Movies to Watch for ANY Valentine’s Mood

This article was originally written for Sainte Magazine.

I love love, but I know that Valentine's Day can elicit a flurry of emotions: you hate it, you love it, you don't really care. Well, no matter how it makes you feel, you're not alone. Here are some movies to watch for any Valentine's mood.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005)

When you will not even consider marriage without affection

It only seemed right to begin this series with a look at a film that is not only a beloved adaptation but one that succeeds at openly and honestly observing many different kinds of love.
When Pride & Prejudice (2005, dir. Joe Wright) was released on DVD, I rented it from Blockbuster’s DVD mailing service and watched it every single day for an entire summer. An avid bookworm and a hopeless romantic, I was already familiar with the story. But something about this adaptation caused me to fixate -- and I still do to this day. I was obsessed with it visually as much as I was invested emotionally. The color palette, the lighting, the cast, the music (my god, the music). Everything felt so perfect, so unlike anything else I'd experienced.

What hit home the most for me, however, was the succinct and poignant way we witness the different loves of Elizabeth Bennet’s life -- her parents, her sisters, her best friend, herself -- in addition to the central storyline of her falling for Mr. Darcy and vice versa. I think that’s why it’s so enduring. Strip away the Regency costumes, decorum, and setting, and you are left with a story that has proven itself to be timeless, one that chronicles mistakes, forgiveness, and kindness as the hallmarks of true love.

MIDSOMMAR (2019)

When you just need a little self-care

Midsommar (2019, dir. Ari Aster) took me by surprise -- I didn’t like it. I watched this story, heavy with themes of trauma, grief, rejection and betrayal, at a time when I should have been watching... anything else. As excited as I was to see it, I wanted it to end by the end of the first thirty minutes.
But once that ending arrived, it stuck with me. I still find myself thinking about it more often than most movies I’ve spent years loving. In truth, despite my personal experience with it, it is a beautiful film with instances of brutal truth-telling about the inherited trauma of womanhood, the power of tradition and the proof of love.

There are definitely moments in Midsommar that made me squirm (and even more that I straight up had to look away from). If Aster's feature film debut, Hereditary (2018) made you queasy, Midsommar will do the same, tenfold. But the gruesome, long journey to the climax of the film results in something unexpected, something almost sinister in how satisfying it feels.

Midsommar hits so hard because there are not many stories made like this. So, when you're feeling a little less than, find your catharsis here.

BLUE JAY (2016)

When you can’t escape the past

Love is painful and Blue Jay (2016, dir. Alex Lehmann) knows it. I had no knowledge of this movie before it showed up on Netflix, and it ended up being one of my favorites of 2016. It’s one that I find myself wanting to rewatch often -- but I never actually do it because I’m not sure if I can handle falling back into the way it made me feel again. And what an accomplishment that is.

It’s human nature to gild over the past, even things that were incredibly painful. Nostalgia is a trap and Blue Jay really makes us go through it to remind us of that fact. The two leads, and really the only characters, Mark Duplass (who also wrote the screenplay) and Sarah Paulson were already two actors that I’d been enamored with, but their completely heart-wrenching and genuine performances in this film lifted them to another level for me. And as difficult as it was to watch -- as much as it forced me to confront my own heart, mind and memories -- it’s also a deeply funny, charming and intensely important, necessary even, film.

LAURA (1944)

When you’re just a little murderous

Based on Vera Caspary’s 1943 novel of the same name, Laura (1944, dir. Otto Preminger) centers around the murder of Laura Hunt, the NYPD detective trying to solve the case and the “remarkable collection of dopes” the deceased seemed to surround herself with in life. As the details unravel, we, alongside Detective Mark McPherson, find ourselves admiring Laura, falling in love with her… even wishing she were still alive.

There is something about this film that makes it so god damn special to me. I’ve tried several times to pinpoint what I love most about this movie, but I always end up getting lost in every single different aspect of it. Do I love the brutal murder of the title character? Maybe. Is it the impeccable one-liners of Waldo Lydecker, played to perfection by Clifton Webb? Perhaps. Is it Gene Tierney’s radiant, haunting beauty? Could be. Maybe it’s Vincent Price’s mustacheless Southern drawl, or Dana Andrews’ puppy dog-eyed, no-nonsense New York City detective? There is too much that is good about it to attribute its decades-long success to any one thing. From the tiniest moments that linger in the mind a little too long (like the delivery of the line, “Get some sleep. Forget the whole thing like a bad dream.”), to the impossible to ignore (David Raksin’s incredible score).

PROSPECT (2018)

When you’re just trying to survive

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Prospect (2018, dir. Christopher Caldwell, Zeek Earl) has absolutely no romance in it, which makes it, in a weird way, a really kind of perfect Valentine’s Day movie for many folks (myself included). Like Midsommar, after watching it once, I’d find myself thinking about it more and more, recommending it to friends to see what they thought of it and reading reviews and discussions from strangers online. Though it received great scores from critics and audiences alike, most people I've talked to haven’t seen it. And that’s a shame, because it is a sci-fi film that manages to be subtle, beautiful in fact, in a way that most films of the genre don’t come close to.

Without giving too much away, the story follows a teenage girl, Cee (the truly impressive Sophie Thatcher) and her dad, Damon (played by Jay Duplass), as they land on a forested moon called The Green to extract gems from within the ground. When they run into two other prospectors, the story shifts into one of survival. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, the film doesn’t explain why things are the way they are, what year it is, or anything like that. The story just is, and although it was, admittedly, a little confusing at first, it’s a rather easy adjustment. Prospect’s world-building is one of its strongest features, but its real strength lies within the two who become our main characters: the aforementioned Cee and Ezra (Pedro Pascal), one of the two other prospectors. Where Sophie Thatcher plays Cee with quiet reserve (and truthfully one of the most true-to-life teenage characters I’ve ever seen), Pedro Pascal plays Ezra with equal amounts of wicked charm and world-weary insightfulness. Ezra’s dialogue alone is a testament to the uniqueness of the film. Spoken with a southern drawl that would make Benoit Blanc blush, lines like, “You are lucky I am not immune to intrigue, but be careful you don’t overplay this technique,” make him captivating, almost mesmerizing, despite some of his more questionable choices when we are first introduced to him.

At no point in this film was I able to anticipate what was coming next. It is the sense of urgency, the desire to live, the giving of yourself for someone else that makes this film worthy of Valentine's Day. It may not be romantic, but who Cee and Ezra are separately, and what they accomplish together and bring out in one another, qualifies Prospect as a cinematic treasure.

PLUS ONE (2019)

When you no-chance-no-way, won’t say you’re in love

I love the romantic comedy genre, but I don’t like a lot of romantic comedy movies -- too formulaic, too cliche, too hetero, too boring. I love love too much to be satisfied with the same old recycled story. Plus One (2019, dir. Jeff Chan, Andrew Rhymer) ended up being a truly pleasant surprise. I was so charmed by it, in fact, that I wanted to rewatch it as soon as it ended. It’s not particularly revolutionary, admittedly. Like most movies, it could have been gayer. But a lot of movies tend to fall back on extreme measures when trying to avoid clichés, and, honestly, that’s often the last thing that should happen. Character-driven stories, like romcoms so frequently are, just need good, believable characters played by good, believable actors. Plus One really nailed it with its two leads: Jack Quaid and Maya Erskine. They are both charming, hilarious, frustrating and beautiful. This movie made me happy and sometimes that’s all you need.