What would movies be about if not for love? Since well before the days of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca,” romance has driven countless classic stories, setting up some of the highest highs in cinematic history to follow. Be it Cary Grant and Grace Kelly seeing stars in “To Catch a Thief” or Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal disturbing diner patrons in “When Harry Met Sally,” the 20th century was chock full of iconic romances that helped humanity fall in love with the movies. Of course, those titles were dominated by white artists telling largely heteronormative tales — meaning many (but not all) of the best and most inclusive romances have arrived this millennium.
Now, the best romance movies of the 21st century both resonate and surprise, showing audiences characters they might recognize from their own lives in new and surprising ways. Yes, finding “the one” is exceedingly well-frequented thematic territory, but that makes sense. It’s something many people have done or will do and seeing it reflected on screen can give audiences cause for hope, a chance to reflect, or a bit of both. Movies like “Cold War,” “Disobedience,” “Love & Basketball,” and “In the Mood for Love” illuminate the rich specificities of humanity’s limitless capacity for connection, while making room for the intangible magic needed to finally get that first kiss.
Whether you’re laughing at giddy actors bumbling through a rom-com or weeping alongside a heartbroken character whose life reflects your own, romantic movies remind us what makes life worth living in even the darkest of times. So cut that peach “Call Me by Your Name” fans, and get your creamed spinach and poached eggs ready, all you lovers of “Carol.” Excluding most romantic comedies (because there’s a separate list for that, of course), here are the 47 best romance movies of the 21st century.
With editorial contributions from Alison Foreman, Christian Zilko, Samantha Bergeson, David Ehrlich, Michael Nordine, Proma Khosla, Christian Blauvelt, Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, and Anne Thompson.
47. “Between the Temples” (2024)
One of the great odd couple romances in modern cinema, Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples” features career-best performances from its May December leads. Jason Schwartzman is a canter who has lost his ability to sing after the death of his wife. Carol Kane is his kooky old elementary school teacher, who approaches him to help her study for the bat mitzvah she always wanted. Pushed into directions and life choices by others (Schwartzman’s moms encourage him to marry the rabbi’s daughter, Kane’s son forbids her from exploring her religion), they find an odd kindred spirit in each other. All that sounds twee, but thanks to Silver’s funny and deeply real script and the main pair’s knockout work, “Between the Temples” is anything but: it’s a deeply moving portrait of an unconventional romance and finding the courage to chase after what you truly want. —WC
46. “Anora” (2024)
“Anora” is not a movie about how love conquers all, and you can debate whether anyone in Sean Baker’s Oscar breakout really, truly loves each other. But the film was billed as a “love story” by the director of “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket,” and its cynical tale of a Brighton Beach stripper who elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch is exactly the type of love affair only he could write: funny, lewd, sexy, tempered by class and financial considerations, and ultimately quite tragic and brutally real. Ani (Mikey Madison, in a glorious performance) might love Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) in all his petulant manchild ways. Or maybe she just loves his money. Either way, their meet-cute turned courtship turned marriage is a blast of pure energy that leaves the audience just as high and dizzy as the characters on screen. Past the first act, “Anora” swerves into a filthy crime comedy and complicates the fairy tale it opens with, as Vanya’s faults become more obvious and the quiet Igor (Yura Borisov) develops his own soft spot for the strong-willed Ani. But the lows “Anora” takes its lead to wouldn’t work if the audience wasn’t sold on the highs, and Baker puts in the work to make you want to buy into the love, even if you know it’s too good to be true. —WC
45. “Pride and Prejudice” (2005)
Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is one of the original romantic comedies, but Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation decidedly prioritizes the “romantic” half of the equation. Wright made many changes to the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s courtship, setting it in an earlier era and emphasizing sweeping romance over comedy of manners. The edits make it a divisive adaptation among Austen purists, but the film also has a loyal fanbase, and it’s hard to deny the appeal of its lush and swoony tone. It helps that the movie has ringers as its leads, with Keira Knightley as a grounded Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen breaking out as an awkward, shy (but still very hot) Darcy. —WC
44. “Jab We Met” (2007)
Indian romantic comedies might be known worldwide for scale and spectacle, but this humble 2007 film from writer and director Imtiaz Ali holds a special place in the hearts of many. Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor (no relation and at the time, a real-life couple) star as Geet and Aditya, two dichotomously different strangers who meet on a cross-country train (which they later miss after getting off at a stop). The journey brings them together and gives way to unlikely romance — and not uncomplicated, since Geet has a boyfriend back home who she plans to marry. “Jab We Met” subverts rom-com tropes while embracing the best of them, especially with its characters; Aditya is reserved and frankly depressed, while Geet’s bubbly joie de vivre lives right next to a short temper and choice curse words. Pritam’s soundtrack sounds unlike any of its contemporaries (or his other work), and it’s just one of many aspects that makes the film so indelible. From Ali’s script and vision to Natarajan Subramaniam’s cinematography to subtle, endearing performances from two of the era’s top stars, “Jab We Met” is a rom-com you’ll want to get to know immediately. —PK
43. “Once” (2007)
Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová had already released one album as The Swell Season before Hansard’s old bandmate, filmmaker John Carney, approached them about turning their work (and, eventually, their own relationship) into a scrappy musical romance about a mismatched duo who find salvation in their street tunes. Perhaps that’s why the 2007 indie hit feels so intimate and real, as if Carney somehow managed to slip his camera (and a script) between two people just as they were beginning to explore how their emotions could inspire a romance and an enviable album filled with hits.
Shot over the course of just 17 days (and chronicling about half that time in actual narrative), the Indie Spirit winner and box office hit follows first-time actors Hansard and Irglová as loosely imagined versions of themselves, both singer and songwriters, struggling to make it on the streets of Dublin. When life (read: music) brings them together, they set about on a charming journey that sees both of them opening up to each other and the world around them.
While parts of the film keep things at a remove — the characters are never named, and important biographical details are slowly meted out over time, with a language barrier to boot — the chemistry between the duo, both emotionally and musically, ensures it keeps a firm hold on the audience’s heart. Rife with instant hits, like the Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly” and the truly clever “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy,” it’s the sort of film that will leave you singing out joyfully after a watch, only to remember, perhaps too late, the pain of the journey there. —KE
42. “Right Now, Wrong Then” (2015)
South Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s work tends to blend together, but that usually enhances its appeal. There has rarely been a better instance of this phenomenon than his latest feature, “Right Now, Wrong Then,” which is actually the same movie played through twice with slight variations — and equally charming results.
So many of Hong’s movies involve neurotic-but-endearing characters, one of whom is usually a filmmaker; at some point, he usually drinks too much, argues and obsesses over women, career woes and creative aspirations. Throw in a couple unassuming structural gimmicks — flashbacks, voiceovers, an unreliable narrator or two — and the entertainment value of Hong’s oeuvre maintains a comforting routine for those keen to its appeal.
The filmmaker’s deceptively simple approach of static camerawork, occasionally interrupted by the wandering pan or abrupt zoom, belies canny storytelling tactics lurking in the texture of his narrative. Hong’s films offer a distinct entertainment value embedded in their clever designs. “Right Now, Wrong Then” follows a conceit not unlike “Groundhog Day,” with characters enduring an identical experience and making small but notably different actions that lead to varied outcomes.
Just as Bill Murray learned to seduce women through a process of failure, so too does respected film director Ham Sung (Jae-yeong Jeong), as we watch him go through the process of romancing shy painter Hee-jung (Min-hee Kim). While Murray’s Phil knew he was trapped in a cycle of repetition, however, the two versions of Ham Sung’s story are self-contained. Still, like “Groundhog Day,” Hong’s movie expertly plays with the endless network of possibilities created by every moment. –EK
41. “A Star Is Born” (2018)
Every generation gets the “Star Is Born” version they deserve, but after nearly a decade spent in development hell and cycling through an enviable array of attached talent (Clint Eastwood and Beyonce, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lopez, the combinations were as endless as they were fascinating), it didn’t seem as if the Millennials and the Gen Z-ers and the Zoomers were ever going to get theirs. And then came…Bradley Cooper?
The lauded actor (and also voice of a cartoon superhero raccoon) pulled out all the stops for his directorial debut, not just slipping inside his rough-and-tumble Jackson Maine, but turning that dedication toward every facet of the feature itself. He hired Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott. He sang all his own songs and made them sound good alongside Gaga’s formidable pipes. Mostly, he found new levels of cinematic craftsmanship and honest heartbreak in a story that had been engineered to do just that, repeatedly.
The film pulled in eight nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Gaga, who ultimately won for Best Original Song), and Best Supporting Actor (Elliott). It was a box office smash and proof positive of Cooper’s directing chops and Gaga’s acting cred, but all that splashy stuff aside, what makes Cooper’s “Star” such a standout are the elements that go beyond box office take and award accolades: the songs and the emotion.
From the spine-tingling chills of Gaga’s raw “aww—awww—awwwwww!!!!” to kick off “Shallow” to the heart-rending final song a distraught Gaga sings to a crowd of assembled peers, the film conceives of a wholly realized musical world for its inhabitants in which they work out what’s happening to them. But the film also lives and dies by the smaller moments, a glimpse from Gaga at Cooper during their first meeting, a barely concealed grimace from Elliott during his last meeting with Cooper, a lovingly prepared last meal. Life might not always be worth singing about, but “A Star Is Born” bridges the gaps between each note, finding music even in the silence. —KE
40. “Amélie” (2001)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” is one of the fluffier entries on this list, but few films leave their audiences feeling happier when the credits roll. Audrey Tautou gives a career performance as a shy young woman with an uncanny talent for improving the lives of those around her. The whimsical film establishes a unique color palette and visual style from the very first frames, and dishes out massive doses of positivity as it finds magical ways to portray the power of kindness. Some might accuse the unapologetically happy movie of being too Pollyannish, but it’s so uplifting and easy on the eyes that you would have to be heartless to gripe about it. —CZ
39. “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018)
If “Moonlight” established Barry Jenkins as an exciting new voice to watch, “If Beale Street Could Talk” proved that his knack for telling warm-yet-understated Black love stories was unquestionable. Jenkins’ follow up to the (eventual) Best Picture winner is warmer and more mainstream than “Moonlight” in just about every way, while maintaining the unique stylistic aspects that established him as an essential filmmaker. Telling the story of a pregnant woman who is determined to prove that her boyfriend is innocent of the crime he’s being accused of, the film succeeds because it does all of the small things right. Anchored by two phenomenal performances by KiKi Layne and Stephan James, it eschews excessive stylistic flourishes in favor of telling a pure love story. “Moonlight” is a better film, but there’s a strong case to be made that “If Beale Street Could Talk” is an equally great love story. —CZ
38. “Disobedience” (2017)
Sebastián Lelio’s burning-yet-elegant “Disobedience” is more than the familiar feminist rebellion you might think. In the exquisitely melancholic lesbian romance, Rachel Weisz plays Ronit, an excommunicated Jewish woman who unexpectedly returns home after the death of her father. She’s soon reunited with her old friend Dovid, a conflicted Alessandro Nivola, and Esti, David’s wife and Ronit’s secret childhood sweetheart played by a shapeshifting Rachel McAdams. The trio’s impromptu exploration of freedom, intimacy, and the conflicts inherent therein offers not just a compelling LGBTQ love story, but a powerful reflection on the rules we choose to follow and those we fight to defy. —AF
37. “Beyond The Lights” (2014)
Written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (whose 2000 sports-centric romance “Love & Basketball” also ranks on this list), “Beyond The Lights” follows the formulaic story of a super-famous celebrity desperate for genuine connection. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Noni, an up-and-coming pop singer whose career ambitions — thrust on her by an abusive mother/manager (Minnie Driver) — come at a cost. Isolated and angry, Noni is at her wit’s end when the movie begins. But an electric incident with a cop named Kaz (Nate Parker) sets her on a different path. A little “A Star Is Born” and a little “Notting Hill,” “Beyond The Lights” doesn’t have much of note to say about fame. But its leads are worth falling for and their snappy chemistry keeps Prince-Bythewood’s occasionally muddled tale taut. —AF
36. “About Time” (2013)
Part adorable, part heartbreaking, British time travel film “About Time” is guaranteed to leave you in tears – whether from laughing, crying, or both is up to you. “Love Actually” writer-director Richard Curtis helms the 2013 rom-com that stars Domhnall Gleeson as Tim, a hopeless romantic who learns he’s inherited the ability to go back in time thanks to his father, played by Bill Nighy. From being smitten with his sister’s friend (Margot Robbie) to eventually falling head over heels for an American ex-pat (Rachel McAdams), Tim tries again and again to find his perfect love story. But his relationship with his father takes center stage, and ultimately Tim learns the real purpose of time travel is not to find the “perfect” moments but to revel in the mundane everyday beauty of life itself. —SB
35. “Talk To Her” (2002)
Pedro Almodóvar’s “Talk To Her” is a drama about two women in comas, the men who take care of them, and the surprising sensuality of bonding while in pain. Told partially through flashbacks, this poetically-minded puzzle box drama asks audiences to ponder the obsessive nature of romance from all angles, with the powerhouse performances of stars Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, and Rosario Flores intermingling in an otherworldly soup of compassion and terror, the sort Almodóvar would repeat in “Bad Education” and “The Skin I Live In.” “Talk To Her” won Almodóvar an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and a nomination for Best Director. —AF
34. “God’s Own Country” (2017)
The 2017 feature debut of writer-director Francis Lee (“Ammonite”), “God’s Own Country” is at once more optimistic and more bleak than the contemporary “Brokeback Mountain.” Entrenched in generational responsibility, Johnny (Josh O’Connor) is the beleaguered son of a farmhand whose life in Yorkshire isn’t what he’d choose for himself. When Romanian migrant worker Gheorge (Alec Secăreanu) is hired at the farm, the men embark on an often-tense-sometimes-euphoric attempt at connecting. —AF
33. “Cold War” (2018)
Shot in stunning black-and-white, Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” achieves the fraught complexity its title implies via a boiling romance epic that’s equal parts passion and despair. The mid-20th century saga, set across Poland and France and spanning three decades, tells a semi-biographical love story based on Pawlikowski’s parents. When folk musician Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) meets the vivacious Zula (Joanna Kulig) at an audition, an obsessive attraction takes hold. Even as the world falls apart, the star-crossed lovers orbit one another in a painful codependence seemingly doomed to combust. —AF
32. “I Am Love” (2009)
With or without makeup, brainy, androgynous, and versatile Tilda Swinton swings easily from passion indie projects to studio fare, from arch-villains to objects of desire. In this gorgeously operatic melodrama, Swinton’s first collaboration with Italian director Luca Guadagnino, she plays Emma, a Russian emigre married to wealthy Milan aristocrat Edoardo (Gabriele Ferzetti). When the patriarch decides to hand down the family business to both his son and his grandson, who really wants to start a restaurant with gifted chef Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), the family begins to unravel. Emma acts like a doting wife and mother, but after orgasmically savoring every bite off a plate of Antonio’s food, she dives into a sensual and erotic liaison that ripples through the family. —AT
31. “The Deep Blue Sea” (2011)
Terence Davies has directed just eight movies in his decades-long career, none more heartbreaking than “The Deep Blue Sea.” The writer/director made Terence Rattigan’s play all his own with the help of Tom Hiddleston and a masterful Rachel Weisz, here playing two star-crossed lovers whose memories of World War II are almost as traumatic as their doomed affair. “Tragedy’s too big a word — sad, perhaps, but hardly Sophocles,” says Weisz, but you may disagree after watching what she goes through. Forget being on the verge: This is a woman in the midst of a nervous breakdown, and rarely since Gena Rowlands in “A Woman Under the Influence” has watching that downward spiral been so painful and cathartic all at once. —MN
30. “Oasis” (2002)
Lee Chang-dong’s third film isn’t an easy watch. Following a man with mild mental disabilities who falls in love with a woman with cerebral palsy shortly after he’s released from prison, “Oasis” is among the most wrenching romances you’ll ever see. It’s also one of the most real and enriching, as well as a reminder that we could use more of the “Secret Sunshine” and “Poetry” director in our lives (his latest “Burning” made the festival rounds in 2019). Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri turn in heartbreakingly three-dimensional performances, and every uncomfortable scene involving uncaring family members makes you want the impossible dream that is their relationship to become waking reality. —MN
29. “Loving” (2016)
From its first screening at Cannes, writer-director Jeff Nichols’ quiet romantic drama “Loving” didn’t call attention to itself. Based on the true story of biracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving, who in 1967 won the right to marry from the Supreme Court ruling of Loving v. Virginia, the movie stars Australian Joel Edgerton as laconic construction worker Richard and the half-Irish actor Ruth Negga as Mildred. The filmmakers pushed to reveal the true story without spice or extra drama, which in Hollywood is both rare and brave. Nichols follows the core story of two people in love who fought miscegenation laws to take care of their family. And the actors took the ride with him in their efforts to capture the essence of this courageous couple. The end result is heart-rending, and Negga earned her first Oscar nomination. —AT
28. “Weekend” (2011)
Andrew Haigh’s breakout feature takes a tried-and-true romantic trope — the unexpected romance, writ over the course of a limited period of time — and turns it into one of the genre’s most stirring examples of the power of love in its most literally immediate forms. Centered on the shiftless Russell (Tom Cullen) and the alluring Glen (Chris New), what first functions as a spur-of-the-moment one-night stand soon blossoms into a full-blown love affair. Taking place over the course of that eponymous weekend, Haigh and his stars cram the full force of a life-changing romance into just a few short days, and “Weekend’ manages the near-impossible: charting a full relationship in the minimum of time.
But that doesn’t dilute the power of the relationship, and Haigh still finds time (after time after time) to pay attention to the small shifts, the so-called “little things” that add up to big emotion. Few on-screen couples have the kind of chemistry that Cullen and New display without any artifice, and the believability and naturalism of their bond pushes the film to an even higher level. While “Weekend” functions just beautifully as a love story, Haigh doesn’t shy away from exploring the elements that fuel a closer bond between the men, including their very different statuses when it comes to who is aware of their sexual identity (and how that may impact a future that may or may not be possible). —KE
27. “Moulin Rouge!” (2001)
Baz Luhrmann’s musical spectacle “Moulin Rouge!” centers on English post Christian (Ewan McGregor) who lusts after cabaret singer Satine (Nicole Kidman) after seeing her perform at Parisian nightclub Moulin Rouge in the year 1900. After premiering at Cannes in 2001, “Moulin Rouge!” landed eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture, winning for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. A literal dance through famous pop hits and a fantastical spin on early 20th century Bohemian artists, “Moulin Rouge!” is crowned by the chemistry between Christian and Satine as a toxic love triangle unfolds with club patron the Duke (Richard Roxburgh), who bankrolls the next cabaret show in exchange for one night with Satine. Add in a bout of consumption and the immediacy of belting out a love song, and “Moulin Rouge!” is a timeless, almost Shakespearian classic. —SB
26. “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002)
The first half of Paul Thomas Anderson’s career was dominated by films about loneliness and isolation. But even in 2002, nearly two decades before “Licorice Pizza,” Anderson was proving he could tell a phenomenal love story with a happy ending. “Punk Drunk Love,” an early example of Adam Sandler’s tendency to periodically remind us that he can actually act, stars the comedian as an anxious man working a ridiculously useless job selling novelty toilet plungers who flirts with the idea of finding meaning in his life when he falls in love with Emily Watson. Sandler skillfully exploits and deconstructs his comedic persona, and Anderson uses it to craft a warm love story that maintains all of the signature aspects of his style. —CZ
25. “Moonlight” (2016)
Best Picture winner “Moonlight” is a coming-of-age drama disguised as a love story. Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, the 2016 film is based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.” The film follows Chiron through three stages of his life, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Alex Hibbert plays Chiron as “Little” Chiron, with Ashtan Sanders as the teen version, and Trevante Rhodes starring as adult Chiron. Similarly, Chiron’s decade-spanning love story with Kevin is played by three different actors, culminating in the adult portrayal with André Holland. Naomie Harris is Chiron’s drug addicted mother and Mahershala Ali made history as the first Muslim actor to win Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for being an onscreen father figure to Chiron. The entanglement of abuse, violence, race, identity, drugs, and masculinity build to Chiron professing his undying love for Kevin after their one-time sexual encounter years prior, with Chiron grappling with being the man he wants to be and the bullied boy he can’t escape from. —SB
24. “Two Lovers” (2008)
Love hurts, doubly so when Joaquin Phoenix is involved. The umpteenth adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story “White Nights” had the advantage of being co-written for the screen and directed by James Gray, whose sensitive handling of thorny material makes the film as rewarding to watch as it is difficult. Vinessa Shaw and a pre-Goop Gwyneth Paltrow are the other points in this ill-formed triangle, with Phoenix trying — and usually failing — to find a happy resolution. “Two Lovers” begins with a half-hearted suicide attempt and doesn’t get much happier from there, but Gray never descends into miserablism — the prospect of something new and fulfilling, however remote, is enough to carry the film through the darkest of white nights. —MN
23. “High Fidelity” (2000)
It might not make the top five, but “High Fidelity” can claim many bests: It’s the best adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel (sorry, “About a Boy”), is Stephen Frears’ best film (not sorry, “The Program”) and is led by John Cusack’s best performance. “These things matter,” his Rob says of books, records, and films, and indeed “High Fidelity” is in some senses a love story between a man and his favorite artists. It’s also an actual love story, one about a hopeless romantic stuck in the past who’s reluctantly coaxed into the present by the kind of woman they’ve been writing songs about for as long as they’ve been writing songs at all; keep “High Fidelity” in rotation, because it’s just as catchy now as it was years ago. —MN
22. “Call Me by Your Name” (2017)
We’ll admit: There are reasons to not revisit Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” the controversial tour de force that turned Timothée Chalamet into an actor to watch. For one thing, it features a romance with a large age gap, something audiences, at least on Twitter, aren’t always able to wrap their brains around (see Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza”). For another thing, that potentially problematic older partner is played by Armie Hammer. So that’s a yikes. That said, if you can stomach the topic and separate the art from the artists, then “Call Me by Your Name” offers some of the most moving romantic acting on the market.
Based on André Aciman’s novel of the same name with an Academy Award-winning screenplay from James Ivory (“A Room with a View”), “Call Me by Your Name” is an ’80s summer romance set in northern Italy. It’s got hushed conversations on sun-soaked steps; bike rides through the cobble stone streets; and an unforgettable encounter with a peach. —AF
21. “All Of Us Strangers” (2023)
Based on a 1987 Taichi Yamada novel that writer-director Andrew Haigh has tenderly queered in a way that resonates with his own experience, “All of Us Strangers” begins with a premise so poignant that even the slightest miscalibration could make the whole thing ring false. Good thing the movie doesn’t have any of those. Andrew Scott of “Fleabag” fame stars as a lonely gay screenwriter named Adam, who’s all too at home in the eerie new London high-rise where he seems to be one of the only two residents. And wouldn’t you know it, the other renter — Harry — looks an awful lot like Paul Mescal, who plays the part with a sex-forward puckishness that disguises the same pain that it advertises with every glance (no actor on Earth is as good at selling an open wound). As the two men begin to let each other into their apartments and lives, Adam begins writing a script about his childhood in suburbia, a process that sees him visiting the house where he (and Haigh!) grew up, and communing with the spirits of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) who died before they really got to know him.
And so the stage is set for a plaintive ghost story whose lo-fi approach to the afterlife cleaves much closer to the wistfulness of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “After Life” than it does the sentimentality of “Field of Dreams.” Which isn’t to suggest that “All of Us Strangers” isn’t a nuclear-grade tearjerker, because it is most definitely that, especially once Adam’s burgeoning relationship with Harry begins to compound the one he resurrects with his parents. But Haigh tells this potentially maudlin story with such a light touch that even its biggest reveals hit like a velvet hammer, and his screenplay so movingly echoes Adam’s yearning to be known — across time and space — that the film always feels rooted in his emotional present, even as it pings back and forth between dimensions. —DE
20. “Monsoon Wedding” (2001)
Harvard grad Mira Nair’s best movies are the most challenging, independent and personal, from her feature debut, 1988’s vérité-style “Salaam Bombay!,” which was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, through “Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love,” “Mississippi Masala,” and “Monsoon Wedding.” Nair threads several romances through this tumultuous family drama, which culminates in the traditional arranged Indian marriage of Aditi (Vasundhara Das) and Texas emigre Hemant (Parvin Dabas), whom she comes to know in the weeks leading up to the wedding. She had broken off her relationship with an older man, but impulsively gets together with him just before the wedding. When she tells her fiancé, he forgives her. Nair expertly navigates the colorful subplots and local decor with constantly moving handheld cameras. There is never a dull moment as the nubile young lovers finally reach a most satisfying finale. —AT
19. “Love & Basketball” (2000)
There are many talented women directors working–if not often enough–in Hollywood today. Top of the pack is writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, who broke out of UCLA winning prizes, writing and directing shorts and television (HBO’s “Disappearing Acts”), and delivering this well-reviewed Sundance hit for New Line Cinema. This tightly written sports romance stars athletic charmers Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan as competitive college basketball players who have loved each other since childhood. It scored Prince-Bythewood an Indie Spirit award and a Humanitas prize, grossed $27.4 million domestic, and launched her career, followed by “The Secret Life of Bees,” the under-appreciated “Beyond the Lights,” the 2017 Fox series “Shots Fired” also starring Lathan, and the Viola Davis-starring “The Woman King.” —AT
18. “The Lobster” (2015)
It’s hard to think of a film with such a goofy logline that packs as serious of a punch as “The Lobster,” which follows a man who is forced to find the love of his life in 45 days or risk being turned into a lobster. Colin Farrell gives a (literally) transformational performance, gaining 45 pounds to play David, one of the sadder romantic movie protagonists in recent memory. The physical change softened his appearance, stripping away all of the angles from his face to help him play a man who had been completely beaten down by the world he lives in. In classic Yorgos Lanthimos fashion, it’s a moody, reflective film that still finds a way to be sweetly life affirming. —CZ
17. “Her” (2013)
One of the most human films ever made about artificial intelligence, Spike Jonze’s take on love in the so-called space age is far more than another screed on our dependence on technology. The premise — a man (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with his operating system in a near-future Los Angeles — might have lent itself to cutesiness in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but “Her” is never less than poignant and involving. Scarlett Johansson delivers one of her finest performances without ever appearing in physical form, helping the long-gestating film emerge into the world fully realized; years later, “Her” still feels ahead of the curve and yet utterly of the moment. —MN
16. “Take This Waltz” (2011)
Michelle Williams acts opposite Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby in this charming love triangle from writer-director Sarah Polley. “Take This Waltz” examines the mundanity of domestic love by challenging its protagonist with a charming new friendship. Margot meets Daniel (Kirby) and their chemistry is instant. But so was her chemistry with husband Lou (Rogen). As Margot picks through her feelings, a resonant display of turmoil, insecurity, and impatience unfolds. Plus, Sarah Silverman delivers one of the better scenes in her dramatic acting career as Lou’s sister Geraldine. —AF
15. “Enough Said” (2013)
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s fifth feature is her most accessible: witty, sharply observed, painful and entertaining. It also provides a perfect vehicle for smart comedy actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Eva, an L.A. divorcee and masseuse trying to get back into the dating scene. In the opening party sequence, Eva meets sweetly lovable Albert (James Gandolfini, in one of his last movie roles), also divorced, as well as poet Marianne (Holofcener regular and muse Catherine Keener), who becomes a client and friend. They all have daughters heading for college. Things get tangled when it turns out that Marianne is Albert’s still-angry ex-wife. Does Eva confess, or mount a cover-up? Therein lies the tale. —AT
14. “Only Lovers Left Alive” (2013)
Jim Jarmusch’s best movie in decades is a vampire love story shot for $7 million in the noirish ruins of Detroit and the narrow alleys of Tangier. Both deadpan funny and visually delightful, the movie follows melancholic musician vampire Adam (Tom Hiddleston), holed up in a frayed Detroit house in a decaying neighborhood, who joyfully reunites with his centuries-long mate Eve (Tilda Swinton) when she flies in from Africa. They’d rather acquire black-market blood than prey on humans. But those rules don’t necessarily apply to Eve’s feral younger sister vampire (Mia Wasikowska), who fancies Adam’s human link to the outside world (Anton Yelchin). Swinton and Hiddleston define cool and sexy, and Wasikowska has never been so delightfully devilish. —AT
13. “The Big Sick” (2017)
The romantic comedy is not dead! Kumail Nanjiani mined his own life experiences to write “The Big Sick,” telling the true story of bonding with his girlfriend’s parents while she was in a coma while injecting some much-needed life into the genre in the process. The film is a perfectly-structured masterclass in rom-com screenwriting, and the real chemistry between Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan elevates the script and turns the film into something truly special. Equal parts cringe comedy and a heartwarming take on interracial dating, “The Big Sick” manages to shed all of the worst rom-com tropes while honoring the best ones. —CZ
12. “Brooklyn” (2015)
Once every few years, a movie actually deserves to be called “delightful.” “Brooklyn” is just that — a crowd-pleaser that earns every one of its tears, whether borne of joy or sorrow. Its coming-to-America story centers on an Irish heroine (a never-better Saoirse Ronan) who falls in love not only with her new country but also the nice Italian boy she meets at a dance; both relationships are hard-won, and nothing comes easily in John Crowley’s adaptation of the novel by Colm Tóibín. What she slowly learns is that, when going home isn’t an option, making a new one is — and who’s in it with you is even more important than where it is. —MN
11. “Decision to Leave” (2022)
The most romantic movie of 2022 was… a police procedural? That’s just how it goes when “Oldboy” director Park Chan-wook — whose operatic revenge melodramas have given way to a series of ravishingly baroque Hitchcockian love stories about the various “perversities” that might bind two wayward souls together — decides to make a detective thriller.
Which isn’t to suggest that “Decision to Leave” is some kind of whodunnit. On the contrary, Park’s funny, playful, and increasingly poignant crime thriller is less interested in what Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) knows about his suspect than in how he feels about her. By the same token, widowed caretaker Seo-rae (played with deliciously uncertain purpose by Chinese “Lust, Caution” star Tang Wei) seems less troubled by the idea that Hae-joon might discover some damning evidence about her late husband’s death than she is by the fear that he might stop investigating her.
With the subtlety of a secretly requited crush, she dreads the day that Hae-joon will stop plying her with premium sushi boxes during their flirtatious interrogations, or staking out her Busan apartment on the nights when he should be at home in the hilly suburbs of Ipo, sleeping in bed with the pretty wife he’s bored of touching. Some of the people who live out there probably can’t stand the depressive sheet of gray clouds that stretches over the city every morning; others, perhaps, might only be at peace when their hearts are shrouded in mist.
And so the stage is set for Park to orchestrate a psychologically complex procedural about a proud detective brought to life by a crime he doesn’t want to solve, and a rootless murder suspect who’s mastered the art of leaving things behind. What starts as a rather open-and-shut case, however, soon evolves into something much richer, as Park leverages the killings (plural!) into a gripping investigation of a mystery that no police department could ever hope to solve: How does a romance survive between two people whose only hope for a future together depends upon them leaving the past unresolved? It’s a mystery that Park unpacks with uncharacteristic restraint, if only because its ultimate payoff — more of a sinking realization than the kind of sudden bombshell that often detonated at the end of his earlier films — requires these characters to remain firmly lodged in the real world, where their adult longings might face adult consequences.
On the other hand, “Decision to Leave” is only able to stir up such unexpectedly immense emotions during its final moments because of the complications that Park creates for his characters along the way, which sink into Hae-joon and Seo-rae with the same visible weight that a wave of ocean water saturates into the dry sand it finds onshore. If “Decision to Leave” initially seems to be investigating how their feelings for each other can survive despite being so unresolved, a different picture emerges at high tide — one that suggests there’s no other way for them to stay alive. Love can last a lifetime, but longing never dies. —DE
10. “Past Lives” (2023)
Of all the writers retreats in all the summer towns in all of New York, he had to walk into hers. As the sun fades on a perfect Montauk night — setting the stage for a first kiss that, like so many of the most resonant moments in Celine Song’s transcendent “Past Lives,” will ultimately be left to the imagination — Nora (an extraordinary Greta Lee) tells Arthur (John Magaro) about the Korean concept of In-Yun, which suggests that people are destined to meet one another if their souls have overlapped a certain number of times before. When Arthur asks Nora if she really believes in all that, the Seoul-born woman sitting across from him invitingly replies that it’s just “something Korean people say to seduce someone.”
Needless to say, it works.
But as this delicate yet crushingly beautiful film continues to ripple forward in time — the wet clay of Nora and Arthur’s flirtation hardening into a marriage in the span of a single cut — the very real life they create together can’t help but run parallel to the imagined one that Nora seemed fated to share with the childhood sweetheart she left back in her birth country. She and Hae Sung (“Leto” star Teo Yoo) haven’t seen each other in the flesh since they were in grade school, but the ties between them have never entirely frayed apart.
On the contrary, they seem to knot together in unexpected ways every 12 years, as Hae Sung orbits back around to his first crush with the cosmic regularity of a comet passing through the sky above. The closer he comes to making contact with Nora, the more heart-stoppingly complicated her relationship with destiny becomes. And with each passing scene in this film (all of them so hushed and sacrosanct that even their most uncertain moments feel as if they’re being repeated like an ancient prayer), it grows easier to appreciate why Nora felt compelled to mention In-Yun on that seismic Montauk night.
On paper, “Past Lives” might sound like a diasporic riff on a Richard Linklater romance — one that condenses the entire “Before” trilogy into the span of a single film. In practice, however, this gossamer-soft love story almost entirely forgoes any sort of “Baby, you are gonna miss that plane” dramatics in favor of teasing out some more ineffable truths about the way that people find themselves with (and through) each other. Which isn’t to suggest that Song’s palpably autobiographical debut fails to generate any classic “who’s she gonna choose?” suspense by the time it’s over, but rather to stress how inevitable it feels that Nora’s man crisis builds to a bittersweet quiver of recognition instead of a megaton punch to the gut. Here is an unforgettable romance that unfolds with the mournful resignation of the Leonard Cohen song that inspires Nora’s English-language name; it’s a movie less interested in tempting its heroine with “the one who got away” than it is in allowing her to reconcile with the version of herself she once left with him as a priceless souvenir.
We wrote that “Past Lives” was destined to be one of 2023’s best films. That may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it turns out we were still selling Celine Song’s transcendent debut a little short. —DE
9. “Phantom Thread” (2017)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmmaking swings between ambitions — sweeping riffs on history (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master”) and peculiar, enlightening character studies (“Hard Eight,” “Punch Drunk Love”). His ambling Thomas Pynchon adaptation “Inherent Vice” tried to merge those modalities, but “Phantom Thread” really pulls it off, with his most concise, endearing works in years, one that plumbs dark and mysterious Andersonian depths to unearth a surprising degree of warmth lurking within.
It also surprises with his strongest female lead in two decades of movies. Though some of the hype around “Phantom Thread” stems from Daniel Day-Lewis’ announcement of his retirement after this role, the world’s most revered Method Actor meets his match alongside stunning discovery Vicky Krieps. There’s no doubt that Anderson has crafted a memorable finale for his “There Will Be Blood” collaborator in British dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock, a stern perfectionist in his mid-50s who plucks immigrant Alma (Krieps) from obscurity to be his model and muse. But Krieps, whose wondrous face bookends the movie, takes charge of this seemingly male-dominated narrative and makes it her own. —EK
8. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004)
Blessed are the forgetful — or maybe not. Anyone who’s yet to be convinced of Jim Carrey’s dramatic abilities need look no further than what remains Michel Gondry’s best film, a dreamy romance that asks whether it’s better to have loved and lost than to never remember that you loved at all. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” uses its potentially wish-fulfilling premise — a clinic offers patients the chance to selectively erase their memories, in this case of former lovers — to remind us that, even if the heart wants what the heart wants, the mind may not always agree. As for which organ wins out in the end, well, a trip to Lacuna will provide all the answers you need. —MN
7. “The Handmaiden” (2016)
Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook (“Oldboy”) applies Hitchcockian humor and finesse to this erotic tale of two women in love. His well-reviewed Cannes competition entry marked the filmmaker’s return to South Korea after his 2013 English-language debut “Stoker.” Park’s deliciously twisted and kinky adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2002 British novel “Fingersmith,” relocated to the Japanese occupation of ’30s Korea, is a gorgeous portrait of a con-artist Korean servant (newcomer Kim Tae-ri) and her powerful Japanese mistress (Korean star Kim Min-hie, “Right Now, Wrong Then”). They band together to rise up against their male oppressors — or do they? Park keeps us guessing as he parcels out surprising tidbits of information in satisfying ways. As we watch the complex plot unfold, we realize that our unreliable narrators often don’t know what is going on. But of one thing we are sure: these duplicitous women love and desire each other. As their goals and desires merge and diverge, we wonder just how they will come out ahead of the men who are manipulating them. Which is what makes this yummy feminist movie so much fun to watch. —AT
6. “Carol” (2015)
You’d have to be a stone not to be wonderstruck by Todd Haynes’ deeply felt romance. Built on brief glances and stolen kisses, the forbidden love that develops between Carol (Cate Blanchett) and Therese (Rooney Mara) characters is far ahead of its time — at least as far as ’50s America is concerned — even as the film itself has a timeless quality. The push-pull between what we desire and what is possible has rarely been explored with more nuance and sensitivity, even if the idea of creamed spinach and poached eggs is less appetizing than the movie as a whole. Pair it with two dry martinis and have yourself a good cry. —MN
5. “Brokeback Mountain” (2005)
We still haven’t quit “Brokeback Mountain.” While Heath Ledger’s untimely passing has made watching Ang Lee’s adaptation of the short story by Annie Proulx especially tragic, the movie is plenty sad on its own. “Brokeback Mountain” helped cement not only Ledger but also Jake Gyllenhaal (who likewise received an Oscar nod), Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway as dramatic actors in their own right, and we’ll continue reaping the benefits for a long time to come. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, so too does the knowledge that you aren’t allowed to have that which you most desire and that pursuing it could be the end of you — there’s a reason that so many of the best romances have unhappy endings. —MN
4. “Atonement” (2007)
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember seeing “Atonement” in theaters, and learning what a new swear word meant thanks to voyeuristically peering in on James McAvoy typing a salacious letter to forbidden love Kiera Knightley — and watching that library scene. You know, the one with Knightley wearing a slinky emerald green backless slip dress, hair perfectly coiffed, and McAvoy pinning her against a bookshelf as he fulfills all of his sexual promises to her that he penned in flirtatious love notes. Joe Wright’s 2007 romance war drama begins in 1935 England, with jealous 13-year-old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) spying on her older sister Cecilia (Knightley) as she flirts with the housekeeper’s son Robbie (McAvoy). After consensually consummating their pent up passion for one another, Briony accuses Robbie of raping Cecilia. Robbie is later arrested, and the decade-spanning love story between Robbie and Cecilia finds a sinister end during WWII, with one last twist over 50 years later completely re-framing the forbidden love. “Atonement” was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.—SB
3. “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire” (2019)
Even in a golden age of lesbian romance films like “Carol” and “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” stands out as something of a singular masterpiece. The film tells the story of a young painter tasked with capturing the likeness of a young bride for a wedding portrait, and the doomed romance that ensues between them. Sciamma paints a haunting portrait of lost love and the way its memories can follow us forever, aided by two superb performances from Adele Haenel and Noemie Merlant. Every frame of the film is wonderful, but its ending contains one of the most memorable reveals in recent cinematic history, a shot that burns itself into your brain the moment you see it. —CZ
2. “Before Sunset” (2004) and “Before Midnight” (2013)
It may be cheating to include both “Sunset” and “Midnight,” but Richard Linklater’s real-time romances have never played by the rules. After all, how many franchises actually improve with each new chapter? “Before Sunrise” initially seemed like the perfect one-off, and the idea of revisiting it seemed ill-advised to say the least — sometimes it’s great to be proven wrong. As both the lovers in question and the Oscar-nominated co-writers of these latter two entries, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have proven to be one of cinema’s best, most enduring couples. And for the record, the greatest moment of the entire trilogy is the last shot of “Before Sunset” — its sexy ambiguity is as satisfying as it is tempting. —MN
1. “In the Mood for Love” (2000)
Has a movie ever been so hot without ever actually showing us anything? Even some of the best romances gloss over the longing that comes from loving someone you can never have. Not so in Wong Kar-wai’s masterclass in restraint, which find two would-be lovers gazing longingly across the hallway as they return to their own spouses night after night; the sexiest non-sex scene of all time may be the one in which they pass each other in an alleyway. Barely anything happens between them, played by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, but you can feel every single emotion emanating between them. That’s both good and bad, as the mix of sexual tension and unfulfilled yearning builds a tension that may never be released. —MN
