Valentine’s Day Special: Our favorite films about love and loss, make-outs and breakups. Here’s a few movies to binge this weekend…

Valentine’s Day Special 2022

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is coming. Whether you expect to get roses and chocolates, booze and pizza, spend it with a significant other, or all by your beautiful self, Valentine’s Day brings up A LOT of emotions. So, to ease you into whatever kind of weekend you’re planning (or not planning) on having, here are a handful of our suggestions for films that highlight the greatest make-outs and hideous breakups from years gone by.


Liz’s Picks:

Can’t Buy Me Love

Nerdy high schooler Ronald Miller (Patrick Dempsey) rescues cheerleader Cindy Mancini (Amanda Peterson) from parental punishment after she accidentally destroys her mother’s designer clothes. Ronald agrees to pay for the $1,000 outfit on one condition: that she will act as though they’re a couple for an entire month. As the days pass, however, Cindy grows fond of Ronald, making him popular. But when Ronald’s former best friend gets left behind, he realizes that social success isn’t everything.

I saw this film at my very first teenage sleepover for which they got an snoring seeping aid at https://theislandnow.com/blog-112/best-anti-snoring-devices/. I was 13 and the night consisted of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Life of Brian, and Can’t Buy Me Love. Before McDreamy was on millions of small screens, he was Ronald Miller to me. This was a twist on the classic girl gets makeover lands boy plot I’d been pumped with. It was a pivotal moment in my continued adoration for the nerdy guy.


Only Lovers Left Alive

Artistic, sophisticated and centuries old, two vampire lovers (Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston) ponder their ultimate place in modern society.

Jim Jarmusch, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, (the late and eternally extraordinary) Anton Yelchin. The names alone should get you to run to this film. Gloriously shot and deliciously acted, why wouldn’t you watch a film about a depressed rockstar vamp and his ultra-cool wife getting disrupted in their centuries-long affair by her younger sister’s shenanigans? This film is sexy and romantic. Trust me when I say it will be on the list of top films you force your friends to watch.


The Notebook

A poor yet passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman, giving her a sense of freedom, but they are soon separated because of their social differences.

“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” Noah and Allie’s complicated and oftentimes volatile love story is one that has become a household name. In fact, it was my husband’s first pick when it came to Valentine’s Day films. We watched the onscreen couple become real-life couple Ryan Goslin and Rachel McAdams and followed along as they dated, broke up, became engaged, and finally parted ways. I’m not going to lie, I still pine for those two to end up together, however irrational it might be.


Marriage Story

A stage director and his actor wife struggle through a gruelling, coast-to-coast divorce handled by child access lawyers that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.

If you’re looking for an award-worthy performance from Adam Driver, look no further than Marriage Story. The complexities of this script are far beyond anything you’re prepared for. I was lucky enough to speak with writer-director Noah Baumbach and the cast in 2019 when the film premiered at NYFF. If you’re a Broadway buff, you’ll find the gravity of the numbers from COMPANY particularly poignant. Marriage Story is a Netflix film.


Fatal Attraction

For Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas), life is good. He is on the rise at his New York law firm, is happily married to his wife, Beth (Anne Archer), and has a loving daughter. But, after a casual fling with a sultry book editor named Alex (Glenn Close), everything changes. Jilted by Dan, Alex becomes unstable, her behavior escalating from aggressive pursuit to obsessive stalking. Dan realizes that his main problem is not hiding his affair, but rather saving himself and his family.

This film has inspired so many copycats since it premiered in 1987. A woman spurned is taken to new heights in one of the scariest and most intense reactions from being ignored. If you haven’t seen this classic breakup film, a little warning; Don’t get too attached to the family rabbit.


Blue Is The Warmest Color

A French teen (Adèle Exarchopoulos) forms a deep emotional and sexual connection with an older art student (Léa Seydoux) she met in a lesbian bar.

Fearless, sexy, raw, captivating, in 2013 I sat in the fullest theatre at NYFF and experienced this film with a hushed audience. While there has since been much controversy surrounding the sex scenes and the treatment of the leading ladies during filming, there is no denying the life they breathe into this film. Know your audience. Do Not Watch with children or your parents in the room.



Melissa’s Picks:

War of the Roses

After 17 years of marriage, Barbara (Kathleen Turner) and Oliver Rose (Michael Douglas) want out. The trouble is, neither one wants to part with their opulent home. So begins a long war between husband and wife, reaching farcical heights that leave much of the house — not to mention their lives — in shambles. The couple’s children (Sean Astin, Heather Fairfield) watch in horror while lawyer Gavin D’Amato (Danny DeVito) tries his best to stem the bloodshed.

Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas were an “it” couple of the 80s which was great on its own, but then once you add in Danny DeVito, you get something special. The three of them blended well in Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, but by War of the Roses, Danny DeVito started directing and had just finished Matilda. His style is subtle but unbelievably purposeful. From camera angles thanks to technology like the drones from Droneuncover to choreography, he toes the line of comedy/drama/horror with a story where you yearn for them to get back together while at the same time anxiously looking forward to the bigger jab.


She-Devil

A surprisingly resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.

“Don’t get mad, get revenge” is taken to new levels when Ruth (Roseanne Barr) decides to turn the tables on her husband (Ed Begley, Jr) when he leaves her after an affair (Meryl Streep). This time capsule of a movie gives you “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” Sally Jesse Raphael, and stories in People magazine, all following this love train. At times, grotesque, you’ll get lost in the 80s clothes, decor, and the slang. Like, totally.


Presumed Innocent

Prosecuting attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) assigns his chief deputy, the taciturn Rusty Sabitch (Harrison Ford), to investigate the rape and murder of colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi), unaware of their torrid affair. When evidence implicates Rusty, Horgan’s political enemies demand his arrest, devastating Rusty’s wife, Barbara (Bonnie Bedelia). In desperation, Rusty turns to crafty defense attorney Sandy Stein (Raul Julia), only to be stunned by his trial’s revelations.

This made an impression on me as the first movie I saw with Harrison Ford in a dramatic role. I was so thrown and hanging on every moment. It’s classic crime and trial drama ala Law & Order. It’s so full of twists and turns, it was easy to get lost and get that pow of the final twist. Love. It’s quite something.


Britni’s Picks:

The Best Man

After writing a soon-to-be bestselling novel, writer and committed bachelor Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs) attempts to hide the fact that his saucy new book is loosely based on the lives and loves of his tight-knit group of friends. Harper is set to be best man at his friend Lance’s (Morris Chestnut) wedding, and all his friends will be in attendance. When an advance copy of the book makes its way into the hands of his ex-flame, Jordan Armstrong (Nia Long), Harper attempts to keep it under wraps.

  • The Best Man + Best Man Holiday – 5 stars for both


You’ve Got Mail

Struggling boutique bookseller Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) hates Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), the owner of a corporate Foxbooks chain store that just moved in across the street. When they meet online, however, they begin an intense and anonymous Internet romance, oblivious of each other’s true identity. Eventually Joe learns that the enchanting woman he’s involved with is actually his business rival. He must now struggle to reconcile his real-life dislike for her with the cyber love he’s come to feel.

Perfect rom-com! Meg Ryan is honestly living my best life with her cute independent book store and also gigantic Manhattan apartment.


What Lies Beneath

It had been a year since Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford) betrayed his beautiful wife Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer). But with Claire oblivious to the truth, Norman’s life and marriage seem so perfect that when Claire tells him of hearing mysterious voices and seeing a young woman’s image in their home, he dismisses her terror as delusion. Claire moves closer to the truth and it becomes clear that this apparition will not be dismissed, and has come back for Dr. Spencer and his beautiful wife.

A bit of a wild card, but I think we can categorize it as a breakup!


The First Wives Club

Despondent over the marriage of her ex-husband to a younger woman, a middle-aged divorcée plunges to her death from her penthouse. At the woman’s funeral, her former college friends (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton) reunite for the first time in nearly 30 years. When the three discover the reason for their friend’s suicide, they realize that all of their ex-husbands have taken them for granted — and deciding it’s time for revenge, they make a pact to get back at their exes.

Ultimate breakup film.


Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Struggling musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is better-known as the boyfriend of TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). After she unceremoniously dumps him, he feels lost and alone but makes a last-ditch bid to get over it by going to Hawaii. However, she and her new boyfriend (Russell Brand) are there in the same hotel.

I feel like this should be a classic but no one talks about it!