10 best friends-to-lovers movies, ranked
Dating your friends can get messy. Messy is good for the plot! Turn your life into one of these movies by proposing to your bestie out of the blue! What could possibly go wrong? In these 10 best friends-to-lovers flicks, things always work out for the best. Art imitates life, right?
10. Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist (2008)
Is your bestie into indie music? Sit ’em down in front of Peter Sollett’s Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist! Nick is a sadboi bassist, and Nora is a lovable music snob. A match made in heaven! The pair team up one night in the Big Apple to track down a secret show played by a mutual favorite band. As they get closer and closer to the venue, the fires of love begin to grow. If you’re the kind of person who likes to get hot and heavy to Strokes records (because someone has to) this flick is for you.
9. One Day (2011)
Lone Scherfig’s One Day is the slowest of slow burns, taking place over literal decades. Besties Emma and Dexter have a tradition. Once a year, they meet up on the anniversary of their college graduation. No matter where they are in the world, they make it back to each other. Because that’s totally what just-friends do, yeah? As the years pass, the pair’s platonic relationship begins to blossom into something romantic. Their classmates could have told you it was going to happen, but they’re taken by slow surprise.
8. Brown Sugar (2002)
Rick Famuyiwa’s Brown Sugar follows two friends-to-eventual-lovers whose mutual love of hip hop bonded them together as children. As Sidney and Dre each pursue their music careers, they can’t help but shake the feeling that their romantic partners aren’t who they’re supposed to end up with. As it turns out, the pair always made the sweetest music with one another. They’re just going to spend an hour and change of screen time figuring that out for themselves.
7. Always Be My Maybe (2019)
Is your childhood bestie super successful while you’re just … you? Nahnatchka Khan and Ali Wong’s Always Be My Maybe might be the perfect film to prove to your I-wish-it-could-be friend that it indeed can be. Sasha and Marcus reconnect after years have passed. Sasha is a chef for celebs, and Marcus lives modestly. Despite their now differing circumstances, the two bond over the good old days and decide that the best old days may still be to come if they spend them together. They always had feelings for one another, but now’s the time that they actually do something about it.
6. But I’m A Cheerleader (1999)
Jamie Babbit’s But I’m A Cheerleader may take place at a faith-based conversion therapy camp, but I swear it’s a comedy. After her parents suspect high school cheerleader Megan of being queer, they send her away to a camp to be converted back to the ways of heterosexuals. The joke’s on Mom and Dad, though, because while Megan is at camp she makes friends with a group of gay teens, including Graham, which soon blossoms into a full-on romance. Yes, Harold. They’re lesbians.
5. A Walk To Remember (2002)
You’ve read your instruments correctly, we’ve now passed the Nicholas Sparks Point of No Return. It’s an anomaly that, like a black hole, inevitably pulls rom-com discussions toward the author’s oeuvre. Adam Shankman’s adaption of Sparks’ novel is about a high school rebel without a cause, Jaime, and a shy preacher’s daughter, Laura. Circumstances throw the two together as friends, bond them into lovers, and then in classic Nicholas Sparks fashion, tear everything apart. A literal black hole would be kinder on the heart.
4. Holding The Man (2015)
Neil Armfield’s Holding The Man is based on the real-life memoir of Timothy Conigrave, detailing his gorgeous, devastating 15-year romance with a classmate he met at his all-boys private school in the ’70s. As you well know, the ’70s was a less-than-stellar time for gay people. It was then followed by the ’80s when things got really bad. If you thought Nicky Sparks flicks hurt, this movie will pump your heart full of love and then tear it from your chest. You’ll weep, then want to watch all over again.
3. Rafiki (2018)
Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki revolves around two gay women in Kenya whose fathers are on opposite sides of the political system. In a “Juliet x Other Juliet” whirlwind romance, the star-crossed pair decide to take their friendship to the next level. The problem? Kenya is not a country that is particularly tolerant of gay people, and the pair will have to navigate their technically “illegal” relationship. Warning, this film is not always an easy watch due to scenes of intolerance and persecution, but despite all the societal ugliness, Rafiki resolves into something truly beautiful. Love conquers all, after all.
2. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook is a testament to the fact that love is no delicate flower, but an unkillable weed capable of thriving in the harshest of emotional circumstances. David O. Russell’s film centers around Pat and Tiffany, one of whom struggles with bipolar disorder, and the other is reeling from the death of their husband. Despite their harrowing mental health struggles, the two bond together over a shared appreciation for the “silver linings” that gild even the darkest of tragedies. The biggest silver lining of all? Their problems lead them to each other.
1. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally is a bonafide classic that attempts to solve the question of whether or not men and women can be just friends. While plenty of men and women can, that isn’t the case for Harry and Sally. After their post-college meeting, the pair embark on a years-long friendship that soon blossoms into something more. After all, how could you not fall in love with your bestie while watching them fake an orgasm at a crowded diner? Such is the stuff of which true love is made. I think.
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