Most popular genres have a life cycle; crime movies peaked in the 1940s, westerns were big in the ’50s, explosive action blockbusters ruled the ’90s, romantic comedies dominated the 2000s and superhero flicks have prevailed since the 2010s.
For every genre at some point everything just clicks. Films are coming off the assembly line at an almost weekly clip and people are seeing them like never before. Then, it seems overnight, tastes change.
And when a genre dies, it always seems like it will never come back or that it can only be attempted from a completely new direction (see: James Bond being rewritten as Jason Bourne). But after a few decades pass something strange always happens all of those ingredients that once tasted so stale suddenly seem fresh again, and the old formula is made new with surprisingly few updates.
That’s what’s happening right now with romantic comedies. This year, after a decade-long downturn, not only has the rom-com regained its status as a cultural mainstay but also as a box office champion. In January alone Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone but You grossed $219 million; Lindsay Lohan’s Irish Wish drove millions of streams on Netflix and became an international sensation.
And now even in this part of the world where Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey used to thrive on breezy style, bright lighting and lovingly contrived plot mechanics in films like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” Arab actors like Nour Al Ghandour (Egyptian but found her footing in Kuwaiti drama) and Mahmoud Boushahri (Kuwaiti) are about to take things to an even higher level than any McConaissance could have predicted.
On their face “Honeymoonish,” which premieres Monday on Netflix worldwide and is directed by Lebanese filmmaker Elie El Semaan, could have starred a number of different American duos in 2003. It’s about two people who find themselves in separate desperate situations and the only solution they can think of is that they have to get married right away.
Boushahri plays Hamad, a young Kuwaiti businessman who is preparing for a huge launch in the family business when his father pulls the rug out from under him. Because he has yet to prioritize giving his dad a grandchild, he is given an ultimatum: either marry and impregnate an acceptable woman within one month or you lose your inheritance.
Al Ghandour plays Noor, a Kuwaiti woman who discovers that her boyfriend did not go to Lebanon on a business trip like he said he secretly got married to another woman. Now Noor wants nothing more than to marry someone immediately so she can travel to where her beloved is honeymooning and make him jealous.
It’s a tried-and-true setup, you’ll know exactly where it’s going, not that you’ll mind. The formula comforts us, and what the writers and actors do within it entertains us.
But with “Honeymoonish” there are unique things being brought into play some for those who know Gulf/Arab culture intimately, some for those seeing it from afar via Netflix’s global reach.
Let us take one specific problem that arises after the wedding. His aunt called Hamad to tell him he might have to divorce his new wife. It is plausible that Noor was breastfed by Hamad’s mother when both of them were babies In Islamic law, this means they are like siblings who have been fed from the same woman and therefore cannot get married.
Some of the following events become quite racy for a local film. At some point during this part of the movie, it feels like we’ve gone back in time to a 90s comedy such as There’s Something About Mary due to a certain mix-up with medication.
As much as we may see this represented in Gulf content, it has also become one of Netflix’s Arabic originals trademarks too, where their themes continue to play around with cultural taboos fuelled by regional creators who find themselves working within a less restrictive global system.
Every time someone pushes those walls, there is always a big talk on Twitter or Facebook in Arabic, sometimes it even leads into full-on backlash mode but then things die down again and an example like Saudi Arabia’s Crashing Eid which saw an unmarried man and woman hug in its trailer becomes an enormous hit and stays popular forever.
Of course, the region keeps changing. What was forbidden ten years ago is now normalized, each country still has Arab creatives trying to figure out how far they can go as every culture flexes alongside itself.
Honeymoonish has committed performances, watchable style and somewhat lively dialogue, like Irish Wish it is easy to watch after a long day and will do very well on streaming numbers but as a view of where Gulf culture is at right now, there is so much more here than meets the eye.
That’s what happens when you follow formulae though, isn’t it? They all feel fresh because different people put them together.
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