When I’m in the middle of a writing challenge with a friend in which I need to come up with something else to write about every day for four weeks, it probably isn’t a great idea to do a post where I fire off five topics at the same time. Good thing ‘itprobablyisntagreatidea’ is my middle name.
It’s Valentine’s weekend, so here are movies you could watch to make the best of a generally stupid holiday.
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1. What If
This is the straight-up traditional V-Day movie recommendation. Romantic comedies live and die with chemistry. If you like the main 
characters, and genuinely enjoy watching them interact, many other sins can be overlooked. That’s the beating heart that makes What If a winner. It’s easy to want to watch these characters interact, in particular the repartee is winning and natural.
If you want to watch a traditional Valentine’s Day movie that doesn’t suck (and is actually pretty great), you could do a lot worse than this one.
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2. Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight
Maybe what you need for your Valentine’s Saturday this year is a movie marathon. And what better marathon could there be than the smartest, most satisfying relationship in the history of cinema told over the course of three films?
Even if you’ve seen these before, you can never watch them too many times. Fantastic filmmaking that is fresh, intelligent, experimental, and honestly engages all the complexities of relationships and identity.
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3. The Lunchbox
I’ve already written about this lovely epistolary film. You should watch it some time, and Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to make this weekend that time.
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4. They Came Together
Like Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter before it, They Came Together is a few folks from The State throwing ridiculous movie clichés into one over the top sendup, and bringing some of the funniest people around along for the ride.
If you’re more in the mood this V-Day to watch a skewering of all the dumb shit mainstream rom-coms try for force down our throat every year, and laugh your ass off, this is the choice for you.
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5. The Secret in Their Eyes
Another film I’ve already written about, The Secret in Their Eyes is a great option if you want to go in a different direction altogether, but keep romance in the mix. An Argentine thriller about a retired detective looking back on his life, haunted by a murder case he could never solve, largely because of the political upheaval and corruption in Argentina in the 1970’s. Moving between past and present, the film masterfully unfolds both the story of the case, and the story of the man’s unconsummated love for the judge he worked on the case with for decades.
