B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail into the ol’ VCR. 

You’ve Got Mail is a quintessential fall movie for me. I know we cycle through all of New York’s seasons, but, like Waitress, it’s just always been a fall watch. I hate to throw this word out, but it’s honestly charming. 

I’ve never been to New York, but I can feel the cool air on me as the characters walk through the streets. It’s also so endearingly 90s, and the sound of dialup at the beginning is borderline triggering. 

I know this is a hot take, but it also happens to be one of the only Nora Ephron movies I actually like because I hate Sleepless in Seattle. Man, it feels good to get that off my chest. 

I heard that the teddy bear retired from acting and now teaches classes at NYU. 

I know this is an adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, which I found out in my research is actually an adaptation of a play, written by Hungarian playwright Miklós László in the late 1930s. But, it’s a rare exception where an adaptation doesn’t feel like an adaptation; it feels like entirely new content. 

I’ve always loved You’ve Got Mail, but the older I get, the more emotional I get while watching it — not because of Joe and Kathleen’s romance, but because of how things change. 

We find a coffee shop or bookstore or restaurant we love. We take our friends there and make memories. However, more often than not these days, our beloved place is changed or sold and made into something corporate. 

I’ve lived in Austin for over 13 years now. I know that I don’t have the same rights as born and bred Austinities to talk about how much the city has changed, but even I can see the changes over the years. The eradication of the food trailer park on SoCo. The closings of Shady Grove and Holy Roller. The Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar went from a movie theater at the back of an old shopping center to a focal point among hip restaurants, coffee shops, and bars (RIP Alamo Ritz, too). It makes me sad and nostalgic in ways I can’t fully describe. 

A major part of growing up that we don’t often talk about is letting go. That’s the part of You’ve Got Mail that gets me every single time. When Kathleen finally closes The Shop Around the Corner, I BAWL. 

RIP, you sweet angel. 

The only big issue I have with You’ve Got Mail lies within its ending. I feel like Kathleen is so independent and such a firecracker that it’s a bit out of character for her to just wilt into Joe Fox’s arms. 

I more than understand that I’m overthinking the entire plot, but it irks me. I digress. 

When it comes to You’ve Got Mail being the perfect way to kick off fall (outside of a Gilmore Girls rewatch, of course), I think we’re all on the same page.