Romance movies

A pilot who can’t fly, a plane full of nonsense — and the odd inflatable hero called Otto.

Popeye: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

Seems Like Old Times: the safety of home and family, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

A love so determined it teaches itself to travel.

The Blue Lagoon: family and mortality, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

The Competition: family, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

Urban Cowboy: family and the safety of home, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

Xanadu: love and family, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

Continental Divide: love, and why this 1981 movie still matters.

Endless Love: family and love, and why this 1981 movie still matters.

A summer cottage, a stubborn old man and a boy who quietly upends the whole family.

A movie about witness, appetite and the private cost of public conviction.

The French Lieutenant's Woman: love and loss, and why this 1981 movie still matters.

A hard-edged coming-of-age wrapped in military drill, unexpected tenderness and one stubborn loner.

The Last American Virgin: the safety of home and friendship, and why this 1982 movie still matters.

The Year of Living Dangerously: mortality and lifespan, and why this 1982 movie still matters.

An actor in drag discovers how the world really treats women.

A clever musical about disguise, showbiz and the friendships that make it bearable.

Flashdance: family and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1983 movie still matters.

A suburban teenager, a one‑night business and the day ambition learned to look dangerous.

A sharp, sentimental and sometimes infuriating love story — mostly between a mother and her impossible daughter.

Valley Girl: the safety of home and friendship, and why this 1983 movie still matters.

Against All Odds: family and greed, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

Teen rebellion, a ban on dancing and one determined outsider — Footloose still kicks up dust.

Moscow on the Hudson: family and love, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

One musician, First Avenue and a mess of ambition — Purple Rain still hums.

A romance novelist, a smuggler, an emerald and a jungle: the adventure that taught Joan Wilder to stop waiting and start kicking.

Teenage longing, family oblivion and one very awkward bet — with Samantha Sam Baker keeping the whole thing human.

A mermaid arrives in New York, a sensible man gets sensible about love — and the rest is splashy business.

A road movie in which an alien borrows a dead husband's face and, with a borrowed curiosity, teaches a widow how to keep living.

A teenager, a handyman, and the long, strange apprenticeship that taught a generation how to stand up for themselves.

The Natural: family and the safety of home, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

The Woman in Red: friendship and freedom, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

Better Off Dead: family, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Desperately Seeking Susan: authority and loss, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun: family and friendship, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Just One of the Guys: growing up, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

My Beautiful Laundrette: family and friendship, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Out of Africa: love and greed, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Real Genius: the safety of home and family, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

St. Elmo's Fire: family and friendship, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Summer Rental: family and the safety of home, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

A teenage werewolf, a basketball court and a lesson about who you really want cheering for you.

The Jewel of the Nile: parents protecting their children and heroism, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Fast talk, bad luck and a very literal wish come true — with consequences.

About Last Night...: family and friendship, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Children of a Lesser God: family and love, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

A bushman's grin in Manhattan — watch Crocodile Dundee and you remember why that mismatch still makes you laugh.

Jumpin' Jack Flash: our relationship with technology and freedom, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Legal Eagles: loss and family, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Lucas: friendship and family, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Mona Lisa: friendship and authority, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Peggy Sue Got Married: family and growing up, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

A working‑class girl, a prom dress and a triangle that still stirs up arguments.

Nola Darling: not needy, just complicated — and still brilliant company.

Something Wild: authority and love, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

The Fly: humanity and our relationship with technology, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

A seaside sequel about duty, dancing and learning when not to fight.

Youngblood: family and courage, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

A refugee, a single extravagant dinner and the curious way generosity becomes a kind of worship.

A newsroom rom‑com that prefers arguments to punchlines — and Tom Grunick makes those arguments pay.

Can't Buy Me Love: friendship and peer pressure, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Dirty Dancing: family and love, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Less Than Zero: family and friendship, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Mannequin: love and corporate power, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Moonstruck: family and love, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

The Lost Boys made them cool. Fright Night made them frightening again. Once Bitten turned vampirism into a dating problem. And then there was My Best Friend Is A Vampire.

Overboard: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Radio Days: family and the safety of home, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Roxanne: family and love, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

Stakeout: the safety of home and love, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

A swashbuckling love story told like a bedtime tale — and still disarmingly good company.

Big: our relationship with technology and friendship, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Mentorship, rites of passage and a catcher called Crash — Bull Durham still teaches a lesson.

Cocktail: family and greed, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Dangerous Liaisons: love and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Hairspray: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

License to Drive: family and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Mystic Pizza: family and love, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Scrooged: fear and belief in the supernatural, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Tequila Sunrise: love and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

Harlem Nights: friendship and greed, and why this 1989 movie still matters.

Look Who's Talking: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1989 movie still matters.

Lloyd Dobler: underachieving, hopelessly sincere and still the film's heartbeat.

The Fabulous Baker Boys: family and love, and why this 1989 movie still matters.

The Little Mermaid: humanity and love, and why this 1989 movie still matters.

Cynicism, chemistry and a very public argument about friendship — still funny, still persuasive.

Teenage rebellion, a single teardrop and a lot of 1950s cheek — Cry‑Baby remains a small, sharp wedge of John Waters mischief.

A fairy tale about a man who can’t quite touch the world — and the neighbourhood that can’t quite handle him.

A murder mystery disguised as a love story — with a man who won’t stop watching over the person he loves.

A man, a volcano and a very English-sized question about how to live.

A corporate raider, a negotiated week, and a Cinderella story wrapped in Prada — but Edward Lewis is the reason the engine keeps running.

Bookish bravery, an enchanted rose and a ballroom everyone remembers.

Fatherhood, lost chances and one friend who won't let you forget the street’s logic.

A driven city doctor, a broken fence and a small town that won’t let him be in a rush.

A wedding film that’s really a one-man panic about letting go.

A coming‑of‑age about grief, friendship and a girl who refuses to be polite about death.

A revenge tale with a bow, a ragtag family and a very particular Sheriff.

A love that will not die — even if it has to become a monster to keep going.

A frontier romance, a personal revenge plot — and Hawkeye standing between two worlds.

A radio, a widower and a transatlantic crush — Nora Ephron’s rom-com still knows how to tug.

Sisterhood, stubbornness and a pen — Jo leads the way.

A marriage of missile mayhem and domestic farce — and Harry Tasker holds the whole thing together.

Matchmaking, mall culture and a girl who thinks she has life nailed—until she doesn't.

A single chaotic day, a ragged crew of record-shop lifers, and one shop‑floor manager everyone quietly orbits.

A romance that refuses to fix anyone — and remembers that mercy can look like staying.

A Disney musical about curiosity, conflict and a face-off between trees and treasure.

Verona Beach: Shakespeare with guns, pop music and teenage urgency.

Mates, missed chances and a lot of cheap confidence — Swingers is still about the friends who shove you back into life.

Maps, memories and a love that refuses to stop being a problem.

A crowd-pleasing shape-shift: comedy, prosthetics and one very complicated personality.

A messy, funny, sometimes uncomfortable study of desire, friendship and what men assume about women.

A brash working-class genius, a stubborn therapist and the hard friendship that won’t let him hide.

A hitman’s midlife crisis, a high-school reunion and a soundtrack that remembers everything for him.

A ship, a diamond and a boy who refuses to play by the rules — Jack Dawson still steers this story.

A murderous road trip, a murderous marriage — and Tiffany makes the whole thing deliciously rotten.

A three-hour conversation about mortality, love and family — with Death politely at the table.

A biblical blockbuster that thinks like a coming-of-age story — and still asks who we are when everything we know is taken away.

A love story wrapped in 1980s pop — and carried by one very earnest wedding crooner.

Anonymity, bookshops and a man who knows how to soften a problem with a smile.

Sibling rules, a rooftop serenade and one very stubborn Kat — Shakespeare in a school corridor.

A pact, prom and one painfully memorable pie.

A travel bookshop, a movie star and a very British wobble — Notting Hill still trades in ordinary people meeting impossible fame.

Li Mu Bai wants to give up the sword. The movie refuses to let him.

Awkward, anxious, and alarmingly watchable — Greg Focker meets the in‑laws, and nothing is the same again.

A summer house, a big party plan — and Jim Levenstein's clumsy, very human pursuit of confidence.

A diary, a love triangle and the awkward courage to be yourself.

A lone shooter, a made-up legend and the machinery that turns survival into spectacle.

A very pink proof that being underestimated can be an advantage.

An awkward teenager, a stern grandmother and a haircut that changes everything.

A girl who idolises Beckham, a family who wants tradition — and football that refuses to be polite.

A man, a channel-three newsroom and the world's most awkward probationary godhood.

A dozen loves, one Prime Minister and a strangely persuasive case for emotional embarrassment.

A love story that has to start over every morning — and a bloke who chooses to stay.

A love story that keeps insisting you remember it — even when the film forgets for you.

A pub crawl that turns into a coming-of-age, with zombies.

A stubborn love story shaped by memory, class and the patience to wait.

A love that lived in the margins — and a man who kept it there.

A rom‑com about coaching people to be themselves — and what happens when the coach needs lessons too.

Marriage as camouflage: domestic boredom meets freelance assassination.

Elizabeth Bennet, messy houses and very awkward proposals — Austen with a 2000s pulse.

A grown man's coming‑of‑age told with pub‑crude jokes and an unexpectedly steady heart.

Two mates, one set of wedding rules — and a reason to believe someone can stop treating love like a hobby.

A mercenary, a fisherman and a pink diamond — and a film that still asks who pays for our jewellery.

A princess in a big city: earnest fairy-tale heart meets 00s self-aware sparkle.

One drunken night, an unexpected baby — and Ben Stone, who somehow keeps the whole thing honest.

A fallen star, a foolish promise and the long, odd walk into adulthood.

A breakup comedy that insists the messiest part is learning how to grow up.

A wedding, three possible dads and an entire soundtrack answering questions you didn’t know to ask.

A love story dressed as a quiz show — and Jamal Malik is the only player who really matters.

A strange love story about a man who grows younger — and what that odd hook says about time, loss and timing.

Teenage longing, family secrets and a very particular kind of danger — Bella makes Twilight worth the rewatch.

A tiny robot, a stubborn plant and a lot of things we probably recognise in the mirror.

Saying yes to life — and then dealing with the messy consequences.