The College Tribune sits down with Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture at UCD and a chick flick expert
Growing up in a household of women, chick flicks have been a part of my life since before I can remember. My sister, my mother, and I would sit together long past my bedtime, watching their favourites, and now, subsequently, my favourites: Bridget Jones’ Diary, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. What do all these movies have in common? Well, other than the charmingly awkward and quintessentially British Hugh Grant, they sold a story of unlikely romance. Oh, how we all wish to one day be saved from our bad luck and swept away in a Pride and Prejudice-style coup; instead, we scroll on soul-sucking apps like Tinder or Hinge.
If meet-cutes ever really happened outside the movies, they certainly don’t anymore. In recent years, the chick flick genre has struggled to keep pace with changing dating culture, resulting in shows and movies that seem either completely unrealistic or entirely too realistic. The genre has seemed to wane in interest; however, there are rumblings of a possible comeback. The growing nostalgia for fashion and music of the 2000s era, has also sparked a renewed interest in the films and media of the day. Sequels to classic chick flicks like The Devil Wears Prada and Practical Magic, both set to premiere in 2026, could potentially reinvent and even resuscitate the genre.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to keep one’s head up and expect the best. Recent sequels and remakes have fallen surprisingly short of expectations and have had muted box-office success compared to their originals. The movie musical Mean Girls (2024), for example, only scored 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, whereas the original 2004 movie received an 84% rating. The same phenomenon occurred with Freakier Friday (2025), which only reached 74% compared to the 88% of the 2003 version. Similarly, new rom-coms and chick flicks, such as It Ends with Us and Anyone but You, miss the mark and can’t seem to score over a 6.3 on IMDB, despite a receptive audience eagerly welcoming these films. Can the chick flick find relevance in 2025, and what is the key to unlocking this success? To help unpack these questions, The College Tribune sat down with Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture at UCD and a chick flick expert.
Negra defines the chick flick as a historically intimate genre, intending to create a powerful portrayal of a couple’s creation. These movies offer the audience a fantasy of romance, security, wealth and happiness. However, in a world where this fantasy sometimes seems farther away than ever before, how does one convince modern audiences of the promise of romance? Today’s viewers are facing disillusionment with dating culture, the emergence of digital intimacy, and economic instability. It seems that Hollywood has recently offered only formulaic content via streaming services and Hallmark movies. The chick flick of the future needs to speak to today’s audience in a way that is appealing and authentic, reflecting the changed world we live in.
Today’s viewers are experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of loneliness and a fractured couples culture. The pandemic and the subsequent rise of a digital culture that propagates content brimming with toxic masculinity and oversaturated sexuality have fractured the romance and intimacy culture.
Rom-Coms sell a narrative of escapism from loneliness, usually using a romantic partner as a resolution to problems. The genre struggles to represent modern romance in a time when our intimacy environment has become arid and men and women are increasingly isolated. Since the COVID pandemic, there has been a changing culture around dating and intimacy. In-person skills are withering away, and technology has become a new defining mediator. Dating apps, which once acted as the ‘solution’ for dating disparities, have recently shown themselves to be damaging and insufficient. Dating in modern society often comes to a standstill.
Materialists (2025), directed by Celine Song, tackles this conflict firsthand, showcasing how dating apps and matchmakers attempt to ‘fill’ the void left by actual communication and intimacy. Technologies that are sold to us to initiate intimacy seem to do the opposite. In a line by character Sophie, a client of a matchmaking business, she says, “Here I was thinking that you worked for me… but the whole time I was working for you. Worthless merchandise… to pawn off to anyone who’d take it.”. Negra explains that there is a new “generation at the leading edge of a desire to re-think intimacy”. This presents a growing cultural conversation that discusses ways to establish forms of community affiliation and intimacy without being exploited as a profit centre by technology companies. A modern-day chick flick that successfully navigates the empty promise of digital intimacy might prove to be the winning formula the genre requires to survive.
Technology is not the only cause of this changing intimacy culture. Disillusionment with modern romance has left the chick flick in a precarious position. Negra speaks of a growing ‘heteropessimism’ which posits heterosexual intimacy as an often-doomed enterprise. Romantic relationships are thus becoming increasingly rare and less desirable with the destigmatisation of singleness and casual sexuality. Single women are now opting out of the dating pool, separating themselves from the narrative that they need to be in a relationship or at least a heterosexual or romantic relationship. We can already sense this phenomenon being depicted in new chick flicks, for example, Practical Magic 2 (2026), in which the love story element is gone and instead there will be a focus on intergenerational connection. This creates space for modern chick flicks to acknowledge and celebrate non-romantic relationships, marking a significant shift from what Hollywood has often presented.
As Negra puts it “we are living in a very anti-aspirational time. People have become pessimistic about what they can do with their lives”. There is a resurgence of “retreatist narratives” in Hallmark movies, where protagonists seek simple, traditional lives after corporate failures. With the world feeling less safe, societal pressure mounts to find stability quickly. This risk-aversion has led to conservative narratives that portray romance as a path to stability.
Modern romances are able to push conservative narratives by targeting younger audiences. The Summer I Turned Pretty series, based on the books by Jenny Han, has reignited interest in YA romance, becoming Prime Video’s top performer as well as gaining a passionate online community. The love triangle inspired a trend of “team” picking that we haven’t really seen since Twilight came out back in 2008. The series pushes forward a relatively purist narrative in which Belly, the protagonist, must choose between the only two men in her life, both from the same rich, white and privileged family, deciding on her future husband at the ripe old age of 21. The focus on romance and the neglect of Belly’s future career or education prospects showcase this anti-aspirationalism, which supports the conservative ideology of women as only deriving happiness through romance.
Chick flicks typically reflect traditional lives, focusing on white, middle-class heterosexuality. As gender conflict intensifies, there’s a pivotal question: will chick flicks evolve to showcase diverse representations of romance, including single women and varied depictions of race, class, and gender, or will they continue to promote conservative narratives?
As Negra explains, “ the idea of a socially ideal couple standing in for an optimistic view of the future that we can count on has been eroded; what has come along in its place is hard to identify”. The instability of life, with American democracy declining and intimacy culture stagnating, is reflected in the downfall of the chick flick genre. Negra suggests that the chick flick may need to find a new platform as the culture that produced it falters. Whether it be a change in scenery, as so many Hallmark and Netflix shows and movies have relied on (Emily in Paris, Irish Wish) or a change in decade (Outlander, Wuthering Heights (2026)). Detours are being taken around a present American intimacy environment that people find unrealistic and problematic, so these escapist narratives may be more credible.
As Negra puts it, “part of the value of chick flicks is giving us fictions that aren’t fictional at all”. The genre celebrating couples as symbols of communal health feels less persuasive today, as traditional economic ties in marriage seem unstable. A new chick flick genre might emerge, providing valuable insights into navigating modern relationships. If it fails to resonate in an era where romance is increasingly complex and less optimistic, it could signal the end of an era.
Sophie Gliott – Arts and Lifestyle Editor