This movie is what I call a Plane Movie, which is just what it sounds like: A very fluffy movie you watch on a plane, that fully absorbs you but which doesn’t actually require said absorption. In general, you would not PAY for a Plane Movie, but you will ENJOY it as you hurtle through the air in a metal tube. (I will note that the last time we went to the UK, I watched all Oscar-nominated movies, but that was a weird glitch in the matrix. Generally speaking, Phantom Thread is NOT a Plane Movie, although many Plane Movies DO have surprise poisoning and fashion montages in them.) The quintessential Plane Movie for me is She’s the Man, which I saw for the first time on a plane and then also the second time on a plane, right after the first time. She’s the Man is a VERY UNDERRATED; Amanda Bynes is a comedic genius and I’m not at all being sarcastic about that. It is truly a shame for all of us that her personal issues, whatever they may be, have deprived us of years of Amanda Bynes having perfect comic timing in rom-coms.

Related, there is a huge Venn diagram overlap between the Plane Move and the Hangover Movie, which is not about The Hangover, but which is a movie you watch out of one eye on USA Network when you are hungover. (I don’t know how kids today do it; in my day, you crawled out to the sofa and just turned on the TV. Netflix probably needs a Hangover Channel for the cord-cutters.) The Wedding Date, in which Debra Messing hires a sex worker to be her date to a wedding — SPOILER, THEY FALL IN LOVE — is both a Plane Movie and a Hangover Movie and for that we should appreciate it!  Let’s revisit its 2005 premiere. And, PS, apparently it’s coming back into HBO rotation at the first of the month.

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