My Top 3 Miramax Indie Romance Films

Weinstein-aside, these are actually worth it. I promise.

Miramax was to the 1990’s/2000's independent film scene what Disney is to family animation.

Aside from some nasty people behind the scenes, you had newcomers like Quentin Tarantino being discovered and films like Good Will Hunting being brought to the spotlight.

But what I didn’t notice until I was writing another article, was there was an entire sub-subgenre to this that Miramax unintentionally produced.

The indie rom-com.

Before films like Hitch, Maid in Manhattan, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days were so brilliant they turned the formula into a tired cliche, there was a little pocket where the lack of money was no match for the creativity and thoughtfulness behind these films.

So, with that out of the way, here are my top 3 favorite independent romantic comedies produced by Miramax.

At number 3, we have Singles.

Grunge fans are welcome in this little love flick.

Not only does this film take place in Seattle with Matt Dillon rocking the stage harder than whatever he’s got going on with his hair, but it actually features live performances and acting gigs from both Alice in Chains AND Soundgarden!!!

In fact, Chris Cornell was inspired to write Spoonman because of this film.

The film follows an apartment complex full of single and not-so single people as they traverse through the ups and downs of relationships and love.

It definitely gives me a lot of French cinema vibes, in the sense that a lot of conventions in this are broken (like characters breaking the fourth wall) and the way that the directors/crew are working with what they’ve got but this is the kind of film that I would watch if I needed a nudge in the right direction to prove that you don’t need a lot to have a strong impact on your audience.

At number two, we’ve got Beautiful Girls.

I watched this with my uncle one night, since this is the movie that he watches every New Years, and I remember when we saw Harvey Weinstein’s name appear in the credits, we both audibly groaned.

“Don’t you just hate it when a masterpiece has a shit stain on it?” he asked.

I couldn’t agree more.

She is always going to be The Bride in my eyes and her Oscar nomination for Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction is absolutely well-deserved, but this is by far my favorite performance from Uma Thurman.

Probably because it’s so unconventional for where her acting career went.

Some may see a sleeper / easy paycheck.

I saw a breath of fresh air.

The story follows a man who returns to his home town and catches up with his friends who are struggling to find their way through the ups and downs of love and relationships.

I copied the premise on purpose.

Because it quickly became a formula. This film and Singles were the best examples of it by far and this film is a little more conventional and more of a traditional American film than Singles was.

It’s certainly not a detriment either.

Beautiful Girls is the best example I’ve seen of studying the theme of beauty. Not just through appearance, but the concept of it in multiple forms: you have beauty in the sense of attraction, connection, friendship, so many layers that you never really see.

If you want to explore that on a more profound, philosophical level I can’t recommend this film enough.

Plus, it’s got a pretty star-studded cast for the time from Rosie O’Donnell to a young post-Leon-the-Professional Natalie Portman.

And finally, for number one, we’ve got Serendipity.

I’m not gonna go too much into this because I spent an entire article talking about my favorite takeaways from the film, but Serendipity wins for most sentimental value to me.

John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale play John Trager and Sara Thomas respectively who meet by pure chance and have a love at first sight moment.

But with the world seemingly conspiring against them, they must decide whether or not these serendipitous moments of finding each other is meant to be in a more New Age “Will They / Won’t They” concept.

I can gush about this film for ages because the older I get, the more it means something to me. But ultimately, Serendipity is an example of finding wonder in reality.

Many times, people appear to me like they “grew out” of wonder and the fact is that’s just not true.

They just learn to put guardrails up to survive.

All you need is a story that shows you, reminds you of, and ignites that feeling in you.

That wonder is what makes life great (which is why Les Misérables transcends cinema and literature to become my favorite story of all time).

Serendipity is by no means a perfect movie. And if I was grading these objectively, this would be a very different list.

But to me, objective is kinda boring.

I want to see films that resonate with some people that probably wouldn’t resonate with anybody else.

And when I think of some examples of films like that in my own case, these are the usual culprits.

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