I've probably watched "27 Dresses" about twenty-seven hundred times. I love romantic comedies– the openings featuring the pop song of the week paired with a sweeping shot of New York City, Meg Ryan strutting down the street to "Dreams" by The Cranberries, or Hugh Grant stumbling over his words like a fourth grader giving their first oral book report. Women are mocked endlessly for their love of romantic comedies, but the fact is, in cinema today, there are very few comedic films besides romantic comedies that aren't on some level offensive to the female sex as a whole. Non-romantic comedies tend to rely heavily on sexual humor, and, society being as it is, this leads to endless objectification of women. As fun as it is for me to pretend I'm amused by jokes about a girl's body... I am not.

Even I can admit that romantic comedies do tend to rely heavily on tropes. They are full of overused storylines, cliche characters, and disgustingly cheesy "big gesture" end scenes. Though I'll be the first to come to the defense of the mainstream romantic comedy when it is being put down by a guy who professes such absurdities as "I'm for gender equality, I'm just not a feminist," I can recognize the flaws of "27 Dresses." So when I want to watch a romantic comedy but don't think I can stomach another love confession given by Ashton Kutcher, I search far and wide for romantic comedies with scripts and casts that try a little harder to be unique and authentic. Here's a few choice films I've found along the way.

1. Tonight You're Mine (2011)

Originally released in Britain under the title "You Instead," this movie is about two musicians forced to spend the night together after being handcuffed by an overzealous security guard at a Scotland music festival. It is funny, original, and ambitious. The whole thing was filmed in the three days that the music festival spans, and gives the viewer the feeling that they're really experiencing the festival and all its chaos along with the characters. Plus, it stars Harry Potter's Tonks and Luke Treadaway, who has the Harry Styles-gangly-rock-star look down pat. (If you're into that.) (Which you probably are.)

2. The Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)

Intriguing and/or off-putting title, I know. This film definitely requires a trigger warning. It discusses and displays suicide at length, so if that's a topic that disturbs you, this movie is not for you. Despite its dark subject matter, this film is actually quite funny and sweet. It takes place in an afterlife exclusively for people who have killed themselves, and centers around a guy trying to find his girlfriend, who he found out early in the film has also killed herself. The magical realism and dark humor of this movie is charming, at times hilarious, and ultimately very uplifting.

3. Reality Bites (1994)

This film stars young Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, which, to me, seems selling point enough. But if you need more convincing, its a hilarious look at the lives of a bunch of pretentious recent college grads who have no idea what they're doing with their lives but a strong belief in the abilities of their superior intellects. My favorite part is when it dawns on them as they stumble, drunk, around a gas station mini-mart, that Évian is "naïve" spelled backwards.

4. Restless (2011)

This sweet, sad, darkly comic film is made excellent by the charming, subtle acting and chemistry of Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper coupled with Wes Anderson-esque aesthetics and story-telling. The story itself is very reminiscent of The Fault in Our Stars, but the film will likely appeal both to fans of that book/film and to those who aren't fond of John Green, as it is a movie by the director of "Good Will Hunting."

5. Populaire (2012)

If subtitles don't drive you mad, this film is worth a watch. It's a French rom com about a Taylor Swift-like young girl in the late 1950s who discovers that she has a great talent as a typist and is encouraged by her young employer to enter into a competition in which she might be rewarded as the fastest typewriter-er in the world. I'm a sucker for 50s aesthetics and French accents. This movie made me squeal embarrassingly loud.

6. Not Another Happy Ending (2013)

This film is probably the most resemblant of mainstream-Sandra-Bullock-starring romantic comedies on this list, and I adore it and frankly don't understand why it isn't more popular. Perhaps it's because it's about an aspiring author who has her first novel finally published by a ridiculously-good-looking French man and almost immediately achieves astounding critical and general success, which, for me, is a plot it would be an understatement to describe as "wish fulfillment." But even if you aren't yourself an aspiring author with a thing for French accents and boys in beanies, I don't doubt anyone who likes romantic comedies will love this hilarious and stumblingly romantic film.

7. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Finally, when you've gone through every romantic comedy the 21st century (and the '90s) has to offer, you can always rely on Audrey Hepburn to save the day. This now-classic film, arguably the birthplace of the manic pixie dream girl trope in cinema, is timelessly charming and giggle-inducing. Holly Golightly, though at times problematic in her narrative's reliance on men and her "mysterious," romantic nature that endlessly charms the white-boy-next-door (or in this case, upstairs,) is a funny and wonderfully strong woman, even in her extreme femininity. If one can put aside one's own modern sensitivities and appreciate this film as the excellent period piece it is, I think anyone will find themselves feeling in love when they hear "Moon River" ever after the rolling of the credits.