Here Are The Best 75 Rom-Coms Ever Made

They had a bit of a flop era in the 2000s, but rom-coms have been around since the '30s and include some of the greatest films ever made. Singin' in the Rain, When Harry Met Sally..., and Some Like It Hot are just a few of the all-timers.

Next time you find yourself wishing you could snap your fingers and teleport to the European countryside (it happens to all of us), just put on You, Me & Tuscany and find yourself carried away. The setup is equal parts relatable and whimsical: Anna, the protagonist (played by Halle Bailey), is a house-sitter who dreams of romance and excitement. When she lets herself into a Tuscan villa and begins squatting there while on vacation, she meets the owner's handsome cousin (Regé-Jean Page). There are all kinds of misunderstandings along the way, but it isn't long before sparks fly.

Amidst all the hype around the Devil Wears Prada films, let's not forget about Confessions of a Shopaholic, its quirky cinematic cousin. Just like Andie Sachs, Rebecca Bloomwood is an ambitious young writer living in New York City. Yet there's a major difference between the two: while Andie is a bit of a square who lands a job at a fashion magazine, Rebecca is a fashionista who works for a gardening mag to pay the bills. As she chases her career aspirations, she crosses paths with an editor who's charmed by her personality as well as her prose.

IRL, wedding mishaps are an absolute nightmare for all involved... but it can be oh-so-fun to watch them play out onscreen. As the title suggests, Bride Wars is full of them. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are hilarious as Liv and Emma, lifelong best friends who become enemies when they end up planning their weddings for the same date, at the same venue. In the end, of course, love prevails.

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Celine Song blew me away with Past Lives, so I had a feeling that Materialists would be brilliant — and I wasn't disappointed. The film follows the exploits of Lucy Mason (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker who helps clients find glamorous, successful partners in New York City. When Lucy herself falls for a glamorous, successful man, she has to ask herself some pressing questions about her desires. Is she looking for romance in the right places? Or is she just... well... materialistic?

If you were on Tumblr in the 2010s, you probably know all about this one. if not, let me introduce you to one of your new favorite films. Submarine is a very British flick about a precocious schoolboy trying to pursue his crush while dealing with problems at home — namely, the fact that his mother might be sleeping with the tacky motivational speaker who lives next door. The soundtrack, which features original tracks by Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, will play in your head long after the credits have rolled.

As a writer, I'm obsessed with how many rom-coms feature journalists. Runaway Bride falls into this category. Julia Roberts is the bride in question — a woman who has left multiple fiancées at the altar and is trying to break the habit. When Richard Gere ends up profiling her for the local paper, it's only a matter of time before they walk down the aisle together. If you loved the chemistry between these two in Pretty Woman, you'll have so much fun with this wacky romp.

This isn't your traditional rom-com — it's a rom-zom-com, if you will. Nicholas Hoult plays R, a man whose sanity begins to fade after he's turned into a zombie. Teresa Palmer joins him onscreen as Jules, who falls head over heels for him despite his brain-eating ways. Two star-crossed lovers devoting themselves to each other even though they come from totally different worlds... Sound familiar? That's right — this is a retelling of Romeo + Juliet, albeit a very unconventional one. If you're a horror fan, this is not to be missed.

A seriously underrated gem, Music and Lyrics finds two titans of rom-coms — Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore — playing off of each other, both in romantic banter and in songwriting. Hired to take care of former pop star Alex's (Grant) plants, Sophie (Barrymore) strikes his fancy by humming and singing around his apartment. He sees her capabilities for pop songwriting and they collaborate on writing music together, falling for each other in the process. Very sweet and fun, plus the music is actually good!

I think Jenny Slate should lead way more rom-coms. The fact that she dated fan-favorite Hollywood leading man Chris Evans for a while shows just how much charm she has. This one is a more modern take on romance — boy meets girl, boy and girl have drunken one-night-stand, boy knocks girl up, girl freaks out and can't tell him. While the story isn't one of starting a family together unexpectedly, it is a story about supporting your partner's choices and the joys you can find in new romance when you're brave enough to be honest. 

Taking place in the 1960s when women's rights and setting in the workplace looked very different than it does today, Down With Love follows feminist writer Barbara Novak (Renée Zellwegger) as she promotes her new book, sharing the title of the film. Its message encourages women to disregard romantic relationships with men in favor of putting themselves and their careers first, encouraging enjoyment of casual flings rather than devotion to a serious relationship. Fellow writer Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) sets out to prove that she does need love, after all–but has he thought through the outcome of his game?

A really charming story told through the lens of a dad, Will, (Ryan Reynolds) telling his daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin) about all the women he's loved while she tries to guess which one is her mother. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, especially since we know Will is divorcing his daughter's mom--but in the end, he gets a special reunion with someone from his past, and with his daughter's approval, at that. 

If you love musicals just as much as you love love, this one is an all-timer. (Let's be real: even if you don't love musicals, this will probably bring a smile to your face.) Plot-wise, it's a classic Romeo and Juliet story: two people from completely different worlds end up falling for each other. Unlike in Shakespeare's play, however, our romantic leads — good girl Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and rebellious greaser Danny (John Travolta) — find themselves happily coupled up.

Here's a rom-com that's heavy on the comedy (although the final act will tug on your heartstrings). Michael Cera plays Scott, an awkward 22-year-old who plays in a local rock band called Sex Bob-omb. When he meets a pink-haired beauty named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he's determined to win her over... but in order to date her, he'll need to slay her seven evil exes in combat. This isn't a deterrent for Scott, who will literally do whatever it takes to impress his new crush. The cast is packed with icons, including Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, and Brie Larson.

Another Michael Cera film? You bet. In this one, he plays a dude who's hung up on his ex — that is, until gorgeous Norah (Kat Dennings) takes an interest in him. When Norah's best friend goes missing on a bender, they roam all over New York City to find her, growing closer all the while. There's something special about films that take place over the course of a single night — they remind you that if you're open to chance, your life really might change in the blink of an eye.

Think your love life is complicated? Just watch While You Were Sleeping. In this '90s classic, Sandra Bullock's public transit crush (Peter Gallagher) gets violently mugged and enters a coma; when she takes him to the hospital, she gets mistaken for his fiancée and goes along with the lie. In the ensuing chaos, she falls in love — not with the comatose guy, but with his charming brother (Bill Pullman). Magically, it all turns out well for everyone in the end.

A lesser-known modern Shakespeare adaptation in the vein of 10 Things I Hate About You, this reimagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream is an early 2000s time capsule that really puts the com in rom-com. While the love story at the heart of the film is a classically beloved trope of a girl (in this case, the always lovely Kirsten Dunst) falling for her brother's best friend, there are so many more highlights to look forward to, such as Martin Short as the high school drama teacher, as well as supporting roles from early aughts heartthrob Shane West and Sisqo — yes, that Sisqo. There are so many more hijinks and perks in Get Over It to rave about, but you should just see it for yourself. 

Adventureland is a great coming-of-age movie that proves that sometimes not getting what you thought you wanted leads you to the path you're actually meant to be on. It follows James (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent college graduate whose plans to travel Europe all summer before attending grad school unravel when his dad loses his job. In an effort to save for his move, he spends the summer working at the local amusement park, where he meets and falls hard for Em, a moody and broody NYU student played perfectly by Kristen Stewart. Their road to a relationship is rocky, but there are plenty of laughs along the way, and it ends on a super-sweet and romantic note. Bonus: It takes place in the '80s, so the soundtrack is amazing.

Music is the greatest connector, and High Fidelity shows us how true that is as we follow Rob, owner of a Chicago record shop, as he travels down the line of his exes to see where he went wrong. Working alongside his friends (one of them played by unlikely rom-com hero Jack Black), Rob is always making top-5 lists of records for unique situations. But his top-5 breakups are a whole different animal he's forced to tackle head-on in order to figure out how he can be a better partner to Laura, who just broke his heart. In the end, music is what makes it all better — well, that and self-awareness!

It Happened One Night is one of only three movies to win the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, so it comes highly recommended. A ton of the tropes you know and love from your favorite rom-coms can be traced back to this movie, and as they say, you can't outdo the doer. It's also surprisingly not dated for a movie that's nearly 100 years old — sure, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert's transatlantic accents and the black and white picture give it away, but the dynamic between its leads feels totally modern. It Happened One Night may just be the Citizen Kane of rom-coms, so if you watch anything on this list, start here.

J.Lo and Voldemort fall in love in this pleasant, if not super exciting, twist on the Cinderella story. J.Lo portrays Marisa Ventura, a maid who works at a hotel that hosts the richest 1%-ers in Manhattan, including Chris Marshall, a Republican Senate candidate played by Ralph Fiennes. Their chemistry isn't the most explosive, but they make a sweet couple, and Marisa is the epitome of an intrepid rom-com heroine. This single mom who works too hard is one of J.Lo's most beloved characters for a reason.

Will Smith's likability, star power, and talent get one of their best showcases in Hitch. Smith plays the titular character, a "date doctor" who helps other men put forward their best selves to woo women, but has trouble when none of his methods work on Sara (Eva Mendes). Sara's immunity to Hitch leads him to try very hard to show her he's a worthy suitor, which then leads him to (accidentally) kick her off a jet ski into the Hudson River and erupt in the most horrific allergic reaction you've ever seen. It's a must-watch.

The main event in The Parent Trap is Lindsay Lohan's double performance as Hallie and Annie, but in true Nancy Meyers form, there's also a stirring romance between two adults over the age of 35. The second-chance romance between Nick (Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth (Natasha Richardson), orchestrated by their precocious twin daughters, comes with sexual tension, pratfalls, and a deliciously icy blonde villain by the name of Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix).

Who doesn't like a bit of philosophical film noir trappings with their rom-coms? Richard Linklater and Glen Powell manage to balance it all in Hit Man. Glen Powell's inordinate charisma carries the movie through the first act, which sees him don costumes, wigs, and fake teeth to embody (fake) hit men, and Adria Arjona's arrival as Madison brings the romance and quite a bit of steam. They're an electric pair, and the notes app scene in the third act is one of the best film scenes of 2024.

The Glen Powell Charm Offensive first struck in Set It Up, which sees two overworked assistants (Powell and Zoey Deutch) set up their bosses in the hopes that they'll fall in love and have less time at the office. Plots and machinations ensue, complications arise, and all the while the two assistants spend more and more time together. Squeal! The demanding bosses are played by Taye Diggs and Lucy Liu, by the way.

Hijinks and mess abound in The Apartment, which starred Jack Lemmon as Bud and Shirley MacLaine as Fran. Bud gradually falls in love with Fran while she's having an affair with his married boss, an affair that Bud enables by letting them rendezvous in his apartment. See? MESS. Eventually, everything gets untangled so that Bud and Fran can have one of the sweetest romantic endings ever filmed.

You might think you've had your fill of modern Cinderella stories, but once you let Upgraded charm you, it might become one of your new favorites. Riverdale's Camila Mendes and Shadow and Bone's Archie Renaux are the romantic leads of your dreams.

The fake-dating trope gets a lovely update with Wedding Season, in which main characters Asha and Ravi pretend to date in order to stop the meddling of their overbearing Indian parents. Of course, these two busy workaholics find love in the last place they expect to find it against the colorful backdrop of several weddings. 

The second Bridget Jones movie didn't live up to its predecessor, but the third installment in the series is a funny, moving conclusion to Bridget and Mark's story. The title is a bit of a spoiler (yes, Bridget has a baby in it), but you'll be surprised and delighted by all the turns it takes to get there. And Patrick Dempsey joins the party. You can't go wrong when Patrick Dempsey joins the party.

Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum anchor this adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and as recent attempts prove, it's not that easy to pull off the bard's more farcical tendencies. Bynes is exceptionally good, blending the broad slapstick of her Nickelodeon days with winsome rom-com heroine pluck.

Meryl Streep should be on your list of iconic rom-com heroines once you see her power It's Complicated with her limitless charm. She plays Jane, a woman who secretly reconnects with her ex-husband 10 years after their divorce, even though he's married and she's dating someone else. MESS. Despite the drama, it's as heartwarming as you can expect from Nancy Meyers and prominently featured an amazing kitchen, which you can also expect from Nancy Meyers.

There aren't enough lesbian rom-coms, but at least we have Imagine Me & You, starring Lena Headey and Piper Perabo. They play Luce and Rachel, respectively, two women who meet for the first time on the day Rachel marries a man. Things get a bit messy from there, but love at first sight is a powerful thing!

The narrative elements of this Cinderella story are controversial by 2024 standards — I can already imagine the ~discourse~ there would be nowadays about a movie that had a sex worker fall in love with the man who pays for her company. But once you view Pretty Woman as a fantasy it's easy to settle in and enjoy the considerable charms of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

Red, White, and Royal Blue earns its spot in this list of all-time great rom-coms on the back of Nicholas Galitzine's Henry and his longing gaze. Galitzine has the perfect partner in Taylor Zakhar Perez's Alex, whose love confession to Henry will melt you into a puddle. Also on hand for laughs is Uma Thurman doing a Texas accent as the President of the United States.

Ben (Jack Quaid) and Alice (Maya Erskine) are college friends who, tired of attending weddings alone, agree to be each other's plus-one for the rest of their respective wedding seasons. As you might imagine, all that romantic atmosphere makes them realize their own feelings for each other. If you want a witty friends-to-lovers tale with a refreshing lack of clichés, you can't do better than this.

Queen Latifah hasn't been in enough rom-coms, and this glaring oversight still hasn't been rectified by 2024. At least we have Just Wright, in which she plays Leslie Wright, a physical therapist who falls for Scott McKnight (Common), one of the basketball players she treats. Scott makes Leslie put up with quite a bit in this movie, probably more than he should be forgiven for. But I dare you NOT to forgive him after he declares his love for her in front of the whole world at a press conference...especially since that's not even the most romantic speech in the movie.

Anya Taylor-Joy shines as Emma Woodhouse in the latest film adaptation of Austen's Emma. This version has everything you love about the timeless story, plus a little more oomph thanks to the excellent chemistry between Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn, who plays George Knightley this time around.

The first of the great Gosling/Stone team-ups came to us in 2011 in the form of Crazy, Stupid, Love, an excellent ensemble rom-com that holds up years later (EXCEPT for the babysitter storyline — please just ignore that one altogether, seriously). It's been long enough, studios. La La Land was 8 years ago! Get these two back together onscreen stat.

A good rom-com has the responsibility of giving us a couple we want to root for through endless ups and downs. Nancy Meyers, ever the rom-com overachiever, give us two in The Holiday. On one end you have Cameron Diaz and Jude Law, whose whirlwind romance might make you cry quietly into your tissue. Kate Winslet and Jack Black's characters have more of a slow (but equally effective) burn, and we're all still wondering why neither of them made more rom-coms.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore's first collaboration is probably their most endearing, and definitely sweeter than the type of comedy Sandler would become known for. If you're looking for an uncomplicated good time, you can't really do much better than this.

Romantic comedy is a criminally underrated genre, which is confusing when a movie like When Harry Met Sally... exists. It is quite possibly the best rom-com ever made and proves how clever and funny — and even philosophical — they can be. Nora Ephron’s genius screenplay shines even brighter as delivered by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, whose chemistry is just *chef’s kiss*. They play two imperfect but charming friends who fight their attraction for years because of how much they mean to each other. It is the original friends-to-lovers story, and has the power to convince even the staunchest rom-com haters.

This gay, modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice stars Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang as this story's Lizzie and Jane Bennet, respectively. It hits all the notes you want to see from the Austen original (thanks to Joel Kim Booster's adapted screenplay) and expands its scope to include relevant themes that reflect its diverse, queer cast. It's also funny as hell.

Lana Condor and Noah Centineo's chemistry in To All The Boys I've Loved Before should be bottled up and doled out to all actors playing couples onscreen, that's how good they are in this movie (and two subsequent sequels). Lana plays Lara Jean Covey, whose little sister accidentally mails out the love letters she wrote to her five crushes when she was younger — unfortunately, including one to her older sister's boyfriend. To help her save face, one of Lara Jean's other former crushes, Peter Kavinsky, pretends to date her, and typical emotional complications and teen hijinks ensue. 

This movie was a perfect rom-com when it came out, and remains one to this day. Bridget is unapologetically herself in all aspects of her life (socially, professionally, romantically) and finds happiness just the way she is. There are a few too many references to her weight throughout the movie, but the final message is that Bridget's weight ultimately has no bearing on her happiness.

Julia Roberts plays Julianne Potter, whose behavior in My Best Friend's Wedding will make you question more than once if you should really be rooting for her. You see, when Julianne learns that her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney) has fallen in love and plans to get married, she realizes that she's loved him all along and sets out to break up his relationship with Kimmy (Cameron Diaz). The fact that it all adds up to a charming, inventive twist on the genre all comes down to Julia Roberts, who can't help but be charming even when she's playing a hot mess like Julianne.

Hollywood often casts women opposite much older men in romantic storylines, to the point that a movie like How Stella Got Her Groove Back is an outright rarity. Angela Bassett stars as the titular character who finds herself post-divorce via a holiday fling with Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs), a man 20 years younger than her, not that he cares. Most of the humor is provided by Whoopi Goldberg as Stella's best friend and it's definitely more of a dramedy, but what matters is that it embodies the ~spirit~ of a rom-com.

Of all the teen rom-coms based on Shakespeare's work, this one is the best. That's not a particularly wide genre, sure, but 10 Things more than holds its own next to the all-time great romantic comedies. Based on The Taming of the Shrew, it's about Bianca and Kat, two sisters whose father is so overprotective he comes up with a rule: popular younger sister Bianca isn't allowed to date anyone until her prickly older sister Kat does as well. This sucks for Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who has a crush on the younger Stratford sister. Enter Patrick (Heath Ledger), who Cameron hires to woo Kat so that he can shoot his shot with Bianca. 

This isn't your typical romantic comedy in the sense that it's not the story about how the main couple gets together. Instead, it's about Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a man who idealizes a woman named Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and fails to listen to what she repeatedly says she wants, getting increasingly irritated that she doesn't reciprocate his love. But it's a thoughtful rumination on romantic love, and it's also funny, so rom-com lovers can't miss it.

You've Got Mail is equal parts rom-com and time capsule of the world as it was when the internet was just emerging. It's the best of the three Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks team-ups and another winner from THEE Nora Ephron.

Yes, this is a Disney movie, complete with animated portions and musical numbers. But you are lying to yourself if you don't think everything that happens between Giselle and Robert fits the bill for a rom-com. The tension between them will make you want to watch Grey's Anatomy just to catch more of Patrick Dempsey in full McDreamy mode. What makes it one of the greats is its endless re-watchability, largely due to Amy Adams and particularly James Marsden, whose turn as a himbo prince may as well have been the basis for Ryan Gosling's Ken.

A lot of the comedy in Mamma Mia! comes from the sheer ridiculousness of seeing some of our greatest movie stars burst into songs to the tune of ABBA with varying degrees of success. But the silliness and joy of Meryl Streep's performance as Donna while she tries to balance three exes and her daughter's wedding will win you over. 

The Big Sick is the rare rom-com that's based on real life. In this case, it's the real-life love story of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon. The premise: Kumail and Emily (Zoe Kazan) haven't been dating long when Emily suddenly gets sick and is placed in an induced coma. Kumail is forced to face his true feelings for her and figure out how their relationship can coexist with his Muslim faith and conservative Pakistani parents' expectations. The humor in this one is more on the understated side, but the scene in which Kumail and Emily's parents discuss 9/11 proves it's just as funny as anything else on this list.

Cher won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Loretta, a young widow who is ready to marry Johnny (Danny Aiello), a man she's perfectly fond of but doesn't love — after the death of her first husband, Loretta believes that love is only a source of pain. Her plans start to fall apart when she meets Johnny's estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage), with whom she shares fiery chemistry and immediate mutual attraction. It's romantic, sexy, funny, and Cher is truly phenomenal. If that doesn't convince you, there's also a young, super handsome Nic Cage and the scene-stealing Olympia Dukakis as Loretta's mother Rose.

Writer and star Nia Vardalos plays Toula, a woman from a very, very Greek family who falls in love with Ian, who isn't Greek but is played by John Corbett. This poses a problem for Toula's nosy relatives, who at times seem to be purposefully driving Ian away with their constant presence and unwanted opinions. The supporting characters are very broad but still funny, and the central romance is just enough to keep the whole thing grounded.

The Princess Bride is one of those movies that you watch as a kid and keep coming back to again and again because of how warm and fuzzy it makes you feel. As you get older, you start to clock the smaller jokes that were sprinkled in to keep the adults interested, making you love it in an entirely new way. In short, it's the original live-action Disney cartoon. 

Clueless is just one of many teen movie adaptations of classic literature — in this case, Jane Austen’s Emma. Cher (Alicia Silverstone, who was perfectly cast) is our '90s-era Emma Woodhouse who has to re-examine her selfish ways as her relationships become increasingly complicated. It’s sweet and satirical at the same time, and full of quotable lines and memorable outfits. The relationship between Cher and her former step-brother Josh (the ageless Paul Rudd) is totally not creepy when you remember that it’s based on Emma and George Knightley.

Look, musicals aren’t for everybody. But if you only watch one, it absolutely has to be Singin’ in the Rain. This musical romantic comedy starring Gene Kelly tells the story of a silent film star who needs to figure out his next move when films start incorporating sound in the 1920s. It’s funny, romantic, and practically impossible to recreate — sincerely, I hope Hollywood never tries. And if that’s not enough for you, it also features an absolutely luminous Debbie Reynolds in her breakout role. 

Marilyn Monroe’s enduring popularity is due in large part to her tumultuous private life, but Some Like It Hot is a great reminder of her charisma and talent. In a Golden Globe-winning performance, she plays Sugar Kane, a singer who befriends two musicians who are secretly dressed up as women because they are running away from the mafia after witnessing a crime. Iconic leading lady aside, it’s also just a near-perfect rom-com and considered one of the funniest movies ever made, which is made even more rare by the fact that it’s not super problematic 64 years later.

The plot of Crazy Rich Asians is fairly predictable, however, it still earns its place on this list by fully embracing the fantasy of romantic comedies with its dazzling, luxurious set pieces, including a wedding where the bride literally walks on water down the aisle. You can't help but be swept up in all the beauty, and it doesn't hurt that Akwafina, Ken Jeong, and Nico Santos are on hand to provide the laughs — but it is the climactic mahjong scene between Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh that you'll remember for a long time.

The arguments between Hildy (Rosalind Russell) and Walter (Cary Grant) in His Girl Friday are some of the best arguing-as-foreplay ever committed to film, and it's made all the better by the fast-talking, trans-Atlantic vocal stylings of the period. Plus, it's a chance to see one of the great Old Hollywood film stars do his thing.

It was hard to pick which Judd Apatow rom-com would get on this list — and Knocked Up had some serious competition against The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But ultimately Knocked Up is the true rom-com of the Apatow Cinematic Universe. That's thanks to Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen, whose characters are polar opposites but deliver a believable mix of attraction, frustration, and eventual acceptance when they finally meet in the middle. 

Real ones have known since 1999, but But I'm A Cheerleader's cult following in the decades since its release has led it to be re-evaluated as classic queer cinema. The campy satire stars future queer icons Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Melanie Lynskey, and in a bit of casting that has aged like fine wine, RuPaul as "ex-gay" counselor Mike.

Love triangles are a very well-worn trope at this point, but few movies do it as well as Broadcast News, one of the best but most underrated rom-coms of the decade. It's about the romantic entanglement of three very different co-workers at a news network. Jane (Holly Hunter) is a workaholic producer, Aaron (Albert Brooks) is an awkward but brilliant journalist, and Tom (William Hurt) is a personable but not-so-smart news anchor. The expected love triangle emerges between the three of them with Jane at the center, but the resolution is entirely unexpected yet deliciously satisfying. 

The romance in 13 Going on 30 is secondary to the coming-of-age plot, but you can't argue with the power of Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo sharing scenes. Garner is particularly fantastic as Jenna Rink, who, dissatisfied with her life, makes a wish on her thirteenth birthday to fast-forward to when she's 30. When Jenna wakes up the next day, she finds that she's gotten her wish, but things aren't as perfect as she imagined they'd be. Missed opportunities, second chances, and 2000s fashion — a true gem.

Sarah (Cristin Millioti) and Nyles (Andy Samberg) meet at her sister's wedding, and after a chaotically weird night, she finds herself trapped in an infinite time loop with him. They develop feelings for one another but have to figure out if those feelings are real or the result of being, essentially, the only two real people in the world. It's not the first rom-com to incorporate freaky time loop sci-fi into its love story, but it's up there with the best of them — and gets bonus points for having both main characters in the time loop instead of just one.

This is the OG time loop rom-com that still holds up after more than 30 years. Bill Murray's cynical weatherman Phil learns to thaw his frozen heart, to the point of becoming a decent person, when he's stuck on the same day, February 3. The movie is mostly about Phil, but Andie MacDowell's Rita is nevertheless a charming, complete love interest. Phil eventually wins her over, not by learning about her in each loop and manipulating her — to be fair, he does try that — but by accepting his circumstance and genuinely growing. Everyone loves Groundhog Day, but it'll have a special place in the hearts of the secretly sensitive cynics among us.

After Jenny (Gina Rodriguez) gets a new job in San Francisco and is dumped by her longtime boyfriend (LaKeith Stanfield), she and her two best friends (DeWanda Wise and Brittany Snow) get together for one last epic New York City adventure. On paper, it's not a great rom-com because, quite frankly, the parts concerning the main couple are a real bummer, despite LaKeith Stanfield and Gina Rodriguez's chemistry. But the parts where Jenny works through her breakup with the help of her friends are so relatable it may just become one of those movies you rewatch indefinitely. If the rom-com label doesn't work for you, consider it an excellent comedy about the effects of romantic love in your 20s.

There's a good chance that if your friend group had as much romantic overlap as the characters in The Best Man you probably wouldn't be friends anymore, especially if one of you decided to write a book about it. But since gossip is fun when it isn't happening to you, you can kick back with some popcorn while you watch this play out. It's less about one couple and more of an ensemble comedy, but certainly fulfills the requisite romance and comedy.

Nancy Myers is really good at making rom-coms. She's given us The Holiday, The Parent Trap, It's Complicated, and her crowning achievement, Something's Gotta Give. In it, Jack Nicholson plays Harry, a 63-year-old millionaire who only dates women under 30 until he meets his match in Erica (Diane Keaton), who just so happens to be the mother of his much younger girlfriend. Eventually, the formerly shallow Harry is reduced to a pining, lovesick mess over Erica and it is oh so satisfying.

Many years before she was Goop-ing, Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar for playing Viola, the woman who inspired Shakespeare to write both Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night after their doomed, whirlwind romance. The story is entirely made up, but Shakespeare in Love is so good you'll wish it was real. And you'll also laugh. And cry. And belief in the transformative power of love, whatever.

Andie (Kate Hudson), a writer for a women's magazine, bets that she can get rid of any guy in 10 days, and Ben (Matthew McConaughey), an advertising executive, also bets that he can land a girl in the same amount of time. If this sounds like the premise of a cheesy rom-com full of the most obvious clichés, that's because it is. Nobody in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days behaves like a real person. HOWEVER, I will defend its place on this list based on it being a shining example of a romantic comedy sub-genre: the so-bad-it's-good rom-com. There's something deeply funny about watching Andie and Ben act in increasingly unhinged, borderline sociopathic ways while everyone around them treats it like normal human behavior.

A few years ago, Hugh Grant said that he thought the main characters from Notting Hill wouldn't make it, and that the sequel would be about them getting bitterly divorced. Not to disrespect the man, but shut up, Hugh Grant. You can take the feel-good fantasy of a movie star falling in love with a bookshop owner in a charming English town from my cold, dead hands.

When medical school dropout Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) decides to give up on love altogether, he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan), the girl of his dreams who just happens to have a boyfriend. Over the next few months, Wallace learns to suppress his feelings for Chantry, not wanting to ruin their relationship but growing more and more in love with her every single day. And let me tell you, Daniel Radcliffe is excellent at giving soulful, longing glances. Put him in more rom-coms, I beg! What If (or The F Word as it's known in other countries) is a sort of spiritual younger sibling to When Harry Met Sally..., and an equally successful take on the friends-to-lovers trope. It also features Adam Driver as the supportive bestie and gives him a very funny scene where he yells about having sex and eating nachos.

Three of the biggest stars of the era, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart came together for a love triangle in The Philadelphia Story, a movie about Dexter (Grant) attempting to win back his ex-wife Tracy (Hepburn) on her wedding day, with the help of  Mike (Stewart), a journalist there to write about the wedding. The trouble starts when Tracy starts to realize Mike is just a swell guy. It's a simple setup but done so well that people would try to replicate it for decades to come.

You can't become a movie star without making a stop in rom-com land. Tom Cruise knew this, which is why he put on a full charm offensive in Jerry Maguire, one of his last movies before he'd pivoted to action full-time. There's a lot to swoon about in Jerry Maguire, but nothing hits as hard as Jerry's final love confession to Dorothy (Renée Zellweger). You'll melt. 

Even if Roman Holiday wasn't a fabulous rom-com, it's partially responsible for the trend of zipping around Italy on a Vespa, one of the most romantic things two people can do together. But it's also an excellent rom-com about the magic that can happen when you meet the right person at the right time, even if your time together is fleeting because one of you is the Crown Princess of a European nation.