So, there is this site that is really good at finding cool movies, and they put together a list of movies that actually get what it is to date today. Dating on the big screen has been happening for ages, right? But it’s come a long way since things moved forward. Now everyone meets through apps, it seems! So these movies show the comedies of bumping into someone in real life, but also the strangeness that can occur after you’re searching for love online. These ten films, whether it’s a quaint story about running into someone at the coffee shop or when both find each other on a screen, show how love keeps up with the times.
- You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Okay, this is a classic. It was directed by Nora Ephron (who was amazing) and features Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. They’re these two people who own competing bookstores, and they don’t know what they’re doing in addition to this is emailing each other anonymously and falling in love! It’s such an amazing movie. But once things get serious between them online, the real-life rivalry muddles things. It was so early in the internet age that email was quirky and new.
- Her (2013)
This movie is different from the rest. Spike Jonze wrote and directed it, and Joaquin Phoenix plays a man who’s somewhat lonely. He becomes infatuated with the operating system of his computer, played by Scarlett Johansson. It’s set in the future, so the parameters of love are changed. It makes you think about what love is going to be like in the future with AI that is actually intelligent and can talk back to you. It’s depressing, but it’s powerful, and it shows how these online relationships can be just as much of an actual relationship as others.
- Catfish (2010)
This is a documentary, and it’s insane. It’s about this photographer, Nev Schulman, who starts talking to a woman on Facebook. They have some sort of interaction. And then he starts to get some leads and finds out she’s not who she said she was. This film was popular enough at the time that it became a TV show. It made the word catfish become a term acceptable to use because of the risk of being misled by people online who present themselves as something they’re not.
- The Big Sick (2017)
It’s based on a true story, which is why it’s so great. It’s about comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon. Kumail plays himself, and it’s about when he and Emily first started dating, and then she got very sick. It’s a comedy, but it’s kind of also a drama, and it’s just so truthful. It’s a romance about thriving, even when everything becomes highly challenging and surpasses what you’d expect.
- Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age (2018)
This is on HBO, and it’s a documentary where this reporter, Nancy Jo Sales, explores dating apps. She speaks to people who use them, to experts, and to the people who made them. It talks about how swiping culture rewrote the rules of how people approach relationships and value. It’s not necessarily fun to watch, but it is actually worth knowing how dating apps change the way people date.
- Love, Simon (2018)
This is slightly of a feel-good movie. Simon is the protagonist, and he is a high school teenager, and he is gay but not out yet. He starts emailing another guy at school who is also closeted. It’s cute and sweet online romance that blossoms. It’s hilarious and warm and is an authentic movie about falling in love.
- Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Before dating apps, there was talk radio! Tom Hanks stars as a man who is grieving the death of his wife, so he discusses it on the radio one night, and Meg Ryan listens all the way from across the country. It is not online dating, per se, but it is about connection of some kind. And it is a reminder that love does not necessarily begin by meeting face to face.
- Dating Amber (2020)
This is a film made in Ireland during the 90s. It’s regarding these two teens, Eddie and Amber, who are keeping their true identities secret. They both fake a relationship to not get teased. They are well-suited for each other initially as a ruse to cover themselves, but it develops into a really genuine and sincere friendship. It’s more about identity and necessity of finding a person who relates to you.
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
This Netflix movie is based on a book. It’s about Lara Jean (Lana Condor), a teenager whose private love letters get sent out by accident. One of them leads her to a sort-of fake relationship with Peter (Noah Centineo). The problem is the lines get blurred between real and fake.
- The Tinder Swindler (2022)
This one’s a crazy documentary in which this guy is using Tinder to scam a lot of women out of money. It depicts how horrible dating apps are and how dishonestly people can behave and scam others. Folks feel that it’s a real warning to watch out while searching for love on the internet.
In essence, the films expose that relationships have changed in the era of the internet. There are tender moments and cringe moments, but they attest that everyone wants to fall in love and form real relationships, although how we do it has changed.
No matter if you like energetic comedies, sob-fests, or docs, these movies all contribute something positive about dating today. They all remind us that no matter how we get together, person, app, or screen—the outcome is still the same: we’re always looking for love.