Even if you’ve never heard director Nancy Meyers’ name, you are probably familiar with her oeuvre.
She’s the genius auteur behind such white-women-with-mild-personal-dilemmas flicks like Baby Boom, Something’s Gotta Give, It’s Complicated (it really wasn’t that complicated!), and The Intern. Meyers is responsible for pioneering what I call kitchencore, in which her protagonists may have fucked up personal lives, but their kitchens are always enormous and decked out, perfect for whipping up some honey-lavender ice cream for an ex-husband played by Alec Baldwin at a moment’s notice. She’s also given us some of Diane Keaton's most delightful roles. (Take that, Woody Allen!)
Meyers’ work is like if the acclaimed late Norah Ephron shot all her movies through a sunny Instagram filter. And from The Parent Trap to the Father of the Bride series to The Holiday, they’ve always served as cinematic comfort food for me. I think the last Meyers movie I re-watched was Something’s Gotta Give, an early-2000s Hamptons-set love triangle between Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Keanu Reeves as a young, handsome doctor. I streamed it on New Year’s Eve when I was home sick with a brutal sinus infection (in retrospect, definitely an omen for 2020). The white/beige color palette and smooth pacing of Keaton and Nicholson gradually realizing they’re meant for each other went down easier than cough medicine.
Imagine my excitement, then, when I opened Instagram this morning and saw this announcement—brought to me by none other Ina Garten, who definitely exists in the Meyers Cinematic Universe (MCU, because I don’t think that acronym is taken yet?).
Father of the Bride and its sequel, Father of the Bride Two, are classic Meyers cannon: Big houses in Los Angeles, Keaton in white sweaters, Steve Martin in denim shirts, marital conflicts that can be solved with one perfect gesture or conversation, and perhaps some lightly homophobic humor (in the 90s, there wasn’t really a major film that didn’t have that!).
Based on the publicity around Father of the Bride 3 (ish), it isn’t going to be a full feature film, but rather some sort of cast/character reunion, likely done over Zoom. We’ve seen lots of TV show and movie casts do the same during the pandemic, including Parks and Recreation and The Princess Bride. I’m perhaps most excited to see Kieran Culkin (you might know him now as Roman on Succession) reprise his role as Matty, the adorable baby brother.
Look, this new Nancy Meyers project isn’t gonna solve any of the myriad problems we’re facing right now. But if it’s done well, it might bring a little bit of joy to people like me who, despite our more serious instincts, are suckers for a well-done romantic comedy. If you’re a fellow Meyers-head—or if you just need a little brain-break—you can stream it on Netflix’s YouTube and Facebook channels today, starting at 3 pm PST.
