The 65 Best Rom-Coms of All Time, Ranked

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A jock bets his friends that he can turn any girl into the prom queen and they choose the ultimate challenge: Rachel Leigh Cook with glasses and paint on her clothes. Problematic teen comedy tropes aside, it's a quintessentially '90s rom-com.

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A girl gets set up with the heir to a multi-million dollar company and falls in love with him only to discover that he's not at all who everyone thought he was. This iconic Bollywood rom-com is considered a classic for a reason, complete with dreamy, longing gazes and killer dance sequences.

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Everyone's got a type, but it never hurts to step outside of your comfort zone and find Something New. Sanaa Lathan plays an accomplished but uptight accountant who hasn't had much luck in love despite desperately wanting to meet someone. A blind date with a guy nothing like her ideal man opens up her mind (and her heart), reminding us that love sometimes comes in the form you least expect it.

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Two men hire a sweet-talking Casanova named Ray to temporarily court their no-nonsense sister-in-law, but things go awry when Ray also wins over the hearts of their lady loves. Deliver Us From Eva hits all the necessary points of a good rom-com: a contract relationship, insane chemistry, and a kidnapping plot.

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Those who can, date. Those who can't, hire an escort to pose as their boyfriend at their sister's wedding. Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney sizzle onscreen in this 2005 romantic comedy, so much so that people are *still* shipping them IRL.

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Love, Simon has been praised for its long-overdue Hollywood storyline about a gay teenage romance starring Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, and your faves Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner. While dealing with a blackmailer who has threatened to "out" Simon to the entire school, the teen is also attempting to balance home life and the classmate he fell in love with online. You know, the usual!

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Number one on the very short list of good things to come out of 2018: To All the Boys I've Loved Before, the rom-com starring Lana Condor and my boyfriend Noah Centineo. We broke down why it's so damn good here.

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It may be a new release, but Always Be My Maybe is so good that you're definitely going to want to watch it as many times as humanly possible. The Netflix production stars comedians Ali Wong and Randall Park as childhood sweethearts who reconnect after 15 long years. Heartthrob Daniel Dae Kim makes an appearance, as does Keanu Reeves—pretty much playing himself.

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Rom-coms are all ultimately about fate bringing two perfect-for-each-other people together, and Serendipity takes that idea and runs with it. The movie stars Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack as strangers who share a perfect, romantic night together in New York City and then, instead of exchanging contact information, put their phone numbers on random objects and send them out into the universe, trusting fate to bring them back together if it's truly meant to be.

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Boy likes popular girl. Boy's tomboy best friend helps him land popular girl. Popular girl's ex makes plans to pummel boy. Tomboy BFF realizes she's been secretly in love with boy the entire time. DRAMA.

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This film nails a lot of things simultaneously: It's a funny rom-com, an adorable, sweet, sensitive love story between two women, and a painfully relatable story about complicated family dynamics and how we present ourselves to the world. And it's a perfect holiday movie?? It's got everything!

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It's just the classic love story of an older playboy falling for the mother of his young girlfriend. Not convinced? It features a young, always charming Keanu Reeves—not as the romantic lead.

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Queen Latifah plays a down on her luck physical therapist who finds herself in the employ of a hotshot basketball player (played by Common) after he suffers from a career-threatening injury. The chemistry in this one is something—prepare to swoon.

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If you love You've Got Mail, you'll love The Shop Around the Corner, which is the movie the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan classic is based on (but, you know, pre-AOL).

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Bill Hader should be the leading man in everything. Forever. And Amy Schumer's immense writing and acting skills are on full display. This movie is a perfect storm of a great script, great casting, and great chemistry.

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In this 2002 Black culture staple, Vivica A. Fox plays Shante, a woman with all the answers when it comes to dating who finds herself off of her game when she meets a lawyer named Keith (Morris Chestnut at his finest). The two fight it out in the battle of wills to see who can come on top. Let the games begin.

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If you like witty banter and dialogue so fast it would make the Gilmore Girls tongue-tied, then His Girl Friday is the rom-com classic for you.

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Before it was a hit Broadway musical, Waitress was a charming indie rom-com. Both tell the story of a small town waitress who begins an affair with her OBGYN after she accidentally becomes pregnant by her no-good husband.

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This 1934 classic rom-com from acclaimed director Frank Capra focuses on a spoiled heiress named Ellie who marries a scheming man. Her dad then does the only logical thing and kidnaps her away on his yacht. Ellie, being the free spirit she is, jumps ship and meets up with a hardened newspaper reporter played Clark Gable, who sets off to help her link back up with her husband, but ends up catching feelings.

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Featuring gorgeous performances by Elliot Page and Michael Cera, Juno features an unplanned pregnancy between high school besties, the journey towards adoption, and the cutest (unconventional) on-screen romance since...ever?

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All of the millennial angst of meeting someone who you believe to be the one, followed by disillusionment and despair, is captured in this excellent *non-romance* starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Bookmark this to watch alone, and experience all the feels.

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In The Seven Year Itch, about a man who considers cheating on his wife with his gorgeous, model neighbor, Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell show that infidelity (or at least the idea of it) can be more hilarious than you'd imagine.

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An '80s boy-meets-girl classic, from the famous Peter Gabriel boombox scene to the teenage coming-of-age love story. You'll never look at trench coats and sneakers the same way.

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The gift that keeps on giving. Love Actually is a go-to comedy during the holiday season, and everyone has their favorite plot line from the many diverging love stories that take place.

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Let's all take a moment to acknowledge Knocked Up is more than a decade old. (Ugh, now we feel old.) Never forget Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen who play, respectively, a rising journalist and an irresponsible slacker who have a one-night stand and, well, you get it...

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It's about mental illness, and it also manages to be sweet and incredibly funny. It doesn't hurt that the two leads, played by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, are giving some of their best work (Lawrence won an Oscar for the role). Come for the snappy banter, stay to watch two people who are imperfectly perfect for each other fall in love.

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The longest-running Hindi film ever literally rewrote the rom-com, as a modernized Romeo-and-Juliet tale with a celebration of Indian culture and an exploration of important issues like liberalization. All that, plus catchy songs and gorgeous dancing in perfect Bollywood fashion. Marie Claire's Neha Prakash did an oral history of the iconic movie.

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Who knew Seth Rogen would be the ideal rom-com lead? This seemingly odd couple pairing between him and Charlize Theron makes perfect sense once you get the two of them in a room for five minutes. Pair it with sharp, literally laugh out dialogue and this becomes an underrated gem.

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Palm Springs is both a perfect analogy for the pandemic and one of the best modern-day rom-coms. Two guests at a wedding (Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti) have to relive the same day over and over again, in true Groundhog Day style. If you've ever had to go to multiple weddings in the same year, it's even more relatable.

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If you need a reminder of how great of an actress Amanda Seyfried is, watch Mamma Mia!, then bask in the glory of Meryl Streep who plays her mother in the film. The premise: Sophie (Seyfried) goes on a quest to find her birthfather to walk her down the aisle and decides to invite all of the potential suitors (read: her mother's exes) without telling her. The Greek setting will make you want to book a vacation ASAP...and the soundtrack will make you want to download several ABBA albums.