The Best Romcoms On Netflix You Can Watch Right Now
Not to sound trite but, to quote Burt Bacharach, what the world needs now is love. Sweet love, to be precise — and that includes in our Netflix queues. There's no better way to spend an evening than by curling up on the couch with someone you love (or at least like a lot) to watch a romantic comedy.
Until recently, your #NetflixAndChill roster likely consisted of nostalgic favorites like You've Got Mail and Hope Floats. To be clear, those are still 100 percent solid choices. However, Netflix seems to add a new original rom-com or classic every day now. Thanks to that generosity, you now have plenty of choices, friend.
So, do yourself (and your date) a favor. Don't sit down and whittle away your entire evening just trying to decide what to watch. Instead, peruse this list of some of the best rom-coms on Netflix you can watch right now.
Set It Up (2018)
While it's true Set It Up doesn't necessarily break any new ground, it does prove the old formula can still feel fresh. Harper and Charlie are living the typical 20-something anti-dream: toiling away at jobs that don't pay nearly enough to put up with their nightmarish bosses. Taking a page right out of the playbook of Cher Horowitz (Clueless shout-out!), they decide to set their bosses up. How else are these two going to get more free time and improve office morale?
In a word, Set It Up is delightful. Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell shine as Harper and Charlie. The fact that the film also features Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs as their bosses is a major bonus. What makes this film even more interesting, though, is the fact that Deutch and Powell almost derailed the whole thing by being too compatible. "Their chemistry was clear. It was very clear. It was not even a question," director Claire Scanlon told E! News in June 2018. "The problem was... their chemistry was too good." To counter this in the early scenes, Scanlon essentially forbid the pair from making eye contact.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (2018)
Don't let the mouthful of a name scare you off — this period rom-com will make you swoon hard. The year is 1946, the setting London. Juliet (played beautifully by Lily James) is an endlessly charming and somewhat wild-souled writer who receives a letter from someone in an esoteric literary club in the Nazi-occupied island of Guernsey. Naturally, the free-spirit that she is, Juliet sets off. There, she finds exactly what she was looking for: the farmer who wrote the letter, a man named Dawsey (Michiel Huisman). But, really, she finds so much more than she ever thought possible.
If you ask James, she might just attribute the success of the movie so far to an unlikely lucky charm. "The trousers that Juliet wears when she gets to the island are very important to me. You don't often see women who had the chance to wear trousers, so it felt really important to me," she told Glamour in 2018, going on to reveal, "They were also trousers that Cate Blanchett once wore. They were from Angel's, where you go to try on all these costumes, so this was like a good luck omen!"
To All the Boys I Loved Before (2018)
Teen Lara Jean Song Covey finds herself in every high school girl's nightmare in this charming rom-com — all of the crushes she's ever had discover her feelings... all at once. While the storyline is cute, the big draw is undeniably the charismatic leads, Lana Condor and current Netflix heartthrob Noah Centineo.
The chemistry the two share likely reads so well onscreen because they genuinely do have a close bond. Case in point? At the end of the film, there is a lock-screen phone photo of Lara and Peter Kavinsky (Centineo's character) sleeping on a couch. When asked about the photo's origins, which fans have been curious about, director Susan Johnson shared an adorable behind-the-scenes story.
"The two of them were in the green room on set at the high school location, in the area where we put the actors. They actually were sleeping on the couch in that room like that, so we just stood over them and took that picture and it's so friggin' cute," she told ET.
Groundhog Day (1993)
Don't overlook the classics! Bill Murray is at his best in this 1993 cult hit, in which he plays a cynical TV weatherman who gets stuck in the tiny town of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania. But this isn't your typical stranded-due-to-a-busted-car-radiator kind of story. Phil is doomed to repeat the same day — Groundhog Day — until he gets it right. He eventually learns that means getting to know (and fall in love with) his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell). It's funny, it's tender and it's totally endearing.
In Feb. 2018, when the film turned 25, MacDowell opened up to The Wrap about its longevity. According to her, Murray's dedication made the film. "He asked me to really slap him," she revealed. "It's hard to hit someone that many times!" Above and beyond that, though, MacDowell explained that Murray literally made every scene his own. "He's a comic genius," she gushed, adding, "His nature is to improv and make it his own every take. It was mostly fresh. I had to really be in the scene and just listen to him."
Alex Strangelove (2018)
This movie starts off with a standard high school trope: a senior with a bright future decides he wants to cap off his high school experience by having sex for the first time. Only, things don't quite go according to plan. Why? Well, Alex's plans involve his girlfriend — until he meets a good-looking gay boy from another town. This spin on a coming-of-age tale proves to be refreshingly honest, clever and full of compassion.
As it turns out, the movie's authenticity is rooted in real life. According to filmmaker Craig Johnson, you could call Alex Strangelove partially autobiographical. "I didn't go through exactly the same journey that Alex goes through, in high school, but I did have a circuitous and incremental coming out process that took me well into my 20s, before I figured it out. I had various stops along the road," Johnson told Collider.
And so, an idea was born. Years later, looking back on the "rollercoaster of sexual confusion" he'd been on, Johnson realized it could make a fun, kind of classic teen movie. "That's where it started," he said.
Meet the Parents (2000)
Ah, meeting the parents. Such a big deal! But maybe wait to watch the movie until after you've already tackled that high-pressure experience. Otherwise, this hilarious look at a disastrous weekend Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) spends with his future in-laws might make break out in pre-meet-the-parents hives. Suffice it to say that all the love in Focker's heart for his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) can't save him from torturous interactions — and interrogations — with Pam's father Jack (Robert De Niro).
As you're watching, though, try to imagine the movie with a different female lead: Naomi Watts. In a 2012 interview with The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern, the Oscar-nominated actress shared that she had tried persistently to land the role of Pam. "I came to New York and auditioned at least five times for Meet the Parents. I think the director liked me but the studio didn't. I heard every piece of feedback you could imagine, and in this case, it was 'not sexy enough,'" Watts said.
Southside With You (2016)
Whether you're fans of our former POTUS and FLOTUS or you're simply suckers for a solid love story, you'll want to check out Southside With You. Inspired by Barack and Michelle Obama's first date, the movie centers around the 1989 summer during which their iconic relationship began. Though fictionalized, Southside With You feels warm and intimate, like you're revisiting the meet-cute of old friends from college.
Worried the film might be political propaganda or something you might see on the Lifetime Movie Network loop? Don't be. According to star and producer Tika Sumpter, Southside With You is neither — and especially not "campy."
It was important to Sumpter that her portrayal of then-25-year-old lawyer Michelle came across as authentic. "I wanted to make sure that it was an embodiment rather than a caricature of an imitation," Sumter told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. "But I wanted you to see glimpses of the [future] Michelle Obama, like you can see that 2008 DNC speech in her."
Us & Them (2018)
To be clear, this is not to be confused with the 2018 thriller Us and Them — if you cue up that movie, you're headed in a decidedly different direction. This sweet film follows two strangers who meet on a train while traveling home during the chaotic Chunyun season in China 10 years prior to the where the film starts. When they reunite on a plane 10 years after that initial run-in, they have a second chance to right the things that went wrong with their young love. Will they, though?
This film certainly steers more toward the romance side of a romantic comedy, but you won't miss mindless chuckles in the face of such a breathtaking story. And, if you need another incentive to watch, consider that star Jing Boran may have been half-drunk while filming the most poignant scenes. "I'm a lightweight drinker and allergic to alcohol. But when I need to get emotional in a scene, alcohol could be used as a weapon because when I drink, I relax and stop thinking too much," he told Click the City in June 2018. "Everything, including all the stories and the character's emotions, accumulates in my heart."
God's Own Country (2017)
Toiling away in isolation on his family's farm in northern England, Johnny Saxby (Josh O'Conner) lives a lonely existence. But, to fill any void, he turns to booze and casual sex. Until, that is, an attractive Romanian migrant worker (Alex Secareanu) strolls into town and seeks work on the farm. What follows are feelings Johnny may not be ready to face yet.
For director Francis Lee, it was easy to draw from real-life to depict the English farm worker perspective — he grew up on a farm, which his father still owns. In fact, he sent his lead actors to work on farms, including his father's, in order to establish the proper character. "We trained for two weeks, we both worked on different farms," Secareanu told The Up Coming. "I was on the farm owned by Francis's father, and Josh worked on the farm where we shot the movie. And we had the schedule of a farmer, from 6 a.m. until late and all these long days with really hard work."
Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018)
This modern retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac story centers on — you guessed it — Sierra Burgess, a clever but largely underappreciated high school student. When a bit of catfishing leads to one major case of mistaken identity, Burgess gets swept up in both a romance and a friendship she never saw coming. Thanks to nuanced performances by Shannon Purser, Kristine Froseth, and Noah Centineo, this YA rom-com captures the sweet, yet almost always tricky feelings that come with falling in love.
And that applies to more than just one type of love story — there are several at play in Sierra Burgess Is a Loser. "My favorite love story is between Sierra and herself," Purser (who plays Burgess) told Stylecaster in Aug. 2018. "It's so important, and it's something very personal to me as I'm learning to overcome my own self-doubts and insecurities. There's something very poignant about it, because at the end of the day, even if you don't have a great group of friends or a great family, if you have that love and respect for yourself, you're much stronger."