Bring Back Queen Latifah's Rom Com Era!!!

Common thinks I'm funny for this, but this is no laughing matter.

The laughing matter at hand.

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Julia Roberts. Meg Ryan. Even “Let’s Get Loud” Jennifer Lopez. Why, in this canon of romantic comedy stars, is Queen Latifah never named?

Dana Elaine Owens, known as Queen Latifah (Arabic for “delicate” or “sensitive”) to most, is simply That girl. She rocks a trench coat in an opening title sequence just as effortlessly as Nicole Kidman. She is as magnetic as Julia Stiles in a boot cut pant, as Sandy Bullock in a business blazer. While she hath not donned a Nora Ephron-coded sweater for reasons I do not know or cannot name, no one has ever sported a tracksuit as a fictional physical therapist as expertly as she has.

I raise you Latifah’s department store demo of a simple creole roasted duck hash with a parsley garnish in Last Holiday to anything made by Amy Adams’s Julia Powell, and Georgia Byrd’s deeply iconic red evening gown to Kate Hudson’s Andie Anderson’s pastel yellow number; the “book of possibilities” she keeps in her kitchen drawer to Bridget Jones’s diary. I raise you the love story in Latifah’s Just Wright to that of Sweet Home Alabama (an insanely problematic movie!) or The Holiday or even 27 Dresses. I’m sorry, but any Queen Latifah character would take down Sally Albright in a popularity contest, and beat Jenna Rink for employee of the month. (A terrible editor!)

Queen Latifah as Georgia Byrd in Last Holiday

Latifah is not just regurgitating lines; spewing words from a script. She has It. Star quality. An ease. A glow. A truth. I believe her when she’s watching Emeril Lagasse while attempting her own roast chicken. I believe her when she scream-sings, “Why me lord!” in her Baptist church. I believe her when she says, “I spent my whole life in a box. I don’t want to be buried in one.” And bagging LL Cool J and Common and their sexy bald heads? I am so serious. This is everything to me.

Her movies don’t need to lament on what makes her visually different from the aforementioned stars the Hollywood machine feeds us, but they also don’t ignore it. While they make small, clever nods, it’s hardly the plot. She’s simply one of them.

She is a woman saying fuck it and going to Prague. She is a woman flying in a helicopter and ordering everything on the menu. She is a woman who has a gigantic crush who likes her back! And she’s Black!

I love Queen Latifah and Bald Men

Her characters are not trying to be mysterious or unknown or overly quirky; they’re not cheating or insecure or “too cool” (or living in a penthouse on a journalist’s salary??????????). What I love the most is that the characters she embodies are women who allow themselves to be dazzled, wonderstruck. They make me want to be a better person. They make me wonder if I would have the courage to do the same.

There is a reason I do not rent, but own these movies on Prime Video. (The only damn thing I can own as a millennial living in New York City!) I revisit them over and over, and they are timeless. They are aspirational yet deeply relatable. They are feel good, but not at the cost of an external transformation or her worth. They are my favorite type of movies; the ones that put her life realizations — not just her love realizations — at the forefront. And yet, she still gets her man!

Someone please bring back Queen Latifah in romantic comedies. Her name is Queen Latifah for a reason. All hail.

Queen Latifah as Leslie Wright in Just Wright

As a little treat for paid subscribers, I’m including three of my all-time favorite rom-coms (in order!) for you to watch this Valentine’s Day weekend below. They aren’t classics and they aren’t super recent, but somewhere in between. To me, they are the perfect amount of entertaining, cheesy, and feel good. If you watch any, reply to this email and let me know what you think! :)

yourstrulymia

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Hi there! My name is Mia Brabham Nolan and I’m a writer by day and by night, currently living in New York City. I write the entertainment, music, and culture Substack newsletter In Deep with Mia Brabham Nolan. I’m on Instagram @yourstrulymia. Leave a comment with your thoughts or saying hi and I’ll always respond. Thanks for reading :)

1. Boxing Day (2021)