Hey readers, what’s that sound? Could it be the swoosh of critics’ knives against steel? Apparently Judd Apatow is no longer the saviour of the Hollywood romcom, and according to the Times, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a right old load of poo. So let’s leave aside the fact that Apatow PRODUCED the film and neither wrote or directed it (do critics know the difference?), and instead focus on some reasons to keep the faith.

HE’S LIKE, TOTALLY ROMANTIC

While the prospect of the Brandonator in a starring role doesn’t really pop my corn, the premise of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is more of the same romantic loveliness. Kind but crap boy is crap at love, and wants to get off with superwoman. Hilarity ensues, followed by delicious romantic payoff. Even Superbad was essentially about this. Crap but kind boys who are crap at getting off with women. What’s so terrible about that? I know loads of crap but kind boys – they are the best kind of boys. Apatow also puts the worship of women right slap bang in the middle of his plots. The men worship the women. And maybe they’re a bit gross about it, but a bit of goofy locker-room talk does not a devil make. This is what boys do when they're dicking around and trying to make out they could 'have' Beyonce. It is not headline bloody news.

HE MADE ME PUT A MICHAEL CERA POSTER ON MY WALL

Previously known for his part in the much-loved telly comedy Arrested Development, Cera was cast by Apatow in last year’s Superbad, in which he played a quiet, wistful and slightly bemused dorky boy. Oddly enough, this did not escape the attention of Juno’s casting director. She needed a quiet, wistful and slightly bemused dorky boy to play opposite Ellen Page. Guess who they cast? For this alone we can thank Apatow, because a) Cera’s character is a degree-level class in kindness and patience and b) lord, is he beautiful. He’s also in Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s next movie. And that is about a boy who has to ‘defeat his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends in battle’. How great does that sound? Can my boyfriend do that to my exes?

HE MAKES COMEDIES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

While I will willingly pay for and sit through anything, however pants, as long as it has Julia Roberts in it, unsurprisingly my beau is not of the same mind. But if we go to see an Apatow movie, I get all the shiny happy romance, he gets all the gross-out boys stuff - EVERYBODY’S HAPPY. Or so the theory goes. Except that in fact, one-dimensional female caricature fans, I happen to like the goofy stuff. I happen to find it funny. And in the same way that I’m not a kitten-fancying, persnickety prim-face woman, my male friends are not averse to romance. That is why they all had something in their eye at the end of the 40 Year Old Virgin.

HE STICKS UP FOR LOSERS

Some naughty critics thought Knocked Up marked a kind of misogynistic cinematic apocalypse. Joe Queenan, writing in The Guardian, even went so far as to say “I think women need to start their own film industry: this one isn't working”. Like lots of the haters, he also couldn’t get his head round Katherine Heigl falling in love with a loser like Seth Rogen. Joe, I’ve got my hand up, and I can tell you. And it’s not bloody rocket science. Katherine Heigl fell in love with Seth Rogen because he was loads of fun, hilarious, and because he was kind. Contrary to popular thinking, not all women need to go home to a thrusting uber-blerk with a lantern jaw scythed on a triple-blade Gillette. In fact, it’s pretty offensive to suggest that they do.