Whether you are spending Valentine’s Day alone as a hopeless romantic, with a partner or friends, celebrate the love-filled day with these five rom-coms!
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
A late 90s twist on William Shakspeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, this film follows smart and rebellious Kat Stratford as her younger sister Bianca wants to start dating however, she can’t until Kat gets a boyfriend. Here comes new student Cameron James playing matchmaker and pairing up bad-boy Patrick Verora and Kat in order to date Bianca. This is THE teen rom-com with iconic moments and quotes, 90s era soundtrack and, of course, the incredible late Heath Ledger.
Available to stream on Disney+ and to rent on Prime Video.
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
The sequel to 2001’s The Princess Diaries, Mia Thermoplis is still adjusting to being the princess of Genovia as finds out that if she wants to become a queen, she needs to get married. Enter Nicholas Devereaux, who’s only there for the crown, creates an enemies to lovers dynamic leading to entertaining and comedic drama. Truly, the most underrated rom-com to use the enemies to lovers trope.
Available to stream on Disney+
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
An adaptation of the book trilogy by Jenny Han, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before introduces high schooler Lara Jean Covey who writes letters to her past crushes. Instead of mailing them out, she keeps them in a secret box. Everything changes when her letters go to each crush. One of the crushes being Peter Kavinsky, who gets Lara Jean to be in a pretend relationship in order to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. This film is one of the best modern rom-coms to be released in the past 7 years with its interesting plot and colorful and cute aesthetic.
Available to stream on Netflix
Love at First Sight (2023)
On their flight to London, strangers Hadley Sullivian and Oliver Jones get to know each other as they fall for one another. One problem is that Hadley’s phone dies and now Hadley’s number is lost. It might seem like they will never see each other again, but fate thinks otherwise. Based on the plot, it might feel like this is an unwatchable and boring film, but it’s really charming, the leads have good chemistry and you might become teary eyed when watching certain scenes.
Available to stream on Netflix.
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
You can make a rom-com watchlist without the queen of rom-coms herself, Meg Ryan. You’ve Got Mail is about Kathleen Kelly, a bookseller of a small bookstore in New York and Joe Fox, a owner of a huge corporate bookstore chain. They talk over email anonymously without knowing they are talking to each other. This film and When Harry Met Sally would make the perfect rom- com double feature.
Available to stream on Hulu or Hulu on Disney+.