Went to see Hail, Caesar! over the weekend, which is super lightweight and meandering, but has some spot-on old Hollywood production numbers. Doesn't really hang together as a film though. Its parts are greater than its sum.

It did introduce me to this excellent young actor I'd never heard of called Alden Ehrenreich (playing a sweet and kinda dopey actor out of his elements), who really holds his own against his famous cast members. Also, Ralph Fiennes should just do nothing but comedy for the rest of his career.

On an unrelated note, AV Club on the best romantic comedy from A to Z: [link]

I eyebrow HARD at the inclusion of Knocked Up and putting an Adam Sandler movie in lieu of The Philadelphia Story.

I would only accept its omission if the list maker specifically cited concerns about how all the men in Tracy's life aren't worthy of her, so it's actually a very witty tragedy about her settling.

I still maintain she should have run off with Mike.

The Derek Zoolander Gas Station Memorial for Models Who Died in a Freak Gasoline Fight Accident [link]

But don't you think Ruth Hussey deserved Mike? For her awesomeness?

I disagree. Mike would have suffocated in Main Line society, and Tracy could not have adapted to Mike's workaday world. Mike belongs with Elizabeth. Tracy and Dexter work out okay, as long as Dexter dies a semi-heroic death in WWII and Tracy becomes the first woman in some previously all-male pursuit.

They wouldn't have fit in each other's worlds, but they could have found some middle ground, or at least bantered and necked entertainingly while ricocheting between worlds. And Ruth totally deserves Mike as well, but since it's a Romantic Comedy and it is one of the inexorable laws of (original flavor, non-deconstructed) Romantic Comedy Land that the leading lady has to end up with someone, and the leading lady is Tracy, she gets dibs on Mike because nobody else even comes close.

Maybe Ruth could get some rollicking sequel in which she herself is the leading lady and thus gets first dibs? He could even be played by Cary Grant, who does bantering reporters every bit as well as he does swanky guys. So, y'know, someone prod Miracleman or Gud or another one of our resident mad scientists into finishing up that time machine and get right on it. Because clearly there's no more important work for a time machine to do than fix Philadelphia Story.

I always felt Tracy getting back together with her ex at the end could be interpreted in many ways. It's a little cynical -- maintenance of classicist status quo, even though it's mitigated by how charming Gary Grant is. Bittersweet because of the weight of the history between the two, and because, like Fred Pete, I don't think Tracy and Mike would have worked in the long run.

I unsurprisingly agree with everything JZ said.

even though it's mitigated by how charming Gary Grant is

True. But Dexter seemed more suited to being a memorable fling than a long-haul guy.