I want to start this essay with a mini rant about the general moviegoing experience. Feel free to skip to the next section if you’re only here for You, Me & Tuscany and don’t want to read my list of complaints.

First off, movies these days are too damn loud! I’ve gone to the movies at least six times a year for the past couple of years, usually more, and I always have to wear noise-canceling headphones. What’s THAT all about? Does no one care about my ear health?

Second, what happened to curating movie previews to match the film you’re seeing? You, Me & Tuscany is a cutesy romcom, yet I saw previews for thrillers, biopics, comedies, and dramas. Let’s lock in, please.

Finally, my fellow movie lovers need to get a grip! I love viewing experiences where the audience openly reacts to plot twists and the like, but there’s NO reason for you to be trying to predict the plot at full volume and ranting about the quality of American food during a feature presentation at our big ages. Don’t piss me off!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled newsletter.

You, Me & Tuscany is a romcom starring Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page. Bailey’s character Anna heads to Tuscany after a drunken conversation with Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a charming Italian playboy. When she arrives, she pretends to be Matteo’s fiancée to avoid being arrested. Soon, she meets and begins to fall for Matteo’s adoptive brother, Michael (Regé-Jean Page) and chaos ensues.

Anyone who knows me offline (which is about 2/3 of my subscribers, hi friends!) knows that I’m a romantic ZOWN. I love yearning, crushing, and imagining scenarios of whirlwind summer romances. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that I really enjoyed You, Me & Tuscany. Although Anna’s bestie, Claire (Aziza Scott), falls into the “stereotypical loud Black woman” trope, which made me cringe a bit, I was glad they gave her a Black woman best friend who encouraged and looked out for her. I ended up enjoying Claire’s character a lot. Plus, let’s be real: my people do be loud sometimes! It is what it is.

I also really love movies that make me want to pursue new experiences. Anna is a culinary school dropout, and watching her cook the food (which looked delicious, by the way) made me wonder if I should go to culinary school, hell! One of the characters noted that they could “taste the earth” in the grapes, which made me realize that eating any produce is us tasting the earth. Wild to think about.

The film wrapped up with a tidy ending in typical romcom fashion, which I enjoyed. Not every day ambiguity, people. Some days clarity! Like most rom coms, the plot of the story was that you deserve to live the life you want with the people you want, not pretending to be someone else. Cute and simple, like a bumper sticker or Pinterest quote.

Unrelated to the plot, but Anna’s Tuscany wardrobe was so cutieful! I have a similar build to Halle, and I wanted allll of Anna’s fits. If you see me in flowy, tiered dresses and crop tops all summer, mind your business!

I’m a big proponent of the #BRINGBACKROMCOMS agenda, and I love that You, Me & Tuscany was a cute, universal love story while still being very Black. I went home and spent an embarrassing amount of time searching for Tuscan Villas for Sale.”Run, don’t walk, to the theatre before it’s too late.

Yours in romance,

Mina

P.S. I’m not sure if this is a new addition or if I just haven’t been paying attention to film credits for the past year, but this was the first film I saw that included a “this film must not be used to train AI” declaration in the end credits. I do wonder whether that will set a new precedent, given the ubiquity of generative AI, and whether such disclaimers have any legal weight.