Subgenre Sampler
Rental > Romance: 42 Films to Rent
- Yesterday (2019)
- Dir. Danny Boyle
Feat. Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon…
- Another smash hit from writer Richard Curtis which, like ABOUT TIME, works a fantasy element into his patented brand of well–scrubbed English…
- A Star is Born (2018)
- Feat. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott…
- Bradley Cooper debuts impressively as director while sparking the right chemistry in front of the camera with real–life pop…
- Book Club (2018)
- Dir. Bill Holderman
Feat. Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen…
- Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen play four life–long friends who read Fifty Shades of Grey as part of their…
- Breaker Upperers, The (2018)
- Dir. Madeleine Sami, Jackie Van Beek
Feat. Madeleine Sami, Jackie Van Beek, James Rolleston…
- Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek write, direct and star in this frisky and flat–out hilarious Kiwi comedy as heart–burned pals who form…
- Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
- Dir. Jon Chu
Feat. Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh
- Highly effective hi–gloss American rom–com featuring an all Asian cast that follows a young native New Yorker and her longtime boyfriend…
- Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The (2018)
- Dir. Mike Newell
Feat. Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Glenn Powell
- Warm and picturesque romantic comedy from the director of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. Set in 1946, the charismatic and free–spirited writer…
- Love, Simon (2018)
- Dir. Greg Berlanti
Feat. Nick Robinson, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner
- A high school love story taking the best of the genre cliches (yes, John Hughes) and translating them into a gay context – an unprecedented…
- Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Mamma Mia 2) (2018)
- Dir. Ol Parker
Feat. Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Christine Baranski…
- Everything you adored (or despised) about the first movie is here in spades in this sequel to the impossibly rowdy all–singing,…
- Big Sick, The (2017)
- Dir. Michael Showalter
Feat. Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter…
- Pakistan–born comedian Kumail Nanjiani (SILICON VALLEY) and Zoe Kazan find the right chemistry in this winning culture clash rom–com that…
- Fireworks (Fireworks: Should We See It from the Side or The Bottom?) (2017)
- Dir. Nobuyuki Takeuchi
- Beautifully romantic Japanese anime set during a school summer vacation, based on Shunji Iwai’s 1993 TV series, “Fireworks”. Refreshingly…
- Phantom Thread (2017)
- Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Feat. Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
- Deliciously gothic period drama by acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in 1950's London, a charismatic and obsessive couturier meets a…
- Shape of Water, The (2017)
- Dir. Guillermo Del Toro
Feat. Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins…
- At a top secret research facility in the 1950s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in…
- Their Finest (2017)
- Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy…
- Charming, rousing WWII romance starring Gemma Arterton as a greenhorn screenwriter who joins a makeshift cast and crew to make a film to lift British…
- Allied (2016)
- Dir. Robert Zemeckis
Feat. Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Caplan…
- Old–fashioned wartime romance between an intelligence officer and a French resistance fighter in 1942, which develops into a satisfying…
- Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)
- Dir. Sharon Maguire
Feat. Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey…
- A belated and rather witty third screen outing for Helen Fielding's comic heroine, with Renee Zellweger returning as the beleaguered Bridget, now 43,…
- La La Land (2016)
- Dir. Damien Chazelle
Feat. Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Rosemarie DeWitt…
- The wunderkind director of WHIPLASH fashions another bold, contemporary love letter to the Jazz age, this time as a widescreen, technicolor romantic…
- Light Between Oceans, The (2016)
- Dir. Derek Cianfrance
Feat. Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz…
- An elegant sweeping melodrama set in post–WWI Western Australia about a lighthouse keeper and his wife who raise a baby they rescue from an…
- Passengers (2016)
- Dir. Morten Tyldum
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Laurence Fishburne…
- Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt play passengers on board a spacecraft destined for a distant planet, who are awakened from their sleeping pods 90…
- Paterson (2016)
- Dir. Jim Jarmusch
Feat. Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani
- A profound ode to small–town life and the beauty found within everyday simplicity, director Jim Jarmusch here creates a masterful, carefully…
- 5 Flights Up (Five Flights Up) (2015)
- Dir. Richard Loncraine
Feat. Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman, Cynthia Nixon…
- Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton headline this amiable drama as a long–married couple endure a hectic weekend as they ponder the sale of the…
- Maleficent (2014)
- Dir. Robert Stromberg
Feat. Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley…
- Angelina Jolie plays Sleeping Beauty's iconic villain in this visually striking update of the Disney animated classic.
- About Time (2013)
- Dir. Richard Curtis
Feat. Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy…
- Writer–director Richard Curtis infuses time travel into his romantic comedy formula in which a lovelorn man's ability to relive the past…
- Don Jon (2013)
- Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Feat. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore…
- Joseph Gordon–Levitt wrote, directs and stars in this distinctly masculine rom–com as a New Jersey 'player' who must confront his nagging…
- Enough Said (2013)
- Dir. Nicole Holofcener
Feat. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener…
- Writer/director Nicole Holofcener moves into the first division with her fifth feature film, a savvy divorcee rom–com in perfect accord with…
- Her (2013)
- Dir. Spike Jonze
Feat. Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara…
- Joaquin Phoenix plays a lonely divorcee who finds himself falling in love with 'Samantha', the artificial intelligence behind a new computer…
- Mood Indigo (2013)
- Dir. Michel Gondry
Feat. Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh…
- Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris star in this wild interpretation of Boris Vian’s cult novel 'Froth on the Daydream' from dir. Michel Gondry.
- Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
- Dir. Jim Jarmusch
Feat. Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin…
- Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are sublimely cast as sophisticated vampire lovers who reunite after centuries in this stylish and imaginative new…
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
- Dir. David O. Russell
Feat. Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro…
- An institutionalized man attempts to readjust to life and love in this full–bodied comedy–drama that pairs two of the hottest stars of…
- Another Earth (2011)
- Dir. Mike Cahill
Feat. Brit Marling, William Mapother
- The appearance of a parallel Earth hidden behind the Sun poses deep personal and philosophical questions for a troubled student in this superlative…
- An Education (2009)
- Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina…
- An assured and alluring coming–of–age drama set in swinging sixties London (1961 in fact), with teenage ingenue Carey Mulligan falling in…
- Love Actually (2003)
- Dir. Richard Curtis
Feat. Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson…
- Golden–boy comedy writer Richard Curtis assumes directing duties for the first time but mislays the Midas touch he gained from penning “Four…
- Tom and Viv (1994)
- Dir. Brian Gilbert
Feat. Willem Dafoe, Miranda Richardson
- A moving exploration of the intense yet painful relationship between Nobel prize–winning poet T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe) and his lovably…
- Top Gun (1986)
- Dir. Tony Scott
Feat. Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer…
- Star–making film for Cruise, who goes through all the right motions to get millions of bums on seats. The routine plot is overcome by the…
- Two Worlds of Jennie Logan, The (1979)
- Dir. Frank De Felitta
Feat. Lindsay Wagner, Marc Singer, Linda Gray…
- An enchanting made–for–television drama starring Lindsay Wagner as Jennie Logan, a woman finds an antique dress in her attic that…
- Model Shop (1969)
- Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Anouk Aimee, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay
- A mesmerizing, shamefully neglected stateside film from French New Wave director Jacques Demy that follows an aimless, unemployed architect who ends…
- Rapture (1965)
- Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Gozzi, Dean Stockwell…
- Drama based on the 1954 novel "Rapture in My Rags" about a lonely teenage girl living with her widower father, who develops an attraction to an…
- Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) (1953)
- Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa
Feat. Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata
- Tragic story of unrequited love set during the Heiji Rebellion in 1159, where a samurai warrior falls in love with a married…
- Quiet Man, The (1952)
- Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara
- Ex–boxer John Wayne retires to his Irish homeland in search of tranquillity and maybe the hand of Maureen O'Hara. This romantic comedy was a…
- Casablanca (1942)
- Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman
- The role that immortalised Bogart is that of Rick, the laconic cafe–owner who assists old flame Ingrid Bergman to escape the Nazis with her…
- Gone with the Wind (1939)
- Dir. Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
Feat. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland…
- One of the greatest examples of story–telling on film, this maintains one's firm interest for nearly four hours with its romantic story, strong…
- Jour Se Leve, Le (Daybreak) (1939)
- Dir. Marcel Carne
Feat. Jean Gabin, Arletty
- A renowned example of 'poetic realism', Jean Gabin gives another consummate performance as a doomed anti–hero. His tragic story is told in…
- Variety (1925)
- Dir. E.A. Dupont
Feat. Emil Jannings, Lya de Putti
- A cautionary fable of romantic treachery set in the since–vanished vaudeville world, lent depth through its sophisticated visual style. Emil…