 10. "The two main characters of Serendipity are lucky to be played by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale who have so much chemistry because they are awful people screwing over their committed partners for a second chance at capturing the magic of a single evening years prior." — GonzoJackOfAllTrades "It irritated me that both dumped partners seemed like good people, but the movie makes them appear boring to justify the cheating." — TheKidintheHall 11. " The Time Traveler's Wife. An extradimensional time-traveling nudist cat burglar grooms a child to marry him when she comes of age, then traumatizes her by getting himself shot while breaking into somebody's home to steal their clothes." 12. " Sweet Home Alabama. She chooses the man who refused a divorce for 15 years and was disrespectful to her for most of the film. The same could be said for The Notebook. They agreed on nothing, and Ally was slapping him regularly. Very toxic love that was packaged as a fantasy." 13. "I can't stand The Notebook. It's just a horrible movie that portrays toxicity as romance. I had a friend in college who was shocked that I hadn't seen it (I'm a big fan of romcoms), and we watched it together. I was stunned the entire time, and afterwards she told me she felt like her relationship with her boyfriend was like the one from the movie. I expressed concern because of how toxic the relationship in the movie is, and she got so defensive of the movie. I was shocked." 14. " Almost Famous. You can 'different time' me all you want. Penny Lane and other 'groupies' were 15, 16, and 17 years old and were being groomed and preyed upon by much older men. Penny Lane was literally sold in a poker game. That's sex trafficking. William is a 16-year-old who is also being groomed and preyed upon for the band's positive PR. But we ignore all that because of the music and the 'romance.'" 15. "(500) Days of Summer. I can't believe people still think it's a cutesy romance flick." — snapchatofdoriangray "Anybody who gets that from it isn't paying attention. He's in love with Summer as a concept, not a person, and she goes along with it after making it clear that they're looking for totally different things in life. It's a bad idea from the get-go." — Iron_Infusion_ "I was a senior in high school when this came out and was taken in by the twee hipster aesthetics, and was disappointed by the ending at the time. I think it's an excellent movie because it plays with viewers' expectations of romance and romantic comedies. Like many of us, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character seems like someone raised on romantic comedies and projects their idealized expectations onto the people he dates. Looking back, it's interesting to see how his expectations (and the viewers) colored the perception of his and Deschanel's interactions." — PothosLeaves 16. " Notting Hill. Hugh seems to like to play these men in toxic relationships. Julia's actress character treats him like crap too, ghosting him, lashing out, cheating on her boyfriend with him, and faking being a meat eater. Red flags everywhere." — waldo-doggie "It has its cute moments, but when he had to act like an interviewer when he was supposed to be meeting up with her was absolutely cringe. No guy would tolerate even half the crap he put up with." — HeatCompetitive1556 17. " You've Got Mail. Tom Hanks is a catfish." — omega_grainger69 "It wasn't enough that he bankrupted her, but he also used her own information to manipulate her and then love-bombed her into saying yes to a relationship. Like, how many more red flags do y'all need?" — Paperspeaks 18. " Crazy, Stupid, Love. The 'never take no for an answer' messaging of that movie is really hard to watch in hindsight." 19. " Sleepless in Seattle is a horror movie." — Several_Oil_7099 "Meg Ryan's character throws away her fiancé because she fell in love with someone she'd never even met in person and never even spoke to until the very end of the film?" — Immortalyti 20. " Love, Actually. The movie is just 90% limerence, stalking, fat-shaming, workplace harassment, and general misogyny. There's a 'fat joke' approximately every two minutes of the movie, most about a slim, beautiful young woman, with the rest said as cruel insults directly to overweight characters' faces. The two plots involving lead female characters are depressing — a wife with a cheating husband, and a woman who is dumped by her date when she takes a call from her unwell brother. Echoing the other men, even the little boy doesn't actually know the girl he 'loves' and has never spoken to her. It's just so toxic, and it's depressing that it's so beloved." 21. " Something Borrowed. Who knew that infidelity and betrayal were cute? Damn weirdos." — Perplexed_n_stressed "It's about best friends where one friend lusts after the other friend's man. I didn't think Kate Hudson's character did anything wrong, but they made her out to be the bad friend." — Klutzy-Chocolate710 22. " Runaway Bride (1999). Julia Roberts's character was such a pick me girl; it was awful. And she did it to her best friend, too, flirting with her husband unapologetically just because he was her ex. She even gets called out by Richard Gere's character. She loved to feel loved and special, but she didn't care who got hurt once she grew tired of them. She ran away from them before the wedding because her character had a strong fear of commitment. The worst character ever. Extremely selfish." 23. Finally: " Grease. Danny disrespects Sandy to her face, cheats on her in the dance competition, forcibly kisses her afterwards, and never apologizes or acknowledges what he did wrong. And then at the end, Sandy is the one who's supposed to change for him?" What do you think? Do you agree? Do you vehemently disagree? Are there any movies you'd like to add? Explain your reasoning in the comments or tell us about a "romantic" movie you think is toxic in this anonymous form here.
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28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
31 Former Child Actors Who Survived The Toxic World Of Hollywood And Are Doing Really Well For Themselves Now
Recently, Reddit user phantom_avenger asked the folks over at r/moviecritic, "Who is a former mainstream child actor or actress that survived the toxic world of Hollywood and is currently doing really well for themselves?" Here are the top-voted results: 1. Hilary Duff — "Hilary isn't as big as she used to be back when she was a teenager and was considered one of the biggest stars in film, shows, and music in the 2000s! But she is living a pretty healthy lifestyle, raising her family of four children, and balancing her acting career in projects that are less mainstream along with getting involved in entrepreneurship!" 2. Ron Howard — "I feel like he was extremely lucky. He worked in two of the rarest situations possible in the entertainment industry with genuinely lovely people. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were supposed to be really nice people (sometimes not to the other actors but always to Ron, by his account). The same with the entire cast of Happy Days, with Henry Winkler being known as one of Hollywood's 'good guys.'" 3. Dakota Fanning — "I remember there were pictures of Dakota and her sister, Elle, in school activities like homecoming games. I think their parents tried to give them a normal life between their careers, which is so awesome." 4. Elle Fanning — "I think both the Fanning sisters have done great for themselves." 5. Shirley Temple — "Until she died (at age 85), Shirley Temple Black was the paradigm of the child actor doing well as an adult." — "She was the US Ambassador to Ghana. She married a man who had never seen her movies, to which she credited their happy relationship. (She married at 18 to get away from her very controlling parents, and that husband was wild. But she divorced him, left acting, and was very happy from then on.)" — Teckelvik "Her second husband, the love of her life, said what he most admired about her was she was always herself. She never tried to be anything less." — Erroneously_Anointed 6. Kenan Thompson — "I'm more amazed he hasn't broken down as an adult doing SNL as long as he has. All you ever hear is how much of a pressure cooker that show is. To last as long as he has, you gotta have your head on straight." 7. Jodie Foster — "She really survived Hollywood's perverted grossness." 8. Joseph Gordon-Levitt — "I haven't seen him in too much the past few years for some reason, but he was a child actor then went on to do Brick, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, etc." 9. Elijah Wood — "No matter how bad the politics get in America he still posts about rad shit he likes on social media." — Wendigo_1910 "He tweeted about my friend's band a few years back, which was strange. They're not particularly famous. Just a noisy, northern English alt/punk band. But it seems Elijah is a fan." — ScottMarshall2409 10. Macaulay Culkin — "He went through a rough patch, but he's doing really well now. And he's still able to live off of that Home Alone money for life." 11. Brenda Song — "Macaulay and Brenda both did good for themselves. So add her in, too." 12. Kieran Culkin — "He's in good shape as well!" 13. Lindsay Lohan — "I mean, yes, she had a huge fallout and got herself in trouble with the law, but she turned her life around and is doing a lot better. She got married, has a child, and will be in Freaky Friday 2." — NDeceptikonn "I have never actually been proud of a celebrity. I don't know them and have no personal relationship, etc. But I am actually legit proud and happy for Lindsay Lohan. I think it is a combination of watching her grow up and getting a glimpse of her vulnerable human side on the David Letterman show years ago (not cool on his part). I am rooting for her." — pepperw2 14. Jason Bateman — "He is great in everything." — Chaotic424242 "It's ironic, he was the yang to Michael J Fox's yin, and I hated his character as a kid; I despised having to sit through The Hogan Family because of him; now that I'm an adult, he is hands down one of my favorite actors." — shake-dog-shake 15. Kurt Russell — "It's hard to believe just how long he's been around for. Active in seven decades!" 16. Daniel Radcliffe — "He had a period of really struggling with alcoholism, but otherwise, he's doing much better now." — allthingskerri "Honestly? A few years of alcoholism without any scandals, coming out the other side okay, and doing interesting projects fits the bill." — EchoesofIllyri 17. Ryan Gosling — "I live not too far from where his parents are, and one day, in an aimless Facebook scroll, I ended up on his dad's page, which was weirdly fascinating. And yes, I know it makes me a bit of a creep, but I couldn't help but click through a bit. The most boring-dad stuff you could ever hope to see. Like, here's an awkward photo of my adult children home for Christmas, except one is a movie star. I have to wonder if the shocking normalcy of his family life kept him on a good path." 18. Melissa Joan Hart — "She was the first person that came to mind." 19. Jerry O'Connell — "He was so adorable in Stand By Me. Seems like he has a good head on his shoulders." 20. Ke Huy Quan — "He seems like he is doing well. He played Short-Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and he recently won an Oscar." — Coffee_achiever_guy "I love his comeback! He struggled with his acting career for years, and it started to launch following his Oscar win! I hope he's able to maintain the success rate it's currently at." — phantom_avenger 21. Scarlett Johansson — "A couple of pieces of trivia I'd tell my cousins is she was a supporting cast in Home Alone 3, and she starred with Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Endgame." 22. Christina Applegate — "She has had such a rough life and has been such an inspiration. Every time I see her have a new diagnosis, I'm like, 'Come on! Give this woman a break.'" 23. Miranda Cosgrove — "She seems incredibly down to earth and normal, especially considering she had a stalker who set himself on fire in her driveway." 24. Wil Wheaton — "I love that guy, and he's the reason l asked Andy Serkis if we should just start using motion capture to phase out child actors, specifically using Wil as an example. He'd never thought of it before and said he'd give it some thought, which l thought was pretty cool." 25. Mayim Bialik — "She has a PhD in neuroscience, and as an adult, she was in one of the most successful sitcoms ever. She is now an acclaimed author." 26. Kirsten Dunst — "She has a fantastic acting resume, two kids, and a seemingly nice life with her husband. Good for her." 27. Dylan Sprouse — "Started a mead company and is seemingly very happy with his lovely partner." 28. Natalie Portman — "It's a miracle, too, considering how much of a weirdo Luc Besson is." — HerbalCoast 29. Melanie Lynskey — "She's still in plenty of high-profile stuff like Yellowjackets and The Last of Us. I've also heard that she's pretty down to earth in person." Miramax / courtesy Everett Collection, Elyse Jankowski/Variety via Getty Images — Upbeat_Tension_8077 "I once heard Melanie Lynskey talk about her experience making Heavenly Creatures in an interview. She was picked out of tons of girls who auditioned. Cast with Kate Winslet. Everyone thought she was great in the role. She would talk about what she hoped to do next, and people were like, 'Oh, honey, that might not be in the cards for you. Don't get your hopes up.' She proved them wrong!" — Comprehensive-Fun47 30. Bridgit Mendler — "Went to Harvard and MIT, co-founded a satellite data startup, adopted a kid she was fostering in addition to being an actress and singer. If you created a character with her achievements in a book or movie, people would call it unrealistic." Craig Sjodin / © Disney Channel / Courtesy: Everett Collection, David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images — KweenindaNorf_7777 31. Finally, Leonardo DiCaprio — "The best example of all." Darlene Hammond / Getty Images, Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for LACMA — Western-Image7125
