It’s that time of the year again when almost every store has a big display for Valentine’s Day. The list of items in red and pink or things covered in X’s and O’s is never-ending. While some people find it repetitive and annoying, I personally enjoy to cheesiness of it all.
The heart-shaped candies and giant bouquets of roses never get old and when I see people shopping for their loved ones I can’t help but crack a smile. Sometimes you celebrate with family, some with friends, some with lovers and/or situationships and some alone. No matter your situation, here are five films that never fail to make me laugh, cry and raise my standards higher every time I watch them.
- Just Wright
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“Just Wright” is a 2010 film starring Queen Latifah and Common, as Leslie Wright and Scott Mcknight. The film follows Leslie Wright, a sister, physical therapist, and die-hard basketball fan as she attempts to balance her love life and her work life. While hoping to experience something new, she is still true to herself. She and her sister Morgan go to a basketball game and coincidentally while getting gas Leslie runs into star player, Scott Mcknight.
Leslie, left in a very difficult situation, follows her heart and chooses to stay and help a currently injured Scott heal properly or risk his professional career ending permanently. Her passion and love for the game catch Scott’s eye and soon sparks fly between the two of them.
The only problem is that as much as Leslie likes him, she is not the only one, her sister Morgan wants to be a part of his life as well. How long until Leslie finds someone who she can be herself around and will Scott settle for perfect, or will he shoot for “just wright”?
- My Big Fat GREEK WEDDING
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“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a 2002 film starring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett, as Toula Portokalos and Ian Miller. Toula is a 30-something, unmarried, restaurant host. One day a spark goes off, seemingly out of the blue, and Toula decides to reinvent herself. She changes her style, her career path and most importantly, her attitude.
She starts college, something she always wanted to do, gets a job at her aunt’s travel agency and catches the eye of Ian Miller. One thing you need to know about Toula is that her family is as important to her as they are in her personal life, and they are very involved, so she has almost no type of privacy. Another thing to know is that she is Greek. Ian Miller’s family is not as heavily involved, and he is not Greek.
This causes chaos amongst the Portokalos and is a problem for Toula and Ian. This heartfelt, funny and frankly tear-jerking movie, does not miss a beat. An experience that will teach you the importance of family, balancing love and work life and how wonderful the journey of discovering who you truly are is.
- Red, White & Royal Blue
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“Red, White & Royal Blue” is a 2023 film starring Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine as Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry. Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry hate each other, and as far as they know, want nothing to do with one another. Alex is an outspoken, fun-loving college student and Henry is an uptight, book-reading introvert so they don’t exactly mix well.
An event takes place that leads both of them plastered on the covers of magazines everywhere. The two attempt to clean up the public images of Alex and his mother (the president of the United States) and Henry and his family (who are next in line to inherit Wales’ royal crown) with a couple of publicity stunts.
They begin to see sides of each other they’ve never seen before and a platonic friendship blossoms out of their mutual bonding. Soon, something else ignites a fire stronger than friendship and Alex and Henry wonder if what they feel for each other is real—and if so, would their public images suffer permanently if they were to act on said feelings?
- Love Hard
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“Love Hard” is a 2021 film starring Jimmy O. Yang and Nina Dobrev as Josh Lin and Natalie Bauer. Natalie is looking for love in California and over in New York, Josh is as well. They both decide to download the dating app Tinder and begin the search for their dream partner. Natalie is a blogger whose main topic is her horrible first dates and Josh works at his dad’s store. They match and start their casual texting and talking phase. Natalie, wrapped up in the Christmas spirit and with some encouragement from her friend, decides to book a flight to New York to surprise Josh with one last gift: Herself.
When she meets Josh, she realizes he isn’t entirely truthful and catfishes her. They make a deal: He can tell his family, (who are always asking when he’s going to start dating) that she is his girlfriend, in exchange for him helping her get with the guy whose photo he used to catfish her in the first place. This movie is a roller coaster of emotions. One second, you’re laughing and in the next, you’re in awe. The characters are incredibly charming and though they all have their flaws, by the end of the film they’re impossible to hate. Sometimes when people fall in love, they fall harder than expected.
Love Hard, 2021 - Falling INN LOVE
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“Falling Inn Love” is a 2019 film starring Christina Milian and Adam Demos as Gabriela Diaz and Jake Taylor. Gabriela is a big city girl who is an overworked and under-appreciated architect. She wants a lot of things out of life, but she’s having a hard time getting them. After one of the most difficult weeks of her life, in which she broke up with her longtime boyfriend, got laid off and was struggling to find a new job, she decided to relax with ice cream and a bottle of wine.
At some point during that night, she received an email offering the chance to win an inn. All she had to do was write an essay on why she deserved it, and it would be hers. So, she does, and even ends up winning! Soon she realizes that the inn is across the world, but she doesn’t let that stop or slow her at all. She packs her life, says goodbye to her loved ones and makes her big move.
After arriving and seeing the inn, she knows that there’s no way she can fix it up on her own. Jake Taylor is a small-town boy and an easy-going contractor. Jake and Gabriella don’t meet under the best circumstances and because of this, she is weary of him helping her, but it is a small town, and he is literally the only man for the job. The chemistry between the cast is undeniable. They all bounce so well off of each other and leave the audience wanting more. There is truly never a dull moment, and it poses the question, can opposites really fall “inn” love?
Each one of these films has altered my brain chemistry and offered different answers to the question, “What is love?” I hope your Valentine’s Day is as sweet and wholesome as these movies are.