Aarcflick

 At the beginning of "What's Love Got to Do With It?", enterprising London filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) pitches a proposed documentary about arranged Muslim marriages to a pair of white male commissioners. They're bored and tuned out until they realize how the subject matter can be dressed up in Western rom-com tropes and slang to appeal to a general British audience: one suggests "When Harry Met Sally"-style interview inserts ", the other mentions “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as a point of reference. When Zoe suggests title the document "Love Contractually," the deal is done. Sharper than anything else in Shekhar Kapur's likeable, laid-back comedy, the scene neatly satirizes how nuanced cross-cultural material can be blandly packaged and whitewashed for the mainstream, a point that would be more difficult if "What does it have to do?" see love with that?" he did not proceed to do nearly the same. With a nudge, I could credit th...