You might not love movies about love, but enough people around the world do to keep movies about the subject coming out on a near-constant basis. Really, cinema has never been starved of romantic movies, because the silent era had films likeWingsandSunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and then by the 1930s and ‘40s, there were classics likeGone with the WindandCasablanca, to name just a couple.
But to look at some others that are (slightly) more recent,here are the best romance films – most of them quite popular and/or potentially influential – that have come out in the past 30 years. Love is not dead, at least for anyone who likes going to the cinema or otherwise spends a good chunk of their free time watching movies.
10’The Handmaiden' (2016)
Directed by Park Chan-wook
To be fair,The Handmaidenand some other soon-to-be-mentioned movies are more than just romance films, but if love plays a decent role in the story at hand, they’re worthy of consideration here. AndThe Handmaidendoes manage to be quite romantic and certainly passionate at times, all the while also functioning as anexcellent (and thrilling) film with a historical setting.
It takes place in the 1930s, and revolves around two con artists trying to swindle an heiress and her uncle, but complications arise when one of the con artists starts to fall for the heiress romantically.It’s a lavish film to look at, it proves intense at times, and also just feels like a believable and broadly emotional romantic drama, doing wonders with what might, on the surface, sound like a somewhat hammy or pulpy premise.
The Handmaiden
9’La La Land' (2016)
Directed by Damien Chazelle
Representing a step forward on atechnical front for filmmakerDamien Chazelle,La La Landtakes an almost comically simple premise about falling in love and facing inevitable struggles, and makes it soar. Really, describing the plot would be doing it a disservice, because two people meet, they fall in love, and then they find other areas of their lives pulling them apart, resulting in eventual emotional turmoil.
It’s a movie that just wants to be about the love between two people clashing with the love one can feel for what might be their purpose in life; thelove of art versus the love for another human being, and what happens when one has to be chosen for the other. If you’re fortunate enough to have seven or eight hours to spare,La La Landwould make for one part of an excellent triple feature alongsideCinema Paradiso(1988) andNew York, New York(1977).
La La Land
8’Y Tu Mamá También' (2001)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Y Tu Mamá Tambiénis pretty much just focused on three people throughout the majority of its runtime, but it still manages to feel oddly epic and sweeping thanks to the emotions it explores, and the amount of ground the characters travel. The latter is inevitable when you have a road trip premise, and the highly emotional stuff also makes sense when you considerY Tu Mamá Tambiénisa coming-of-age movie (albeit an unconventional one).
There is a lot that this movie says about love andthe meaningfulness (or lack thereof) of sex, and it does so in a way that’s probably a bit more soul-crushing than it is romantic in the traditional sense.But so long as you’re okay with some heavy stuff,Y Tu Mamá Tambiénis essential, as far as the best romance movies of the 21st century so far go.
Y Tu Mamá También
7’Call Me by Your Name' (2017)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Another romance movie with a simple plot, and a film that also tells a coming-of-age story,Call Me by Your Namemight well be the movie to blame if you’re sick of seeingTimothée Chalameteverywhere for whatever reason. But it’s clear to see now (and was honestly pretty clear in 2017) why this movie made him a star, and he’s a big reason whythe film is ultimately so heartbreaking.
At its core,Call Me by Your Nameis focused on thesoaring highs and crushing lows of falling in and out of love for the first time, capturing the good and the bad, and ensuring that you, as a viewer, really feel it all. The film is a slow and sometimes even relaxing one, but it’s easy to fall into, and the atmosphere it conjures throughout is truly something special.
Call Me by Your Name
6’Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (2019)
Directed by Céline Sciamma
A film thatsuccessfully transports you back to the 1700swhile telling an extremely moving and intimate story,Portrait of a Lady on Fireisn’t an epic in the traditional sense, but it looks grand and unpacks some understandably huge/passionate emotions. Things start simply enough, with one woman being sent to an island with the task of painting the portrait of another.
Then, the two start to fall in love, though it happens at a very slow pace that isn’t boring; morequietly hypnotic and realistic, just because of how gradual everything feels.Portrait of a Lady on Fireultimatelyexplores a love that can’t last, due to the way society functioned at the time the story was set, but it’s inspiring stuff while it does last, and the quiet tragedy of it all is as beautifully executed as it is soul-crushing.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
5’Before Sunrise' (1995)
Directed by Richard Linklater
By 2026,Before Sunrisewill no longer be a movie released in the last 30 years, but it will forever remain one of themost purely romantic movies of its decade. It’s a film about a chance encounter between two young people on a train, and follows them as they decide to spend the night together, with their possible romantic feelings for each other growing with every new scene.
It’s simple, but the act of falling in love when you’re young can be straightforward, too, and that’s what Before Sunrise wants to capture more than anything else.There are sequels, too. 2004’sBefore Sunsetand 2013’sBefore Midnightare also excellent(and arguably more complex/nuanced), but Before Sunrise is the most romantic of the three because it centers on the characters at such a stage in their lives.
Before Sunrise
4’Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004)
Directed by Michel Gondry
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindis one of the definitive break-up movies, so those looking for sunnier movies about romantic relationships might not find what they’re after here. It’s about two people who undergo a process that removes the other from their memories, but even then, getting over an ex isn’t shown to be easy, especially when they find each other again.
Essentially,Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindis all about how falling out of love will always be hard, no matter what potential technological advancements in the future might allow. Thatspeaks to the undeniable and inevitable human struggle that is a relationship falling apart, andwhether you take comfort or find horrorin the universality of such a thing is really quite up in the air.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3’All of Us Strangers' (2023)
Directed by Andrew Haigh
It’s probably safe to callAll of Us Strangerssomething of a modern classic, and a film that will continue to endure and/or haunt viewers well into the future. “Haunt” is a good word to use here, becauseAll of Us Strangersis aboutghosts, memories, loneliness, and the struggles of love, all of which can put a human mind under immense psychological strain.
That probably makesAll of Us Strangerssounda bit heavy and intense, and… well, it is. But it is also romantic and quite beautiful, providing moments of catharsis alongside the confusion and heartbreak. It is one of the mostemotionally impactful movies to have been released in recent memory, and there aren’t really enough nice things that can be said about it. It does just about everything it can exceptionally well.
All of Us Strangers
2’Titanic' (1997)
Directed by James Cameron
Speaking of intense moviesthat are also romantic,Titanicis a monumental movie in scale and ambition, functioning as both a disaster movie and a film about a passionate love affair taking place right before tragedy strikes. Two people of vastly differing backgrounds meet on board the titular cruise ship, andwhile the first half sees them falling in love, much of the second half sees them struggling to survive after that ship collides with an iceberg.
There’s terror and passion to be found in equal measure here, andTitaniccan also count itself as one of the worstmovies an individual with a fear of watercould ever watch. It’s a long film, but it does so much within that 3+ hour runtime that the epic length ends up being more than justified.As far as romance-heavy blockbusters go, they don’t really get much better thanTitanic.
1’In the Mood for Love' (2000)
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
GivenIn the Mood for Loveisone of the best films of all time, it’s not too surprising to also call it maybe the best romance film of the last three decades. It does a lot without saying much, and though it is intensely romantic, it’s also very mild in terms of what you do see. The passion is felt, rather than witnessed, and the plot itself is also surprisingly slim, or borderline not even elaborated upon.
Two people have feelings for each other, maybe, and are drawn together because their respective partners are both cheating on them. Rather than feeling like some convoluted movie about a messy “love square,”In the Mood for Lovejust explores complex emotions in a sometimes abstract but always moving fashion.It’s intensely cinematic and impressionistic, and is therefore a bit hard to describe with words in a way that does it justice, but it’s earned itsstatus as something of a modern classicfor good reason.
