My 21 Favorite Rom-Coms Since 2010
From streaming hits starring Glen Powell to underrated gems featuring Dakota Johnson
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Look, maybe it’s unfair to say that Katherine Heigl’s 2009 rom-com The Ugly Truth was so bad it killed the entire genre. But much like the past two decades of superhero content led to the fatigue we all feel today, the rom-com boom of the 1990s and early 2000s meant Hollywood was pretty burnout on romantic comedies headed into the 2010s. And save for a brief burst of hope in the 2018 “Summer of Love,” the genre hasn’t really recovered since.
In fact, I’d argue that rom-coms are now more at home on TV than they are at the movies–with shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty, Bridgerton, Emily In Paris, Starstruck, Hearstopper, and Love, Victor continuing on the tradition of 2010s rom-com TV shows like Jane the Virgin, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Younger, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
But that doesn’t mean romantic comedy films have disappeared entirely, and I’m not just talking about the “quantity over quality” approach of Hallmark Christmas movies and Netflix original rom-coms. The genre still exists, even if it’s evolved a bit. And in honor of Valentine’s Day, I rounded up my 21 favorite rom-coms of the past 14 years, in hopes of putting a few new favorites on your radar.
They’re listed in no particular order, although I did include a few classic rom-com touchstones to help guide your viewing taste. And where possible, I linked to longer reviews or columns I’ve written about each of these films, in case you want more in-depth thoughts from me.
Long Shot (2019)
When this Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron political rom-com debuted, it was dinged for being yet another “schlubby guy/hot girl” male wish fulfillment story. But not only does that severely underestimate Rogen’s charms, it also misses the fact that there’s plenty of female wish fulfillment to this story of a powerful woman who finds someone who wants to support her, not one-up with her. Anchored by two stellar lead performances and an ideal balance of romance and comedy, Long Shot is as wonderfully sweet as it is laugh-out-loud funny.
For fans of: Broadcast News, Notting Hill, The Philadelphia Story
Isn’t It Romantic (2019)
It’s easy enough to parody the rom-com genre, but it’s harder to do so while still celebrating what makes romantic comedies special. Thankfully, Isn’t It Romantic is up for the challenge. Starring Rebel Wilson as an everyday woman whose life suddenly becomes a glossy romantic comedy, Isn’t It Romantic balances meta fun with a thoughtful exploration of how the genre can be unexpectedly empowering in its own way. Plus it lets Wilson and Adam DeVine continue their great Pitch Perfect chemistry in an even more sincere way.
For fans of: Pitch Perfect, They Came Together
Plus One (2019)
Though Plus One starts with what sounds like a high-concept premise (two friends agree to team up as each other’s “plus one” during an overstuffed wedding season), what ultimately makes the movie work is how no-frills it is. A funny but thoughtful script digs into the realities of dating in your late twenties, while Jack Quaid and especially Maya Erskine provide heaps of chemistry in a way that would surely make Quaid’s mom Meg Ryan proud.
For fans of: (500) Days of Summer, Four Weddings and a Funeral
Rye Lane (2023)
One thing that killed the rom-com genre is how same-y they all started to feel—right down to their glossy, hollow aesthetics. In Rye Lane, however, first-time feature director Raine Allen-Miller brings a welcome sense of style back to the genre. Charming newcomers David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah play two heartbroken strangers who fall for each during a long afternoon spent walking and talking through South London. And Miller’s warm, raunchy, visually compelling character study doubles as a love letter to Black British culture.
For fans of: Before Sunrise, She’s Gotta Have It
Bros (2022)
One of my more controversial movie takes is that a rom-com can be great even if the central love story isn’t the best thing about it. And that’s very much the case for Bros, which offers a decent romance but a truly fantastic showcase for Billy Eichner. While rom-coms have long provided a haven for complicated stories about women’s interior lives, Eichner expands that lens to look at the Gen X gay male experience too. And it’s a joy to watch him so confidently step up to the plate as a leading man.
For fans of: Bridget Jones’s Diary, Jeffrey
Set It Up (2018)
Glen Powell may have had his big breakout moment thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, but rom-com fans have known about him since this delightful 2018 comedy, in which he and Zoey Deutch play put-upon assistants who try to trick their high-powered bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) into falling for each other. Straightforward, funny, and earnest, Set It Up helped kicked off the whole “Netflix rom-com” phenomenon in the first place. And it still remains one of the streamer’s most charming offerings.
For fans of: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, You’ve Got Mail
I Want You Back (2022)
The best romantic comedies mine their humor from the quirky specificity of their characters. So while I Want You Back starts with a heightened premise about two recently dumped strangers who decide to team up to sabotage their exes, the real joy comes from watching Jenny Slate and Charlie Day get to be funny and weird and charming as hell together—right down to a musical moment I haven’t stopped thinking about in years.
For fans of: My Best Friend’s Wedding, While You Were Sleeping
EMMA. (2020)
As one of the last theatrical releases before the pandemic hit, EMMA. fell through the cracks a bit on its initial release. But it’s a stylish, thoughtful, spiky Jane Austen adaptation that manages to generate some real heat between stars Anya Taylor-Joy (as overly self-confident heiress Emma Woodhouse) and Johnny Flynn (as the uptight family friend who believes in her better nature).
For fans of: Emma (1996), Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Fire Island (2022)
Speaking of Jane Austen, one of the other best recent adaptations of her work came courtesy of this modern day, queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice, which does for that famed Austen novel what Clueless did for Emma. Starring Joel Kim Booster as the Lizzy Bennet figure and Bowen Yang as his less confident “sister,” Fire Island is a funny, thoughtful ode to both romantic love and platonic bonds.
For fans of: Clueless, Bride and Prejudice
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)
A welcome new auteur in the rom-com genre, Cooper Raiff followed up his sweet college romance Shithouse with this funny, bittersweet look at love and timing. Cha Cha Real Smooth stars Raiff as an aimless post-grad who gets a job as a bat mitzvah party starter, where he catches the eye of an alluring single mom played by Dakota Johnson. And though the film’s coming-of-age beats are a little familiar, Raiff brings a specificity that makes them sparkle.
For fans of: The Wedding Singer, The Graduate
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Chalk this one up as yet another rom-com where the central romance isn’t necessarily the best thing about it. Instead, where Crazy Rich Asians really succeeds is in evoking a glamorous, old-school style of rom-com filmmaking and then shifting the lens on who gets to be the star of that story. Though rom-coms have been delivering elegant escapism since the Golden Age of Hollywood, few contemporary examples have done it as sumptuously as Crazy Rich Asians.
For fans of: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Audrey Hepburn’s Funny Face
Obvious Child (2014)
Romantic comedies have long been a haven for complicated stories about lovable, flawed women. And that’s very much true for Obvious Child, which stars Jenny Slate as an up-and-coming stand-up comedian who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a normie tech guy (Jake Lacy). She schedules an abortion for Valentine’s Day, while trying to figure out whether she’d actually like to pursue something with the guy. And Obvious Child is both sweetly optimistic about love and refreshingly straightforward about a woman’s right to choose.
For fans of: Annie Hall, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Sleeping With Other People (2015)
Tons of rom-coms have aimed to recapture the magic of When Harry Met Sally, but few have done it as well as Leslye Headland’s Sleeping With Other People, which offers a thornier, hornier look at the line between friendship and something more. Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie play old college acquaintances who bond over their toxic relationship patterns. But their promise to keep things platonic between them is quickly put to the test.
For fans of: When Harry Met Sally, Much Ado About Nothing
Your Sister’s Sister (2011)
Lynn Shelton’s gorgeously empathetic indie is both a traditional love story and a beautiful ode to the bond between siblings. Emily Blunt’s Iris finds herself spending the week in a remote cabin with her best friend Jack (Mark Duplass) and her beloved older sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt). The only trouble is Iris is secretly in love with Jack, Jack and Hannah had a meaningless one-night stand, and Hannah has ulterior motives of her own. On paper, it sounds a bit high-concept, but in practice Your Sister’s Sister is a lived-in drama about three flawed people doing their best not to hurt one another.
For fans of: The Apartment, Drinking Buddies
Top Five (2014)
Written and directed by Chris Rock, Top Five is another great entry in the “walking and talking” rom-com canon. Rock plays a successful stand-up comedian-turned-actor, while Rosario Dawson is the journalist assigned to interview him ahead of the premiere of his new prestige drama. Funny and thoughtful in equal measure, Top Five explores celebrity culture, sobriety, and the ineffable spark that can happen between two people in just one day.
For fans of: Before Sunset, High Fidelity
The First Time (2012)
Teen rom-coms are a proud tradition in their own right, and this underrated 2012 gem succeeds by giving its teenage characters a welcome sense of emotional maturity. Though ostensibly a movie about two teens losing their virginities, stars Britt Robertson and Dylan O’Brien bring a breezy, low-key chemistry that makes the whole thing feel more like a grounded coming-of-age story than a raunchy sex comedy.
For fans of: Say Anything, Pretty In Pink
Alex Strangelove (2018)
Another high school rom-com about virginity, Alex Strangelove explores its story through a queer lens. The movie endearingly captures a certain type of neurotic teen in type-A high schooler Alex Truelove (Daniel Doheny), who struggles to understand why he doesn’t want to “go all the way” with his girlfriend (Madeline Weinstein) even as he finds himself drawn to a charismatic guy he meets at a party (Antonio Marziale). But the real grace note here is the empathy Alex Strangelove extends to every corner of its teen love triangle.
For fans of: 10 Things I Hate About You; Love, Simon; Reality Bites
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
Still the crown jewel in the Netflix rom-com canon (sorry The Kissing Booth), To All The Boys blends grounded high school realism with just the right amount of heightened rom-com fantasy. For all the fake dating shenanigans, it’s the exquisite chemistry between Lana Condor and Noah Centineo that really makes this film sing. And though the sequel failed to recapture the magic, the third installment is a worthy trilogy capper.
For fans of: She’s All That, Easy A, Can't Buy Me Love
The Big Sick (2017)
One of the most acclaimed rom-coms of the 2010s, what makes The Big Sick special is how much everyone involved clearly has a palpable love of the romantic comedy genre—from director Michael Showalter to supporting stars Holly Hunter and Ray Romano to, of course, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, who adapted their real-life love story into the screenplay. So while the plot is really as much about familial love as it is romantic love, this story of sickness and health is a lovely ode to what makes rom-coms so special.
For fans of: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mississippi Masala, Keeping the Faith
Together Together (2021)
There’s a subset of movies that aren’t technically rom-coms, but feel like they’re part of the genre anyway. And that’s true of this sweet story about a single guy (Ed Helms) longing to be a father and the young woman (Patti Harrison) he hires as his surrogate. Though the relationship between the two is platonic, their dynamic has the emotional ups and downs you’d expect from a rom-com. And that makes Together Together a special kind of friendship-com.
For fans of: The Object of My Affection, Juno
How To Be Single (2016)
What Love Actually is to Christmas, How To Be Single is to dating in New York City. And while that could sound like an insult, in this case I mean it as a compliment. Led by lovely performances from Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, and Rebel Wilson, How To Be Single balances its glossy studio comedy energy with real heart and just the right amount of cheesiness. And with its diverse exploration of what love can look like, it’s a perfect rom-com whether you’re taken, single, or somewhere in-between.
For fans of: He’s Just Not That Into You; Definitely, Maybe
And in case that’s not enough, here are 15 more honorable mentions
Trainwreck (2015), About Last Night (2014), Palm Springs (2020), The Holidate (2020), Mr. Malcolm’s List (2022), No Strings Attached (2011), Just Wright (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Beyond the Lights (2014), The Half of It (2020), Love, Simon (2018), The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020), Wild Mountain Thyme (2020), The Best Man Holiday (2013), Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
Coming soon on Girl Culture: Madame Web and the female superhero team-up movies that arrived too late
Palm Springs would fit in well with this selection. A very funny romantic comedy.
I loved Rye Lane! And way to start with Long Shot, an underrated gem.