The most romantic movies on Netflix right now

Ali Wong and Randall Park absolutely are brilliant in this Netflix Original romantic comedy about two childhood friends who lose touch after a teenage fling turns sour, only to be reunited in adulthood. It might sound like familiar romcom territory, and it is, but it’s done so well and in such a relaxed manner that you don’t mind any retreading. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a show-stealing cameo from Keanu Reeves.

Timothée Chalamet comes of age in an Italian villa in the early 1980s in a story of sexual awakening backdropped by the sun-kissed Lombardy countryside. Luca Guadagnino’s slowly smoldering depiction of queer discovery is sensitively handled, deeply felt and beautifully shot – it has the dreamy quality of a powerful childhood memory that’s faded at the edges but remains as vivid as the day it happened.

Modern retellings of Cyrano de Bergerac are so common it’s hardly a selling point anymore but writer-director Alice Wu deserves credit for giving an old tale a queer spin, not to mention putting a first-generation Chinese-American teen at its center. Beyond those plot twists, Wu’s adaptation - about a lonely high schooler helping a jock woo his crush, only to start crushing on the same girl - is unusually smart and funny. And while it turns out, in the end, to be a story of self-acceptance rather than finding validation in another person, there’s romance in that idea as well.

Possibly the only movie to make sitting in LA traffic seem like the stuff of dreams, Damien Chazelle’s swooning musical – 2016’s Best Picture winner for roughly 20 seconds – transposes the Technicolor magic of Jacques Demy to the modern-day City of Angels, and even if you’re one of those people who despises musicals, it’s damn hard to resist. Credit goes to Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, playing starry-eyed Angelenos drawn to each other by their struggles to get their own dreams off the ground. 

A triangulation of romantic drama, supernatural horror and sociopolitical critique, Senegalese director Mati Diop’s astounding debut has an entrancing quality unlike any film you’ve likely experienced before. It makes sense, given that the movie concerns itself with a village in Senegal possessed by the souls of exploited workers, and the women left behind to deal with their earthly business. 

Adapted from the 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel ‘The Price of Salt’, Todd Haynes’s lush melodrama is powered by a pair of phenomenal performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as two women in midcentury New York struggling to repress their feelings for each other following the former’s divorce. Like most of Haynes’ films, it’s emotionally complex and subtly moving – and gorgeous to look at.

Netflix’s efforts to revive the romantic comedy has yielded mixed results, but this teen romcom is definitely one of its stronger attempts. While it plays up to some tropes – awkward but attractive girl and school’s hottest jock pretend to date only for the pair to fall desperately in love – the central premise feels unique and relatable. The casting is also ace: Lana Condor is excellent as protagonist Lara Jean, while Noah Centineo ticks all the teen heartthrob boxes. The film was a big enough hit to spawn a trilogy, with PS: I Still Love You and this year's Always and Forever ready to queue up for a binge.

Often overlooked in the Scorsese filmography, this romantic dramedy is nonetheless one of the pearls of his early career. Ellen Burstyn is excellent as Alice Hyatt, a freshly widowed mother who leaves her home in New Mexico with dreams of making it to California and becoming a singer. She makes it as far as Arizona before being intercepted by a divorced rancher named David (Kris Kristofferson), who instantly falls for her. It exudes a soulful humanity not always associated with Marty’s movies.    

It reads like another ‘shlubby guy somehow woos a gorgeous, successful woman way out of his league’ fantasy, and in some ways that’s exactly what it is: a presidential candidate (Charlize Theron) hires a journalist (Seth Rogen) she once babysat as a speechwriter and ends up falling in love with him. But Rogen always works magic with that kind of set-up, and Theron somehow makes the implausible conceit seem… at least possible? In any case, it’s much funnier – and more endearing – than you would assume. The MDMA scene is an all-timer.

There isn’t much to this low-key gem aside from the chemistry between the two leads, but Jessica Williams and Chris O’Dowd exude a lot of chemistry. Each plays a recent dumpee who are still not over their respective past relationship, yet end up on a blind date together and forge a strong connection over their shared heartbreak. It’s really that simple, and that’s all it really needs to be a total winner. 

It features perhaps the single most offensive Asian caricature to appear onscreen since, like, the 1940s, but if you’re able to cringe through the Long Duk Dong scenes, John Hughes’s directorial debut is still a major moment for teen movies, romcoms and really the whole vibe of 1980s cinema in general. It introduced the world to Molly Ringwald’s signature prissy-yet-sympathetic charisma, established Anthony Michael Hall as the era’s best lovelorn nerd, and showcased Hughes’ particular blend of smarts and sweetness before it came to define the decade.  

A formulaic but well-executed romcom, this Netflix Original stars Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez as a music journalist moving cross-country to take a ‘dream job’ at Rolling Stone, prompting her longtime boyfriend (LaKeith Stanfield) to break up with her. Devastated, she and her friends plan one last big night out before sending her off.  

Part-love story, part-mental health drama, this David O Russell film gets right into the tall grass of relationships – romantic, platonic and somewhere in between. How do we connect with another person when we’ve lost our sense of ourselves? How much weirdness is too much weirdness? And what do you do if the dad-in-law is Robert De Niro? Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrencem are on top form in a bittersweet kinda-love story for lost souls.

A classic ‘two lost souls who unexpectedly take refuge in each other’ setup, Noah Baumbach’s downcast dramedy stars Ben Stiller as a down-and-out musician who forges a bond with his rich brother’s personal assistant (Greta Gerwig) in the aftermath of a nervous breakdown. Some critics found Stiller’s neuroses off-putting, but Gerwig shows enough insouciant charm for the both of them.

“This is not a love story. It’s the story of love” reads the tagline for Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s pandemic project. Indeed, it’s no fairytale; rather, it’s a feature-length domestic dispute. Arriving home from a film premiere, the titular couple (John David Washington and Zendaya) start an argument that ends up going all night, taking several detours and ultimately pulling at the threads of their relationship. Sure, it doesn’t sound romantic, but in its honest, messy portrayal of modern love, it achieves a certain kind of romance all the same - the luminous black-and-white cinematography helps, too.