Movie guide: What to watch if you love (or hate) Valentine's Day (2024)

The season of love is almost upon us. And as most of us scurry to find the perfect presents for our special someone’s and loved ones, here’s a binge-worthy list of WIRED Middle East movie recommendations with picks for every kind of romantic this Valentine’s Day.

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

Starting the running with a 90s classic featuring a rom-com veteran, Julia Roberts, who plays Julianne Potter, a 27-year-old food critic who receives a mysterious voicemail from her best friend Michael O’Neal, played by Dermot Mulroney. Reminded of a promise the two friends made years ago to marry each other if they were single at 28, Jules picks up the phone and calls Michael. To her shock, Michael reveals he has met someone and is getting married in four days. And thus begins Jules’ psychotic pursuit to bring back “the man in her life” and break up his wedding in four days. Her relentless mission to split the happy couple is immediately stifled when she meets Kimberly Wallace, ‘Kimmy’, Michael’s fiancée, played by the angelic Cameron Diaz. Featuring an iconic rendition of Diana King’s “I Say a Little Prayer” by the cast, My Best Friend’s Wedding is a hilarious yet heartbreaking goose chase in the name of love.

Heartburn (1986)

In this adaptation of Nora Ephron’s best-selling autobiographical novel, Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson battle the trials and tribulations of love and marriage. The movie follows the union of two fiercely independent individuals who find love and make it work in the face of life’s many ebbs and flows. A tearjerker with an idyllic scene crafted around a midnight bowl of spaghetti carbonara.

Bones and All (2022)

Luca Guadagnino’s directorial craft never fails to surprise an audience. Bones and All follows a young Maren, played by Taylor Russell, who suppresses a specific craving for flesh until she encounters a fellow cannibal. Soon, the two become inseparable and carve out a discreet existence in society. A movie that lacks a happy ending and does not shy away from the gore but manages to capture the innocence of young love and attachment.

Past Lives (2023)

A nostalgic trip down memory lane. Nora and Hae Sung were childhood best friends torn apart by fate when Nora’s family moved from South Korea to America. Written and directed by Celine Song, this movie captures the many things we choose not to say in the moment but feel very intensely in the company we share them with. The silences shared between these two intertwined souls when they reunite twenty years later speak greater volumes than the most eloquent dialogues in the film.

Before Trilogy (1995–2013)

Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy masterfully portrays the evolution of love and its intricacies. A series of three movies that follow Jesse and Celine as they embark on an eighteen-year-long relationship together and apart. Depicting the different seasons and ages of love in all its vibrant technicolor and gloom, the Before Trilogy is deserving of an exclusive night with popcorn on the couch with a loved one.

500 Days of Summer (2009)

Speaking of seasons and the changes they personify, Tom Hansen’s tumultuous love affair with Summer Finn is a cinematic depiction of love as a teacher. Despite its conventional boy meets girl and they fall in love plot, it is Tom’s inner battle between his idea of Summer and who she truly is that guts the audience. A seemingly depressing take on the idea of “having loved and lost it, then never loved at all,” this movie serves as the unexpected gem in a sea of classic love stories.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)

An Emma Thompson-led movie is always sure to please, and this film does just that and plenty more. This movie follows its protagonist, Nancy Strokes, yearning for adventure at the ripe age of 55 when she hires a young sex worker named Leo Grande, played by charming Daryl McCormack. A witty introspection into desire and lust at an unconventional, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande attempts to destigmatize the idea of lust beyond one’s youthful days.

Fingernails (2023)

Can you imagine a world in which a bulky machine could accurately ascertain if you and your partner are in love? Christos Nikou pondered this apocalyptic reality and created Fingernails. A movie that examines the gradual crumbling of a healthy relationship between Anna (played by Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (played by Jeremy Allen White) despite receiving a perfect score on the “love test”. Minor cracks transform into noticeable fractures in the relationship when Anna begins working at the Love Institute and forges an intimate connection with her colleague, Amir (played by Riz Ahmed). With a soothing soundtrack that will ease you in and out of love, Fingernails presents the eerie possibility of a future so deeply dictated by the whims of technology.

Along Came Polly (2004)

A Ben Stiller classic co-starring Jennifer Aniston is about former classmates who embark on a chance relationship years later. Naturally, no good thing is everlasting, and Reuben Feffer’s (played by Ben Stiller) ex-wife reappears out of the blue after cheating on him on their honeymoon. Polly (played by Jennifer Aniston) and Reuben are worlds apart in nature and sentiment, yet their love flourished in the face of Reuben’s messy recent past.