Picture: iStock
Even if Valentine’s Day means we are tightening our belts until next payday, it doesn’t mean we can’t still feel like we’re part of the romance.
And what better way than to settle on to your sofa with bottle or two of your favourite drink, a good home-cooked meal and a variety of romantic streaming content.
From classics, to award-winners and box office hits, you’ll be spoiled for choice with Netflix’s offering. Here are just a few of our favourites to stream this Valentine’s weekend:
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson and Amy Adams
Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Her’. Picture: Warner Bros.
Winner of the 2020 Academy Award for Best Actor, Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore in this 2013 science-fiction romantic drama about a lonely man who, in the final stages of his divorce, develops an unlikely relationship with an artificial intelligence operating system called Samantha.
As they spend more time together, Theodore falls in love with the operating system and finds himself dealing with feelings of both great joy and doubt.
This movie, while exploring unconventional love, was hailed as one of the most unusual and brilliant romantic dramas made.
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Lakeith Stanfield and DeWanda Wise
Someone Great. Picture: Netflix
Centred on a young woman (Gina Rodriguez), who heads out for one crazy night with her best friends after getting dumped by her boyfriend of seven years, Someone Great is one of Netflix’s better original romantic comedies.
There are raunchy laughs and dynamic on-screen chemistry between Rodriguez and Lakeith Stanfield, even if the relationship is doomed.
This will appeal to young lovers, good friends and broken hearts.
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast: Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos
‘Blue is the Warmest Color. Picture: Quat’sous Films
The buzz this movie’s explicit sex scenes generated during its debut at the Cannes Film Festival does little to take from the fact that it’s a deeply moving and brilliantly acted love drama.
Although lengthy, Blue is the Warmest Color is an epically intimate portrayal of love between two young women in high school.
If you’re in the mood for a love story that feels real, is epic, brilliantly scripted, directed and cast, this ticks all the boxes.
WARNING: mature audience only.
Director: Nancy Meyers
Cast: Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Keanu Reeves
Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in ‘Something’s Gotta Give’. Picture: Columbia Pictures
Even though it’s about finding love in your later years, Something’s Gotta Give – while inescapably formulaic – remains an endearing rom-com, thanks to the massively talented Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.
This old-fashioned romantic comedy is a celebration of love among older people and really cashes in on that adage: “Old but not cold”.
This becomes abundantly clear when Viagra is thrown into the mix for good measure. It results in a one of the funniest scenes that Nicholson and Keaton have taken on.
This one will be great for the parents and older but hopeful male romantics out there.
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