Lily Cahill

"Who would have thought a pumpkin pie contest would have the ability to alter both our lives?"

2024/04/08

I love Thanksgiving. It's unabashedly a holiday about stuffing your face and then collapsing into a food coma, which are two of my favorite activities. It's the only day of the year on which it is not only acceptable, but expected, to eat a full stick of butter over the course of your meal. For this reason, it's not exactly a romantic holiday. So, after I got home, put away the leftovers, and settled down to digest a week's worth of food, I was delighted to find Pumpkin Pie Wars. While it is not technically a Thanksgiving movie, it got me primed for my upcoming Holiday Movie Extravaganza and had enough food porn that I considered some day eating again.

I Was Going to Get So Much Done This Weekend

2024/04/08

Brunch with my family, a challenging workout, groceries and laundry for this week, Saturday night out with friends...not to mention working on the sequel to Heartstone, which is coming out later this year. All that and more was on my to do list for this past weekend, but it did not go as planned.

Instead, I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat, and by Saturday both Hubs and I were down for the count. That's how it felt: like a cold had delivered a knock-out punch straight to my face. Instead of my productive and social weekend, we spent 48 hours straight on the couch in various states of alertness. There was nothing to do but watch a thousand movies, including a super cute rom-com that I think y'all will love.

I See A Lot of Lawbreakers in the House Tonight!

2023/02/23

I love a dance movie. Give me two crazy kids from opposite sides of the tracks who have to win some sort of dance competition by discovering their own distinct style--which, obviously, will require hours of sweaty practice and rubbing against each other--and I'm a happy girl. Step Up is a classic of the genre, and it is the movie where I fell hard for Channing Tatum. Sure, he's got an incredible body, super-sexy dance moves, a pouty lower lip that begs to be kissed, and soulful eyes that seem like they can see into your heart. But what really shot him to the top of my Hall Pass list is the fact that underneath the body and the lip and the dance moves is a goofball doofus. Goofball doofus is my type, and Channing Tatum is a goofball doofus who can dance. I really enjoyed him in last year's The Lost City, but it only gave us a tiny taste of dancing. When I saw that a third installment in the Magic Mike franchise was hitting theaters, I knew it was time to revisit the whole series.

This is My Superbowl

2023/02/23

For Valentine's Day this year, Hubs and I did what we do best: we went to the movies. ICYMI, Titanic is back in theaters in 3D 4k and it looks incredible. If your idea of romance is watching 1500 people die horribly, I definitely recommend checking it out.

We're both big into Super Bowl Sunday, but for different reasons: he gets the chance to hang out with men and talk about sports, and I get a chance to watch the Puppy Bowl and a rom-com. Everybody wins! This year, the obvious choice was the new Reese Witherspoon-Ashton Kutcher comeback vehicle Your Place or Mine.

Potatoes are the World's Most Perfect Food

2022/12/23

I don't have much of a sweet tooth. What I do have is a loud, demanding savory tooth that screams for fried potatoes 24/7. We recently got an air fryer, which has dangerously increased my ability to make French fries whenever the siren song of salty crispy goodness begins. But it's been several years since I've been able to celebrate Hanukkah with my Jewish friends and family, and I had somehow forgotten about the glorious magic of latkes. Some sour cream, some applesauce, and a golden mound of fried potato biscuits: that's the real reason for the season. This week I watched two Hanukkah movies that featured latkes heavily, and my google search history now includes "latke recipes," "latkes near me," and "can I eat latkes year-round."

Santa's Stalker

2022/12/23

I don't think I ever believed in Santa Claus. I think I was four when I figured out that Santa and my mom had the same very distinctive handwriting. It didn't ruin Christmas for me. Honestly, it was a relief. I've always found the idea of Santa a little creepy. There's an old man at the North Pole who is watching me all year and then one night he breaks into my house and leaves me gifts that cryptically represent how good I've been all year? No thank you. I've been very happy celebrating Christmas without him.

Meta Christmas

2022/12/14

As you might have guessed, I watch a lot of movies. I also listen to a lot of podcasts about movies, and I really enjoy behind-the-scenes stories about the way artistic inspiration and financial constraints bash against each other in order to get movies made. So I was really looking forward to A Hollywood Christmas, a holiday rom-com about the making of a holiday rom-com.

British Accent = 10x Cuteness

2022/12/08

Most of the plotlines in Love, Actually have aged poorly, but there is one that still rings true to me: when Colin, the doofy hornball, flies to Wisconsin in order to seduce American girls with his British accent and succeeds beyond his wildest dreams. In England, he's just a guy, but in America, he's a guy with a British accent. Whenever I meet someone with a British accent, I'm instantly charmed and inclined to think they are smart and funny. It's like a cheat code to my good graces. Which may have something to do with how much I enjoyed the new Amazon rom-com Your Christmas or Mine.

Christmas With You: Haven't I Seen This Before?

2025/12/09

I was primarily interested in watching Christmas With You because I was obsessed with Freddie Prinze Jr. back in She's All That days. Little did I know that I basically already watched this movie earlier this year when I reviewed Marry Me, the Jennifer Lopez-Owen Wilson vehicle notable only for J-Lo's dance routines. Christmas With You is almost entirely the same plot scaled down to a Netflix budget, and honestly, I liked it better.

Holiday With a Head Injury

2022/12/08

I do most of my holiday rom-comming alone, as I understand that my tolerance for schmaltz is higher than average. I'm perfectly capable of laughing at my snarky jokes in a house by myself. But when I heard there was a new Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie, I knew this was a full-squad event. I needed to get my Christmas movie crew together with pizza delivery and a bottle of vodka to fully appreciate the ridiculous majesty of Falling for Christmas.

Holiday Movie Bonanza Begins!

2022/12/08

It’s that time of year again! And by that time of year, I mean Daylight Savings Time. Suddenly it's dark by five and the outdoors have become frigid and unwelcoming. But it's also the time of year that my streaming services serve up my favorite genre of goofy rom-com: the holiday goofy rom-com! I'm here to tell you which ones to gobble up like sugar cookies, which ones to slice thinly like fruitcake, and which ones to avoid like coal in your stocking.

Eh, It's-A Italy: Seconda Parte

2022/12/08

I’ve gone back to Italy for more! A month ago, I reviewed two Netflix Italian rom-coms that came out this year. Just in case you were worried that those two movies constituted the entirety of Netflix's Italy-set rom-coms released in 2022, I'm here to tell you that there are at least two more available. If you can't get enough of Vespas riding through sun-drenched wineries, I'm here to tell you where to get your fix.