The 26 Best Romantic Comedy Movies on MUBI (July 2026)

1

Shall We Dance? (1996)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 90% Letterboxd 4.0 2h 16m

Directed by Masayuki Suō

✦ MovieMuse AI takeThe secret-lesson setup transforms longing into comedic irony—his dance-floor incompetence becomes the perfect meet-cute device.

A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

2

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 99% Letterboxd 4.1 2h 1m

Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

✦ MovieMuse AI takeThree-act structure methodically deconstructs romantic comedy tropes: the triangle, the trap, the serendipity—each subverting genre expectations.

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

3

Fallen Leaves (2023)

IMDb 7.3 🍅 97% Letterboxd 3.8 1h 21m

Directed by Aki Kaurismäki

✦ MovieMuse AI takeKaraoke-bar setting grounds modern alienation in absurdist humor; two misfits find connection through shared awkwardness, not despite it.

In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.

4

Gregory's Girl (1981)

IMDb 7.1 Letterboxd 3.7 1h 31m

Directed by Bill Forsyth

✦ MovieMuse AI takeTeenage earnestness collides with soccer-field reality; the rom-com's greatest asset is its protagonist's genuine, clumsy vulnerability.

A teenager falls hard for the female soccer player who has replaced him on the team and attempts to pursue her.

5

Bull Durham (1988)

IMDb 7.0 🍅 97% Letterboxd 3.5 1h 48m

Directed by Ron Shelton

✦ MovieMuse AI takeSports-world banter replaces emotional exposure; Crash's grizzled mentorship masks romantic vulnerability beneath working-class masculine performance.

Veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought to the minor league Durham Bulls to help their up and coming pitching prospect, "Nuke" Laloosh. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start and is further complicated when baseball groupie Annie Savoy sets her sights on the two men.

6

Paris, 13th District (2021)

IMDb 7.0 🍅 83% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 46m

Directed by Jacques Audiard

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFluid sexuality and non-linear narrative structure challenge romantic comedy's traditional couple pairing, embracing ambiguous polyamorous possibility instead.

Émilie meets Camille who is attracted to Nora, who crosses paths with Amber. Three girls and a boy – They're friends, sometimes lovers and often both.

7

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person poster

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

IMDb 7.0 🍅 90% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 31m

Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize

✦ MovieMuse AI takeVampire inversion of romantic-comedy stakes—she needs love to survive, not flourish—flips genre logic into darkly comic desperation.

Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she's too sensitive to kill. When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha's life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul's last wishes before day breaks.

8

A Date for Mad Mary (2016)

IMDb 7.0 🍅 94% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 22m

Directed by Darren Thornton

✦ MovieMuse AI takePrison-return setup weaponizes social shame; female friendship becomes the emotional core, romance secondary to self-reclamation narrative.

"Mad" Mary McArdle returns to Drogheda after a short spell in prison for something she'd rather forget. Back home, everything and everyone has changed. Her best friend, Charlene, is about to get married and Mary is maid of honor. When Charlene refuses Mary a 'plus one' on the grounds that she probably couldn't find a date, Mary becomes determined to prove her wrong.

9

Slow (2023)

IMDb 7.0 🍅 93% Letterboxd 3.8 1h 43m

Directed by Marija Kavtaradzė

✦ MovieMuse AI takeLanguage barrier becomes intimate device: silence and gesture force genuine communication where most rom-coms rely on witty banter.

Dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas meet and form a beautiful bond. As they dive into a new relationship, they must navigate how to build their own kind of intimacy.

10

Shanghai Blues (1984)

IMDb 7.0 Letterboxd 3.8 1h 43m

Directed by Tsui Hark

✦ MovieMuse AI takeTemporal split (wartime meet-cute, postwar reunion) uses history's cruelty to test whether love transcends circumstance—classically romantic.

In 1937 Shanghai, a soldier and a young woman have an awkward meet-cute in darkness under a bridge as they seek refuge during a bomb raid. Ten years later, the soldier, now a burgeoning songwriter and tuba-player in a marching band, is back in town desperately searching for his would-be soulmate. As fate would have it they end up living in the same building unbeknownst to each other. Through a series of mishaps, he mistakes her new ingénue roommate for his love interest and wacky love triangle hijinks ensue.

11

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976)

IMDb 6.9 🍅 78% Letterboxd 3.7 1h 57m

Directed by Bruno Barreto

✦ MovieMuse AI takeSupernatural husband's ghostly return creates literal love triangle; magical realism dissolves monogamy into comedic inevitability and desire.

After the death of her handsome but good-for-nothing husband Vadinho, Flor, a widow, marries Dr. Teodoro, a respectable gentleman. Hilarity ensues when Vadinho's spirit returns into her life.

12

The Nature of Love (2023)

IMDb 6.8 🍅 92% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 50m

Directed by Monia Chokri

✦ MovieMuse AI takeLong-term couples rarely anchor rom-coms; examining decade-old love's vulnerability refreshes genre from infatuation-obsessed formula.

Sophia is a philosophy professor in Montreal and has lived as a couple with Xavier for 10 years. Sylvain is a carpenter in the Laurentians and must renovate their country house. When Sophia meets Sylvain for the first time, it’s love at first sight. Opposites attract, but can it last?

13

Rafiki (2018)

IMDb 6.8 🍅 94% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 22m

Directed by Wanuri Kahiu

✦ MovieMuse AI takeQueer desire navigates family-political resistance; stolen moments and internal conflict replace heteronormative rom-com's assumed social acceptance.

Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

14

End of the Century (2019)

IMDb 6.8 🍅 92% Letterboxd 3.5 1h 24m

Directed by Lucio Castro

✦ MovieMuse AI takeQueer cinema's greatest gift to romcom: the electric tension of recognition between two men who've already lived a lifetime together.

When Ocho, an Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi from his balcony, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are they part of each other’s histories, or maybe even destinies?

15

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? poster

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)

IMDb 6.8 🍅 90% Letterboxd 3.7 2h 30m

Directed by Alexandre Koberidze

✦ MovieMuse AI takeChance encounters doubled in one setting establish momentum; World Cup parallels romantic stakes with national fervor.

In the Georgian riverside town of Kutaisi, summertime romance and World Cup fever are in the air. After a pair of chance encounters, pharmacist Lisa and soccer player Giorgi find their plans for a date undone when they both awaken magically transformed with no way to recognize each other.

16

Eagle vs Shark (2007)

IMDb 6.7 🍅 56% Letterboxd 3.4 1h 27m

Directed by Taika Waititi

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFast-food workplace sets rom-com in economic precarity; free fries become tender micro-economy of affection.

Love blossoms for Lily over double Meaty Boy burgers at mid-day when uber-computer nerd Jarrod comes in and leaves with free extra large fries. After gatecrashing Jarrod's party and proving her skills on the game console, Lily goes down to Jarrod's home town with him so he can settle an old score with a past school bully.

17

Christmas, Again (2015)

IMDb 6.7 🍅 100% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 20m

Directed by Charles Poekel

✦ MovieMuse AI takeChristmas-tree business structures melancholy masculinity; seasonal ritual allows quiet emotional excavation over holiday-movie sentimentality.

Noel travels from upstate New York every year to sell Christmas trees in New York City. Returning without the help of his long-time girlfriend, this year Noel finds it impossible to do the one thing he knows so well: sell Christmas trees. As Noel begins to spiral downwards, alienating co-workers and customers in the process, it turns out this same community of people may be the only ones capable of saving Noel from self-destruction.

18

The Color Wheel (2012)

IMDb 6.6 🍅 79% Letterboxd 3.5 1h 23m

Directed by Alex Ross Perry

✦ MovieMuse AI takeRoad-trip sibling dynamic displaces romantic focus; their bickering generates comic friction while examining romantic-comedy damage itself.

JR, an aspiring news-anchor, forces her younger brother Colin to embark on a road trip to move her belongings out of her professor-turned-lover’s place. Traveling through New England, they uncomfortably run into old school-mates or revisit familial history from which they have long since diverged.

19

Taxi zum Klo (1981)

IMDb 6.6 🍅 96% Letterboxd 3.7 1h 36m

Directed by Frank Ripploh

✦ MovieMuse AI takeClub culture and economic desperation contextualize party-girl archetype; librarian path reframes female reformation without judgment.

Frank, a dedicated schoolteacher, embraces the sexual freedoms of the city’s underground scene—navigating a double life in public restrooms, cinemas, and cruising spots. When he meets Bernd, a sweet and steady museum worker, he finds himself torn between the comfort of domestic partnership and the allure of anonymous desire.

20

Party Girl (1995)

IMDb 6.5 🍅 82% Letterboxd 3.7 1h 34m

Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer

✦ MovieMuse AI takeTransforms the Cinderella makeover trope into genuine character evolution, where love means accepting someone's wildness, not fixing it.

Although Mary has little income, she still finds ways to spend her nights at clubs. After being arrested for throwing an illegal rave, she asks her aunt Judy for bail money. Judy then finds Mary a job at her library so that Mary can repay her. Initially, Mary finds the job as a clerk boring and stifling, and prefers to get to know a street food vendor whom she likes. However, Mary must refocus her life once she loses her job and apartment.

21

Claire's Camera (2018)

IMDb 6.4 🍅 88% Letterboxd 3.5 1h 8m

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

✦ MovieMuse AI takePolaroid camera becomes emotional intermediary; photography creates intimacy through observation rather than confession.

On a business trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Manhee is accused of being dishonest, and fired. A teacher named Claire goes around taking photos with a Polaroid camera. She gets to know Manhee and sympathizes with her. Claire is like a person who can see Manhee's possible future or past selves, through the mysterious power of the beach tunnel. Through taking photos, Claire has acquired the ability to look slowly at things, and to transform objects. Now, Claire goes with Manhee to the café where she was fired. We look forward to seeing Claire's power at work.

22

Funny Ha Ha (2003)

IMDb 6.4 🍅 88% Letterboxd 3.5 1h 30m

Directed by Andrew Bujalski

✦ MovieMuse AI takePost-college aimlessness eschews plot momentum; scenes meander with naturalistic hesitation—uncertainty becomes the romantic-comedy's true antagonist.

Unsure of what to do next, 23-year-old Marnie tries her best to navigate life after college. Still partying like there's no tomorrow, Marnie drags herself out of bed for her miserable temp job and can't decide whether she's wasting her time going after best buddy Alex, who doesn't seem to be interested.

23

First Name: Carmen (1983)

IMDb 6.3 🍅 88% Letterboxd 3.6 1h 25m

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

✦ MovieMuse AI takeOccupation inversion (cop/terrorist) creates ideological contradiction romance must bridge; politics destabilizes genre's emotional safety.

A woman involved with a terrorist group becomes dangerously close to the police officer guarding the bank they plan to rob.

24

Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024)

1h 34m

Directed by Rachel Lambert

✦ MovieMuse AI takeSuicidal ideation meets workplace rom-com—pie and connection gradually dissolve her death-obsession; mundane intimacy becomes redemptive.

Fran likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.

25

Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)

IMDb 5.6 🍅 57% Letterboxd 3.1 1h 23m

Directed by Joe Swanberg

✦ MovieMuse AI takeDual crushes on coworkers explore romantic possibility as ongoing state rather than resolved endpoint—indecision becomes emotional honesty.

Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work, Matt and Paul, who share an office and keep her entertained. Will a relationship with one of them disrupt the delicate balance of their friendship?

26

Emmanuelle (1974)

IMDb 5.2 🍅 38% Letterboxd 2.5 1h 35m

Directed by Just Jaeckin

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFrames desire as curiosity rather than conquest, letting sensuality replace the tired pursuer-pursued dynamic that defines romantic comedy.

An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.

Best Romantic Comedy Movies on MUBI