30 Best Romance Movies of the 2010s You Must Watch
The 2010s delivered a feast of swoons, slow-burns, and bittersweet breakups, proving romance can be as inventive as any other genre. From indie heart-tuggers to glossy studio spectacles, these films stretch across cultures, styles, and moods—yet they all circle the same gravitational pull: connection.
This countdown pulls together unforgettable pairings, lush aesthetics, and scripts that hum with lived-in longing. Whether you’re after big musical crescendos, aching summers, or strange love stories that defy labels, you’ll find something here worth clutching to your chest long after the credits roll.
30. ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ (2018)
A breezy charmer that revitalized the teen rom-com, this story rides on a delightful premise and an irresistibly earnest lead. It’s fizzy without being flimsy, offering big feelings with a light touch.
Beyond cute hijinks, it respects crushes as real emotional inflection points. The chemistry pops, the banter sings, and the film’s warm core makes casual viewers and die-hard romantics feel seen.
29. ‘Columbus’ (2017)
This meditative gem pairs two souls adrift amid modernist architecture, letting conversation become courtship. Stillness and space do the heavy lifting, turning glances into seismic shifts.
It’s romance as quiet caretaking—about choosing presence over performance. The formal rigor mirrors the characters’ restraint, and when feelings surface, they land with clean, clarifying force.
28. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ (2014)
A tearjerker that refuses cynicism, it finds gallows humor and tenderness in the shadow of illness. The leads meet as equals, giving the love story dignity instead of pity.
What lingers is the way it treats time as a precious, ordinary thing. Moments—shared jokes, fierce honesty—become the legacy, and that makes the film’s ache feel earned.
27. ‘The Age of Adaline’ (2015)
Fantasy wraps a classic melodrama as an ageless heroine contends with love’s mortal requirements. The conceit is whimsical, but the emotions are firmly planted in human soil.
It’s a lush, old-fashioned swoon built on restraint and revelation. When the film opens its heart, it does so with an elegant flourish that flatters hopeless romantics.
26. ‘Warm Bodies’ (2013)
A playful riff on star-crossed lovers, this undead meet-cute turns apocalypse into a wry backdrop for compassion. The narration is witty, the tone featherlight, and the metaphor surprisingly moving.
By treating empathy as the cure, it lets romance literally bring someone back to life. The result is goofy-sweet, with a pulse that grows stronger scene by scene.
25. ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ (2013)
Cool, nocturnal, and unhurried, this vampire duet is less horror than hangout. Eternal lovers drift through art, music, and memory, making immortality feel both decadent and heavy.
Its romance is a study in long-term devotion—private jokes, shared tastes, mutual rescue. The mood intoxicates, and the love feels beautifully lived-in.
24. ‘Like Crazy’ (2011)
A long-distance love unspools with ragged authenticity, stitched together by impulse and consequence. The handheld intimacy makes every smile and fissure feel unscripted.
It understands that timing can undermine even the sincerest attachment. Choices meant to protect a bond become the very forces that test it, and that contradiction stings.
23. ‘The Handmaiden’ (2016)
A twisting, sumptuous tale of seduction and self-liberation, this thriller-romance luxuriates in detail. Desire becomes strategy, then solidarity, as two women remake the script they were handed.
It’s as emotionally precise as it is visually opulent. By the end, love isn’t escape so much as authorship—a future written on one’s own terms.
22. ‘Begin Again’ (2013)
Two bruised creatives stumble into collaboration, and the city becomes their accomplice. Music doubles as courtship language, turning sidewalks and rooftops into stages.
This is a romance of renewal more than coupling. It champions connection without possession, showing how art can tune a heart back to hope.
21. ‘Love, Simon’ (2018)
A mainstream breakthrough that treats first love with disarming normalcy, it’s funny, frank, and big-hearted. The central secret adds stakes without souring the sweetness.
Its triumph is empathy at scale. By centering joy and community, the film makes the happy ending feel both earned and quietly revolutionary.
20. ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (2012)
A handcrafted ode to young love’s stubborn clarity, this adventure treats its runaways with respect. Deadpan humor and storybook frames hide a tender, pulsing sincerity.
The romance is less about destination than resolve. Love becomes a compass the world keeps trying to demagnetize—and the kids keep recalibrating.
19. ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012)
Messy people find rhythm, literally and figuratively, through prickly banter and ballroom steps. Sparks fly not because they’re perfect, but because they’re honest about the wreckage.
It’s a rom-com that lets vulnerability lead. Healing arrives in sideways, funny, awkward beats—just like real connection often does.
18. ‘The Spectacular Now’ (2013)
A party kid and a quiet achiever challenge each other’s assumptions, and the film refuses pat fixes. It’s tender about fragility, daring to leave some wounds visible.
The romance feels like waking up early and choosing to stay awake. First love here isn’t cure-all myth; it’s the mirror that invites courage.
17. ‘The Shape of Water’ (2017)
A wordless custodian and an outcast creature find communion beyond language. The film is lush, theatrical, and unashamedly sincere about yearning.
Its empathy extends to anyone deemed “other.” Romance becomes a sanctuary, and the extravagance of feeling becomes its own kind of truth.
16. ‘The Lobster’ (2015)
Deadpan dystopia refracts love into absurd rules and desperate improvisations. It’s darkly funny until it isn’t, probing what people risk to avoid loneliness.
Under the satire lies a tender question: how do we define ourselves with—and without—another? The film leaves you unsettled and unexpectedly moved.
15. ‘Your Name.’ (2016)
Body-swapping hijinks flower into a cosmic connection, braided with humor and longing. Everyday details sparkle, making the big emotional swings hit even harder.
It’s a miracle of timing, chance, and choice. The romance aches with the feeling of having met a soulmate across impossible distance.
14. ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ (2013)
A sprawling, intimate chronicle of first love’s intensity, it captures discovery, obsession, and aftermath. Performances carry the film, registering micro-shifts like weather.
It’s generous with time, allowing desire to evolve into identity. The story’s rawness makes the parting as memorable as the union.
13. ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (2018)
Cinderella glam with modern wit, this crowd-pleaser blends culture-clash humor and swoony spectacle. Family expectations collide with personal choice in a fireworks-laced finale.
Under the gloss is a romance built on respect and compromise. The set pieces dazzle, but it’s the small, steady gestures that seal the deal.
12. ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ (2018)
A lyrical ode to steadfast love under pressure, it moves like a slow dance. Color, music, and close-ups conspire to make intimacy feel sacred.
The couple’s devotion becomes a quiet act of resistance. It’s romance as sanctuary, framed with unmatched tenderness.
11. ‘A Star Is Born’ (2018)
A rising voice meets a fading one, and their duet burns hot and fast. The performances crackle, and the music functions as shared diary.
It’s about the cost of love when fame is the third party. The final note lands like a confession, devastating and cathartic.
10. ‘About Time’ (2013)
Time travel as metaphor for gratitude, this charmer turns ordinary days into love letters. Its humor disarms, then its wisdom sneaks up on you.
Rather than chase grand fixes, it champions presence. The romance glows because it chooses the small, everyday miracle of attention.
9. ‘Blue Valentine’ (2010)
A relationship’s spark and slow unraveling intercut until the contrasts sting. The naturalistic style makes the joy giddy and the hurt bone-deep.
It’s a portrait of how love can erode without villains. The tenderness at the start makes the ending feel tragically inevitable.
8. ‘Brooklyn’ (2015)
Homesickness and new affection tug at a young emigrant’s heart in a delicately drawn tale. The film’s generosity extends to every character, giving choices weight.
Romance here is inseparable from selfhood. Watching someone choose a life—and a love—feels quietly momentous.
7. ‘The Big Sick’ (2017)
A sharp, autobiographical rom-com that navigates culture, illness, and stand-up circuits with ease. The jokes land, but the tenderness lingers longer.
Its secret weapon is humility. The film believes in apology, growth, and love as a practice rather than a trophy.
6. ‘Carol’ (2015)
A glance across a department store becomes an epic of restraint. Every gesture is charged, every silence eloquent.
The romance is crafted like fine jewelry: precise, luminous, and impossible to forget. It invites rewatching to savor what’s unsaid.
5. ‘Before Midnight’ (2013)
A sun-soaked holiday becomes a referendum on commitment. The dialogue is ruthless and loving, alive to the ways time reshapes desire.
It’s a masterpiece of mature romance—less about falling, more about staying. The final grace note proves intimacy can survive truth.
4. ‘Her’ (2013)
A lonely writer and an evolving operating system craft an unlikely bond. Technology fades into the background as the emotions take center stage.
It’s a meditation on connection’s fluid forms. The film suggests that being known—really known—is the rarest intimacy of all.
3. ‘La La Land’ (2016)
Ambition and affection duet until the key changes. The film dazzles with melody and color, then dares a bittersweet coda.
Its romance argues that love can be right and still not be forever. The what-if ending is a gut punch wrapped in glitter.
2. ‘Call Me by Your Name’ (2017)
A summer awakening unfolds with sunlit patience. Desire is a language learned through glances, music, and fruit shared at a table.
What makes it indelible is its compassion for love’s afterglow. Memory becomes the place where romance keeps breathing.
1. ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (2019)
Painter and subject fall, word by measured word, until the air quivers. The gaze becomes a promise, and the promise becomes a rebellion.
It’s romance distilled to its purest elements: attention, consent, and the courage to carry a flame. The ending is both farewell and forever.
Share the love—tell us which favorites from this list stole your heart in the comments.
