Roger Ebert Home

The Best Romantic Movies of 2019

The Best Romantic Movies of 2019

The best romantic movies of 2019 illustrate a genre that has been struggling – the rom-com is basically on life support, almost exclusively the property of mediocre Netflix Originals nowadays – but when it’s done well, it can be unforgettable. Take, for example, one of our ten best films of 2019, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” as passionate and romantic as filmmaking gets. And the Cannes hit is not only film this year to join our collection of the best romantic movies of 2019. There are films for which romantic is merely an undercurrent, such as the teen comedy “Booksmart,” Olivia Wilde’s breakthrough debut. And even films that never made it to theaters but premiered on streaming like the underrated “Falling Inn Love.” Ultimately, it would appear that major studios gave up on releasing films in multiplexes that could even be considered for an inclusion in the best romantic movies of 2019, but people who grew up watching classic stories about people falling in love are never going to give up on their favorite genre. While this collection may be small, these best romantic movies of 2019 are for them. 

Booksmart
Falling Inn Love
Gloria Bell
Little Women
Only Cloud Knows
Ophelia
Photograph
Plus One
Promise at Dawn
Queen & Slim
Rafiki
Someone Great
The Souvenir
Waves
What Men Want