Happy cuffing season to all those who celebrate!!
When Harry met sally
No Spoiler Summary:
In 1977, Harry and Sally, two fresh UChicago graduates, met when sharing a car ride to New York, where they discussed the likelihood of strictly platonic friendships between members of the opposite sex. The movie jumps over the course of 10 years, where while searching for love (and not finding it), they keep running into each other time and time again. When the two begin enjoying the other’s company, a friendship begins to grow, but are confronted with their original argument– can a man and a woman ever just be friends, or will sex and romance always get in the way?Â
My Thoughts:
I love this movie more than words can say. Being one of the first movies that defined the genre “rom-com” for me, When Harry Met Sally is comical, bittersweet, and utterly romantic. I never truly understood the definition of unrequited love until I watched this film, and I could watch it timelessly without feeling bored. From personal experience, I’ve learned that your parents probably loved When Harry Met Sally and you will too.Â
Love, rosie
No Spoiler Summary:
Rosie and Alex have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Having grown up together through school, parents, awkwardness, and crushes, a quick series of events at Rosie’s 18th birthday party and a school dance soon after result in shared moments, missed opportunities, and life-altering choices/decisions distancing their friendship for years. Throughout their lives, while navigating life, love, grief, and their dreams, both Alex and Rosie will always find their way back to each other– but as friends or as something more?Â
My Thoughts:
Love, Rosie is one of those movies where you’re screaming at the screen because the two characters just miss each other, every time. It is so frustrating and exhilarating to behold, and takes the hardest parts of loving someone and turns it into a beautifully real storyline. The main casting is exquisite, and they fulfill the heart-shaped center of my brain so perfectly within this friends-to-maybe-lovers classic.
Crazy Rich Asians
No Spoiler Summary:
Rachel Chu, an American-born Chinese professor at NYU, travels with Nick, her longtime boyfriend, to his best friend’s wedding back home in Singapore. Rachel soon learns that Nick’s family is ridiculously wealthy, and is one of Singapore’s most eligible bachelors. Whether contending with conspiring socialites, family dynamics, glitzy lifestyles, or Nick’s disapproving mother, Rachel must face what it means to be true to herself and love fiercely in the face of adversity.  Â
My Thoughts:
This might be my favorite rom-com of all time (no pressure though). Rachel is such a strong main character and the storyline is so refreshing even if at the base of it, it’s a classic love story. The representation within this movie is so powerful and tastefully executed by both the directing team and the actors themselves. Certain scenes will stick with me forever, and being a certified rom-com expert myself, I will always come back to Crazy Rich Asians.Â
friends with benefits
No Spoiler Summary:
Jamie, a New York-based executive recruiter tries to sign Dylan, an LA art director, for a position at the NY office of GQ magazine. After deciding to accept the offer, the two become fast friends, but after finding out a common theme of broken romances between them, they mutually agree to have some fun and take their friendship to the next level (without becoming a couple). However, with both parties being emotionally unavailable or damaged, they find the real complications in their no-feelings arrangement– when feelings arise.Â
My Thoughts:
I LOVE this movie for so many reasons. Friends with Benefits is cheeky and hilarious, making its audience laugh and feel butterflies all at the same time. Although this is a classic rom-com plot line, both Jamie and Dylan are such great characters, both fiercely smart and independent in what they do and who they are. Friends with Benefits is charming and really really (really) makes you wanna be a New York 20-something falling for a stranger who’s so similar yet different to you– or maybe that’s just me.Â
The proposal
No Spoiler Summary:
Andrew Paxton is the hapless assistant of Margaret Tate, a high-powered, driven book editor at a New York publisher. After finding out her visa expired and she faces deportation to her native Canada, Margaret elaborately executes a plan to marry Andrew to keep her visa status, while promising him a promotion to play along. Andrew agrees to this scheme on one condition– Margaret has to accompany him to an eccentric family affair in Alaska that weekend. While faking around suspecting immigration, hiding the truth from family, and every situation in between, the unlikely two might develop a genuine connection with each other– if they survive the weekend.
My Thoughts:
I was so pleasantly surprised when I watched The Proposal for the first time, considering the two phenomenal main characters seemed so unlikely to fall for each other. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Renolds were the perfect casting choices and made an unlikely plot feel so refreshing and heartwarming. This movie truly is hilarious yet sincere at the same time; The Proposal feels like the moment you’re laughing with someone and you feel it.Â
Pride and prejudice (2005)
No Spoiler Summary:
In the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s well-loved novel, Elizabeth Bennet is the oldest of 5 sisters living in the English countryside alongside their parents. When faced with the increasing pressures of her family and society to marry, Elizabeth is introduced to the handsome, reserved, and upper-class Mr. Darcy– and sparks fly. Although the two are infatuated with each other, can Elizabeth unveil Darcy’s reluctance and reserve, can Darcy push past his own history, and can the two overcome their own pride and prejudice?Â
My Thoughts:
Since I was a child, I’ve loved reading, so being able to watch a film adaptation of one of my favorite books never fails to amaze me. Keira Knightley perfectly plays Elizabeth’s role and Dr. Darcy is the og mystery man you’re dying to crack the entire film. With some of the most iconic scenes in romance history, Pride and Prejudice is the best type of period piece, since it puts you in that time and space without boredom or disconnect.Â
You’ve got mail
No Spoiler Summary:
Kathleen Kelly is the bookshop owner of a struggling boutique in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Just across the street, a corporate bookstore by the name of Foxbooks is headed by Joe Fox. Unknowingly, the two strike up an online romance and fall in love by means of an anonymous Internet romance. Eventually, the two are made aware of each other’s true identities and struggle to contend with their dislike of each other– while being madly in love.Â
My Thoughts:
You’ve Got Mail is the perfect chick-flick, if I’ve ever seen one. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have unspeakable chemistry, and it’s hard not to fall in love with them as they fall for each other. The plot is immensely likable and you can’t watch it without smiling ear to ear after. You’ve Got Mail has such heart to it, as it touches on the sensitivities and vulnerabilities that are tied to falling in love.Â
to all the boys i’ve loved before
No Spoiler Summary:
Lara Jean Covey is an all-things-love-obsessed teenage girl grappling with the realities of high school, sister fights, and a strong dislike of driving. Lara Jean writes letters to all of her past loves, but one day when her 5 secret letters get mailed out to all the boys she’s loved before, her life is thrown into chaos. Now, when faced with a new opportunity, an unlikely friendship, and all the crazy s*** that comes with high school, Lara Jean must face what it means to live loudly, feel deeply, and love unapologetically. Â
My Thoughts:
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is one of those movies that time and time again, I will always come back to. It brings me back to a quintessential period of my life where, like Lara Jean, my world was school stress, being scared of driving, and crushes. You see all the best plots of a rom-com wrapped so perfectly into one movie, and although some say it’s overrated, for me, TATBILB will be one of those films I’ll make my kids watch to show what teenage love feels like.