romantic movie review

The 50 Greatest Romantic Movies of All Time

It’s the closest thing there is to a universal genre. That’s because, with rare exceptions, everyone falls in love, or at least wants to. And when you think about it, almost every movie is a love story. Thrillers, comedies, sci-fi — no matter what the form, the spectacle of two people falling in love in the middle of it has always been what makes the world of movies go round. That’s why choosing the greatest movie love stories presents a special challenge. Because really, what isn’t a contender? In a way, though, we kept our criteria simple. We were looking for grand passion, for chemistry and heat and all that good stuff. Yet there’s an ineffable quality that elevates a truly great movie romance. Let’s call it the Swoon Factor. It’s about the swoon that happens onscreen; it’s about the swoon that happens between the audience and the screen. What follows are the 50 films that, more than any others, got our hearts racing.     

Dirty Dancing (1987)

Set in 1963 but oh-so-’80s in its idea of hairstyles and heartthrobs, this sexy summer-camp romance defied its critics to become a classic. Nicknaming Jennifer Grey’s character “Baby” went a long way to illustrate what’s really going on here: The teenage daughter of conservative Jewish parents is forever being infantilized by her folks, until she meets a slightly older — but undeniably adult — dance teacher (Patrick Swayze) who shows her the time of her life. Corrupted by rock ’n’ roll, Baby grows up fast, getting over her initial shyness (“I carried a watermelon”) while rehearsing with her seductive instructor, who practices a racy new style of close-contact, ultra-suggestive moves that can only be read as carnal. Like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Grease” before it, the movie plays on the fantasy of an off-limits attraction between Baby and the bad boy. — Peter Debruge

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

In this gold-standard screwball caper comedy, a gentleman thief, a lady pickpocket and a Parisian heiress form an elegant triangle, the preferred shape of Ernst Lubitsch — that sublime architect of romantic instability — who loved to test how seemingly solid couples might respond to a good romantic upset. Here, the temptation isn’t merely sentimental, as there’s a potential fortune on the line. What’s more, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) make clear from the moment they meet that each is perfectly capable of robbing the other blind. She boosts his wallet, he knicks her garter (we needn’t see the deed to be scandalized). The movie came out before the Production Code, and it sparkles with the kind of naughty innuendo that was soon prohibited in Hollywood, but which Lubitsch was sophisticated enough to suggest even behind closed doors. — PD

Splash (1984)

A man falls in love with a mermaid: What could be simpler, or sweeter, than that? Yet Tom Hanks, in the movie that made him a movie star, does not go lightly into his communion with a woman who’s half-fish. Ron Howard’s landmark comedy was one of the first films to demonstrate that a high-concept premise could be executed in a way that was artful and classic: a throwback to the Hollywood that used fantasy to put us in touch with reality. Daryl Hannah, as Madison the red-tailed mermaid, acts with a dazed curiosity and eagerness that’s irresistible, and Hanks turns his disgruntlement into a profound expression of love’s challenge – namely, that we can’t choose who we love, but we can choose to embrace the love that chose us. — Owen Gleiberman

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Amid a career of macho performances, Clint Eastwood tapped into his sensitive side to deliver one of his most indelible characters in Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer on assignment in Iowa, who stops by a farmhouse to ask for directions. He’s greeted by Francesca, a lonely war bride who offers to show him around (an Italian-accented Meryl Streep, who says so much in her silent gestures, like the way she absentmindedly touches herself in the places she wants to be caressed). It’s no big surprise that this dissatisfied housewife develops feelings for this stranger. More touching is Kincaid’s admission that he’s fallen for Francesca, too, but knows she has no intention of leaving her family. Still, that doesn’t stop him from trying. “This kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime,” he tells her. The sight of Kincaid looking desperate in the rain, the downpour likely masking tears, is so radically counter-Eastwood, you’ve gotta believe it. — PD

The Notebook (2004)

In the two decades since “The Notebook,” Ryan Gosling has cultivated his image as a chiseled heartthrob to such a degree that he seemed the perfect choice to play a live-action Ken doll in the “Barbie” movie. But back when director Nick Cassavetes was casting the role of Noah Calhoun, he saw the actor (and former Mouseketeer) differently — as someone both relatable and reckless enough to chase his dream girl (Rachel McAdams’ Allie) up a Ferris wheel. No matter what Allie does, he keeps on loving her in the best possible version Hollywood can make of a Nicholas Sparks novel. The secret formula here comes in catching up with Noah and Allie half a century later, as played by screen legends James Garner and Gena Rowlands, coupled with the tear-jerky reason we’ve been reliving all their most romantic memories. — PD

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

The colors gush in Douglas Sirk’s lush 1950s melodrama, about a New England widow, Cary (Jane Wyman), who falls for the studly but respectful hunk (Rock Hudson) who tends the trees at her house. It may be love, but her two grown children — and nearly the entire community — are disapproving of Cary’s feelings, pressuring her to break off the relationship. Seen today, neither the age difference nor the class divide seem like deal-breakers, which makes Cary’s sacrifice seem all the more futile. (Years later, Todd Haynes updated the dynamic with a Black gardener and a still-living gay husband in “Far from Heaven.”) During the 1950s, Hudson carved out a niche as a sensitive leading man, to the point that he’s almost pathetic here (consider the state of him in the final scene). Others may try to meddle, but in the end, it’s her decision alone whom she loves. — PD

The Sound of Music (1965)

You might ask: How romantic could a musical this notoriously G-rated and squeaky-clean really be? But if “The Sound of Music” has incandescent songs, as well as a singular true-life story about the Von Trapp Family Singers (seven motherless Austrian children returned to vitality through the life force of Julie Andrews’ nun-turned-governess Maria), the movie’s secret weapon is its love story. Andrews, while she’s certainly playing the soul of goodness, invests her slow-blooming affection for Christopher Plummer’s Capt. Von Trapp with an almost forbidden sense of broken decorum. And Plummer, who looks like he belongs in a far darker movie, plays the captain as a lost man literally coming back to existence. When these two dance and realize, at the very same moment, that they’ve fallen in love, it’s one of the most electrifying scenes in movie history. — OG

Once (2007)

It’s not unusual to see a musical scale the heights of romantic passion. What’s different about John Carney’s film is that it’s a small-scale, non-stylized, kitchen-sink indie drama, yet in its lo-fi and platonic way it uses songs to create the majesty and devotion of a musical daydream. On the sidewalks of Dublin, a 30ish busker (Glenn Hansard) strums a guitar with a worn-out hole where the pick board should be. Most folks pass him by, but a girl (Markéte Irglová) lingers. They’re drawn into each other’s orbit, and though we never learn their names, a romance — or is it? — begins to play out in the songs they sing together. They both have other relationships, yet ”Once” tells the delicate tale of how, through song, these two save each other. As they give themselves over to numbers like “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” the movie swoons, and you will too. — OG

Pretty Woman (1990)

Some think of it as the ultimate guilty-pleasure rom-com. Others say that its story of a wealthy businessman (Richard Gere) who hires an escort (Julia Roberts) for a week to be his public romantic partner represents Hollywood at it most reprehensibly sexist. The truth, however, falls right in between. “Pretty Woman” only got tagged with the guilty-pleasure label because it came out at the dawn of the modern rom-com era (it sparkles like Tracy and Hepburn next to a lot of the films that came afterward). And as far as morality goes, it’s not the movie that’s sexist. It’s the world of high-gloss commodification that Vivian, played by Roberts not just with the boldest smile of her era but with the vivacity that turned her into a singular movie star, must navigate. Look closely at the dance of chemistry and arbitration between Roberts and Gere, and you’ll see that “Pretty Woman,” in its slickly-packaged-by-director-Garry Marshall way, is nothing less than a screwball celebration of the politics of love. — OG

Mississippi Masala (1991)

Mira Nair took a pioneering risk in depicting the romance between Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a blue-collar Black carpet cleaner, and Mina (Sarita Choudhury), a young Indian woman whose family fled Uganda to the American South. Set in Greenwood, Miss., where locals helped the creative team finesse the authenticity of the movie’s dialogue and detail, Nair’s contemporary interracial romance confronts the pushback of both the African American and South Asian communities to Demetrius and Mina’s relationship. But unlike Sidney Poitier social drama “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” her parents’ reaction makes up just a fraction of the script, which gives complex backstories to each side of the couple. It’s also incredibly sexy, whether they’re chatting by phone in separate beds or sharing the same one in the movie’s scorching love scene. The movie argues for colorblindness while celebrating both cultures, modeling a relationship never before seen on screen. — PD

Say Anything (1989)

“Optimism is a revolutionary act,” writer-director Cameron Crowe quips in the commentary for his late-’80s teenage touchstone. That kind of radical confidence drives high school senior Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), who musters the nerve to ask out valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye), even though all his peers think she’s out of his league. At first, Lloyd may seem like a nobody when compared to his most-likely-to-succeed sweetheart, but over time, he proves to be loyal, decent and unflappably sincere — qualities that made him the model boyfriend for kids of the ’80s. The clincher: Even when dumped, he shows up with a boombox, blasting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” outside her window. The gesture became an iconic declaration of love for a generation … and still holds up, even if the technology is obsolete. — PD

The Way We Were (1973)

Today, it would probably be a rom-com about opposites attracting: Katie (Barbra Streisand), a wisecracking Marxist Jewish political activist, and Hubbell (Robert Redford), a debonair WASP writer born with the entitlement not to have to worry about “causes.” But 50 years ago, when the story was filmed by director Sydney Pollack not as a comedy but as a romantic drama of tumultuous love-hate passion, the film, in its high-end soap-opera way, seemed to be expressing something new in the culture — the way that love, after the 1960s, was no longer going to be asking people to stay in their ethnic lanes. “The Way We Were” is a hefty slice of middlebrow Hollywood corn, yet the irresistible tug of it is that Streisand and Redford embody their characters on a level of romantic mythology. And let’s not forget the power of that title song! As sung by Streisand, it’s the incarnation of nostalgic beauty. — OG

Carol (2015)

Movies that involve romantic stories of same-sex couples are inevitably placed in a category called “gay” or “queer” or whatever, often by their biggest fans. Yet if you think about it for five seconds, that’s a retrograde way of putting movies into boxes. The director Todd Haynes has made several masterpieces (“Far From Heaven,” “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”), but he has never made a drama more darkly romantic and enticing, more seductive in its suspense, more mired in the agonizing compulsion of love than this lavishly mesmerizing adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel “The Price of Salt.” During the Christmas shopping season, Therese (Rooney Mara), a New York department-store clerk, meets Carol, a woman of the world played by Cate Blanchett with a femme fatale swagger just this side of threatening. Their relationship will be fraught with the drama of divorce, blackmail, a private detective, and other elements that, as staged by Haynes, acquire the heightened quality of a vintage film noir. The final scene, set in the bar of the Oak Room, features one of the most transporting locked-gazes-across-a-crowded-room moments you’ll ever see. — OG

The Bodyguard (1992)

Is there anything more romantic than someone jumping in front of a bullet for you? Technically, that’s Frank Farmer’s job, but by the time Kevin Costner’s clean-cut, ex-Secret Service agent leaps in to protect endangered diva Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) — on Oscar night, no less — we know he’s acting out of love more than duty. Frank sweeps both audiences and Rachel off their feet much earlier in the film, during a concert meltdown where he lifts her up and carries her through the mob — a chivalrous image immortalized on the film’s poster. Amazingly enough, “The Bodyguard” never made a big deal of its interracial romance, and that itself was a big deal. Powered by one of the all-time great soundtracks, the pop blockbuster is a classy entry in the oft-smarmy category of R-rated ’90s thrillers. Recent talks of a remake raise the question of which couple could out-sizzle Costner and Houston. — PD

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Marriage, they say, has its ups and downs. But it’s doubtful that any movie has ever dramatized the ebb and flow of feeling in a relationship with the primal power of F.W. Murnau’s silent classic. In outline, it could almost be a murderous film noir: A man — known only as The Man (George O’Brien), and haunted by better times with his wife, known only as The Wife (Janet Gaynor) — leaves the farmhouse where they live with their child to be with a woman from the city (Margaret Livingston). She wants him to drown The Wife, and part of the film’s shock is that he nearly does. But “Sunrise” proceeds as a series of shocks, which have the effect of jolting love back to life. Shot as a kind of sensuous living daydream, it is the cinema’s most profound and stirring roller-coaster of passion, an affirmation of what it means for two people to be meant for each other. — OG

The Princess Bride (1987)

Presented as a beloved fairy tale passed down between generations, screenwriter William Goldman’s tongue-in-cheek riff on classic adventure tales takes the best parts of nearly a century of cinematic love stories and remixes them for the home-video set (the goal was to get through to media-savvy audiences who thought they’d seen it all). Starting with two impossibly beautiful leads in Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, he builds a legend of swashbuckling pirates, dangerous rescues and well-earned revenge, describing it all (via kindly narrator Peter Falk) as the ultimate example of the form. That’s an impossible tall order — a genre-straddling smorgasbord the studio didn’t know how to market at the time — which director Rob Reiner miraculously achieves by enlisting an astonishing ensemble. Everyone from Billy Crystal to Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn to Andre the Giant assemble to support the sacrifice Westley makes to save his beloved Buttercup from marrying the wrong guy. — PD

Past Lives (2023)

Two men and a woman sit at a bar, and before the audience knows anything about them, we try to figure out what their relationship is. Who belongs with whom? That we can’t entirely tell is key to what makes Celine Song’s remarkable drama such a haunting fable of love’s enigma. It turns out that Nora (Greta Lee), a New Yorker born and raised until the age of 12 in South Korea, is married to Arthur (John Magaro), a mouthy homegrown American she met at a writers’ retreat. The other man, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), is the childhood friend Nora has maintained ties with; he’s at once her past, the spirit of her homeland, and maybe her romantic partner in another avenue of existence. “Past Lives” is a movie that will strike chords of recognition in any true romantic, as it’s about the secret journey that love takes: a communion that may occur in this life, or that may just be waiting for the next one. — OG

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

It’s one of the most poetic distillations of romantic desire in all of movies; you could also call it the “Splash” of its day. Jean Marais plays the Beast, who in Jean Cocteau’s film is a kind of delicate aristocrat with the face of a courtly lion. Josette Day is Belle, who ends up imprisoned in the Beast’s castle to work off a debt accrued by her father. What follows is an intricate fairy tale of deception and magic, built around the luminous ingenuity of Cocteau’s visual effects. Yet the most magical thing about it is the bond that develops between Belle and her disarmingly chivalrous captor/lover, a character so touching in his passion that when Greta Garbo saw the movie, it’s reported that she reacted to his death at the end by crying out, “Give me back my Beast!” — OG

Love & Basketball (2000)

The title of this Y2K sports classic references two very different games, and the rules aren’t fair in either one. After discovering that they both love basketball, Monica cockily challenges childhood friend Quincy to a match (later, famously, she’ll play for his heart). Monica wins that first bout, but he winds up injuring her — an early sign that the dynamic is different when two sexes occupy the court at the same time. That gap widens as they grow up (into Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan). He finds it relatively easy to follow in the footsteps of his NBA-pro dad, whereas there’s no equivalent path for female players. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood empathizes with Monica, who watches fame go to her old friend’s head. Per the formula, audiences are conditioned to root for the romance to work out, but basketball occupies a bigger part of Monica’s heart, and the movie finds the perfect solution. — PD

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Italian director Luca Guadagnino (“I Am Love”) turned André Aciman’s ecstatic, wildly overwritten novel of a formative first love between teenage Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and his father’s slightly older — but still relatively inexperienced — teaching assistant, Oliver (Armie Hammer), into a sensual summer dream. There’s an intensity to the sights, sensations and emotions that imprints itself on audiences, such that Elio’s memories become our own. One needn’t be gay to recognize the significance that such an all-consuming early infatuation can leave on a young person’s romantic identity, though the movie offers a welcome message to all who’ve struggled to come to terms with their own sexuality in the eloquent heart-to-heart between the boy and his surprisingly understanding dad: “How you live your life is your business. Just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once,” he says. “Don’t kill it and with it the joy you’ve felt.” — PD

Vertigo (1958)

For a director who was known as the thrillingly precise and methodical Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was not shy about portraying romantic rapture. A number of his films (“To Catch a Thief,” “Notorious,” “Rear Window”) are entrancing love stories, but in “Vertigo” he dove deep into an almost private zone of love-as-fetishistic-obsession. James Stewart’s middle-aged detective falls for the woman he’s hired to follow — played, with a depressive carnality, by Kim Novak, who also plays the woman’s shop-girl look-alike, who Stewart then feels compelled to transform into the first woman. No classic Hollywood movie balances love on the precipice of kink and danger the way this one does, which is why “Vertigo” opened the door to everything from “Blue Velvet” to the career of Brian De Palma. — OG

La La Land (2016)

Damien Chazelle’s glorious, heartrending, bittersweet musical does an extraordinary job of retro-fitting the song-and-dance pleasures of vintage Hollywood into the sunlit freeway landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Yet the film’s most radical feature is the way it brings Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, together with Seb (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist drowning in his own purity, and celebrates their union with intoxicating affection — only to show you how their love crashes on the shores of warring egos. What lifts “La La Land” into the realm of transcendently moving love stories is that it presents a happy ending that almost happened, and that could have happened if only life had turned out a bit different. — OG

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Dramatically speaking, the most exciting part of a relationship occurs either during the time a couple is falling in love or else at the moment it’s falling apart. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman incorporates both aspects — albeit as endangered flashbacks — while exploring a fantasy that anyone who’s been through the emotional wringer of a relationship can identify with: What if you could erase all traces of an ex from your memory? Director Michel Gondry proved the perfect partner to visualize the sketchy sci-fi apparatus that makes a brain scrub possible for Joel (Jim Carrey), who realizes halfway through that, however painful, he can’t live without any trace of his soulmate, Clementine (Kate Winslet), the manic free spirit with the Kool-Aid-colored hair. As Joel tries to hold on to the good times while his mind’s being wiped, Kaufman allows audiences to absorb their best memories and make them our own. — PD

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Hugh Grant stammered his way into our hearts, fumbling and fluttering his eyelids the whole way, in a delightfully English rom-com from screenwriter Richard Curtis (who juggled no fewer than eight couples in his 2003 directorial debut “Love Actually”). This more streamlined love story starts where practically every Jane Austen story ends: at the altar. Grant’s not the one getting hitched at those opening nuptials, though he does fall hard for an American guest played by Andie MacDowell. Their courtship is unconventional (it amounts to shagging anytime their friends tie the knot), but the chemistry is undeniable. When it’s time for Charles and Carrie to get married, however, each of them says their vows with someone else. So how do they wind up together? It’s the little surprises that delight. — PD

Out of Sight (1998)

In terms of sheer sex appeal, it’s hard to top the chemistry between George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, who play an incorrigible bank robber and the U.S Marshall tasked with apprehending him in Steven Soderbergh’s sultry, time-skipping Elmore Leonard adaptation. It’s steamy from the start, as a prison break leaves cop and quarry stuffed in a trunk together — a cozy way to get acquainted. Four years after “Pulp Fiction,” the picture came at a moment when Soderbergh was experimenting with film editing and features several nifty innovations, including an unconventional love scene that turns up the heat by cutting between flirtation and payoff. In one thread, Jack Foley and Karen Sisco roleplay in the hotel bar, pretending to be strangers. Skipping ahead, it teases glimpses of the “time out” where all this cocktail talk is headed: a striptease upstairs, in which the pair put aside their differences long enough to make love. — PD

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Great as he is, we don’t tend of think of Daniel Day-Lewis as an overwhelmingly romantic movie star. In Philip Kaufman’s heady, intoxicating, high-wire adaptation of the Milan Kundera novel, he plays Tomas, a character who is very much a fickle Lothario — a randy physician in 1960s Prague who bounces from one conquest to the next, though he does have a regular thing going with Sabine (Lena Olin), an artist who likes to spice their lovemaking with mirrors and bowler hats. But then Tomas meets Tereza (Juliette Binoche), whose gravity pulls him down to earth. And then the Soviet tanks come rolling in, blowing up all their lives. When that happens, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” becomes one of the most seriously moving love stories in cinema, a tale of three lost souls yearning to connect, to survive, to unlock love’s mystery. — OG

A Star Is Born (1954)

For 30 years, the Judy Garland/James Mason version of “A Star Is Born” was tainted by the messy circumstances of its making. The script kept getting rewritten, Garland was a notoriously unstable presence on set, and when the movie premiered in New York, it was three hours long — but executives at Warner Bros. then chopped it by half an hour, without so much as consulting the director, George Cukor. Yet when the movie was re-released in the ’80s, its reputation was elevated in a way that’s comparable to what happened with Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” A world of moviegoers discovered that Cukor had crafted one of the most darkly entrancing love stories ever made. Its haunted spirit of rapture and loss is incarnated in Garland’s performance of “The Man That Got Away,” in Mason’s jaw-dropping drunken slap of Garland during a scene set at the Oscars, and in the tragic finale, which touches the secret heart of love: the faith necessary to sustain it. — OG

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Repression and strict social restraints are constantly keeping lovers apart in the works of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who together made a career’s worth of exquisitely nuanced literary adaptations frequently (and often unfairly) lumped in with lesser, made-for-TV costume dramas. While “A Room with a View” and “Maurice” are more overtly passionate, the trio’s take on Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated novel offers a heartbreaking portrayal of a couple kept apart by codes beyond their control. In this case, a butler (Anthony Hopkins) born and raised to serve the English aristocracy is so mindful of his place that he can’t bring himself to tell the housekeeper he adores (Emma Thompson) his true feelings. It’s wrenching to watch this docile attendant struggle between emotions for a colleague and devotion to his job, and yet, between the lines, and in these two masterful performances, are written volumes. — PD

Sid and Nancy (1986)

The director Alex Cox brought off something singularly audacious by centering a punk biopic on Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols’ bassist and all-around showman-fuckup who was so dissolute most of the time that he could barely play his instrument or keep from nodding out. Yet the ultimate audacity of Cox’s film is that it dares to present Vicious’s relationship with Nancy Spungen, the torn-fishnet groupie from suburban Pennsylvania who turned him into a heroin addict, as if they were the Tristan and Isolde of the rock ‘n’ roll gutter. As Sid, Gary Oldman gives what may still be his greatest performance, and Chloe Webb, as Nancy, gives what is simply one of the most powerful performances in the history of cinema. Her Nancy is a caterwauling liar and junkie, such a damaged shard of a human being that it tears your heart apart just to behold her. Nancy and Sid are barely functional narcissist addicts, yet their love affair is fused on an animal level; they need each other to live, and to die. “Sid and Nancy” is raw and exhilarating — the greatest of all music biopics, and (not so incidentally) the most romantic. — OG

Moonlight (2016)

Told through poetic glimpses over three separate chapters in the life of its main character, “Moonlight” doesn’t feel like a love story at first. Director Barry Jenkins introduces Chiron at age 10, too young to recognize his own homosexuality, and yet already being teased as soft by his peers. In the middle segment, the boy meets Kevin, with whom he starts to explore his feelings, only to have that possibility derailed by bullying. Subverting stereotypes at every turn, the movie gives this lost soul a second chance in the final stretch, focusing on a tender, tentative reunion between Chiron (bulked up and thick-skinned from his time in prison) and his former crush. By this point, audiences are so invested in the character that “Moonlight” broke free of the rigid box that confines most queer stories to LGBT audiences, making it a crossover success and historic Oscar winner. — PD

The Apartment (1960)

The dialogue still zings and the heartbreak still stings in Billy Wilder’s ahead-of-its-time depiction of two Manhattan office drones who are both exploited by the same manager: Jack Lemmon plays ultra-cynical insurance salesman Bud Baxter, while Shirley MacLaine is Fran Kubelik, the elevator girl who brightens his days … but loves his boss. The plot (which involves Bud lending his place to higher-ups to schtup their secretaries) anticipates the #MeToo movement, while also acknowledging the reality that well-intentioned workers frequently fall for their colleagues. Bud goes about it the relatively respectful way, while Fran’s plight illustrates how unfair the world can be to those who mix business and pleasure. For audiences that love “Mad Men,” but identify with the underdog, the movie poses a wonderfully adult conundrum — one which forces Bud to decide between personal ethics and professional ambition, knowing it could all go sideways for him, career-wise. — PD

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

In the New Hollywood ’70s, a great many aspects of classic big-screen romance — the unabashed yearning, the sparkle, the lock-step gender roles — began to fall by the wayside. There was a lot of chatter about how romance itself was fading out of the culture. But that’s part of what made “An Officer and a Gentleman” loom so large. In its meticulous throwback of a story about a drifter, played with pinpoint narcissistic glamour by Richard Gere, who enlists in the Navy and falls for one of the “Puget Sound Debs” (Debra Winger) who want to marry a future jet pilot, the movie seemed to bring back, for the post-feminist era, the kind of shamelessly ardent love story that had fallen out of fashion. It helped that director Taylor Hackford infused it all with a contempo grittiness. As a basic-training movie, “Officer” anticipated much of ”Full Metal Jacket,” but what makes it indelible is the hungry desire enacted by Debra Winger, whose gaze of soulful adoration brings Gere fully alive as a romantic actor. — OG

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Cinema could hardly conjure a more lovely or elegant couple than cigarette-smoking Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, who floats through stairwells in form-fitting cheongsams. Operating on the wisp of a plot, improvised and evolved over nearly a year, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai denies these two beautiful avatars a conventional romance. They play neighbors who discover that their spouses are having an affair, and rather than sink to the same level, they indulge in a bit of imaginative detective work, reenacting how their partners might have met. This thin outline leaves near-infinite room for Wong to evoke a subjective range of responses from his audience, using the full range of cinematic tools — color, costume, gesture, music — to solicit a different reading from each viewer. Your mileage may vary, but keep in mind: Wong’s a feel-maker as much as a filmmaker, rewriting the rules via this elliptical dance between unrequited lovers. — PD

Moonstruck (1987)

At early test screenings, audiences weren’t falling for Norman Jewison’s now-classic New York romance the way they were supposed to, until he laid the tune “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…” over the opening credits. Cher tamped down her natural glamour to embody pragmatic Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini, who’s ready to settle for Johnny’s (Danny Aiello) passionless marriage proposal when she meets his brother Ronnie, played by a hot-blooded Nicolas Cage. Let’s just say, Ronnie gives this sensible Catholic woman reason to go to confession. The script by John Patrick Shanley is all but bursting with culturally specific detail, from drool-worthy dishes to unusual superstitions, but it’s the colorful ensemble — family members who want what’s best for Loretta — that ultimately serves to validate her seemingly reckless choice. After a lifetime of listening to her head, she finally decides to follow her heart. That’s amore! — PD

City Lights (1931)

Charlie Chaplin stubbornly resisted the film industry’s embrace of sound, releasing this silent treasure into a sea of talkies. Cinema may have gone a different direction, but his stubborn adherence to pantomime (plus his obsessive need to reshoot every shot until perfect) makes this love story seem all the more timeless, as Chaplin’s signature character, the Tramp, falls for a blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill). She mistakes him for a wealthy man, and the Tramp allows her to go on imagining him that way in the most poetic version of a familiar rom-com trope ever committed to film: At some point, he’ll have to come clean. Will she still love him when she discovers the truth? The final scene, in which she recognizes the vulnerable fool after her vision has been restored, not by sight but by contact, ranks among the medium’s most romantic. — PD

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Of the many qualities that made it a revolutionary movie, two stand above all others. The first, and most talked about, is how violent it was — the bystander shot through the eye, the climactic slow-motion blood ballet, and everything else that rubbed the audience’s nose in what being a criminal really meant. But the other quality that defined “Bonnie and Clyde” was how shockingly sultry and romantic it was. The ads for the movie said, “They’re young. They’re in love. And they kill people.” The subtext was that something in the connection between Faye Dunaway’s torrid hunger and Warren Beatty’s vulnerable stud glamour was itself so dangerous that it was lethal. Just check out the two stars’ faces as they exchange one last look before being strafed to death by a hail of bullets. That look is the essence of true love. — OG

The 'Before' Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013)

Taken by itself, 1995’s “Before Sunrise” represents the perfect encapsulation of young love: Two strangers meet on a train, get off together in Vienna and spend the night walking and talking (there’s some debate as to whether they make love, as the movie’s too modest to show it). Nine years later, director Richard Linklater delivered one of the most satisfying sequels of all time in “Before Sunset,” reuniting with his two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy), in Paris. Their time is once again limited, but now, the conversation deals with their regrets. But the attraction remains, and the movie ends with the implication they wind up together. But is it happily ever after? Linklater and company caught up with the pair once again with “Before Midnight,” and the movie finds them together, but dissatisfied, acknowledging the challenges that confront couples after nearly a decade together. It was impossible to guess when they first met how deep this relationship would go, and still anybody’s guess how it will end. — PD

Annie Hall (1977)

“I lurve you,” says Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer, coming about as close as he can to declaring his feelings for Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), the beguiling thrift-shop space cadet who charmed the world with her la-di-da innocence. Allen’s late-’70s classic was, at the time, a new kind of love story — the saga of a “relationship,” which is to say a partnership not truly built to last. And maybe Alvy Singer had to say “lurve” instead of “love” because, deep down, he wasn’t really sure that he could commit himself to the L-word. Yet the magic of “Annie Hall” is that is channeled how an entire generation had come to regard love in the age of therapeutic navel-gazing: as something intoxicating yet transient, rooted in a seems-like-old-times nostalgia that felt more at home looking back than forward. — OG

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Tom Cruise had always been a solo vessel — a cruise missile of a movie star. It was Cameron Crowe’s inspiration, in casting Cruise as a sports agent who gets tossed out of the game and has to reinvent himself as a better person in order to come back, to pair Cruise with Renée Zellweger, an unknown actor who did not come off like some female-movie-star equivalent of Tom Cruise. She had a homespun allure that seemed to be calling his cockiness, his very stardom, on the carpet. The beauty of the line “You complete me” is that Cruise seemed, at last, to be letting down the guard of a dozen years of mega-stardom. The beauty of “You had me at hello” is that it reminds us of how easy love is when it’s real. — OG

Roman Holiday (1953)

Audrey Hepburn plays the fed-up crown princess of an unspecified country in this escapist romp through the Eternal City. The project kicked off a seven-picture run with Paramount, during which she may as well have been the queen of Hollywood romances: “Sabrina,” “Funny Face,” “My Fair Lady” and more. Suffocating under the obligations of her position, she sneaks out during a European tour, landing in the hands of Gregory Peck’s dishonest (yet honorable) American newspaperman. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot, betting his editor he can deliver an exclusive interview with the princess — but he doesn’t gamble on falling for the dame. Their whirlwind romance lasts but a day, but in that time, the reporter gives Ann/Anya/Audrey a taste of freedom. She plays it coy for most of the movie, but the closeup on her face at the end says it all. — PD

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The scene where Clark Gable carries Vivien Leigh up the stairs, with intimations of (to put it mildly) erotic coercion, would not pass muster today. Yet that scene, and others that rhyme with it, are part of what make the most epic of Old Hollywood love stories one of the most darkly complicated and enthralling of Old Hollywood love stories. Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara is fierce, strong, manipulative — the Southern belle as aristocratic vixen — and so she and Rhett Butler are destined to turn love into a battle that’s doomed to end in a draw. But what heat and light their fireworks give off! “Gone with the Wind” is a movie that’s now seen as “problematic,” yet one of the most seemingly imperfect things about it — the alternating currents of sex and anger, devotion and contempt that fuel the central relationship — is what makes it such a tumultuous classic. — OG

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

A couple needn’t end up together for a love story to stand the test of time. In the case of Jacques Demy’s bittersweet musical, there’s a relatable quality to the way circumstances keep a working-class French couple from their happily ever after. That downbeat fate serves to balance the bright colors and bold choice of delivering every line of dialogue, no matter how banal, through song. That recitative strategy is common enough in opera, but downright revolutionary on film, still fresh and highly unusual all these years later. Naive young Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve, doll-like at 19) sells umbrellas in the family shop. Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) fixes cars at a nearby garage. They seem destined to be together, until military service calls him away. Michel Legrand’s score leans into the melancholy what might have been in what feels like a snow globe rendering of real life. — PD

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

It’s a queer love story set entirely in the closet. Yet by dramatizing the inner lives of two cowboys who find a romantic home on the range in early 1960s Wyoming, Ang Lee’s breathtaking adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story undermined every expectation of contemporary audiences. In showing us two men who discover a love that they themselves think is forbidden, the film dramatizes how prejudice can worm its way into the very fabric of people’s lives; it also demonstrates that the myth of the straight-as-an-arrow American macho he-man is just that – a myth. At the same time, our yearning for Ennis and Jack to make a life for themselves becomes overwhelming in its heartbreak. The performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are indelible — and, in Ledger’s case, miraculous, as he turns the muffled, barely articulate Ennis into a living metaphor for a love that cannot speak its name. — OG

Ghost (1990)

It’s a love story, a ghost story, a corporate crime story, a pottery story, and a movie in which Whoopi Goldberg plays the world’s funniest cut-up mystic. But who would have guessed that just four months after “Pretty Woman,” it would be the headiest romantic movie of its year? The director, Jerry Zucker, was a veteran of the “Airplane!” troupe, yet somehow he juggled all these elements to touch a chord of pure fairy-tale rapture, spinning out the story of a New York banker who’s killed by a mugger and returns as a ghost to protect his artist girlfriend. The way Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore bond across the ectoplasmic divide is at once thrilling and moving (true love, it seems, knows no restrictions, from either physics or the spirit world). The film turned the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” into a retro smash, but only because of how it tapped the film’s emotions: intimate, operatic, quavering with devotion. — OG

Brief Encounter (1945)

It all began with a little piece of grit in her eye. Fortunately — or not — for Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), a doctor was present to remove the offending particle, and when her vision cleared, there he stood, Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), handsome and kind. The train station where this meeting happens serves as a kind of romantic purgatory, with each locomotive that steams through reminding Laura and Alec of their obligations to their actual partners. But every Thursday, they meet in town, too weak to resist the growing love between them — feelings which the conservative forces of the time could not condone, but which spoke to a human experience too widespread to go ignored. And so David Lean’s slender, achingly honest film has stood for years, staunchly refusing to judge two would-be adulterous souls, letting audiences in on a secret that even their spouses don’t suspect. — PD

A Star Is Born (2018)

It’s a seesawing Hollywood love story that’s been told on the big screen close to half a dozen times, yet never more powerfully or artfully than by Bradley Cooper in his astonishing directorial debut. From the bombastic kitsch of the 1976 Streisand/Kristofferson version, Cooper borrowed the idea of turning the central character into a rock ‘n’ roll star, and his performance as Jackson Maine — a half-deaf drunken burnout, running on fumes, even though he’s able to fool the world into thinking he’s still a rock god — grounds the soap-opera story in something disarmingly earthy and real. When Jackson meets Ally (Lady Gaga), a budding singer-songwriter, and invites her onstage to sing “Shallow,” you will get chills the way few romantic movies have given them to you — and the tremors don’t let up, as the two get on a serpentine roller-coaster of love vs. jealousy, arena rock vs. dance pop, and tragedy slipping into redemption. — OG

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Baz Luhrmann’s visionary jukebox musical is in love with a lot of things: the look and feel of faux 1890s sound-stage Paris (that nightclub windmill etched in light), the epiphany of pop songs like Elton John’s “Your Song” when they pop up in what should be the wrong place (but then why does it feel so right?). Mostly, though, the film is in love with Christian and Satine, the romantic bohemians played by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, who summon gazes of such doomed longing that the film’s ultimate love affair seems to be with love itself — the unearthly kind, the kind that lives as an impossible dream. — OG

To Catch a Thief (1955)

From “The Awful Truth” to “An Affair to Remember,” Cary Grant enjoyed a two-decade run as Hollywood’s most dapper leading man, romancing everyone from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman, sometimes multiple times over. But it was paired with impossibly elegant star (and future princess) Grace Kelly that Grant sparkled brightest, playing a notorious jewel thief who finds Kelly’s wealthy American tourist even more irresistible than her invaluable diamond necklace. Like a well-practiced cat burglar, this sprightly Hitchcock movie tiptoes so lightly it hardly touches the ground, sweeping audiences away to the chicest of locations on the French Riviera. Whether it’s the scene of Kelly’s gems outdazzling a fireworks show (she stands in the shadow while her diamonds glisten in full view of Grant) or the hilltop picnic overlooking Monaco, the vibrant full-color fling gave landlocked Americans a fizzy Mediterranean fantasy featuring the most distinguished couple imaginable. — PD

Titanic (1997)

The swooniest romantic movie of its time, and also the most sublime, James Cameron’s ocean disaster epic is the rare Hollywood blockbuster that achieves a larger-than-life quality. Yet its secret weapon as a love story is the too-often-unacknowledged deftness of its storytelling. As Jack and Rose, the sweethearts from opposite sides of the class divide, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have an effervescent chemistry, yet they’re playing starry-eyed youths caught in a puppy-love fling. The implication is that their union might last just about as long as the Titanic’s voyage — were it not for that fateful iceberg. In “Titanic,” it’s disaster itself that elevates love into something timeless. — OG

Casablanca (1942)

It was often said that in the 20th century, the movies taught people how to fall in love. You certainly know that watching “Casablanca.” In all of cinema, there is no love connection more pure, more impassioned, more haunted by the past, more alive in the present, more complicated by circumstance than the one between Rick (Humphrey Bogart), the expatriate owner of a shady Moroccan nightclub and gambling den, and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the woman he fell in love with in Paris in 1940, only to be abandoned by her for mysterious reasons. Do they still love each other? The answer to that is as simple as listening to Sam (Dooley Wilson), the saloon pianist, play “As Time Goes By” and hearing that it’s really about how a kiss is just a kiss…for all time. Yet if Michael Curtiz’s ageless Hollywood classic celebrates what love is, it’s also about the deepest level of what love means : not just rapture but sacrifice, devotion to the other, a giving over of oneself to something larger. “Casablanca” remains the ultimate big-screen romance, in part because Bogart and Bergman show us that love is a force within us powerful enough to connect to — and save — the world. — OG

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this movie is very worst for the family,<br/>because their is no scene to entertain<br/>their is only kisses and sexual scenes<br/>I hate this movie ��<br/>I recommend to all people this is worst movie for our next generation <br/>like normal movie is okkk<br/>but this movie only shows to sexual scenes and they called as This is love<br/>what's that nonsense ��&zwj;����&zwj;��

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The 25 best romantic movies on Netflix

Any season can be a season of love with these swoon-worthy films.

Ilana Gordon is an entertainment, culture, and comedy writer originally from Connecticut. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Humans evolved to fall in love , which means falling in love is a learned behavior. And there's so much to absorb from the love stories on this list, which include historical romances, queer entanglements, authentic self-discovery journeys with messy moments, and farcical rom-coms with impressive ensembles.

Regardless of your relationship status this summer, there's a romantic movie out there just waiting to help guide you through your love highs and lows. Whether you're looking to escape to another decade or to engage with modern dating rituals, here are the 25 best romantic movies currently streaming on Netflix .

Always Be My Maybe (2019)

Two old childhood friends reconnect in Always Be My Maybe , starring Ali Wong and Randall Park . As teens, the pair considered a romantic relationship, but it didn't work out. As adults, she's become a famous chef while he's still stuck in a small-time band and working for his dad's business.

Now, they'll have to try and see if love is their destiny once again while facing her fame and his insecurities. The movie also features plenty of quirky moments, including Keanu Reeves playing an odd version of himself as a love interest for Wong's character. And, as an added bonus, there's also Wong's amazing wardrobe . — Lia Beck

Where to watch Always Be My Maybe : Netflix

EW grade: B ( read the review )

Director: Nahnatchka Khan

Cast: Ali Wong, Randall Park, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Dae Kim , James Saito, Michelle Buteau , Vivian Bang

Blue Jay (2017)

Twenty years after breaking up, former high-school sweethearts Jim ( Mark Duplass , who also wrote the script) and Amanda ( Sarah Paulson ) bump into each other in their California hometown and end up spending the day — and night — together. As they update each other on what's transpired in their lives in the years since they last spoke, Jim and Amanda reminisce together about the people they used to be while attempting to understand the people they have become.

A slice of life film that offers a glimpse into the optimism of youthful infatuation, and the bitter realities of aging, living, and loving, Blue Jay's simple story is still meaty enough for its two leads to dig their performative talons into. One of the best performances of Paulson's career, according to an EW writer , she is "effortlessly shifting from broken to brazen and everything in between." Blue Jay may be shot in black and white, the overall narrative is anything but. —Ilana Gordon

Where to watch Blue Jay : Netflix

EW grade: A– ( read the review )

Director: Alex Lehmann

Cast: Mark Duplass, Sarah Paulson

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Sony Pictures Classics/Courtesy Everett Collection

There's no better place for a sexual awakening than northern Italy in the summer. Set in 1983, Call Me by Your Name tells the story of Elio ( Timothée Chalamet in his breakout performance), a 17-year-old whose life is upended after his academic father's new grad student, Oliver ( Armie Hammer ), arrives to stay with the family. Sparks fly between the bookish Elio and the worldly Oliver, and in spite of their differences, a relationship forms between the two.

A romantic coming-of-age drama, Call Me by Your Name is based on André Aciman’s novel from 2007, and meditates on themes of growing up, coming to terms with one's sexuality, and the depths of feeling found in young love. Nominated for four Oscars, with James Ivory taking home the trophy for Best Adapted Screenplay, Call Me by Your Name is a remarkable love story told with tenderness, respect, and nostalgia. —I.G.

Where to watch Call Me by Your Name : Netflix

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg , Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois

Carol (2015)

Mad Men lovers will find a similar aesthetic in Carol , a queer romance set against the backdrop of the repressive 1950s. From the moment New Jersey housewife Carol ( Cate Blanchett ) meets aspiring photographer Therese ( Rooney Mara ) while Christmas shopping at a New York City department store, it's obvious a connection has been forged. Eager to escape the difficulties presented by the men in their lives, the women find solace in each other, their relationship sparking and burning as brightly as the tips of their cigarettes.

Lovingly directed by Todd Haynes who explores issues of class and sexuality with the lightest of touches, EW's critic writes that Carol has "taken what was once a taboo love story and has allowed it to speak to us with a directness and clarity that would have been hard to imagine more than six decades ago." —I.G.

Where to watch Carol : Netflix

Director: Todd Haynes

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler , Jake Lacy

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures/courtesy Everett 

Singapore is a tiny country with a big thirst for gossip — at least as it pertains to the extravagantly wealthy families that populate the island’s society scene. And nobody in Singapore is considered a more eligible bachelor than Nick Young ( Henry Golding ), who left for the States years ago and is now returning to attend a friend’s wedding along with his girlfriend, Rachel ( Constance Wu ), who — to the dismay of the area’s singles — is American born, and worse, does not come from money.

Shocked to learn that her low-key boyfriend is actually the heir to one of Singapore’s biggest and longest-established fortunes, Rachel must learn to navigate this new culture, impress Nick’s snobbish family, and generally survive life amongst these Crazy Rich Asians if she hopes to continue her relationship.  —I.G. Where to watch Crazy Rich Asians : Netflix EW grade: B ( read the review ) Director: Jon M. Chu Cast: Henry Golding, Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh , Gemma Chan , Awkwafina , Ken Jeong , Jimmy O. Yang

Duck Butter (2018)

Love gets fast-tracked in Duck Butter , a 2018 independent film co-written by and starring Alia Shawkat . Struggling with the local dating scene, actress Naima (Shawkat) and artist Sergio (Laia Costa) meet at a bar and decide to accelerate their relationship by spending 24 hours together and having sex once an hour. But the more time Naima and Sergio spend together, the more they find their quickly-established intimacy tested by new friends and loved ones.

While the Sergio character was originally written for a man, the decision to cast a woman instead adds another layer of specificity and nuance. Heavier on the toilet humor than you might expect, Duck Butter is worth a watch for its excellent acting and killer roster of supporting players. —I.G.

Where to watch Duck Butter : Netflix

Director: Miguel Arteta

Cast: Alia Shawkat, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass , Mae Whitman , Hong Chau , Kate Berlant, Kumail Nanjiani

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

If the Puritans knew that coming to America would later disqualify them from competing in the Eurovision Song Contest , they might have had second thoughts about leaving England. As it is, the closest Americans will get to participating in Eurovision is by turning on Will Ferrell 's 2020 parody of the annual competition. Lovingly crafted and full of legitimately good songs — including the always requested "Jaja Ding Dong" — Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a silly story about a maligned musical duo (Ferrell and Rachel McAdams ) who are selected to represent Iceland at the competition after a tragedy befalls the country.

McAdams is particularly delightful as the nightingale-voiced Sigrit who commits to helping her bandmate (not brother) achieve his dream of competing in the Eurovision Song Contest. If you’re looking for a musical romp populated by whales and gnomes, this is the film for you.  —I.G.

Where to watch Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga : Netflix

EW grade: B– ( read the review )

Director: David Dobkin

Cast: Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens , Graham Norton , Demi Lovato , Pierce Brosnan

Frances Ha (2013)

One of the best-known additions to the mumblecore movement that briefly invaded independent cinema during the mid 2010s, Frances Ha is also one of the most charming. Directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written by the film's star, Greta Gerwig , Frances Ha chronicles a difficult period in 27-year-old aspiring dancer Frances Halladay's life. Struggling with the dissolution of one of her closest friendships, financial challenges, and difficulties with her chosen career, Frances is both unmoored and undeterred.

A late-20s coming-of-age story released in 2012, Frances Ha contains some vague similarities to HBO 's Girls ( Adam Driver , for one) which premiered that same year, but the film offers such a high level of style, point of view, and performance as to distinguish itself from the rest of the genre. —I.G.

Where to watch Frances Ha : Netflix

EW grade: B+ ( read the review )

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver, Mickey Sumner , Michael Zegen , Michael Esper , Charlotte d'Amboise

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society (2018)

Fans of period romances will fall head over heels for the Netflix original The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society . The 2018 film stars Lily James as a writer who gets to know the residents of Guernsey, an island that had recently been under German occupation during World War II. As for the romantic aspect, the lead character is torn between two men: her American fiancé ( Glen Powell ) and a new man from Guernsey ( Michiel Huisman ). EW's review of Mike Newell 's film calls it "as snug and sweet and congenitally British as a tea cozy." —L.B.

Where to watch The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society : Netflix

Director: Mike Newell

Cast: Lily James, Michael Huisman, Glen Powell, Jessica Brown Findlay

The Half of It (2020)

Securing Tribeca 's Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, Alice Wu 's queer revision of Cyrano de Bergerac introduces viewers to Ellie Chu ( Leah Lewis ), a booksmart outcast whose writing skills become a lucrative business with her peers as customers. When she starts drafting love letters for himbo jock Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer, a.k.a. Will Poulter 's doppelgänger) to popular girl Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire) — whom Ellie secretly harbors feelings for — the unlikely pair forge a connection far more profound than any high school crush.

Through atmospheric camerawork, whip-smart dialogue, and a sea of film references for cinephiles to bathe in, The Half of It spins a coming-of-age love story that bleeds wisdom beyond its years. —James Mercadante

Where to watch The Half of It : Netflix

Director: Alice Wu

Cast: Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, Alexxis Lemire, Enrique Murciano, Wolfgang Novogratz, Catherine Curtin, Becky Ann Baker, Collin Chou

The Incredible Jessica James (2017)

Jessica Williams took the world by storm when she became the youngest correspondent on The Daily Show . And after leaving the program in 2016, Williams honed in on film — starting by taking on the roles of Executive Producer and lead actor in the rom-com The Incredible Jessica James. The role of Jessica James was created especially for Williams by writer-director Jim Strouse , and the character is perfectly customized to flaunt her many comedic and performative strengths.

In the film, Jessica is an aspiring playwright and employee at a children's theater workshop who just broke up with her boyfriend ( LaKeith Stanfield ). After her friend Tasha ( Noël Wells ) sets her up on a date with Boone ( Chris O'Dowd ), Jessica must decide if their romance is worth pursuing, and what she wants her love life and work life to look like going forward. —I.G.

Where to watch The Incredible Jessica James : Netflix

Director: Jim Strouse

Cast: Jessica Williams, LaKeith Stanfield, Noël Wells, Chris O'Dowd

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)

If Fifty Shades of Grey and Bridgerton welcomed a child, its name would be Lady Chatterley's Lover . Enduring decades of bans for its salacious content, D.H. Lawrence's 1928 avant-garde novel gets a fresh adaptation under the heedful eye of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who deftly explores the depths of female desire. In this soft-core romance about emotional and bodily fulfillment, an unhappily married aristocrat ( Emma Corrin ) defies gender roles by acting on her own urges — starting a clandestine affair with the gamekeeper ( Jack O'Connell ) of her husband's (Matthew Duckett) estate.

While EW's critic observes a lack of dramatic conflict in the film, they highlight that "what's left is just an unabashedly heady romance, rich in pretty costumes — when they're wearing them — and lush, lusty atmosphere." —J.M.

Where to watch Lady Chatterley's Lover : Netflix

Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Cast: Emma Corrin, Jack O'Connell, Matthew Duckett, Faye Marsay, Ella Hunt, Anthony Brophy

La La Land (2016)

La La Land may not have won Best Picture at the Oscars, but there's a reason the film's name was on everyone's lips ( including Faye Dunaway's ). A movie musical that dances to the same tune sung by classic films like Singin' in the Rain , La La Land stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as aspiring artists struggling to find work and love in Los Angeles. When Mia (Stone) and Sebastian (Gosling) find themselves repeatedly running into each other across the city, they take it as a sign to start dating.

Gosling and Stone easily recreate the chemistry they established in 2011's Crazy, Stupid, Love , finding a modern spin on the Old Hollywood premise that everything always works out in love and art. Named by EW as our best movie of 2016 , La La Land is "Nostalgic without seeming old-fashioned…a testament to the timeless, transporting power of cinema." —I.G.

Where to watch La La Land : Netflix

EW grade: A ( read the review )

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt , J.K. Simmons

Long Shot (2019)

Philippe Bosse/Lionsgate/courtesy Everett Collection

It’s a timeless tale: an ambitious Secretary of State ( Charlize Theron ) reunites with the boy she once babysat (Seth Rogen), now a political journalist who's job hunting after getting fired for his incendiary, left-leaning writing. Recruiting him to punch up her speeches for her presidential election campaign, the two travel the world on a diplomatic tour while also discovering sparks between them.

A cross between Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Veep — with a little There’s Something About Mary (1998) thrown in for good measure — Long Shot brings a political edge to the rom-com genre, as Dan Sterling ( The Interview ) and Liz Hannah's ( The Post ) script features a perfect blend of satire, treasured tropes, and rapid-fire dialogue that comes alive with some serious chemistry between its two leads. —I.G.

Where to watch Long Shot : Netflix

Director: Jonathan Levine  

Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O'Shea Jackson Jr. , Andy Serkis , June Diane Raphael , Bob Odenkirk , Alexander Skarsgård

Love at First Sight (2023)

Rob Baker Ashton/Netflix

The year 2022 saw the rise (and slight meme-ification ) of The White Lotus star Haley Lu Richardson , thus paving the way for her lead role in this 2023 adaptation of Jennifer E. Smith 's best-selling novel, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight . Here, Richardson's quirky charm is on full display as Hadley Sullivan, a 20-year-old American who spends her seven-hour flight from New York to London engrossed in banter with her charismatic British seatmate, Oliver (Ben Hardy). (Alexa, play "London Boy" by Taylor Swift .) Once the strangers part ways upon landing, fate works its magic.

Without venturing into cringe territory,  Love at First Sight pulls off a time-worn, formulaic trope by simply embracing its sweetness — thanks to Richardson and Hardy's onscreen magnetism, a carefully curated indie soundtrack, and Jameela Jamil 's intimate narrations — leaving you plotting your next trip in hopes of an airport meet-cute. —J.M.

Where to watch Love at First Sight : Netflix

Director: Vanessa Caswill

Cast: Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Jameela Jamil, Rob Delaney , Sally Phillips, Dexter Fletcher

The Lovebirds (2020)

After four years of dating, Jibran ( Kumail Nanjiani ) and Leilani ( Issa Rae ) are prepared to call it quits — until the couple finds themselves involved in a murder that requires them to put their break up aside and go on the run. Too concerned about racial profiling to involve the police, Jibran and Leilani must hunt down the identity of the man who was murdered so they can find out who killed him and clear their own names.

Directed by Michael Showalter ( Wet Hot American Summer ), The Lovebirds is a romantic evening gone wrong in the style of films like 2010's Date Night and 2018's Game Night . Boasting a high ratio of jokes per minute and a pair of lead actors who know how to wield their witticisms like machetes, Nanjiani and Rae's on screen bickering and loving needling will have you rooting for their relationship, even as it's falling apart. —I.G.

Where to watch The Lovebirds : Netflix

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae, Anna Camp , Paul Sparks

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Jennifer Lawrence is such an accomplished dramatic actress, it’s easy to forget her first big career break came on the  TBS  sitcom  The Bill Engvall Show . But her comedic chops are rock solid, and she gets to show them off in the 2023 raunch-com  No Hard Feelings . Lawrence plays Maddie, a struggling thirtysomething who agrees to seduce a wealthy couple’s introverted 19-year-old in exchange for a car.

The premise is simple but the execution is designed to let Lawrence play in ways we haven’t seen since  Silver Linings Playbook . From taking throat punches to brawling naked, the Oscar winner manages to balance the physical comedy of the film while still centering the story’s emotional heart.  As EW’s critic writes ,  No Hard Feelings  is “a reminder that Lawrence is one Hollywood's best (and funniest) leads.” —I.G.

Where to watch  No Hard Feelings : Netflix

Director: Gene Stupnitsky

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti , Natalie Morales , Matthew Broderick

Our Souls at Night (2017)

Some partnerships just keep getting better with age, and the onscreen relationship between Robert Redford and Jane Fonda — now in its fourth iteration — is one of those unions. In the Netflix original movie Our Souls at Night , Redford and Fonda play longtime neighbors and widowers Louis and Addie, who find comfort in spending their nights together as platonic friends. Aware that their unorthodox relationship and sleeping arrangement is eliciting side eyes from the town and their adult children, the pair must eventually choose between their growing emotional dependence on each other and the needs of their respective families.

With a cast of only seven actors, the strength of Our Souls at Night lies mainly in the steady hands of its two leads, who make falling in love look just as appealing as they did half a century ago in Barefoot In The Park . —I.G.

Where to watch Our Souls at Night : Netflix

Director: Ritesh Batra

Cast: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Judy Greer , Matthias Schoenaerts , Bruce Dern , Iain Armitage

Phantom Thread (2017)

There are lots of lighthearted romantic movies on Netflix, but if you're looking for something much, much darker, there's Phantom Thread . The Paul Thomas Anderson movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a fashion designer who finds a muse and partner in a waitress ( Vicky Krieps ) during the 1950s. The couple's relationship is rocky to say the least, and some poisonous mushrooms play a hefty role in the film's tension.

"What's true with Daniel is that you're always in front of someone very awake, so you have to be awake," Krieps tells EW about working with Day-Lewis in what is purportedly his final role. "You couldn't go and do something not really knowing what you're doing or being half thinking about your lunch. It wouldn't work because you'd just crash against the wall." —L.B.

Where to watch Phantom Thread : Netflix

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Kreips, Lesley Manville

Plus One (2019)

RLJE Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

Fed up with being single during wedding season, two Millennial college pals Ben ( Jack Quaid ) and Alice ( Maya Erskine ) agree to be each other's platonic plus ones at every event. Winning Tribeca's Narrative Audience Award in 2019, Plus One is a lighthearted buddy-comedy that blossoms into a richly nuanced friends-to-lovers romance, showcasing two fully realized characters who share universal anxieties of being alone and societal expectations to settle down.

Erskine summed up the film to EW , saying: "At its core, it’s a movie about friendship [and] she’s able to be her ugliest self. She’s able to fart, curse, and show every facet of herself and still be looked at as a beautiful woman, and to me, that’s what sets it aside from other romantic comedies." —J.M.

Where to watch Plus One : Netflix

Directors: Jeff Chan , Andrew Rhymer

Cast: Maya Erskine, Jack Quaid, Beck Bennett , Rosalind Chao , Perrey Reeves , Ed Begley Jr.

Set It Up (2018)

If you found Glen Powell to be perfect boyfriend material in Anyone but You (2023), wait until you see him paired with the dynamic Zoey Deutch in Set It Up . When two stress-ridden assistants from adjoining companies, Harper (Deutch) and Charlie (Powell), conspire to set up their Type-A bosses ( Taye Diggs , Lucy Liu ) in hopes of freeing themselves from the nonstop office grind, it sparks an enemies-to-lovers fling between the two matchmakers that's as satisfying as a sublime slice of pizza . Set It Up ranks among Netflix's finest rom-coms, injecting the genre's familiar elements with an extra dose of heart — all fueled by the palpable chemistry between Powell and Deutch. —J.M.

Where to watch Set It Up : Netflix

Director: Claire Scanlon

Cast: Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Joan Smalls, Meredith Hagner, Pete Davidson , Jon Rudnitsky , Tituss Burgess

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Island Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Spike Lee ’s first feature film as a writer and director, She’s Gotta Have It presents intertwining romances as lead character Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) decides which of the three men she’s dating (Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks , John Canada Terrell ) she wants to have a monogamous relationship with. Luxuriating in Lee’s creative sensibility and shot in crisp black and white, Nola’s journey towards picking a partner is funny, thought-provoking, and unique in every respect.

In a review of Netflix’s 2017 She’s Gotta Have It adaptation (also directed by Lee), EW’s critic describes the original movie , writing, “ She’s Gotta Have It was Spike Lee’s first feature film, and few movies feel so joyfully first.” A dramedy that questions sexual, relationship, and gender norms of the time, She’s Gotta Have It is notable for its subject matter, aesthetic, and for launching Lee’s storied Hollywood career. —I.G.

Where to watch She’s Gotta Have It : Netflix

EW grade: B– ( read the review )

Director: Spike Lee 

Cast: Tracy Camilla Johns, Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell

Shortcomings (2023)

Jon Pack/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Regrettably overshadowed during its initial release by the Barbienheimer phenomenon, Randall Park's directorial debut is an underdog deserving of a spot on your Letterboxd watchlist. Adapted from the beloved graphic novel by The New Yorker 's Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings trails the introspective journey of Asian American man-child/culture snob, Ben Tagawa (Justin H. Min), whose on-the-mends relationship with girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) hits a temporary pause once she relocates from California to the Big Apple for an internship.

With the dubious counsel of his skirt-chasing best friend, Alice (Sherry Cola), Ben dives headfirst back into the dating pool and grapples with his own desires, which exposes his inclination toward Western standards of beauty. A film about accepting life's ebbs and flows, Shortcomings invites audiences to witness Park's burgeoning directorial talent while engaging in incisive social commentary, particularly on the complexities of race in relationships.  —J.M.

Where to watch Shortcomings : Netflix

Director: Randall Park 

Cast: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki, Tavi Gevinson , Debby Ryan, Sonoya Mizuno, Jacob Batalon, Timothy Simons

Someone Great (2019)

Heartbreak just hits different in Netflix's Someone Great , a film about Jenny ( Gina Rodriguez ), a music journalist who goes through a breakup after accepting her dream job in San Francisco and learning her boyfriend (LaKeith Stanfield) doesn't want to come along. Emotionally buttressed by her best friends Erin (DeWanda Wise) and Blair ( Brittany Snow ), Jenny decides to make the most of her last night in New York City, and along the way encounters an eclectic supporting cast including Rosario Dawson , RuPaul , and SNL 's Alex Moffat.

In addition to being a solid modern rom-com, Someone Great also has great significance in Swiftie lore: Taylor's 2014 song "Clean" off the 1989 album was one of the inspirations for the film's story, and Swift wrote Lover 's "Death by a Thousand Cuts" after seeing the movie. Deeply relatable for anyone who's been blindsided or suffered a broken heart, Someone Great is about endings, beginnings, and finding the joy in both. —I.G.

Where to watch Someone Great : Netflix

Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Cast: Gina Rodriguez, DeWanda Wise, Brittany Snow, LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, RuPaul, Alex Moffat

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

Navigating high school is painful enough without all of your crushes finding out you like them — at the same time. A modern rom-com that EW's critic calls "breezy and charming," To All the Boys I've Loved Before follows Lara Jean Covey ( Lana Condor ) as her worst fears are realized when the love letters she never meant to send find their way to the boys who inspired them. Cornered by love, Lara Jean negotiates a sham relationship with her former crush to throw off her current one, but when feelings start catching, Lara Jean must deal with the consequences of both her lies and the truths she's starting to realize. The first in a series of three films, which also include 2020's To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and 2021's To All the Boys: Always and Forever , the original still hits the hardest. —I.G.

Where to watch To All the Boys I've Loved Before : Netflix

Director: Susan Johnson

Cast: Lana Condor , Noah Centineo , Janel Parrish , Anna Cathcart, Andrew Bachelor, Trezzo Mahoro, Madeleine Arthur , Emilija Baranac, Israel Broussard, John Corbett

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The 50 Most Romantic Movies of All Time

Whether you're looking for an old classic or a new favorite, these are the top romances to watch.

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But when you want a straight-ahead, no-frills romance, these are the best romantic movies of all time. Sure, they may incorporate elements of comedy, action or drama, and some of them may even star teens. But the biggest criteria is that the relationship has to be the most front-and-center focus of the film. These are the films that give you all those yearning feelings, the ones that yank on the heartstrings with all their might. And while they may be fewer and far between these days, there are plenty of them around if you know where to look. Grab a sweetheart and get ready to swoon.

Hit Man (2024)

It's romance and true crime all rolled into one. Glen Powell — romance actor du jour — plays an unassuming teacher who somehow winds up helping local police by pretending to be a hit man for hire in sting operations. When a potential client wants to be romantically involved, he gets pulled in over his head. The story is inspired by a real guy (though the romance is fabricated) that director Richard Linklater read about in a Texas Monthly article .

RELATED: Best Romantic Movies on Netflix

The Idea of You (2024)

It's a May/December romance when a 40-year-old single mom gets involved with a 24-year-old heartthrob. The twist? He's also the singer of a red-hot boy band. (The whole thing is said to be inspired by Harry Styles.) Can the romance survive the celebrity scrutiny?

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Anyone But You (2023)

Bea and Ben don't really like each other. But when Ben wants to make his ex jealous, and Bea wants to keep her family from getting on her case about settling down, they agree to pretend to be in a relationship for the duration of a destination wedding. But you know what they say about best-laid plans, and things start to change when they catch feelings.

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Past Lives (2023)

Everyone has the one that got away, the one that inspires daydreams about what could have been. In Past Lives , a girl named Nora is separated from her childhood sweetheart, Hae Sung, when her family immigrates to North America. Years later, Nora and Hae Sung reconnect for a week in New York City, though Nora already has a fiancé. Is he worth pursing and giving up her established life for, or does he just represent the idea of possibility?

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Cyrano (2022)

The love story of Cyrano de Bergerac is nothing new, but feels fresh in this adaptation through original songs, written by members of The National. Peter Dinklage gives a career-best performance as the title character, co-starring alongside Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Haley Bennett.

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RELATED: The Best Movie Musicals

Decision to Leave (2022)

This is a movie for people who like their romances to be rolled up in danger and mystery. The noir-ish film from director Park Chan-wook, who won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for it, follows a detective investigating a murder — only to fall for the prime suspect. He has to figure out if she's as innocent as she claims, or if it's all part of her ploy.

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Lady Chatterly's Lover (2022)

This movie is based on the super-steamy, often-banned novel by D.H. Lawrence, and it lives up to its source material in intensity. It follows the life of Constance Reid, an aristocratic wife whose eye turns toward her estate's gamekeeper when her husband returns from the war paralyzed from the waist down. Their affair would upend social norms in a variety of ways, but can she resist his allure?

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

This Norwegian film, which was nominated in the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, is a coming-of-age story and romance melded together, focusing on the loves that come in and out of your life when you don't have yourself 100% together. (Who can't relate?) It mostly focuses on Julie (Renate Reinsve) and her journey to young adulthood, but Anders Danielsen Lie co-stars as the man she crosses paths with over and over.

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Sylvie's Love (2020)

Sylvie and Robert meet when Robert gets a job at Sylvie's father's Harlem record shop in 1957. The movie then follows the couple through the years, as they navigate their ambitions, their unexpected setbacks and their feelings for each other.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

This film-festival favorite, which was nominated for a slew of awards at the end of 2019, follows a woman who is commissioned to travel to a remote island to paint a portrait of a woman as part of an arranged marriage; of course, she falls in love with her subject, and a forbidden romance ensues.

A Star Is Born (2018)

If you're looking for a story about people brought together by talent and torn apart by fame, you can watch a number of takes on A Star Is Born : There's the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, the 1954 version with Judy Garland and James Mason or the 1976 remake with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. But only the most recent one, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, has a performance of the heart-rending song " Shallow ."

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RELATED: Lady Gaga Spills the Hidden Meaning Behind “Shallow” Song Lyrics

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

From Barry Jenkins — director of Moonlight , which is its own sort of romance — comes this James Baldwin adaptation. It's about a couple, madly in love and expecting a child, whose relationship is upended when one of them is accused of a crime he didn't commit.

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Call Me By Your Name (2017)

First love is often the most intense, for better or for worse, and Call Me By Your Name captures all of those roiling emotions. Based on the book by André Aciman , it follows the young son of academics who, while on summer break in Italy, falls hard for one of his dad's grad students.

Carol (2015)

Based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Carol tells the story of an affair between two women in the 1950s, so you get the pleasure of watching all the sumptuous period dresses and interiors in addition to being swept away by the romance. This film also features an Oscar-nominated performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

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Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

There have been many movies that have attempted to master the romance-and-vampires genre (to varying success), but this Jim Jarmusch movie is the only one that gets at how wearying it would be to keep a marriage intact across centuries . Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play estranged but married vampires named Eve and Adam. (Get it?) When Adam is sunk by a depressive episode, Eve finds him again and tries to cheer him up.

Anna Karenina (2012)

Playwright Tom Stoppard adapts Leo Tolstoy's celebrated novel , with director Joe Wright giving the story new visual twists and turns that make it almost seem like a theatrical production more than a movie. The story follows the upper-echelons of Russian society, and how affairs of the heart can change a person's social standing.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

Miss Pettigrew, a movie set in London in the run-up to World War II, lives somewhere between romantic drama and screwball comedy. Amy Adams takes over the screwball part, playing Delysia Lafosse, a socialite juggling relationships with three different men (all of whom can somehow help her career or social standing). When Guinevere Pettigrew (played by Frances McDormand) is enlisted to be her social secretary, she's swept into Delysia's high-status world, and embarks on a more serious relationship of her own.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal earned Academy Award nominations for their depiction of two cowboys who conduct an affair in secret in the wilds of Wyoming. (They lost, but director Ang Lee brought home the award.)

The Notebook (2004)

Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks , this romance spans decades, flipping between a couple's first blush of love in the '40s and the present-day reality of how that relationship has transformed in old age. And while that may be moving, we sometimes forget everything that happens after Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams' rain-soaked kissing scene.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind breaks all the rules for romances, starting after the central couple has already broken up. Joel (Jim Carrey), still reeling from heartbreak, seeks out a procedure that'll erase Clementine (Kate Winslet) from his memory. The resulting trip through his mind, and memories of his past with Clementine, result in something more poignant than a straightforward rom-com could provide.

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother . She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.

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The best romance movies on Netflix right now

The good news for romance lovers is that Netflix has no shortage in that movie category. Granted, there are a lot more rom-coms on Netflix than romantic dramas, which makes it tricky if you’re looking for films that explore the more serious side of a relationship. But it’s important to have the option to laugh at love’s ridiculous moments as well.

This month, the new romantic additions to Netflix include Save the Last Dance , Fifty Shades of Grey , The Adjustment Bureau , and Eat Pray Love . These films are very different from each other, but they’ve earned their place on our roundup of the best romance movies on Netflix.

Looking for something else? Check out our list of the best rom-coms on Netflix , the best rom-coms on Hulu , and the best rom-coms on Amazon Prime Video .

Save the Last Dance (2001)

Julia Stiles headlines Save the Last Dance as Sara, a teenager whose life is unraveled following the death of her mother. Sara subsequently gives up on her dreams of being a ballerina, and moves in with her dad. She also transfers schools and becomes one of the few white students at a historically Black school.

That’s where Sara meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), a talented dancer who helps encourage her to follow her dreams again. Derek has plenty of ambition of his own, and romantic sparks inevitably follow. However, Sara faces a backlash for dating Derek, even from her friend (and Derek’s sister), Chenille (Kerry Washington). That forces Sara to question whether she and Derek can have a future together.

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

There’s so much to unpack about the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, including the way it transformed from Twilight fan fiction online into a bestselling novel series. Anastasia “Ana” Steele, as played by Madame Web  star Dakota Johnson, is just an ordinary college student who gets to interview billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), like that’s a normal thing that happens.

Naturally, Christian sweeps Ana off her feet with his world of wealth and privilege. It also turns out that Christian is into all kinds of sexual bondage games, in addition to his desire to control Ana. There’s a lot that Ana is willing to try, but Christian never stops pushing the limits of his power over her.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

What’s The Adjustment Bureau doing on a list of romance movies? That’s easy. This Philip K. Dick -inspired tale may be a sci-fi film, but the premise is all about a man, David Norris ( Matt Damon ), who is willing to literally fight fate because he loves a woman, Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). What’s more romantic than that?

The Adjustment Bureau is the thing standing in the way of Dave’s relationship with Elise. They shape the destiny of humanity, and the Bureau will do almost anything to keep them apart. David has discovered the truth behind their machinations, but will it be enough to let him have a life with Elise?

Eat Pray Love (2010)

For a long time, Julia Roberts was the queen of the rom-coms. However, Eat Pray Love heads into more dramatic territory as Roberts plays Elizabeth “Liz” Gilbert, a woman who is completely unhappy in her marriage with Stephen (Billy Crudup). So much so that Liz starts an affair with David (James Franco) even before her divorce is finalized.

To find herself, Liz goes on an international journey that includes attempts to connect with her spiritual side. Among the men she encounters is Felipe ( Dune: Part Two ‘ s Javier Bardem), who quickly finds a place in her heart. But can Liz overcome her fears and embrace a potential new life with Felipe?

Anyone But You (2023)

Thanks to Anyone but You ,  Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney are the breakout stars of 2024. And it was a rom-com that helped launch them to the stratosphere. Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) start off the movie hot with an instant love connection. Their relationship quickly goes south over some miscommunication that leaves both blaming each other.

Less than a year later, Bea and Ben are reunited as guests for a destination wedding, and their distaste for each other is apparent. The only reason why they agree to pretend to be getting back together is to make Glen’s ex-girlfriend, Margaret (Charlee Fraser), jealous, and to keep Bea’s parents from pressuring her to reunite with her ex-fiancé, Jonathan (Darren Barnet). But as in all rom-coms, Bea and Ben’s renewed proximity means that sparks are going to fly.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Nick Young (Herny Golding) might have left out some important information when he was courting Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) … like the fact that he comes from a fabulously wealthy family. Crazy Rich Asians ’ title is not an exaggeration about Nick’s family, as they are practically royalty in Singapore. And just because Rachel didn’t know about Nick’s fortune doesn’t mean that the family will welcome her.

Astrid Leong-Teo (Gemma Chan), Nick’s cousin, is the only one who embraces Rachel. Everyone else thinks that Rachel is a gold digger, especially Nick’s mother, Eleanor Sung-Young (Michelle Yeoh). Eleanor even goes out of her way to damage the bond between Nick and Rachel in the hope of driving them apart before Nick can propose.

La La Land (2016)

Nearly a decade after its release, La La Land is still one of the most rousing musicals of the modern era. Sure, it didn’t win Best Picture at the Oscars, but it should have. And that’s down to the Oscar-winning performance of Emma Stone ( Poor Things ) as Mia, as well as Ryan Gosling’s turn as Sebastian. Mia and Sebastian both have impossible dreams, which may be even bigger than the passion that they have for each other.

While chasing their respective dreams, the duo start to lose some of the spark that made them work so well as a couple. That brings Mia and Sebastian to a turning point where they will have to choose between their aspirations and each other.

A Walk to Remember (2002)

You can almost always count on Nicholas Sparks stories to focus on the unshakable bonds of love — with a touch of bittersweet tragedy thrown in for good measure. A Walk to Remember , the adaptation of Sparks’ novel, is no exception. Shane West stars as Landon Carter, a delinquent teenager who is given a chance to remain in school if he starts tutoring other students and appears in the school play.

That’s where Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) enters Landon’s life. She’s the daughter of Reverend Hegbert Sullivan (Peter Coyote), who is fiercely protective of Jamie. Although Jamie warns Landon not to fall in love with her, it’s easy to understand why he disregards that advice. But once Jamie’s secret comes out, then you’ll know why she gave Landon that warning.

All the Bright Places (2020)

Get ready for a tearjerker with All the Bright Places . Jennifer Niven co-wrote the adaptation of her own novel, which features Elle Fanning as Violet Markey. One year after the death of her sister, Violet seemingly contemplates suicide before Theodore “Theo” Finch ( Dungeons & Dragons star Justice Smith) successfully talks her down and befriends her.

Over time, Theo and Violet become close even though their relationship causes some friction with her parents. However, Theo has some very serious emotional demons to face, and not even his connection to Violet may be enough to pull him back from the brink.

I Love Lizzy (2023)

I Love Lizzy follows Jeff (Carlo Aquino), a young man who is on the verge of becoming a priest. While on vacation in the Philippines, Jeff becomes instantly attracted to his tour guide, Lizzy (Barbie Imperial); they soon open up to each other and share a bond.

This forces Jeff to question whether he is truly ready to become a priest or is willing to turn his back on that in the hope of finding a lasting love with Lizzy. However, Lizzy’s emotional baggage leads to tragedy, forcing Jeff to reevaluate his choices once again.

Love at First Sight (2023)

Love At First Sight is a bit of a misnomer, because Hadley Sullivan (Haley Lu Richardson) and Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) don’t fall head over heels in love just because they’re two incredibly attractive people. Although that certainly had to have helped things along. Instead, Hadley and Oliver briefly meet at the airport before sitting next to each other on a long flight to England. And during the flight, they form a bond that surprises both of them.

Their connection is so strong that Hadley makes the decision to pursue Oliver even though they both have family drama that they need to face before they can determine if they can make a relationship between them into a reality.

The Noel Diary (2022)

Although it may be implied by the title, The Noel Diary is not a movie about the famous Christmas carol, The First Noel . Instead, it’s a literal diary by Noel Ellis (Essence Atkins), a woman who is unknowingly the common factor connecting Jake Turner (Justin Hartley) and Rachel Campbell (Barrett Doss).

Jake is back in his hometown to handle his late mother’s estate when he meets Rachel, a woman who is looking for Noel, the woman who may be her birth mother. Because Noel was once Jake’s nanny, he realizes that his estranged father, Scott Turner (James Remar), may have answers. And as Jake helps Rachel find what she’s looking for, they may find something even greater together.

Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction (2023)

The title character of Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction is played by Alice Bier Zanden, and she seems to be completely immune to the charms of a painter, Cazotte (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard). Cazotte is so eager to win Ehrengard’s heart that he agrees to help the Grand Duchess (Sidse Babett Knudsen) by giving her son, Prince Lothar (Emil Aron Dorph), some pointers on seducing women so he can have an heir.

Unfortunately for Cazotte, Lothar is a quick study. That leads to all sorts of problems for the royal family. And Ehrengard remains frustratingly out of Cazotte’s reach and in the arms of another man.

No Limit (2022)

Hello, goodbye, and everything in between (2022).

It feels like you need to take a deep breath before saying the name Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between . In this Netflix Original movie , Talia Ryder stars as Clare, a high school senior who has had a difficult time connecting with anyone because her family constantly moves. Enter Aidan (Jordan Fisher), a teenager who breaks through Clare’s emotional barriers.

To convince Clare to give romance a chance, Aidan proposes that they set an end date for their relationship with an epic final date. But when the date finally arrives, Clare has to wonder if Aidan’s elaborate plans are really meant to keep them together.

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)

For the better part of a century, D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover has been adapted again and again for film, television, and even radio. Netflix’s movie is the latest adaptation, and it features Emma Corrin in the title role of Constance “Connie” Reid, the wife of Matthew Duckett’s Sir Clifford Chatterley.

When Clifford returns home from World War I as a paraplegic, the passion goes out of his marriage with Connie despite her best efforts. But when Connie begins a torrid affair with a gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell), it may cost Lady Chatterley her title, her wealth, and even her husband.

Faraway (2023)

Sometimes, you just need a break from life. When her mother passes away and her husband doesn’t show up to the funeral, it’s the last straw for Zeynep (Naomi Krauss). She’s already dealing with stress at work, an aging father at home, a husband who is clearly too preoccupied with his job for her, and a typical closed off teenage daughter.

So, she takes things into her own hands and decides to drive off to a home in Croatia that her mother bought before her death. But when she arrives, the owner of the villa Josip (Goran Bogdan) is still living there. This could pose a problem, or could it? Faraway is a romantic drama with elements of comedy and feel-good heartwarming moments that fans have likened to movies like Mamma Mia .

Most Eligible Bachelor (2021)

Along for the ride (2022), phantom thread (2017), a christmas prince (2017), malcolm & marie (2021), to all the boys i've loved before (2018), to all the boys: p.s. i still love you (2020), to all the boys: always and forever (2021), the guernsey literary & potato peel pie society (2018), marriage story (2019), always be my maybe (2019), someone great (2019), set it up (2018), the incredible jessica james (2017), nappily ever after (2018).

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Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek Monthly, SYFY Wire, Superhero Hype, Collider, DC Universe, and the official sites for Star Trek and Marvel. He also lends his pop culture expertise to Digital Trends on a variety of TV, movie, and streaming features.

Christine has decades of experience in trade and consumer journalism. While she started her career writing exclusively about tech, she now writes about everything from tech to entertainment, business, lifestyle, and more. An admitted TV junkie (feel free to reach out for recommendations on what to watch!), if she's not working or hanging out with friends and family, she's probably relaxing with a crisp glass of wine while binging her latest TV series obsession. Follow her on Twitter @christinetechCA.

Nick Perry is a freelance writer who bounced from Hollywood to Silicon Beach to pajama pants. His work has been featured on Digital Trends, Good Morning America, Entrepreneur, Mashable, and more media outlets.

Coming into the last week of August, our list of the best movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Max (HBO), and other services keeps getting better. This week, there are four new additions to the list, although none are quite as big as Max's release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga last week.

Nonetheless, this week, Netflix adds the high school comedy Incoming, John Woo's remake of his own classic action movie The Killer that lands on Peacock, Hulu serves up indie The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, and Shudder adds Hell Hole. We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, and the best movies on Max.

Despite having a lot fewer originals in 2024, Netflix is making a strong case for streamer of the year. In the absence of new shows produced by Netflix, the company has struck a deal with AMC and AMC+ that has added several new dramas to the streaming library, including Dark Winds, which is now one of the most popular shows on Netflix.

However, there are always surprises in Netflix's lineup. And this week, that surprise is the hybrid Western docuseries Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy Wars, which is outpacing all of the new AMC shows. The only scripted content in front of it is Emily in Paris. Now that's the kind of programing variety that made Netflix the top streaming service in the world.

You can tell when summer is winding down because the new movies heading to theaters stand absolutely no chance of dethroning the current champions. Alien: Romulus has turned out to be a minor hit for Disney's 20th Century Studios, while Deadpool & Wolverine is still raking in a fortune. Meanwhile, Borderlands had an even more spectacular crash than we could have predicted and it's already out of the top 10 at the box office.

This week's new additions, The Crow and Blink Twice, aren't expected to have much of an impact either. The former looks like a soulless remake of the 1994 original film, which has yet to be matched by any subsequent adaptation of The Crow. As for Blink Twice, that movie could surprise us with a stronger-than-expected showing. But it's not going to seriously challenge for No. 1 this weekend.

The New Romantic

A somewhat palatable quasi-rom-com that declares the death of contemporary romance from the get-go, only to try and resurrect it later, writer/director Carly Stone ’s “The New Romantic” unfolds more like an aspiring writer’s checklist of narrative influences than a fleshed out story on modern-day relationships. Clocking in barely over 80 minutes and yet surprisingly shapeless, “The New Romantic” aims to both playfully wink at the charms of certain beloved ‘90s rom-coms and simultaneously update their behind-the-times perspective of courtship à la 21 st century, in accordance with the era of swipe right or left. While it occasionally (yet lazily) succeeds at the former pursuit—probably only for the audiences nostalgic for a specific set of films from the rom-com genre—it falls short of the latter quite dramatically. A thoughtfully feminist spin on “ Pretty Woman ,” this film is not.

The aforesaid “death of romance” is pronounced by Blake (“The End of the F***ing World” actress Jessica Barden , who oddly looks and sounds too young for the part), a Carrie Bradshaw-esque relationship columnist for her college newspaper. A fed-up romantic who sometimes thinks in “I couldn’t help but wonder”-style voiceovers, Blake desperately yearns for the screwball-y quality of Nora Ephron films in her real life and desires the chivalry of a bygone time. But in reality, she is sadly surrounded by the kind of clueless, present-day people who cringingly ask whether Nora Ephron is Zac Efron ’s mother. Thus, she isn’t exactly out there, garnering fresh material for her topic of journalism. For someone expected to produce witty articles about sex, she seems to be on an unlucky streak in the bedroom until she decides to prematurely kill love on paper and contemplate in her essay whether Harry and Sally would have just become fuck buddies under today’s dire circumstances. Understandably, this bold move swiftly costs her the job. (Side note: I tried to not take personal offense from and read too deeply into the fact that her “bad at relationships” status temporarily lands her a job as a critic at the same paper.)

But then opportunity comes knocking in the form of gonzo journalism that would make Blake a combination of Vivian in “Pretty Woman” and Josie Geller in “ Never Been Kissed ,” and maybe even win her a Hunter S. Thompson writer award, if she’s lucky. Never mind if her idea is kosher, though—ethics be damned in the chase of a good story that will draw valuable clicks. With the help of her savvy roommate Nikki ( Hayley Law ) and experienced friend Morgan ( Camila Mendes ), Blake finds herself in the luxury-goods-filled world of sugar daddies. In no time, she lines up one of her own—a wealthy, 40-something finance-type named Ian ( Timm Sharp ) who wants to (well, sort of) “date” Blake in exchange of valuable gifts. Slipping into the sugar baby lifestyle for the sake of a good story she can milk, Blake momentarily loses herself in the fake yet no-strings-attached ease of her position.

It would be unfair to claim that Stone brushes over the arguably debauched and even antifeminist crisis Blake creates for herself. Blake incessantly feels and second-guesses her conundrum (and so do we), even when her transactional, paid-for time with Ian resembles something genuine. But I can’t say the filmmaker truly digs deep into questions of morality around her arrangement, either: “The New Romantic” almost shies away from connecting its ideas beyond a mildly amusing package, whose priority is honoring Stone’s favorite romantic comedies. In one scene, Blake educates herself through a YouTube video on the differences between her contract with Ian and traditional prostitution. But a moment that’s supposed to make her weigh the reality thoroughly reads like a frustrating justification of her quid-pro-quo agreement. If “The New Romantic” has some sort of a message to deliver to young women, it gets stuck in a murky space amid tired hat-tips to “Pretty Woman” (complete with Ian closing an expensive jewelry box on Blake’s fingers), an underdeveloped, young love interest and distractingly amateur cinematography. Then again, perhaps it doesn’t have that much to say after all.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

• Avan Jogia as Matt
• Camila Mendes as Morgan
• Brett Dier as Jacob
• Timm Sharp as Ian
• Hayley Law as Nikki
• Jessica Barden as Blake Conway
• Kamilla Kowal as Emily

Writer (story by)

• Carly Stone
• Christine Armstrong
• Matthew O’Halloran

Cinematographer

• Michael Robert McLaughlin

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Release Date : October 29,2021

123telugu.com Rating : 3/5

Starring: Akash Puri, Ketika Sharma, Ramya Krishna, Uttej, Sunayana, Rama Prabha and others

Director: Anil Paduri

Producers: Puri Jagannadh, Charmme

Cinematography: Naresh Rana

Music Director: Sunil Kashyap

Editor: Junaid Siddiqui

After being in the making for more than 2 years, Puri Jagannadh and Charmme’s latest production, Romantic, has finally released in cinemas worldwide amid a decent buzz. The film marks Puri’s son Akash Puri’s third film as a hero. Delhi Instagram beauty Ketika Sharma makes her acting debut with the film. Let’s see how the film is.

Romantic is set in Goa drug mafia backdrop. Vasco da Gama (Akash Puri) is a street smart ruffian who chooses crime to earn a fortune and fulfill his grandma’s (Rama Prabha) dream. He and his childhood friend Annie join Goa’s most notorious drug mafia lord Rodrigues’ gang. Within no time, Vasco becomes a kingpin in the Goa underworld. Vasco falls for the charms and ‘back’ beauty of a young musician named Monica (Ketika Sharma).

After a failed drug deal, Vasco kills Rodrigues and proclaims himself as the new mafia king of Goa. In the process, he kills an SI and that’s when a dutiful and ruthless ACP Ramya Gowarikar (Ramya Krishna) is transferred from Mumbai to Goa to nab Vasco. Will Ramya succeed in her mission? What will happen to Vasco and Monica’s steamy relationship? You will have to watch the film to know the rest.

Plus Points:

Compared to his first film, Mehbooba, Akash Puri has improved a lot and delivers an impactful performance. His confident screen presence and dialogue delivery are his main assets. He shoulders the film in several crucial scenes. Delhi girl Ketika Sharma will win a lot of admirers for her sensuous beauty. Her acting is decent, considering this is her debut.

Ramya Krishna as a sincere cop is another highlight of Romantic. The story is aptly narrated through Ramya’s voice-over. The last act of the movie, especially the climax, is quite engaging and audiences will leave theaters with a heavy feeling. In the end, the way Vasco and Monica realise their love for each other has a lot of feel. Hero Ram makes a mass appearance in a special song in his ‘Ustaad’ avatar.

Minus Points:

Throughout the first half, one can’t help but wonder why the makers titled the film as Romantic. The first half, including the initial 15 minutes of the second half, are dominated by action and hardly showcase romance.

Akash plays a character that looks too heavy for his age. Also, the way his character rises to the top within no time is too silly and simplistic. Hero lusting over heroine’s ‘back’ beauty is in cheap taste, but again, such characters are quite common in Puri Jagannadh’s movies. Hero’s lust for heroine and her advances towards him look embarassing and even unconvincing.

Technical Aspects:

Romantic’s story gives you a sense of deja vu of movies like Pokiri, SRK’s Raees and Puri’s 143. The story offers nothing new and relies entirely on the lead actors’ performances. The characterisations, story setup, making and even the dialogues bear Puri Jagannadh’s signature. Director Anil Paduri makes a decent debut and scores well in handling of his actors. However, his script is very redundant and average.

Music composer Sunil Kashyap is one of the main pillars of Romantic. He lifts the proceedings with his catchy and impactful songs and racy background score. Editing is adequate, and so is the cinematography. The picturesque Goa beaches and the rustic places are captured well. The production values are decent for the story and scale.

On the whole, Romantic is an engaging drama. The film has Puri Jagannadh’s signature written all over. Akash Puri’s confident performance and newbie Ketika Sharma’s glamor and performance and Sunil Kashyap’s songs are the main highlights of this otherwise regular love story set in a drug mafia milieu. You can watch Romantic this weekend, but we recommend you to keep your expectations in check.

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

Click Here For Telugu Version

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Best-Reviewed Romance Movies 2020

If you are looking at this list and feeling romantic, that’s to be expected; if you are looking at this list and wondering why a film from 2019 is the winner, then you are an independent film obsessive who didn’t know Portrait of A Lady On Fire  was put into limited release in the US in 2020. Critics said Céline Sciamma’s intimate period romance is gorgeously shot and confirms that the most steamy romances are often predicated on all the moments and stolen glances that happen before the two lovers finally embrace. Rounding out our top three are Palm Springs , which gives a new twist on the Groundhog Day time-loop formula, and  The Half of It , an LGBTQ coming-of-age story that had critics swooning on Netflix.

The order of the rank below reflects the Adjusted Score as of February 28, 2021. Scores might change over time.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) 97%

Palm Springs (2020) 95%

The Half of It (2020) 97%

Spontaneous (2020) 96%

Ordinary Love (2019) 93%

Dating Amber (2020) 94%

Sylvie's Love (2020) 93%

Premature (2019) 93%

Words on Bathroom Walls (2020) 89%

Luxor (2020) 92%

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Gulte Telugu news

Movie Review: Romantic

Article by Satya B Published by GulteDesk --> Published on: 6:52 am, 30 October 2021

2 Hr 25 Mins   |   Action   |   29-10-2021

Cast - Akash Puri, Ketika Sharma, Ramya Krishna, Uttej and others

Director - Anil Paduri

Producer - Puri Jagannadh, Charmme

Banner - Puni Connects

Music - Sunil Kashyap

Romantic has got the attention it needed, thanks to lustful teaser, trailer and hard-hitting youthful dialogues. Puri penned the story, screenplay and dialogues. He is hoping that this movie will change the fate of his son Akash. Does Romantic have the stuff? Or is it just confined to the promos?

What Is It About?

Vasco Da Gama (Akash Puri) is a gangster who gets into smuggling to get rich, but he has a heart of gold. He funds the charity run by his grandmother Mary (Rama Prabha). He meets Mounica (Ketika Sharma) and is head over heels for her beauty. Vasco Da Gama kills a dishonest police officer who cheats him. Police department is serious on the issue and a special officer Ramya Gowariker (Ramya Krishna) is deputed to nab Vasco and thus end the wrongdoings in Goa. Vasco gets arrested and he gets a life sentence. This puts his love story with Mounica in a spot. Vasco and Mounica dare the law for their love. Will they win?

Performances

Akash, who was struggling with his acting in previous films, seems to have improved. Still he needs to improve a lot. He looks quite young, amateurish to pull off such a heavy role of gangster. While Akash tries his best, he is only half-successful. In romantic scenes, he does a better job. Mouthing mass dialogues doesn’t fit him.

Ketika Sharma’s glam show will make youth go berserk. She steals the show with her beauty. It is an absolute treat to watch her in romantic and intimate scenes. She sizzles in songs. Her revealing costumes and styling elevates her beauty.

Ramya Krishna shines with her performance notwithstanding that she is offered a badly written character. Still she manages to make her presence felt. She brought some seriousness to the film. Sunaina’s comedy works in parts. None of the villain characters are effective enough to take them seriously. Rama Prabha’s character is highly emotional and doesn’t fit into the film.

Technicalities

Puri penned the story, screenplay and dialogues for Romantic. But we wonder whether there exists a comprehensive story at all. It looks like he is retelling his old stories with different set-up and backdrop. It is a wafer-thin plot of a gangster’s love story and tries to give a youthful touch with ‘lust’. First-time director Anil Paduri has nowhere made his mark in the film. Film is well shot in the picturesque locales of Goa. Songs, though not great for ears, are beautifully picturized alongside beaches and roads.

Ketika Sharma’s Oomph Factor Puri’s Dialogues & Climax

Thumbs Down

Predictable Story Weak Rivals Flat Narration

Gangster films have been done to death. Many films inspired by God Father have been made in Indian cinema. Ram Gopal Varma has aced in it as he made a gangster trilogy – Satya, Company & D. But Puri tried to show the love story of a gangster. Even it is not something new as many filmmakers in the past have attempted. Puri picked a plot that has nothing much to elaborate.

One glaring problem in the film is that nothing is difficult for the protagonist Vasco as he gets rich easily with just one idea – how to loot a container, he gets to become don easily (when his boss gets accidentally killed and he takes over the gang) and he gets the girl he wants easily. All these look very cinematic and unconvincing. His only problem is the police who are chasing him and the law that tries to put brakes on his freedom and love. It is evident that the writing is lazy. Puri, who is supposed to write some scenes with brain, takes it lightly and just fills the scenes. Dialogues are squandered. This makes Romantic look very ordinary, routine.

One wonders why the rest of the dons/villains/goons in the film are so weak that they can’t challenge Vasco enough. In fact, it gives the feeling that there are hardly any villains left other than one (Samsung) who comes once in a while and participates in a shoot-out. Still, it looks very unconvincing as a young gangster Vasco Da Gama has no major threat as his rivals are too weak. This looks absolutely silly. In fact, Puri’s film doesn’t need villains. As the protagonists in his films are villains with negative shades! The heroes in his films are baddies too.

However, the film is not completely bad. It has its moments here and there. Puri, who knows the pulse of masses, gave some lustful scenes, dialogues to satiate their voyeurism. There are cheers, claps from youths for such scenes. There is a parallel drawn between the love for country and love for girls which looks interesting. Vasco tells Ramya: ‘I Love My Country’. Paisa Kharchu Ledu. ‘I Love You’. Sarada Teerchestadi. He also tells love is weakness and pain. He doesn’t want to be ‘weakened’ by it. At the end, he is madly in love with Mounica. All these are not convincingly told. There is a lot of inconsistency in the love/lust track which puts audiences in confusing. This takes away the emotional feel.

On the whole, Romantic is strictly catered to the set of audiences who want to see the heroine’s beauty. It may pull youths to cinemas. Family audiences should give this a skip.

Bottom-line: Vasco Da Gama (Vaddu Ra Mama)!

Rating: 2.25/5

Tags Akash Puri Kethika Sharma Puri Jagannath Recommended Romantic

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A wild journey of sensuality and Love beyond anything. A wild journey of sensuality and Love beyond anything. A wild journey of sensuality and Love beyond anything.

• Anil Paduri
• Puri Jagannadh
• A.R. Sreedhar
• Ketika Sharma
• Ramya Krishnan
• 13 User reviews
• 2 Critic reviews

Top cast 30

• Vasco De Gama

• Ramya Gowarikar

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Connections Referenced in Sarkaar: SARKAAR Episode 6 (2021)
• Soundtracks Nuvvu Nenu E kshanam Performed by Chinmayee Sripada Composed by Sunil Kashyap Written by Puri Jagannadh

User reviews 13

• Jun 24, 2022
• How long is Romantic? Powered by Alexa
• October 29, 2021 (India)
• Vasco: The Rebel
• Puri Connects
• Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• ₹70,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 2 hours 15 minutes

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The 35 Best Romance Movies of the 21st Century (So Far), Ranked

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Narrowing down the greatest love stories, of any era, may very well be a fool’s errand. After all, practically every movie has a romantic subplot of one kind or another. It doesn’t matter if it’s a horror movie, an action movie, a biopic or a conventional rom-com; it seems like Hollywood doesn’t even know how to tell a story that doesn’t have a little love in it. That means there’s a lot of competition for the best romantic movies of the 21st century. Whittling the list down to 35 was an agonizing process, like assembling a puzzle that came with way too many pieces. No matter how we assembled it something noteworthy got left out.

So before we get started, let’s offer up our sincerest apologies to the celebrated Gosling Triad; The Notebook , Crazy Stupid Love , and La La Land just barely missed the cut. The same goes for feel-good Disney flicks like Enchanted and WALL-E , superhero blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man 2 , and Oscar-winners like The Shape of Water and CODA . But what remains is a rich assortment of romances from a variety of perspectives. Each one of these films will make you swoon, laugh, or cry, and probably a combination of all three. If hard-pressed, yes, these are the best romance movies of the 21st century (so far).

35 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' (2018)

Directed by susan johnson.

We couldn’t have a list of romance movies and ignore the teen subgenre. High-school-set romances can feel a bit repetitive and contrived after a while. Jock meets geeky girl, popular girl falls for the nerdy loser – we’ve seen it all before. However, Netflix's (and based on a novel by Jenny Han ) To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before , puts a different spin on the tired genre, focusing on the protagonist, and her relationship with her family as well as a love interest. Lara Jean Covey ( Lana Condor ), in order to conceal her crushes throughout the years, unleashes her emotions into a letter addressed to each crush. This is mainly to conceal her feelings towards Josh ( I srael Broussard ), her former best friend who is now dating her older sister, Margot ( Janel Parrish ).

When her younger sister sends out the letters, Lara Jean pretends to date another letter recipient, Peter ( Noah Centineo ). Lara hopes to throw Josh off and Peter wants to make his ex, Gen ( Emilija Baranac ), jealous. Yes, pretend-dating is a fairly overused trope in film , but there's something fresh about how To All the Boys approaches it. Johnson's film is as much about romantic love as it is about sisterly bonding and coming to terms with what love is really about. The two sequels are both fun but don't match up to the sweet original. – Emma Kiely

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Not available

34 'Only You' (2018)

Directed by harry wootliff.

A film that works to draw out the more realistic and somber truths of relationships, Only You follows Elena ( Laia Costa ) and Jake ( Josh O’Connor ) who meet one night while fighting over a taxi. As they fall in love, it seems that their relationship presents more challenges each day. Their 9-year age gap is something they can get past, but when they start trying for a baby, the journey of IVF, medication, and disappointment seems too overwhelming. The couple must then face the choice between each other and the life that they’ve always dreamed of.

It’s a rare thing when a film decides to look at what happens after the couple finally gets together. We don’t always get to watch as two people try to get through the day-to-day as a couple. O’Connor and Costa get right to the core of the film, making every scene rife with intimacy. It’s one of the more honest portrayals of love and relationships in movies , but still grants the viewer a happy ending – one that you can actually see happening in real life.

Watch on Tubi

33 'Love, Simon' (2018)

Directed by greg berlanti.

The problem with a lot of teen romances is that the heroes are, obviously, teenagers. They are young and they are inexperienced, and it’s sometimes difficult to root for their love stories to have picture-perfect endings because we know their lives will be long, and filled with heartaches and romances for decades to come. Greg Berlanti ’s Love, Simon deftly evades these notions, because it’s a coming-of-age story first and foremost, and what counts is how the protagonist grows upon having his first love, not whether or not they end up together forever.

Nick Robinson stars as Simon, a gay teen who hasn’t come out yet, who forms a pen pal relationship with a mysterious fellow student, who also hasn’t revealed to his friends and family that he’s gay. The story forces Nick to make some tough choices, and he doesn’t always make the right one, but his journey to self-discovery gets his priorities in check, so he can come to terms with who he is and finally, possibly, have the romance he wants with someone he’s never met… except in his heart. And in his emails. A delightfully John Hughes-ian teen film with a sparkling ensemble cast.

Love, Simon (2018)

32 'once' (2007), directed by john carney.

John Carney is famous the world over for making passionate, character-driven films full of awesome music, like Begin Again and Sing Street . But his masterpiece is still this infectiously low-key, lovely romance. Once stars Glen Hansard as a busker in Ireland, working in his father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop when he isn’t singing songs about his latest breakup in the street. When his music catches the ear of a Czech immigrant played by Markéta Irglová , they strike up a friendship based on mutual, musical appreciation.

Naturally, they fall in love, but sadly, there’s nothing they can do about that. All they can do is scrape together whatever money they can, write some songs, and cut a record. Carney understands that the real thrill of watching their tale play out lies in watching the art his characters make, not in the contrived machinations of a story pushing them this way and that. There’s an intoxicating realness to the simple yet heartfelt Once , revelry in the power of music to connect with other human beings , that shines through and makes it truly special.

Watch on Hulu

31 'Southside With You' (2016)

Directed by richard tanne.

Richard Tanne ’s intimate and absorbing Southside With You would be one of the best romantic movies of the decade if its subjects were fictional. That it’s also based on the true story of Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson ’s first date is but another intriguing selling point. Southside With You follows Robinson, played by Tika Sumpter , as a young lawyer and Obama’s supervisor, who agrees to meet the summer associate for a community meeting. She hesitantly agrees to meet up earlier, but has no interest in an office romance.

Southside With You takes place over the course of the afternoon and early evening as these two individuals with powerful personalities share their thoughts on life, on politics, on race, and find a connection building between them. It’s not love at first sight, and it’s not a passionate love affair. Southside is about two complex individuals with big ideas and serious dreams coming to realize, for the first time, that they could be more . Tanne’s film may not be able to fully escape a sense of mythologizing, and yet few romance movies in recent memory approach love and dating with the same confident maturity, regardless of the context.

Southside With You

Watch on Max

30 'Deadpool' (2016)

Directed by tim miller.

Quite a lot of superhero movies have a love story to tell amidst all the costumed crimefighting, but for some reason, it’s the one about a mass murderer who knows he’s in a movie that stands out. Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as a mercenary who finds the love of his life, Vanessa ( Morena Baccarin ), a hilarious, sensitive, intelligent, and sensual partner who makes his life worth living. So when he finds out he’s dying of cancer he flees to spare her the horror of watching him die, and he runs headlong into a secret government program that tortures him ruthlessly, in the hopes it will cure him and restore his life.

It is, of course, a devil’s bargain, and Deadpool emerges with superhuman healing powers but permanently marred skin, which only makes him more self-conscious about reuniting with his partner after so much of their relationship was physical. And at that point yes, there’s lots of action and violence and potty humor, but Deadpool would merely be a lark without a genuine, human story to ground it . And the story of a man whose insecurity nearly robs him of the relationship he wants, who ignores what his lover is telling him because he’s terrified that it’s not what she really needs, is far more thoughtful, accessible, and real than most of the other films in its genre.

29 'Secretary' (2002)

Directed by steven shainberg.

Not everybody loves each other the same way, and yet, few romantic movies seem genuinely interested in truly exploring a lifestyle of sexual kink. At least we have Steven Shainberg ’s Secretary . Maggie Gyllenhaal gives an electric performance as a young woman who discovers, through an unexpected BDSM relationship with her new boss, that she’s a submissive who yearns for just the right dom. James Spader plays her new lover, but even he doesn’t seem wholly comfortable with who he is and what he really wants.

Secretary is an unusual film about people with very specific needs who find each other. Their desires may be specific, but their fantasy is universal: they’re looking for someone who loves them for who they are, who can provide what they need, and with whom they can be mutually happy. That’s a dream that should not merely be reserved for the sensually milquetoast. The kinky deserve true love too, and Secretary is that rare love story that respects that everyone has unique needs and tells a lovely story that suggests there’s someone out there for everybody.

28 '(500) Days of Summer' (2009)

Directed by marc webb.

Easily one of the most influential and iconic romantic comedies of its era, (500) Days of Summer set the mold and status quo for many self-aware and convention-breaking rom-coms in the 2010s . The film follows the story of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a hopeless romantic and greeting-card writer who has his life completely flipped upside down when his girlfriend, Summer ( Zooey Deschanel ), breaks up with him. The breakup causes him to reflect and reminisce on their 500-day-long relationship in order to figure out where things went wrong.

(500) Days of Summer enacts a unique style of self-deprecating humor and stylized execution that made it stand out greatly for its unique and hilarious approach to romantic comedy. It completely flips the genre of romantic comedy on its head in a way that few romcoms of the era were capable of . While certain aspects of its writing and characters haven't particularly aged the best, it's difficult to deny that the film had a massive influence on romantic comedies going forward.

(500) Days of Summer

27 'lovers rock' (2020), directed by steve mcqueen.

The second film in Steve McQueen ’s Small Axe cycle, a collection of films exploring the lives of West Indian immigrants in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, doesn’t so much tell a story as it seems to float, all on its own, throughout a brief and beautiful moment in time. Lovers Rock takes place at a small house party where young people gather, absorb beautiful reggae music, and are swept away by their emotions… just like the audience.

To watch Lovers Rock is to feel a rare kind of joy, the sensation that a movie has transported you to a specific place , and captured every single detail for you. The songs that fuel the soundtrack, the partygoers who know them all by heart, and a pair of young lovers who meet and share the exquisite glow of discovery amidst the jubilance and tumult that fueled their first moments. It’s ecstatic cinema, immersive and whole.

Buy on Criterion

26 'Bridget Jones's Diary' (2001)

Directed by sharon maguire.

There were a couple of great adaptations of Jane Austen ’s Pride and Prejudice in the early 2000s, but it’s this charming modern update that stands out the most. Bridget Jones’s Diary stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget, a woman caught in a love triangle between the dashing Daniel, played by Hugh Grant , and the seemingly disinterested Mr. Darcy, played by Colin Firth (who, in a bit of stunt casting, famously played Mr. Darcy in a straightforward Pride and Prejudice adaptation six years prior).

It’s Zellweger’s film – she earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance – but director Sharon Maguire has wonderfully furnished it for her. Bridget Jones’s Diary brings all the smoldering romance and biting commentary of Austen’s novel into the modern-day , finding the tale just as relevant as ever and contemporary romantic expectations just as ripe for cunning commentary as those of the 19th century.

Bridget Jones's Diary

25 'god's own country' (2017), directed by francis lee.

Set in rural Yorkshire, God's Own Country follows the relationship between a sullen young farmer, Johnny (Josh O'Connor), and Gheorghe ( Alec Secăreanu ), a Romanian immigrant who comes to help with the farm. Johnny spends his days estranged from his father, drinking to oblivion, and having secret sexual rendezvous with other men, as he is still not out. He feels left behind as his friends go on to university, escaping their small, isolated town. It seems as though Johnny has acquiesced to the fact that he'll live a sad, lonely life, but Gheorghe's arrival changes everything.

From resentment, to slow sexual tension to finally, a burst of passion that sees the men unable to keep their hands off each other, Johnny and Gheorghe's road to love is a windy one, but that's what makes it all the more rewarding when fans see the two finally embrace their feelings for each other. God's Own Country depicts the journey of self-discovery that one needs to embark on to feel like they deserve the love they want . This film is a reminder that all types of love are found in all places, with the queer hidden gem being a beautiful, heartbreaking, and magnetic story of self-worth and love against a backdrop that is not usually seen in romance movies. – Emma Kiely

God's Own Country

Watch on Hoopla

24 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000)

Directed by ang lee.

Ang Lee ’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon isn’t, as many films are, an action movie with a love story in it. It’s a love story with an action movie in it. What’s more, it’s one hell of a love story, and one hell of an amazing action movie. Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat star as martial artists who are in love but, through a stroke of fate, cannot allow themselves to be together. When they encounter a young martial artist, played by Zhang Ziyi , who refuses to abide by the rules that kept them apart, it sparks a heated conflict with lots and lots of amazing sword fights.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon plays like a Merchant Ivory film, the kind where everybody holds their emotions back except for young people who, inevitably, create chaos by following their hearts. That those emotions are unleashed in astounding fight choreography by the legendary Yuen Wo Ping only elevates Lee’s film further. It’s a glorious ballet of love and war. The mixture of pure romance and high-stakes action makes the film enthralling and enticing, thanks to how effectively it captures both sides of this delicate balance of genres.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

23 'challengers' (2024), directed by luca guadagnino.

Even despite its recent release, Challengers has made massive waves among audiences and critics as one of the most electric, sensual, and high-octane romantic sports dramas of recent memory. The film follows the chaotic love triangle of Tashi ( Zendaya ), Art ( Mike Faist ), and Patrick ( Josh O'Connor ), who were all once the best of friends in college but have since divided, with Tashi and Art being married and Patrick living a loner's life. However, when Art signs up for a local challenger event after a losing streak, the rivalry springs up again when Patrick and Art are set to battle in the finals.

Luca Guadagnino has always been effective at telling hectic and non-ordinary love stories on the big screen, with his distinct directorial vision working dividends for the story and characters of Challengers . Even in scenes that are more focused on tennis and not necessarily romance, there is a distinct erotic energy and aura that overwhelms the film , creating a brilliantly tense and passionate tale that weaves between each of its characters' lives and goals.

Challengers

Rent on Amazon

22 'Sleeping With Other People' (2015)

Directed by leslye headland.

There haven’t been a lot of great, naughty rom-coms in the 21st century, but Leslye Headland ’s Sleeping With Other People would have stood out even if the competition were stiff. Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star as Jake and Lainey, two sexually overactive people who realize that their drives are ruining their lives. So they vow not to sleep with each other no matter how aroused they get. And they get very, very aroused.

Sudeikis and Brie keep the sexual chemistry at a low boil for all of Sleeping With Other People , and yes, we know where this is going and yes, it’s only a matter of time. But Headland’s spry screenplay and winning sense of humor work wonders, and she constantly mines the strong set-up and delightful characters for laugh-out-loud jokes and genuine romance. Especially when compared to other 'friends with benefits' movies of the era, Sleeping With Other People tackles the story with enough emotional maturity mixed with comedy to make it a compelling watch.

Sleeping With Other People

21 'the holiday' (2006), directed by nancy meyers.

The films of Nancy Meyers tend to portray the lives of the bourgeoisie in fairy tale terms and never was it more successful than in The Holiday . Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play women who, searching for a change of pace after failed relationships, decide to switch houses. Winslet ventures into Southern California, moving into a palatial mansion next to a charming Golden Age of Hollywood screenwriter, and starts to fall for a film composer played by a pitch-perfect Jack Black . Meanwhile, Diaz moves into Winslet’s cozy, super-expensive cottage and romances the dapper Jude Law , who turns out to be Winslet’s brother.

The perfection on display in The Holiday would be suspect if the title didn’t perfectly frame it: this is an exceptional vacation from everyday life . The problems are emotionally intense but solvable, and the characters have the freedom to worry about their foibles without serious concerns to distract them; stupid little things like bills, for example. And the whole cast is just so unimaginably delightful that you cannot begrudge them this happiness. You can only revel in it, fall a little in love, and then begrudgingly go back to real life. Like those stupid bills.

The Holiday

Watch on Netflix

20 'They Came Together' (2014)

Directed by david wain.

There’s a specific brand of romantic comedy that doesn’t get made much anymore but was a box office powerhouse in the 1990s . Fans of films like You’ve Got Mail , While You Were Sleeping , and Notting Hill can recognize every gloriously hackneyed storytelling convention from a mile away, and if they have any sense of humor whatsoever about that, David Wain ’s brilliant parody They Came Together is just about the perfect comedy.

Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler star as people who are so different they couldn’t possibly get together, who discover they have something in common when they realize they share a unique passion for “fiction books.” But will their love survive phony plot points, twee digressions, and wacky supporting cast members? Will it almost be like New York City is a character in the film? You know the answers, but that just makes it more hilarious for Wain and his wacky cast to go through those motions in the weirdest, most self-aware ways imaginable .

They Came Together

19 'a star is born' (2018), directed by bradley cooper.

By the time Bradley Cooper got around to remaking A Star is Born , it was already the fourth adaptation of the story. (Possibly even the fifth, you consider that the original 1937 film is suspiciously similar to 1932’s What Price Hollywood? ) Once again it’s the story of an aspiring artist taken under the wing of a has-been with alcoholism, who uses his clout to lift her to stardom, only to fall in love with him as he sinks into addiction and scandal. And once again, the danged story really works.

A Star is Born is a love letter to the entertainment industry just as much as it is a vicious screed against it , portraying the whole environment as an exploitative den of selfish behavior and lifelong human sacrifice. Cooper’s rendition, in which he co-stars along with a stellar Lady Gaga , keeps that contrast front and center, but never loses track of the fact that if the love story doesn’t work, nothing does. Cooper and Gaga have four-alarm fire chemistry with each other, and the Oscar-winning music that accompanies their rise and fall tells their story beautifully too.

A Star is Born

18 'lost in translation' (2003), directed by sofia coppola.

One of many powerful stories of romance and conviction from Sofia Coppola , Lost in Translation follows the unexpected romance that forms between two wayward souls who are both visiting Tokyo. Charlotte ( Scarlett Johansson ) is the young wife of a photographer who is largely neglected and ignored on a daily basis, while Bob ( Bill Murray ) is a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial. Due to their strange connection as the only people who understand one another in the entire city, they manage to form an unlikely bond in their lives away from America.

The tricky thing about writing stories about love is that love is an infinitely intricate and deep topic, as it springs up from anywhere and can happen to anyone, yet this fleeting passion and surprise is perfectly captured in Lost in Translation . It acts as one of the most honest and effective portrayals of love in its era, being able to distinctly recapture hyper-specific feelings and struggles that are built up as a result of relationships. The film also acts as a perfect companion film to other iconic romance drama Her , considering that both films drew inspiration from the same relationship between Coppola and Spike Jonze .

Lost in Translation

17 'love & basketball' (2000), directed by gina prince-bythewood.

Gina Prince-Bythewood ’s directorial debut is more gloriously assured than the films of many industry veterans and remains one of the high water marks for romance movies over the last 20 years. Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps star as Quincy and Monica, next-door neighbors since childhood who both dream of playing professional basketball. Over the course of their lives, they fall in and out of love, they get swept up in their ambitions and their family struggles, and eventually, they always find their way back to each other.

Love & Basketball never plays like a romance built on contrivance or manufactured melodrama. It’s full of thoughtfully drawn, rich characters who attract and repel each other naturally, making good and bad choices, and never once ringing false. Lathan and Epps feel just right together; their chemistry is phenomenal throughout, whether they’re on or off the court. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s film never rings a false note.

Love & Basketball (2000)

16 'crazy rich asians' (2018), directed by jon m. chu.

Jon M. Chu ’s charming and funny adaptation of Kevin Kwan ’s novel stars Constance Wu as Rachel, a Chinese-American professor who travels to meet her boyfriend’s family in Singapore, only to discover they’re astonishingly wealthy. And so begins a familiar tale of class conflict, as a young woman from a working-class upbringing suddenly gets immersed in fabulous privilege and glorious excess. Not to mention the constant leers of disapproval.

Crazy Rich Asians is an old-fashioned throwback to Hollywood romance movies, larger than life, riddled with memorable character actors , and adherent to a feel-good formula. But it’s more than that, it’s a distinctive and transportive romantic comedy with performances that would elevate any material, and an appreciation for a culture that mainstream Hollywood rarely even attempts to explore. It’s one of the best rom-coms of the last 20 years.

Crazy Rich Asians

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‘Romantic’ Telugu movie review: Voyeuristic drama at best

Though immensely talented, young akash puri is not quite convincing as a gangster.

Updated - October 30, 2021 04:25 pm IST

Published - October 30, 2021 12:36 pm IST

Also Read | Get ‘First Day First Show’, our weekly newsletter from the world of cinema, in your inbox . You can subscribe for free here

The film begins with ACP Ramya (Ramya Krishna) arriving in Goa to nab the criminal who killed a cop on duty. Her target is Vasco as well. She narrates this so-called love story of Vasco and Monica and the reason for coming to Goa. Vasco Da Gama, a 20 something youngster turns into a gangster after eliminating the existing one. Why would we root for a smuggler and a criminal? There is a soft side to him as well in the story; he helps the poor by building houses.

• Cast: Akash Puri, Ketika Sharma, Ramya Krishna
• Direction: Anil Paduri
• Music: Sunil Kashyap

The film is dominated with the scenes where the lead pair is lusting for each other. The first time, when Vasco (Akash) stalks Monica (Ketika Sharma), she asks him, “what do you want?” She keeps repeating the question and just when you are exasperated, she breaks into a song, What do you want? .

Though the film is directed by Anil Paduri, it has Puri Jagannadh’s signature frames and dialogues; the only remarkable thing is that the dialogues aren't risque like in the mentor’s movies. It has been toned down a bit but that doesn’t mean it is devoid of objectification. Vasco says, in this forest of no rules, Monica is just an animal and makes it clear to his associates that there is no love between them. Same with her, which is why throughout the film they can’t keep their hands off each other. Surprisingly, Monica tells her brother (Uttej) she has fallen for Vasco because there is no option. Be it the visuals, or dialogues, every scene between them is voyeuristic. Ram Pothineni appears for a brief period and so does Puri Jagannadh in a song and it is so clear that the filmmakers are having Ismart Shankar hangover and in a hurry to make Akash another Ustad.

Ketika Sharma makes a confident debut. Akash has the potential and will succeed someday, all it takes is the right selection of a script. Romantic as of now is overdramatic but you can watch for its visual appeal and music.

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The 14 Best Films About Summer Romance

And where to stream them.

Summer’s lease may have all too short a date, but the memories created during the season have the uncanny quality of lasting a lifetime. At least, that’s what the following movies hint at—in the great American canon of summer romance films, the following 14 stand out as genre classics. From newer comedies like Joel Kim Booster’s Fire Island to nostalgic ’80s meditations on love and class like Mystic Pizza , these films celebrate the unique portal of time between May and September, when the weather is warmer, inhibitions are lowered, and everything seems possible.

Roman Holiday (1953)

There’s a reason Roman Holiday won four Academy Awards when it was released in 1953 (including Best Actress for its star, Audrey Hepburn), and was nominated for six more. Charming and romantic, the classic film puts Hepburn and her costar Gregory Peck’s chemistry at the forefront, with the beautiful city of Rome as their backdrop. Although both Hepburn’s character (a princess pretending she’s a runaway schoolgirl to escape the monotony of royal duties) and Peck’s (a journalist sneakily trying to get a scoop) obscure their true identities from one another, they can’t help but fall in love anyway. (Prime Video)

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Another romance set in Italy—though this time, the countryside—Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age story is the film that made a young Timothée Chalamet into a cult-favorite actor. Playing the role of 17-year-old Elio Perlman, he spends a slow, sexual-tension-filled summer with doctoral student Oliver (Armie Hammer), an experience that changes him forever. (Netflix)

Lovers Rock (2020)

The second installment in director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series—five films based on the real-life experiences of London’s West Indian community— Lovers Rock takes place during a single summer evening at a house party in 1980. The film follows two young people, Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) and Franklyn (Micheal Ward), who meet at the party and form a blossoming relationship. The soundtrack is incredible, and filled with songs from the Lovers Rock genre of reggae. And the film is an ode to both young love and the musical culture of the time. (Prime Video)

Fire Island (2022)

Joel Kim Booster’s Fire Island is a perfectly relatable summer rom-com in so many ways. From its premise of trying to find a real connection in a noncommittal party scene (and being afraid of the real thing when it comes around) to the deeply important bonds of friendship among chosen family, the film is equal parts sincere and hilarious. Plus, performances by professional funny people like Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers help sweeten the deal. (Hulu)

Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty’s timeless romance about two outcasts (and outlaws) who find kinship in each other may not explicitly be set in the summer, but the hot, dry American landscape the two bank robbers traverse on their ill-fated journey throughout the film gives it that feel. Come for the chemistry, stay for the style inspo. (Prime Video)

The Notebook (2004)

A film that pretty much defines the term “summer romance,” The Notebook is beloved for many reasons, including its nostalgic take on young love during the lazy, humid months of the year. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams will make you believe in soulmates, at least long enough to look up the costars’s (and back then, real-life couple’s) infamous MTV Movie Awards acceptance for Best Kiss . (Apple TV+)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

While Spike Lee ’s classic film is primarily about the prickly relationships within a diverse section of 1989 Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, there’s also a love story at its center. Set on the hottest day of the year, Do The Right Thing is a portal into Lee’s New York, and all the visual vibrance that comes with it. (Prime Video)

Grease (1978)

If you haven’t heard “Summer Lovin’” since your coworker performed it at karaoke night, it’s a great time to revisit the absurdly campy musical that gave us John Travolta in short-shorts, Converse, and a cardigan, and Olivia Newton John in poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and a flippy blonde bob (belting “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” no less). (Hulu)

Dirty Dancing (1987)

To be young, in love, and doing a choreographed dance with everyone watching while on summer vacation with your family—sounds great, right? Dirty Dancing fulfills the teenage fantasy that lives within us all (or does now, after watching the movie) of both finding your soulmate and perfecting your dance moves while rebelling against your family over the course of a summer. (Prime Video)

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

2001’s Wet Hot American Summer’s cast is a who’s-who of top comedians from the era, including Elizabeth Banks , Paul Rudd, Michael Showalter, Amy Poehler, and even Bradley Cooper. Equal parts nostalgic, raunchy, and literally campy , Wet Hot American Summer is such a cult classic that there are not one but two reboots (plus a “making of” documentary) about the film. Taking place on the final day of Camp Firewood in 1981, the counselors and campers engage in all sorts of love triangles and shenanigans while trying to put on, of course, the best talent show the camp has ever seen. (Hulu)

Mystic Pizza (1988)

Class wars. Connecticut. Julia Roberts’s sky-high hair. A slice of pepperoni. There’s so much to dig into with Mystic Pizza , which is set during that mythical American time of the summer after high school, in the seaside town of Mystic. The film explores themes of sisterhood, social status, ethnicity, family ties, marriage—and has a special sauce to it (sorry). In addition to helping make Roberts a star, it also marked Matt Damon’s first film role. (Prime Video)

How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)

Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs falling in love on the white sand beaches of Jamaica—need we say more? How Stella Got Her Groove Back is a fan favorite, a classic summer romance movie, and an ode to self-liberation all in one. (Prime Video)

Say Anything (1989)

In a decade known for its teenage romance movies, Say Anything stands out as a classic summer love flick, all thanks to John Cusack’s boyish charm, duster coat, and boombox . Though they come from different social worlds, underachiever Lloyd (Cusack) pursues valedictorian Diane (Ione Skye) after they graduate from senior year. The classic film was also director Cameron Crowe’s feature debut, and he certainly made a mark on pop culture and the teen rom-com canon with it. (Prime Video)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Moonrise Kingdom is a sumptuous trip. In line with typical Wes Anderson fare, the cozy summer film employs a muted color palette and visual symmetry to teleport viewers to an intricate, imaginary world—in this case, the fictional New England island of New Penzance. The coming-of-age dramedy is all about young love, with Jared Gilman as an orphan boy who runs away from camp to meet up with his pen pal (Kara Hayward). Anderson draws on many of his usual crew, including Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, and Edward Norton to bring this wistful tale to life. (Prime Video)

• తెలుగు

Romantic Review: Neither Holds Logic Nor Plays Magic

Movie: Romantic Rating: 2/5 Banner: Puri Connects Cast: Akash Puri, Ketika Sharma, Ramya Krishna, Uttej, Sunaina, and others Music: Sunil Kashyap Editor: Junaid Siddiqui Director of Photography: Naresh Rana Producers: Puri Jagannadh, Charmme Kaur Story, screenplay, dialogues: Puri Jagannadh Directed by: Anil Paduri Release Date: October 29, 2021

From Prabhas to Rajamouli, top names have come forward to promote “Romantic”, the latest film starring Akash Puri, director Puri Jagannadh’s son. No wonder that the film has created a lot of buzz in the last two weeks.

With high-pitched publicity and an interesting trailer, “Romantic” has managed to garner attention. The film is here. Let’s analyze. 

Story: Set in Goa, the story begins with the voiceover of a police officer Ramya Gowarikar (Ramya Krishna), who narrates the intense and greatest love she had witnessed in her stint there. 

Vasco Da Gama (Akash Puri), whose police officer’s father was killed on duty, has only one aim – to earn big money so that he can run a charity foundation for his grandmother Mary (Rama Prabha). He quickly joins the gang of smugglers.

When his boss gets killed in a shootout, Vasco Da Gama becomes rich, but the police are chasing him. Meanwhile, the young boy is floored by the irresistible local beauty Monica (Ketika Sharma).

Ramya Gowarikar arrests Vasco Da Gama in a case, and he gets a life sentence in that case. What will happen to his love story with Monica?

Artistes’ Performances: Akash Puri still possesses boyish looks. Though he is sincere in his effort and tries playing the gangster part convincingly, the role is too big for the young boy to carry on his shoulders. He looks convincing in part, where he has to express feelings when he sees the charming beauty of Ketika Sharma. But when he mouths dialogues like mass heroes do, he looks unconvincing.

Ketika Sharma will surely skip the heartbeat of youngsters. Her unabashed display of skin and beautiful face will strike a chord with the target audiences. The romantic (lustful) moments of Akash Puri and Ketika Sharma are aimed at the galleries.

Ramya Krishna, who essays a poorly written character, brings a lot of dignity to otherwise incoherent proceedings. Sunaina’s comedy is okay. Uttej’s role is unconvincing.

Technical Excellence: The film is entirely shot in Goa, and the cinematographer captures the locations beautifully. More than the locations, the cameraman films the figure of Ketika Sharma captivatingly.

Music is a mixed bag. Dialogues written by Puri Jagannadh stand out. 

Highlights: Ketika Sharma’s skin show Puri’s mark dialogues

Drawback: Illogical Plot No rhyme and reason Lack of emotional connect

Analysis “Romantic” is directed by newcomer Anil Paduri, a long-time associate of Puri Jagannadh. But the film has a stamp of Puri Jagannadh’s direction throughout because he has written the story, screenplay, and dialogue. By the end of the film, we may wonder what the story is about.

Is this story about two young lovers who don’t know the difference between love and lust, like and desire? Or is it about a young boy’s ill fate as he attempts to be a godfather?

The protagonist is presented as a typical Puri Jagannadh’s reckless hero, who mouths Hindi dialogues laced with philosophical quotations, who wants to do ‘it’ with his girl ‘tonight’, and one who is either busy 'pattukovadam’ (touching) of guns and girl.

However, the hero has two objectives- one is to earn money and do some good for his locality and the other is to get the love of the girl he wants.

There is an entire song about the boy and girl talking or singing lines from Puri Jagannadh’s musings (his philosophical podcasts). While the song is beautiful to watch, it adds nothing to the main plot. Such is the aimlessness of this film.

“Desanni Preminchadam Easy Paisa Kharchu Undadu…Ammaini Premiste Sarada Teerchestadi,” says the hero in one scene saying he has not loved the girl yet. 15 or 20 minutes later, he says he can’t live without the girl. While one-liners sound good on paper, they don’t go well with the flow of the narrative. 

Plus, the climax leaves us in utter disappointment. 

So, what works in the film? The picturization of intense romantic moments between Ketika Sharma and Akash Puri. The girl is strikingly beautiful. Akash also is believable in romancing the girl than firing the bullets. 

All said, “Romantic” is a true-blue Puri Jagannadh’s film that doesn’t rely on logic or proper story, but the characterization of the hero and heroine romance. It may appeal to a mass audience, but the film is not at all engrossing. 

Bottom-line: Girl and Gun

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Tags: romantic Romantic Movie Review Romantic Review Romantic Rating Romantic Movie Rating

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'Romantic' movie review: An assault on our senses

Puri Jagannadh proved that he regained some of his lost mojo through the mass entertainer iSmart Shankar. But in Romantic, wherein he provided the story, screenplay, and dialogues, is an assault on our senses with a string of tired cliches that you had seen in his previous films such as 143, Pokiri, and Heart Attack. The film is intended as a rom-com as much as it is a gangster drama, even if the comedy moves between double- meaning dialogues, regressive and plain pedestrian slang. Akash Puri is Vasco De Gama, a vagabond and a ruffian with his heart in the right place.

He is determined to go out of his way to earn money and has many ideas up his sleeve that even if he is caught by the police, he cleverly escapes from the situation by selling stories and giving enough gyaan, besides justifying why he joined the crime syndicate. As you might have guessed, he has a sentimental flashback about why and how he is greedy for money. Leading a life of crime, he runs into Monika (Ketika Sharma), the sister of a police officer, Jhon (Uttej), and continues to stalk her to express his feelings for her while kissing, hugging and caressing her.

The irony is that she is somehow fine with these as he is the most-wanted person for her! Then we have a funny gangster kingpin Samson (Makrand Deshpande) , adoting grandmother Mary (Rama Prabha), a publicity greedy artist Kathy (Sunaina) and an upright Assistant Commissioner of Police Ramya Gowa r ike r (Ramya Krishnan), who is after Vasco and also narrates his starcrossed love story. On paper, Puri Jagannadh offers spoiled characters that aren’t hard to empathise with.

But the moment you find yourself becoming involved with a character, the screenplay takes a quick turn onto the next, leaving you ultimately disconnected from their sufferings. The action scenes and never-ending gun fights bring a video game-ish monotony to it. The flashback and the motives of the protagonist too are laughably silly that it’s hard to take them seriously. The film also lacks a compelling villain, whose presence might have brought a real sense of danger to the proceedings. Ten minutes into the first half, it appears that the script is playing second fiddle to the notorious gangster drama –from sharp editing and edgy cinematography to a pulsating background score.

However, as the film progresses, the film requires that you apply neither common sense nor logic. Romantic does have its moments, but they are few and far between. For the most part, you are willing to laugh at even a handful of juvenile jokes that are ridiculously compiled. What’s not funny is the loud and over-the-type style of dialogue which seems to have become a trademark of Puri Jagannadh’s films. Despite these setbacks, Puri’s cheeky one-liners resemble the personality of the hero. While his cameo, as well as actor Ram’s, were received with a thunderous response from the audience.

As a director, Anil Paduri fails to strike a chord as he couldn’t translate Puri Jagannadh’s vision onscreen. Of the performances, Akash Puri, despite his sincerity, has only two expressions and he seems to be in autopilot mode throughout the film. Newcomer Ketika Sharma shows promise and the girl who played Annie is amazing. Ramya Krishnan as a short-tempered cop appears to be the only actor taking her job seriously! Every time I watch a Puri Jagannadh film, I believe that he cannot make a bad film than this. Much to my surprise, he exceeds my expectations all the time!

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Tu jhoothi main makkaar.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 0 Reviews
• Kids Say 0 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Misogynistic Indian romcom sends out harmful messages.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is an Indian Hindi-language film about a womanizing conman, Mickey (Ranbir Kapoor), who meets and then marries Tinni (Shraddha Kapoor). Mickey is misogynistic -- both in terms of behavior and the language he uses -- and his attitude toward dating could have a…

Why Age 13+?

Lead couple shares multiple kisses and embraces often. No nudity or explicit sex

Words like "f--k," "pathetic loser," "dumbs--t," "insane," "idiot," and "crazy"

There is a lot of talk about and emphasis placed on money and profits. Fancy car

Multiple scenes where the leads, their friends, and family members drink alcohol

Women routinely slap men, which is played for laughs and normalizes the behavior

Any Positive Content?

The film tries to show that families can learn to be less controlling. However,

Mickey is a conman who thinks playing with people's emotions is just "business."

Every character belongs to a rich upper caste Hindu household in Delhi. The patr

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Lead couple shares multiple kisses and embraces often. No nudity or explicit sex scenes are present. The couple discusses how long it has been since they hooked up with someone, make sexual innuendos, and discuss their sex life. The female lead instructs an acquaintance to grab her hips while dancing (he complies) in order to make her boyfriend jealous. She is also asked if her boyfriend is "good in bed." Another woman discusses her romantic history and implies that she had sex when she was 16. She then tries to seduce her friend's boyfriend as part of a "loyalty test." A musical sequence involves a character's desire to have a one-night stand.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Words like "f--k," "pathetic loser," "dumbs--t," "insane," "idiot," and "crazy" are used in multiple instances. Even though some swear words are bleeped out, it is easy to decipher exactly what was said. The slang terms "chutiya" (a derogatory reference to female genitalia) and "bhenchod" ("sister f----r") are also used. While the first one is translated to "idiot" and "dumbs--t" in the subtitles, the latter is translated to "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

There is a lot of talk about and emphasis placed on money and profits. Fancy cars such as Mercedes, Jeeps, and Lamborghinis are mentioned in different conversations. Characters make multiple visits to malls and indulge in a lot of shopping. People make large payments to hire conmen.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Multiple scenes where the leads, their friends, and family members drink alcohol during parties and dance with drinks in their hands. One song's lyrics are dedicated to "getting drunk" and how the central character wants to indulge in a one-night stand after having an excessive amount of alcohol. At a funeral, two friends discuss that the 92-year-old who passed away drank alcohol and smoked hookah till the end of their life. Two adults drink alcohol while a child is in the room and pretend to drink with them by pouring apple juice in their glass. A couple gets extremely drunk on their first date. Later they also share a special "cool" handshake that includes a gesture indicating smoking cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Women routinely slap men, which is played for laughs and normalizes the behavior. For example, a mother yells at and then slaps her adult son and his adult friend repeatedly. A man threatens to enter another person's house and "whack them with a shoe." The lead character calls their girlfriend "f---ing dumb." A character threatens to "jump to my death" twice, while their friend responds with threats and taunts such as, "you should kill yourself." These scenes are played off with comedic music.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The film tries to show that families can learn to be less controlling. However, it is ultimately an ode to patriarchal gender roles and subscribes to incel principles -- that women must sacrifice their freedom and live with their in-laws rather than prioritizing their career. Moreover, lying to and conning women is portrayed as playful and fun.

Positive Role Models

Mickey is a conman who thinks playing with people's emotions is just "business." He falls in love with Tinni at first sight and proceeds to love bomb her into a relationship. Within three weeks of meeting, lead characters Mickey and Tinni plan to get married and tell their parents. Mickey's family proceeds to exert control over every aspect of Tinni's life. Tinni herself is so averse to confrontation that she would rather lie and hire a conman rather than being honest with Mickey and his family. Eventually this family looks at their own behavior and tries to make amends. However, it's Tinni who has to make sacrifices and adjustments, not Mickey.

Diverse Representations

Every character belongs to a rich upper caste Hindu household in Delhi. The patriarchal dynamics among rich joint families of North India are displayed. Women are either portrayed as hapless and emotionally needy damsels, or heartlessly career-driven people who are spoiling the men's lives by not conforming. Lead character Mickey's mother is portrayed as a boisterous, controlling woman who is always yelling and hitting younger people willy-nilly, and despite all this she is placed on a pedestal of motherhood. One character asks for help breaking up with his fiancé because "she loves me too much," as if it is a burden to be loved. The cadence, vocabulary, and thought processes exhibited in Mickey's language are the kind used by incels and Men's Rights Activists (MRA).

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is an Indian Hindi-language film about a womanizing conman, Mickey ( Ranbir Kapoor ), who meets and then marries Tinni ( Shraddha Kapoor ). Mickey is misogynistic -- both in terms of behavior and the language he uses -- and his attitude toward dating could have a negative impact on impressionable kids. He uses emotional manipulation, including twice making fake suicidal threats. His mother, Renu (Dimple Kapadia), is shown repeatedly slapping Mickey and his friend, which is played for laughs. There is plenty of drinking, especially by Mickey and Tinni. Language includes "f--k," "dumbs--t," "insane," "idiot," "crazy," and "pathetic loser," while the Indian cuss words "chutiya" and "bhenchod" are also used. The movie leans heavily into stereotypical and patriarchal gender roles, with women routinely lied to and conned, all of which is depicted as playful and fun. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In TU JHOOTHI MAIN MAKKAAR, Mickey ( Ranbir Kapoor ) is a spoilt brat, womanizer, and conman who helps couples break up for a fee. He meets his match in Tinni ( Shraddha Kapoor ) and they quickly decide to marry. However, when Tinni realizes that Mickey's family is being controlling toward her, she unknowingly hires Mickey to break them up.

Is It Any Good?

With its terrible script, nauseating dialogues, and so-called "couplets" of poetry that would make anyone's ears bleed, this Indian romcom is a mess of a film. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar 's director, Luv Ranjan, tries desperately to replicate the way his film Pyar Ka Punchnama captured the incel imagination in 2011. But this was released in 2023 and his brand of misogyny has become obsolete at best, and vile at worst. The movie also suffers from technical flaws. Many scenes have an artificial quality (perhaps overuse of green screen) ruining the illusion, while Shraddha Kapoor's acting is disappointing, and the songs are bland formulaic concoctions. But the film's biggest flaw is casting a visibly 40-year-old Ranbir Kapoor to play a 30-year-old man who acts like he is 15. Some "boyish charm" might have offset the lead character's repulsiveness, but this style of filmmaking feels dated and offensive. Hopefully the audience will not waste their time again.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar portrayed romantic relationships. Did you think they were healthy portrayals? Why, or why not? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Discuss the characters' drinking habits. Did you find it problematic?

What message do you think the filmmaker was trying to say? What did you think of this message?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 8, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : May 3, 2023
• Cast : Ranbir Kapoor , Shraddha Kapoor , Dimple Kapadia
• Director : Luv Ranjan
• Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Indian/South Asian directors, Female actors, Asian actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Yash Raj Films
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 150 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : August 15, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999

Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Romance’ Is a Full-Fledged Triumph

Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Romance’ should be considered a high-water mark for them, a work that is equally challenging and considerably more gratifying.

F ontaines D.C. have come a long way in a relatively short time. On their first album, Dogrel (2019), they could have been mistaken for another Art Brut , with simple observations like “My childhood was small / But I’m gonna be big.” With such a declaration of intent, the Dublin band couldn’t have planned their trajectory any better. 

Grian Chatten (vocals), Conor Deegan III (bass), Conor Curley (guitar), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), and Tom Coll (drums) met when they attended Dublin City Music College (thus, the D.C. in their name). Where Dogrel was nominated for the Mercury Prize, A Hero’s Death (2020) received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album, and Skinty Fia (2022) became a number one album in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Fontaines D.C. seemed poised for great things, only getting bigger with each record, and Romance finds them taking that next step.   

As the title suggests, the LP centers on idealism and romance. That focus brings with it crisp and polished sonics, avoiding any abrasive texture from former outings. Chattan’s vocals regularly follow suit and possess a genuine, dramatic quality. Here, Fontaines D.C. channel bands that rose and (in most cases) fell in the early-to-mid 2000s, yet they stay true to their spirit. Romance is a mature effort with a level of sophistication very few had expected from the band at this stage in their career. It is a triumph that will only further reward listeners over time. 

The most striking aspect of Romance is its unabashed sentimentality. “In the Modern World” celebrates the sappiness of Coldplay from back when they were critical darlings while integrating the breathy vocals of Jan Scott Wilkinson from Sea Power (formerly British Sea Power ). It’s hard not to be moved by lyrics like, “Seems so hard not to be free / When you walk / Right beside me” and images about kissing on the corner and going away together. Reflecting on one’s emotions, however, cuts both ways. “Horseness Is The Whatness” challenges the idea that “love” really makes the world go round in favor of “choice”, a starry-eyed reaction to romantic rejection.    

Even if Romance mainly concerns the idealized, the record pulses somber undertones. “Motorcycle Boy” presents dark themes, a military drum beat, and orchestration that calls to mind bands like South and Doves . The melancholic dream pop of “Sundowner” speaks to the sadness of the soul and unrealized dreams. “Desire” is especially bleak in the way it illustrates the concept of determinism (“They drown their wishes in the fountain like their fathers before”). When speaking about the album, Chattan said, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it’s over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.”   

Romance still contains some bangers. The lead single “Starburst” is on the shortlist for song of the year, and it hits with a vitality not experienced on previous Fontaines D.C. efforts. The gulp for air heard on the track is for effect (and symbolizes the panic attack Chatten suffered in a London tube station), but it also reflects the collective gasp for breath required after such ferocity. Many of the lyrics are sinister, especially the refrain, which is a vow to ruin another’s bliss just because you can. 

Other tracks hit with similar potency. “Death Kink” most closely aligns with the band’s earlier work, with the refrain beginning “(it was) shit, shit, shit” and brash guitar work that pays homage to the Pixies . “Here’s the Thing” finds Chattan hitting falsetto notes in time with processed sounds that are actually manufactured by the group. The mid-tempo flicker of “Bug” tells the story of moving beyond a former affair and reclaiming oneself. All of these find Fontaines D.C. driving their sound forward with their quintessential momentum.  

Even with the immediacy of a track like “Starbuster,” album closer and second single “Favourite” is bound to be a crowd pleaser. Propelled by a buoyant guitar line, the track bounces along with infectious moments of repetition despite its wistful underpinnings. Lyrics like “The misery made me another marked man / And I’m always looking over my shoulder / And each new day, I get another year older” cannot weigh the song down. In fact, it would risk being too sugary-sweet if it wasn’t so damned good.      With Romance , Fontaines D.C. have opened up a new realm of possibilities in their sound, proving that they are (perhaps always were) multifaceted. Where they once were a band to watch, they now have become an act that must be followed and will likely increase in stature over the coming years. Fontaines D.C.’s previous efforts were acclaimed, and rightfully so, but Romance should be considered a high-water mark for them, a work that is equally challenging and considerably more gratifying. 

• Fontaines D.C.: Skinty Fia
• Fontaines D.C. Discuss New Album ‘A Hero’s Death’ and Art in a Pandemic
• Fontaines D.C. Abandon the Familiar on 'A Hero's Death'
• https://www.popmatters.com/fontains-dc-dogrel-2641451610.html
• Fontaines D.C. Ignite Bowery Ballroom
• Fontaines D.C.: Official Site
• Fontaines D.C.: YouTube
• Fontaines D.C.: Facebook
• Fontaines D.C.: Instagram

Culture | Film

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the Venice Film Festival review: nobody does death like Tim Burton

Tim Burton , Tim Burton, Tim Bur… Dare we say his name three times, conjuring up a charming devil full of guile who is not one hundred percent reliable? Well, you will be relieved to hear that we do. Burton Burton Burton’s Beetlejuice , Beetlejuice opened the Venice Film Festival and got this 81-year-old cinematic party well and truly started.

Beetlejuice is one of Burton’s most beloved films and its eponymous lead ( Michael Keaton ) is dead, dead funny and a delight to behold. Keaton has exhumed the role he first played in 1988 and plays him with the same energy, intelligence and devilish gusto as he did in the original all those years ago.

He is not the only star from the original: Catherine O’Hara is back as the artist Delia Deetz along with Winona Ryder as her black-clad goth stepdaughter Lydia. Since the original film was released, O’Hara has reached national treasure status thanks to her role in Schitt’s Creek, while Ryder has enjoyed her own renaissance thanks to the cult classic Stranger Things.

Both women take certain elements from those respective characters and channel them here: O’Hara’s Delia is a larger-than-life drama queen who enjoys the finer things in life; Ryder’s Lydia is a bundle of nervous tics who overcomes her fears when her maternal instinct kicks in. Those maternal instincts come into play when Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid ( Jenna Ortega ) gets ensnared in some nefarious underworld dealings. On the subject of stars bringing a little baggage from previous incarnations, Astrid bears more than a passing resemblance to Wednesday Addams (in fact, Burton directed Ortega in the first four episodes of Wednesday) – “She’s such a morbid little thing!” exclaims Delia.

But let’s get back to the beginning: the film opens with Lydia, who is now a psychic mediator with her own successful TV show produced by her preening, manipulative boyfriend Rory (a hilarious Justin Theroux). She and Astrid are estranged, the latter embarrassed by her mother’s profession, which she dismisses – if Lydia can commune with the dead, then why hasn’t her dad made an appearance?

When a family death occurs, the three women return to the haunted house in Winter River, the fawning fake Rory in tow. Meanwhile, Beetlejuice still hankers after Lydia, but there is another woman in black who is about to make his (after)life very complicated: this blast from his past is the hastily stapled together Delores (Monica Bellucci), a femme who is very, very fatale indeed. Added to the mix are a cast of dead and undead characters, including Willem Dafoe thoroughly enjoying himself as actor Wolf Jackson, who conspire to make this a truly entertaining romp.

Danny Elfman – Burton’s longstanding collaborator – returns to compose the score, while the soundtrack includes plenty of 1970s classics and a nod to the TV show Soul Train. (It should be mentioned that the Soul Train sequences are the only time we see any Black performers. Burton’s film is very, very white.)

The film contains some mickey-taking at the expense of Disney, stoking the flames of a decades-long rivalry, while actors are also the butt of a few jokes. Occasionally the fourth wall is broken, with Beetlejuice talking to the audience, involving us directly in the fun.

There are no bad performances here. While there are a couple of scenes that could have been shorter (the grand finale in particular), there are songs, there’s dancing, there’s a hint of romance, a touch of the macabre, a bit of sexiness and a lot of humour. Suffice to say that nobody does death like Tim Burton, and it’s a pleasure to follow him back into the underworld. You’ll leave the cinema and return to the world of the living with a spring in your step and a smile on your face.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is in cinemas from Sep 6. The Venice Film Festival is on until Sep 9. More information here

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