‘High Fidelity,’ ‘Get Out,’ ‘True Detective’ & More Anti-Valentine’s Movies & TV Shows to Stream
It’s that time of year again. Gloomy skies, short days, and perhaps most gratingly, bouquets of red roses and teddy bears and hearts everywhere you look.
That’s right, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner again, and while this may be great news for some, it can often be the opposite for others — at best, a commercialized holiday of manufactured romance and at worst, a reminder to those whose lives may be devoid of romance.
While there are hundreds upon hundreds of movies and TV shows for the romance-obsessed to stream where the leads make up, fall in love, and live happily ever after, what about those of us who want to see a relationship crash and burn? Or root for the protagonist to strike out on their own?
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the 15 very best movies and TV shows that not only end without any sort of grand romantic gesture but might make you feel grateful you’re not in a relationship at all. And if you’re planning to watch any of these on a first date, please do so at your own peril…
High Fidelity (2020)
Based on the movie which is based on the book, this gender-swapped TV remake (that was canceled far too soon, IMO) stars Zoe Kravitz as Rob Brooks, a lovelorn Brooklynite who retraces her Top 5 Greatest Heartbreaks as a way to make sense of her broken-off engagement with Mac (Kingsley Ben-Adir). A great supporting cast — Oscar nominee Da’vine Joy Randolph is a delight — as well as a Questlove-curated soundtrack and romantic decision making by Rob that will make your romantic mishaps seem like child’s play makes this the perfect anti-Valentine’s quick binge.
Streaming on Hulu
Midsommar (2019)
The truly horrifying thing about this trippy folk horror movie from Ari Aster (Hereditary, Beau Is Afraid) is how dysfunctional the central relationship between Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) is — and that’s before they even step foot onto a creepy Swedish commune. As Christian shows an increasing lack of apathy towards Dani’s grief, and she spirals closer and closer to paranoia, it becomes clear this relationship was doomed from the very first frame.
Streaming on Max
Get Out (2018)
Speaking of horrifying relationships, Jordan Peele’s iconic debut, borrowing themes from Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and Rosemary’s Baby, encapsulates the frenetic tension of meeting the in-laws even before things go truly bonkers. Coming straight off of Girls, Allison Williams uses her WASPy persona to chilling effect, while Daniel Kaluuya turns in a star-making performance. A movie so iconic, it introduced a whole new phrase to the cultural landscape (the Sunken Place!), Get Out is the kind of movie that only gets better with each subsequent rewatch.
Streaming on Prime Video
Heathers (1988)
A cult classic with immense quotability and a truly enviable cast (Winona Ryder! Christian Slater! Shannen Doherty!), Heathers is a pitch-black comedy that only gets better with age. Starring Ryder as the only non-Heather in a clique full of color-coordinated queen bees with the name—you guessed it—Heather, she becomes enthralled with the dangerous new kid (Slater), and soon enough, they start killing them off. While it may come off as an ’80s-inflected Bonnie and Clyde-esque movie at first, it ends up becoming more fascinating for allowing Ryder’s character to come into her own.
Streaming on Prime Video and Roku
How to Be Single (2016)
For some lighter fare, turn to How To Be Single, a riotous comedy about Alice (Dakota Johnson), who’s coming fresh off a breakup to New York City, where she meets several women (Alison Brie, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann) who all have their own perceptions on being single or being in a relationship. While admittedly a bit too adherent to the genre constructs of a rom-com to truly practice what it preaches, Brie and Wilson turn in memorable performances, and the ending sticks the landing.
Streaming on Hulu
Blue Valentine (2010)
The ultimate feel-bad relationship movie, Blue Valentine centers around Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) as both a young couple utterly infatuated with one another and as husband and wife, resentful towards each other and held together only by their daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka). The scattered timeline of the movie makes their apparent incompatibility in the present only more painful when directly contrasted with their easy chemistry in the first stages of their relationship. The go-to actor of the moment for an unrequited love story, Paul Mescal of Normal People, says it’s one of his favorite movies, so that should clue you into the fact there won’t be a happy ending.
Streaming on Max
True Detective Season 1 (2014)
While undoubtedly a heavier watch, True Detective Season 1 is often regarded as one of the best seasons of television of all time for a reason. The show is centered around Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey, in a role that is essentially the complete opposite of his romantic comedy typecasting) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) in both 1995 and 2012 as they reckon with a slew of disturbing murders. Beloved for its supernatural elements, auteurist sensibilities, and philosophical musings, largely voiced by Cohle, True Detective is also the show where romance goes to die — Hart is married but a serial cheater, and Cohle, despite being blessed with the looks of Matthew McConaughey, is too convinced of his existence as “a tragic misstep in evolution” to concern himself with trivial things like a girlfriend.
Streaming on Max
Vanderpump Rules Season 10 Finale (2023)
Scandoval — the reality TV cheating saga to end them all. This finale episode of Vanderpump Rules was shot just days after it went public that Tom Sandoval, who had been in a relationship with Ariana Madix for nine years, cheated on her with her close friend, Raquel Leviss — and the recency of the betrayal is clear in every minute. Madix’s triumphant takedown of Sandoval (“I regret ever loving you”) is one for the ages, and Sandoval and Leviss’s seeming apathy for what they’ve done to Madix is truly chilling. If nothing more, Scandoval captured cultural attention for the many, many lurid details of this affair, and real life clearly shows that Madix has come out firmly on top.
Streaming on Peacock
The Worst Person in the World (2021)
Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s final entry in his Oslo trilogy, The Worst Person in the World is a surprisingly breezy movie considering its title. Over the course of the movie, we follow Julie (Renate Reinsve) through four years in her late 20s and early 30s, a time period marked largely by her aimlessness and romantic relationships, first with an older, successful comic artist (Anders Danielsen Lie) and then with a barista, Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). While it is ostensibly a romantic comedy focusing on Julie through different relationships, The Worst Person in the World becomes a rewatchable classic due to its refusal to follow the telegraphed plot points of a rom-com. Instead, we’re treated to a fully-realized portrait of a woman creating her own identity.
Streaming on Hulu
Young Adult (2011)
A definitive feel-bad comedy, Young Adult stars Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary, an alcoholic, cruel, and utterly unlikeable ghostwriter who decides to return to her hometown in a delusional quest to get back her high school boyfriend, Buddy (Patrick Wilson), despite the fact that he is happily married with a baby. Within about 10 minutes of watching this movie, you can correctly ascertain that Mavis’s fantasy of rekindling her relationship with Buddy, driven by her obsession to recreate her days as a popular high schooler, will not come to fruition… which makes it a perfect addition to an anti-Valentine’s Day watchlist.
Streaming on Prime Video
