Five Underrated Romcoms to Satisfy Your Belated Valentine's Day Craving

While I, like many other romantic comedy connoisseurs, worship at the altars of Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts, I’m also always on the hunt for new holy texts. Here are five underrated romcoms to watch after your Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron marathons are finished. 

TiMER (2009)

What if there was a device that told you exactly when you would meet your soulmate? Sci-fi soulmate trackers have become a common trope in romance stories, but TiMER uses this premise to examine the devastatingly familiar feeling, “What if there is no one meant for me?”

In a world where everyone has implanted wrist timers counting down to the moment they meet their perfect match, Oona’s timer is blank. Writer/director Jac Schaeffer (and showrunner of my current obsession, WandaVision), manages to give us a delightful romance between Oona and a younger mismatched guy while questioning the romance industrial complex as a whole. My kind of woman. 

Save the Date (2012)

If romantic with a tinge of melancholy is your style, Save the Date is ready and waiting for you. I often find myself on Netflix wishing the algorithm would provide me with the category “Sexy Sweet Indie Films That Will Make You Feel A Just A Little Sad.” Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie play lovingly antagonistic sisters, the former being a commitment-phobe and the latter about to get married. After rejecting a marriage proposal, Lizzy Caplan’s character meets a new guy ready to take whatever he can get (a sexy fling or maybe more). Delicious flirting combined with a fear of being vulnerable makes for a film I will rewatch a hundred times. 

Juliet, Naked (2018)

You’ve Got Mail is my favorite film of all time, so I will forever be a sucker for stories about pen pals with a complicated connection. Rose Byrne plays a woman stuck in a relationship with a man (Chris O’Dowd) obsessed with someone else. However, that someone else happens to be an obscure American musician played by Ethan Hawke (fulfilling the fantasies of what might have happened to his Reality Bites character 20 years later). She forms an email bond with this aging rocker over the same question, “Is this what my life has become?” This film tackles romance and its relationship to maturity in such a refreshing way, and Ethan Hawke, as usual, shines. 

Plus One (2019)

Sometimes you just want to watch two hot people play best friends who fall in love. It’s really not that complicated. Even though Plus One’s plot is predictable (two friends decide to be each other’s platonic dates throughout wedding season), it gives us exactly what we want in a sexy package filled with our favorite up and coming comedy stars. 

My Blind Brother (2016)

My Blind Brother tops the list of underrated romcoms because no one I ever meet has heard of this film, despite everyone being very familiar with all of its actors. Nick Kroll plays Bill, a man who spends most of his free time assisting his self-absorbed blind brother Robbie (Adam Scott) in various athletic feats. His aimless life is joyfully interrupted when he meets Rose (Jenny Slate), a fellow dark soul looking for purpose. 

This movie is my secret weapon. Every time I recommend this to a friend looking for a fun romantic movie to watch, I inevitably see them give me an unsure look as I describe the premise but then shrug and agree to watch as they hear who is in the cast. By the end of the film, they are swooning. Nick Kroll proves himself to be a remarkable modern-day love interest. His character falls into the category of “deadbeat dreamboats”: romantic leads who don’t really have their life together but are so incredibly charming you fall for them anyway. If guys who make you laugh are your ultimate downfall, this is the movie for you.