8 Must-Watch Rom-Com Movies on Netflix (September 2025): 'Anyone But You' and More

Music superstar Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is just as unlucky in love as the actress who portrays her in Marry Me. All three of Kat’s marriages have blown up in the public eye, and now her fiancé, Bastian (Maluma), has been caught cheating on her too.

Instead of marrying Bastian during a concert as planned, Kat invites a random fan, Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), on stage to wed her because he held up a sign that said “Marry me.” What could have been a stunt turns into something more as Charlie and Kat get to know each other. Making this romance last is going to take some work, and the odds are against them.

Marry Me is streaming on Netflix.

Anyone But You is the rom-com that made Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney into much bigger stars. At the beginning of the film, Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell) have unmistakable chemistry with each other. However, their short time together ends in hurt feelings and misunderstanding.

Months later, Bea and Ben are forced to spend time together when they are both guests at the same destination wedding. Since Bea and Ben’s former lovers are also there, they make a pact to pretend to be a couple to make their exes jealous. Yet it’s only a matter of time before their own repressed feelings come to the surface.

Anyone But You is streaming on Netflix.

Nick Evans (Damon Wayans Jr.) is looking for love in all the wrong places. He subscribed to an online dating website called Love, Guaranteed to find companionship, and despite going on over 1,000 dates he’s still single and lonely. Fed up, he hires lawyer Susan Whitaker (Rachel Leigh Cook) to sue them for false advertising, but as the two work on the case they fall for each other. Is love guaranteed for Nick if he pursues Susan? 

Like most 2020 movies, Love, Guaranteed was overshadowed by COVID and lockdown drama. It deserves some love, though, due to its charming leads and unique plot. Everyone can relate to Nick’s frustrations with online dating, and the movie uses that as a way to bring its two reluctant lovebirds together. Love, Guaranteed also gives Wayans Jr. a rare lead role to show off his amazing comedic skills, which most fans of the cult TV show Happy Endings are already acutely aware of and appreciate. 

Lucy (Lucy Hale) hates Josh (Austin Stowell), and the feeling is mutual. But when their respective publishing companies merge, forcing them to work closely with each other, they make a pact: whoever gets a promotion first stays, while the other has to quit. But their agreement is complicated by their growing affection for each other, turning their hating game into a love connection that neither one is prepared to make.

The Hating Game, based on Sally Thorne’s bestselling novel, doesn’t rewrite the rom-com playbook so much as it faithfully follows it step by step. In this instance, that’s OK as Hale and Stowell are entertaining as enemies who become friends who want to become something more. The movie is a wish-fulfillment fantasy — the world of publishing isn’t romantic at all — but it’s light and fun without being offensively bad. 

Eric (Scott Foley) is a fiftysomething widower who isn’t looking for love. But when he travels to Italy to help his daughter purchase and renovate a neglected villa, he soon falls for the town’s charismatic mayor, Francesca (Violante Placido). Can he learn to love again? And will Francesca, who also lost her spouse, reciprocate Eric’s feelings?

La Dolce Villa doesn’t leave much doubt about the outcome, but what it lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in charm. Foley and Placido are great at playing middle-aged lovers wary of finding romance again and the film’s Tuscan locations are pretty to look at. La Dolce Villa combines love and real estate in a glossy package, and it’s one of the better Netflix original rom-coms on the streaming service.

Eat Pray Love, eat your heart out! In Lonely Planet, yet another older woman travels abroad and finds unexpected romance. In this movie, that woman is Katherine Lowe (Laura Dern), who ventures to a beautiful Moroccan resort for a writer’s retreat. Once there, she bonds with Owen (Liam Hemsworth), a finance bro who is there with his novelist girlfriend, Lily (Diana Silvers). As their connection deepens, Katherine and Owen’s friendship turns into something more, but can they overcome their differences to allow a romance to blossom?

Lonely Planet isn’t all that original, but it makes up for it by casting Dern and Hemsworth in the lead roles. Dern isn’t your typical rom-com star, and she gives her character a nice edge that makes Katherine more interesting to watch. Hemsworth is pretty to look at, and he convincingly showcases Owen’s softer side that could pull in a woman like Katherine.  

Fresh off a bad breakup, Alice (Dakota Johnson) moves to New York City to live with her doctor sister, Meg (Leslie Mann). She begins her new single life by befriending wild Australian party girl Robin (Rebel Wilson) and womanizing bartender Tom (Anders Holm). Together, they navigate the occasional highs and frequent lows of modern dating in a big city.

When it was released in 2016, How to Be Single was dismissed by some as a shallow Sex and the City clone, but time’s been kinder to it. Johnson is great as the indecisive Alice, and Mann has one of her best roles as the older sister who isn’t as wise as Alice thinks she is. Wilson provides the Bridesmaids-style laughs, while all of the NYC locations will make you want to move there. 

Cyrano de Bergerac gets a modern update in The Half of It, the rare teen rom-com that eschews cheap humor and plays it relatively straight. (Well, sort of.) Bookish Ellie (Leah Lewis) likes the beautiful Aster (Alexxis Lemire) but is too shy to do anything about it. Inarticulate jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) likes Aster too, and convinces Ellie to write love letters and texts for him to send to Aster. Love connections are made, but not in the way any of them imagined, and a complicated love triangle soon becomes something messier and meaningful as each teen learns hard lessons about growing up.

The Half of It doesn’t star anyone you’d know, and maybe that’s why it feels so authentic. There have been riffs on this kind of story before, but few have been this affecting. The unlikely friendship between Ellie and Paul is given as much space and depth as the romance between Ellie and Aster, making The Half of It a memorable rom-com about the power of love and friendship. Most of the time, you need both in life, and the movie argues that you can find them with the people you’d least expect.

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