Film Critique - Christina Romano

Statement of the Genre and Movie Choices

For my film critique, I chose to write about romantic movies. Romantic movies typically

depict a couple that falls in love, goes through a couple of obstacles, and ends up living happily

ever after. Some clichés of romance movies include realizing the right person was in front of you

the entire time you were going after someone else, love triangles, and dating someone to prove a

point. I chose this genre because I felt that most romance movies have undertones that deal with

even bigger issues. Needless to say, they tell us a lot about human interaction. These movies are

about love and interconnection between people and how those people are able to find the ones

they love through their lives. The movies I chose to illustrate this point are “Hairspray” by Adam

Shankman, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” by Susan Johnson, and “Legally Blonde” by

Robert Luketic. I chose “Hairspray” because aside from the romances throughout this movie,

there is a ton of prejudice present the entire time due to it being set in the 1960s. I chose “To All

the Boys I’ve Loved Before” because I felt that it is a good movie to discuss how relationships

are formed. Lastly, I chose “Legally Blonde” to put the focus on first impressions and how

important they are.

Application of Social Psychology to Hairspray

Taking place in 1960s Baltimore, “Hairspray” is about Tracy Turnblad, an overweight

teenage girl that wants to be a dancer on her favorite TV show, the Corny Collins Show. Tracy

and her best friend Penny rush home after school every single day to watch this show and learn

all the dances they do on the show. One day Corny Collins announces that one of the regulars on

the show must leave and that auditions will be held for someone to take her place. Tracy
auditions for the show, with the help of her friend Seaweed Stubs, an African American boy that

goes to her school, and earns a spot on the show. Tracy then becomes an overnight celebrity, a

contestant for the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant, and she advocates for making the show

integrated. This angers current Miss Teenage Hairspray, Amber von Tussel, and her mother,

Velma, since Tracy is not the type of girl they think should be on the show. Despite all the

comments and dirty looks Tracy gets; she continues to push and pursue her dreams.

Velma von Tussel is the station manager for the TV station that airs the Corny Collins

Show. She has all the say in what goes on with the show and would do absolutely anything to

have herself or her daughter, Amber, as the center of attention. Aside from this, Velma is very

judgmental of others based on looks and stereotypes and strongly believes if someone doesn’t

look a certain way, they don’t belong or they should be hidden away. There are many moments

in the movie where Velma can be seen judging others, but to pinpoint a few, there’s one moment

where her and Corny are discussing the dancing the kids are doing on the show and she believes

they’re dancing too Negro-like and she says, “They’re kids…that’s why we have to steer them in

the white direction.” There is another moment when a couple girls go in to audition for the show

and she just scrutinizes them about every little thing, from one Jewish girl’s nose to Tracy being

overweight. But perhaps the cherry on top is when she cancels the once a month airing of Negro

Day on the Corny Collins Show because she didn’t like that the African American girls

performed the same song as the white girls, even though they wrote the song themselves.

Velma’s behavior is best explained by prejudice. Prejudice is a negative or hostile

attitude toward people in a distinguishable group based solely on their membership in that group.

People can be discriminated against a variety of things, but in this movie specifically, race and

appearance. The three main components of prejudice are stereotypes, emotions, and
discrimination. Discrimination is an unjustified negative act toward a member of a group for

their involvement in that group. Prejudice is often triggered by stress, anger, self-esteem issues,

and by automatic thoughts. Velma not only displays she has all four of those triggers throughout

the movie, but she also is involved in all three of the components that go along with prejudice.

It is very clear that Velma is extremely prejudice. Since this all takes place when

integration is not yet the social norm, she is not used to the idea of having a totally integrated

show. She has the automatic way of thinking to keep the whites and blacks separate. She

continuously stereotypes the anyone that isn’t white, and she shows no signs of changing the way

she thinks. It is also very clear that she is self-conscious about the possibility of her daughter not

winning the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant. She goes as far as discriminating against anyone

she thinks stands a chance at beating her daughter, specifically Tracy. She notices Tracy is

gaining insane popularity and is determined to knock her down a peg. Velma goes to great

lengths to try to achieve this goal, including severely judging Tracy and her mother for their

weight and attempting to seduce Tracy’s father to cause turmoil at home. Velma even cancels

Negro Day knowing that Tracy would protest and be unable to compete in the pageant. Lastly,

Velma is under insane stress throughout the entirety of the movie and she is constantly angry.

She feels stress to keep the ratings up while executing her personal plans for the show, but her

plans don’t coincide with the new wave of thought that is stirring in everyone’s minds. These are

all things that would trigger a person to be prejudice and it is a very prevalent topic in this movie.

Application of Social Psychology to To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” is about a teenage girl named Lara Jean Covey,

who writes love letters when she has “a crush so intense she doesn’t know what to do.” In her

lifetime, she wrote five of these letters – including one to her older sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh,
and one to her arch nemesis’s current boyfriend, Peter. Lara Jean uses these letters to help her

figure out how she feels and then hides them away since they are meant for her eyes only. But

Lara Jean’s mundane life is flipped upside down when her younger sister, Kitty, thinks she needs

more of a social life and sends these letters out to the boys they were addressed to. Lara Jean is

then forced to face these boys and her feelings for them all over again, even if those feelings

don’t exist anymore.

When Lara Jean’s letters are sent out, the first boy to approach her is Peter Kaminsky.

He is her arch nemesis, Gen’s, current boyfriend, her first kiss in the seventh grade, and they

grew up together. When he approaches her with the letter, she faints thinking that her life may

have just been destroyed. When she wakes up, she sees Josh approaching her. She quickly grabs

Peter and starts kissing him so she doesn’t have to deal with the Josh situation until she can

figure out a better way of dealing with it. This is when Lara Jean and Peter’s relationship kicks

off. After finding Lara Jean at the diner, Peter talks to her about the letters and comes up with the

idea that they should have a fake relationship so that she doesn’t have to deal with Josh and so he

can make his now ex-girlfriend so jealous that she’ll beg to have him back. Throughout the entire

movie, we can see how Peter and Lara Jean’s relationship develops and becomes real. We really

see how the two of them open up and continue to get closer with each interaction and ultimately,

they reveal their true feelings for each other and end up together.

I’d like to use social psychology to explain why Lara Jean and Peter were able to form a

real relationship. The four main reasons people form relationships are proximity, familiarity,

similarity, and reciprocity. The reason proximity has an effect on relationships is because we

tend to like those that are physical closer to us. This also encompasses the propinquity effect,

which is the idea that the more we see and interact with someone, the more likely we are to
become friends with them. Next, familiarity has an effect on relationships because we like people

who are more familiar to us. This also has to do with the mere exposure effect, or the idea that

more exposure to a stimulus will make us like it more. The last two reasons are similarity and

reciprocity. Similarity means that we like people who are similar to us, and reciprocity means

that we like people who like us.

It is evident these terms apply to Lara Jean and Peter. The two of them were physically

close because they went to school together and saw each other every single day. It was also part

of their fake dating contract that Lara Jean goes to all Peter’s lacrosse games and parties and that

Peter gives Lara Jean and Kitty a ride to school every day. The two of them were already very

familiar with each other since they grew up together and used to be a part of the same friend

group. Additionally, they grew more familiar with one another due to all the time they were

spending together in this fake relationship. Lara Jean and Peter also shared the similarity of

having only one parent. They were both able to connect and bond by talking about their parents

and how they felt about their absence. Moreover, it is shown the two of them gained more

similarities during the fake relationship by making each other watch movies the other likes,

enjoying the same snacks, and bonding with each other’s families and friends. Finally,

reciprocity plays a huge role in making this relationship real. All through the movie, Lara Jean

struggles with her feelings, knowing what she wants, and describing those feelings and needs to

others. She admits she is afraid of commitment because she doesn’t want to be hurt again. While

Lara Jean may not realize it for most of the movie, Peter does everything he can to show her he

really likes her. When she finally realizes Peter really does like her, she accepts how she feels

and is able to tell him that she really likes him and wants to be with him.

Application of Social Psychology to Legally Blonde

 “Legally Blonde” is about Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority president who is

determined to win back her boyfriend after he broke up with her for being too blonde. He says

she isn’t serious enough for him and his dreams of going to Harvard law school and becoming a

senator. Elle comes to the realization that in order to win him back, she must get into Harvard

law herself to show him that she is serious enough to be the girl he should marry. After lots of

hard work, she gets into Harvard law, and gets made fun of for just being herself. During the

movie, she is constantly knocked down because she doesn’t look or act like the rest of the people

there and most of them see her as inferior. Ultimately, Elle proves them all wrong by winning a

huge case with her knowledge of fashion, beauty, and law combined, and in doing so, she wins

back her man (even though she realizes how much of a jerk he is and ends up falling for

someone better anyway).

When Elle gets into Harvard and bumps into her ex, Warner, he is stunned and thinks that

she is just there to visit him. He doesn’t think she belongs, even though she had a perfect GPA

going into Harvard, and he treats her like a naïve little kid. On move in day, all the other students

judged her because she showed up dressed in pink from head to toe in a convertible with purse

dog in hand. They called her Malibu Barbie and they were asking her where the beach was and

telling her that she’s at law school and not on vacation. The last scene I’d like to bring up is

when Elle tries to join a study group with Warner, his fiancé, and his fiancé’s friends but they

don’t let her join because they don’t think she’s smart enough.

The social psychology term I’d like to apply here is first impressions. Formed in one

tenth of a second, first impressions are based on appearance and create long lasting ways of

viewing a person. Two very important components in understanding how first impressions affect

how someone is viewed by others are the primacy effect and belief perseverance. The primacy
effect is when the first trait we perceive in others influences how we view information we learn

about them later. Belief perseverance is the tendency to stick with an initial judgement even in

the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider how we view somebody. Both of

these play a huge role in “Legally Blonde” and they can help to understand why the other

students view Elle to be less than they are.

Belief perseverance can be used to explain why Warner sees Elle the way he does. When

he met Elle, she was a sorority queen who loved to party, go shopping, and hang out with

friends. He didn’t see her as the type of girl to study hard or apply herself in school. While Elle

did have a 4.0 GPA, Warner saw her as the fun-loving blonde girl who wasn’t serious enough to

be in his life forever. Now that Elle got into the same school he did and there is definitely reason

for him to reconsider how he views her, he still sees her the same way he did before and is

incapable of seeing that she is just as smart, if not smarter, than he is. The primacy effect can

explain why the other kids all view her as dumb and won’t put their faith in her when she asks to

join their study group. When she showed up on campus, they all saw her as the sorority party girl

and that made it hard for them to take her seriously. Everything Elle said or did was laughed at,

even if she was right in the way she was thinking. Everybody viewed her as they did when they

first saw her, and nobody gave her opportunities to prove herself to them.

Conclusion

To conclude, there is much more to the romance drama than just love triangles and dating

someone to prove a point. They are about how humans interact with each other with many

underlying themes. “Hairspray”, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”, and “Legally Blonde”,

really represent this idea by showing themes of prejudice, how real relationships are formed, and

how important first impressions really are to a person and their reputation. I used these terms to
explore and explain the behavior of characters in the movies and what their motives were

throughout the movies.