Top Gun is the emblematic dumb romance subplot. I feel like mostly everyone who watches this movie today for the first time feels similarly negative about it.

Top Gun is the emblematic dumb romance subplot. I feel like mostly everyone who watches this movie today for the first time feels similarly negative about it. But I also know a bunch of older folks who are insistent that it was an amazing romance. I’m not clear when and how this perspective changed. I can’t think of a single cinematic romance that I really cared about (although I’m sure there are a few examples?). But I also hate the annoying hypervirgins you get in stuff like anime where it’s just kind of annoying that characters can’t just release their palpable and constant sexual tension and start acting like someone who is normal and confident. At the end of the, I feel like anyone in film whose whole character thing is trying to figure out love ends up being a really annoying and unrealistic character.