New Romcoms Revive Sociopath Trope in 3 Films as Gen Z Dating Moves Online

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 20

Three recent romantic comedies — led by this week’s “Finding Emily” — push the genre’s classic relationship-built-on-a-lie setup into a harsher “romcom sociopath” archetype.
In “Finding Emily,” psychology student Emily manipulates Owen into looking like a stalker for her dissertation, faking consent forms, recording conversations and steering public gestures that damage his life before romance develops.
Last month’s “You, Me & Tuscany” and Kristoffer Borgli’s “The Drama” used similar deception-driven pairings, with heroines hiding invasive or troubling behavior that turns the meet-cute into something closer to a cautionary tale.
The shift reflects a dating culture shaped by apps, online screening and Gen Z skepticism about romance, making traditional offline meet-cutes harder to sustain without more extreme concealed red flags.
That leaves modern romcoms aimed at younger audiences increasingly stuck between preserving old genre tension and depicting a digital dating world where many of these couples would be filtered out immediately.

As romantic comedies embrace cynicism, is the feel-good love story officially dead?

Are new rom-coms teaching audiences to romanticize toxic behavior?

Is the 'rom-com sociopath' a true reflection of modern dating, or just Hollywood’s latest gimmick?