Bromantic comedies

“Modern Romance” (1981)

The story: A film editor (Albert Brooks) tries to reconcile with his ex (Kathryn Harrold) in this precursor to the break-up-oriented "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

Bromance rating: 6. An honest, warts-and-all, often hilarious examination of the insecurities that plague men when they fall in and out of a monogamous relationship...but some guys aren't into honesty, or monogamy.

Was it successful?: The film offers a double-edged portrait of the male animal; it simultaneously gives voice to and slyly undercuts its heartbroken protagonist's near-psychotic obsessiveness. “Modern Romance” suggests most men are willing to laugh at their occasionally creepy single-mindedness. And all of them are willing to laugh at the funniest Quaalude-overdose scene ever put on film.