The Best Movies to Watch on Valentine’s Day Inline

  • intimacy
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    Photo: Everett Collection
    1/22

    Intimacy

    For the majority of Intimacy, the lead characters, Jay and Claire, are fundamentally unhappy. The film s perspective on love can be bleak, but during the moments when Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox are together, their interactions and passion for one another is real. When Chéreau explores love he does so without flinching from its dark side, and his portrait of two people desperate for connection and understanding is as beautiful as any love story I ve seen.

    —Janelle Okwodu, Fashion News Writer

  • dirty dancing
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    Photo: Alamy
    2/22

    Dirty Dancing

    If I’m being completely honest, my movie is probably Dirty Dancing. My uncles were responsible for the opening titles, so my parents let us watch it when it first came out on video. It was the late ’80s, I was 4 or 5 years old, and that slow-motion, black-and-white sequence of couples slithering around to the Ronettes was hands down the most titillating thing I could imagine. Then of course you had prime Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. For an arrhythmic Jewish girl from the midwest, it did not get better. To this day when I hear that opening beat to “Be My Baby”—Bum. Bum-Bum. Ch!—I get a weird little heart twist.

    —Julia Felsenthal, Senior Culture Writer

  • reality bites
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    Photo: Alamy
    3/22

    Reality Bites

    So I know Reality Bites is no Love Actually, but the tortured, rocky romance between Troy (’90s dream Ethan Hawke) and Lelaina (’90s queen Winona Ryder) slays me every time.

    —Michelle Ruiz, Vogue.com Contributor

  • Image may contain Human Person Face Hug and Dating
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    Photo: Courtesy of © 20th Century Fox
    4/22

    Wild River

    What more do you want from a love story? Lee Remick. Montgomery Clift. The Tennessee Valley Authority! It s heaven on a riverbed.

    —Chloe Malle, Vogue Social Editor

  • Image may contain Clothing Apparel Human Person Dress Abbie Cornish Ben Whishaw Female Coat and Overcoat
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    Photo: Courtesy of © Apparition
    5/22

    Bright Star

    Jane Campion’s film is loosely based on the true love story of the poet John Keats and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne. Heartbreaking, dreamy, and so beautifully shot!

    —Catherine Piercy, Vogue.com Beauty Director