Published Jun 30, 2026, 11:50 AM EDT
Kevin Pantoja is a writer and editor at Screen Rant based in New York City, where he brings deep expertise in blockbuster franchises ranging from Harry Potter and Spider‑Man to Succession and the MCU. A passionate storyteller with a creative writing degree (Valedictorian, Full Sail University), Kevin blends entertainment news, feature essays, and pop‑culture commentary into engaging, audience-first content
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The 2010s were a fantastic time for the romantic comedy genre. The decade saw some of the top stars in all of Hollywood take part in the world of rom-coms, from Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, and Bradley Cooper, to Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michelle Yeoh. The era also was a welcome sight when it comes to the acclaim given to romantic comedies, as the genre is often overlooked by far too many and gets shoved aside as something to skip.
During the 2010s, several rom-coms received widespread positive reviews from critics and some were even in contention for the Academy Awards. In fact, at least one of them took home trophies on the big night. Combine that with the strong box office numbers for many of these releases and there might not have been a better time period for romantic comedies than the 2010s. There were so many strong films released in the genre that it’s hard to only find one great one from each year.
Every year of the 2010s was home to a handful of memorable romantic comedies, so picking the best means digging deep and finding the ones that did things like receive the best reviews, make a cultural impact, and have a heartfelt romance at its core.
Love and Other Drugs is a bit more dramatic than your everyday romantic comedy since it deals with some heavy topics. The main premise is fun, following the relationship that forms between a medicine peddler in the ’90s and a woman he meets while out on the job.
What gives the film its emotional core is how their bond is tested by the woman’s suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal have electric chemistry in each scene, with both earning nominations at the Golden Globes. When the laughs come, they’re great and a welcome change of pace.
Almost everything about Crazy, Stupid, Love, works incredibly well. The premise is appropriately wacky, the cast is remarkably talented, and everything comes together for one of the greatest scenes in romantic comedy history. Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, and Julianne Moore are just some of the great actors in this film.
Crazy, Stupid, Love centers on Cal Weaver (Carell), a man who learns how to pick up ladies from the womanizing Jacob (Gosling) after his wife (Moore) has an affair. Along the way, interconnecting stories bring law school grad Hannah (Stone), the man who the wife had the affair with (Kevin Bacon), and more together for something spectacular.
Similar to Love and Other Drugs, Silver Linings Playbook is a story that has some heavy emotion as part of it. The film centers on the unexpected romance that forms when Pat, a man with bipolar disorder, comes across Tiffany, a young widow, and they end up taking part in a dance competition.
Jennifer Lawrence won a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance as Tiffany, Bradley Cooper was nominated for Best Actor, and Robert De Niro got a Best Supporting Actor nomination. You won’t find many romantic comedies that received stronger critical acclaim than Silver Linings Playbook.
Also known as What If? in some countries, The F Word takes a relatively simple rom-com setup and delivers something pretty great with it. The plot focuses on two young people who meet and are mutually attracted to one another but choose to just be friends because she has a boyfriend.
Zoe Kazan and Daniel Radcliffe are a blast together, while the supporting cast of Megan Park, Adam Driver, and Mackenzie Davis are as good as it gets. A lot of people still don’t know about The F Word, which makes it a true hidden gem of the decade.
Edward Zwick’s About Last Night in 1986 was a solid rom-com that most people probably never thought would get remade, yet it happened in 2014. The difference here was that Steve Pink’s adaptation, also born from the play* *Sexual Perversity in Chicago, featured a predominantly Black cast.
The story sees Joan (Regina Hall) and Bernie (Kevin Hart) as two people in a casual relationship who get their friends Debbie (Joy Bryant) and Danny (Michael Ealy) together, and we watch as both romances blossom and grow in different ways. The cast is great together, making this a blast to watch.
Leslye Headland wrote 2014’s best rom-com, About Last Night, and then both wrote and directed 2015’s top rom-com, Sleeping with Other People. She might be best known for her work on TV with Russian Doll and *The Acolyte, *but her latest film might be her best work.
Sleeping with Other People focuses on two people who meet in college and lose their virginities to each other. They meet again as adults at a sex addicts meeting and agree to be just friends because their addiction has gotten in the way of past romances, only to fall for each other anyway. Alison Brei and Jason Sudeikis are very good together in this project.
Sing Street is another relatively unique rom-com from the 2010s. Rather than tell a standard story that the genre is known for, it opts to add a musical spin to it as it centers on a boy in 1980s Dublin who forms a band to impress the girl he likes.
The romance at the center of the story is what makes the film click, yet what sets it apart are the other aspects. The original songs crafted for the movie are strong, the setting is showcased well, and the cast, which features Lucy Boynton and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, are good together.
The Big Sick is a rare romantic comedy to have been inspired by a true story and on top of that, the screenplay was written by the people involved in the actual romance. From Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick tells the tale of the early days of their relationship.
Nanjiani stars as a fictionalized version of himself, as he and his new girlfriend Emily (Zoe Kazan) hit a wall due to their cultural differences. Emily is hospitalized soon after and while she’s in a coma, he meets her parents and deals with a harrowing situation. The Big Sick even scored a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination.
Crazy Rich Asians was a historic film upon release, as it was the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of actors of Chinese descent. It went on to become a box office hit that has seemingly only grown in popularity in the years since its release.
Based on a book of the same name, but seen by many as an improvement, the film follows economics professor Rachel (Constance Wu) as she travels to Singapore with her boyfriend (Henry Golding), only to learn that he’s incredibly wealthy. Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, and Gemma Chan make up a fantastic supporting cast in one of the best rom-coms ever made.
Plus One is an underrated entry into the friends-to-lovers section of the rom-com genre. The movie has a simple yet effective setup, following two longtime friends who agree to be each other’s plus one at various weddings they have to attend.
Along the way, as always in this genre, the two start to have real feelings for each other, which complicate things. Plus One works as well as it does because of a well-written screenplay and the efforts of its leads, Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid, who are just a joy to watch share the screen.