14 Wonderfully Romantic Films for the Valentine’s Season
Although by the time this article is published, Valentine’s Day will have come and gone, February still to many is the month of love, and what better way to spend this season of love than with a movie about the topic? Whether cuddled up next to the one you adore, watching together online due to long distance, or even if you’re spending the holiday alone this year, here are a few recommendations for romantic movie watching.
(500) Days of Summer
(500) Days of Summer is one of the quintessential romantic comedies of the 2000’s and for good reason. It’s a wonderfully charming, fun and charismatic romp with two leads that aren’t quite fit for each other, but try so desperately to make it work. It’s bittersweet, but also heartwarming, and always a nice watch at any time of the year.
About Time
If I were to completely self-indulge with my picks for this list, About Time likely wouldn’t have made the cut. This isn’t to say I don’t enjoy this film. In fact, I do have a lot of love for it, but my reasoning for picking this particular film lies more in the fact that it’s my mother’s favorite film, and she’d likely fuss if I didn’t include it (I’m only kidding Mom). All that aside, About Time is a wonderfully charming film about a time traveler and how he uses his curious power to travel backward in time to make little changes in his life while simultaneously falling in love with his soulmate. It’s an adorable and beautiful film that examines both love and the importance of not taking life for granted, while also being rather funny at times, as well.
Buffalo ’66
Buffalo ’66 is not your conventional love story at all. Obviously everyone has seen your standard “boy meets girl, they fall in love, conflict happens and gets resolved, happy ending,” but this movie isn’t that at all. This movie begins with a man named Billy Brown getting released from prison after serving a full term for a crime he didn’t commit. Soon after he kidnaps a young tap dancer named Layla and asks her to pose as his wife as he visits his neglectful and cold parents for the first time since his arrest. Throughout this film Billy is cold and detached, frailly attempting to hide his broken emotional state, while Layla quickly finds an interest in Billy and begins to try to get him to open up to her. Even after the visit she sticks with him, and slowly and surely he begins to open up and let someone into his heart for the first time. It’s a beautiful film both visually and emotionally, the performances are phenomenal, the editing is next level, and it’s easily one of the most moving films ever made.
Casablanca
Considered by many (including myself) to be one of the greatest films ever made, Casablanca is a classic in every sense of the word. Everyone knows this movie. It’s one of the most quoted of all time, it’s been parodied time and time again, and the name is synonymous with film at this point. At the heart of it all, is one of the greatest love stories ever told, one that never gets old, and one that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t seen.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Many of us have gone through a tough breakup in our lives. The feeling can be gutting, and many times you may have thought to yourself, “I wish I could forget I ever knew them.” Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is that thought process brought to the silver screen, in a gloriously haunting, devastating, but ultimately beautiful abstract journey through the mind, and how forgetting may ultimately be more painful than the memories.
A Ghost Story
While we’re briefly touching on the subject of heartbreak, I want to offer up a film that is rather important to me, that being A Ghost Story. A rather simplistic meditation on loss (specifically on death, but the film’s overall meaning and theme can be applied to all kinds of loss), A Ghost Story is a beautiful story of life and death and the inevitable obstacle we all must tackle of letting go. It moved me to tears on my first viewing, and I hope if you give it a watch, it will resonate with you, too.
The Graduate
The first time I saw The Graduate I was frankly way too young to be seeing it for the first time. Though the content is tame for today’s standards and nothing I couldn’t take at the age of 12, the overall themes and story of the film were ones I had no way of grasping as a kid. That being said, I did love this film because it was funny, and it is still very funny to me to this day, but over the years I’ve grown a different appreciation for it, and I’ve found my subsequent viewings to all come with different takeaways every single time. As a kid it made me laugh, in high school it made me want to fall in love, in my freshman year at Bluefield University it made me terrified for what my life was going to be, and now I find it to be one of the most darkly humorous tragic stories ever told. It is both lovely and depressing, but such is life.
Heathers
Heathers is now often lauded as one of the greatest high school comedies of all time, and with good reason. It’s a wickedly funny film through and through, and even at its darkest it will likely have you laughing along with it, rather than being shocked by its content. But at the heart of Heathers lies a romance, one between a girl struggling with her identity and a charismatic psychopath. Yes, Heathers is about a romance that is undeniably a bad one, despite how much these two seemingly love each other, the murderous tendencies of Christian Slater’s Jason Dean lead the relationship he has with Winona Rider’s Veronica to it’s ultimate and inevitable doom. In the end you aren’t really left with anything too heavy to think about, and furthermore the film is just so much fun that there’s no reason to think any deeper about it; just enjoy the mayhem and laugh.
High Fidelity
If you’re like me, sometimes you like to see a story about someone who is less than likable learn from their mistakes and better themselves for it. The perfect version of that scenario is easily found in High Fidelity. John Cusack stars in this as Rob, a music obsessed jerk who after his most recent breakup begins to examine his past failures in relationships only to realize his own faults, and ultimately attempt to repair the one he just lost. It’s an emotional roller coaster filled with ups and downs, lots of laughs, a charming minor role from Jack Black, lots of great music, and a whole lot of love.
One From the Heart
There are many reasons why everyone should give One From the Heart a watch, but one of the main reasons is that it deserved so much more than what it got on release. Film making legend Francis Ford Coppola (director of classics such as The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation) set out to make this film in 1981, because he believed it to possibly be his magnum opus, a film to define his career, and one that would be loved for years to come. Unfortunately, millions of dollars later this film would open to be a box office bomb. So few people saw this film on release that it bankrupted an entire studio. Did the film deserve it? Absolutely not. Coppola’s work with lighting here is some of the best I’ve ever seen in a film. Each color is used heavily to convey the emotions felt by the two leads at every given turn. This film is a technicolor dream and an ode to stage musicals. It works so well with the format that it manages to both look like a stage play, but also play with techniques only possible in the real of film. It is gorgeous, the actors all perform their hearts out, and the music by Tom Waits is some of the best to ever accompany a film. Give it a watch; it deserves it.
Phantom of the Paradise
Although it is often seen as a horror tale, Gaston Leroux’s 1909 novel The Phantom of the Opera has always been primarily a tale of love. Many filmmakers have adapted the story over the years, a lot of which focus more on the horror angle, but filmmakers such as Joel Schumacher have tackled the story more closely to the theme of love. But what happens when you take the story, combine it with the German tale of Faust and a little bit of The Picture of Dorian Gray, while simultaneously focusing on both the horror and romantic aspects of Phantom, not to mention adding a biting commentary on the record industry and updating the tale to be a rock opera musical? You get Phantom of the Paradise, a 1974 cult classic film by Brian De Palma and one of my favorite films of all time. Words cannot describe how wonderfully engaging, entertaining and fun this film is. There is nothing else like it. It’s a musical fantasy and a feast for the eyes and ears.
Sing Street
If you’ve ever done something stupid in an attempt to win someone’s affection, then Sing Street will undoubtedly resonate with you. The story is simple: boy goes to new school, boy sees beautiful girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy forms a band to try to impress her. It’s a cute, charming little film with tons of great music in ’80s style — a wonderful tribute to youth and being a teenager in love.
When Harry Met Sally…
It’s hard to find a list of the greatest romance films of all time that doesn’t include When Harry Met Sally. Something about this film still manages to captivate audiences more than 30 years after its initial release. Sure, it’s very simple, but sometimes simplicity is all you really need for enjoyment. It’s a wonderfully cozy, cute and funny film with two charming leads. What else do you really need?
Wild at Heart
Whether it’s for the experimental angle it takes throughout its runtime or Nicholas Cage’s snakeskin jacket wearing, Elvis obsessed, loverboy performance as Sailor or Laura Dern’s sometimes naïve, but often cutting and alluring personality as Lula, Wild at Heart has something to like for everyone. Based on a novel by Barry Gifford, this David Lynch road trip film about two lovers on the run from a series of hit-men is both a beautiful romantic film with occasional laughs and a dark and twisted crime drama with amazing turns at every corner. Deserving of praise for every second of it, Wild at Heart will leave you singing “Love Me Tender” with a smile on your face and a tear in your eye every single time.