...
By H. Alan Scott
Senior Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
If you existed in the 1990s, you already know it was the era of the romantic comedy. Names like Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock and Meg Ryan became instantly recognizable thanks to films like Pretty Woman, While You Were Sleeping and You've Got Mail. In many ways these films defined the era—and for millennials like this writer, they became the foundation of our entire personalities. If you say "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" in front of anyone born around the mid-1980s, we're going to immediately tell you where it's from (Notting Hill) and who said it (Julia Roberts).
Newsweek recently spoke with Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson about their new Netflix rom-com Voicemails for Isabelle, and it got us thinking: what are the best rom-coms of the 1990s? Given the impact of the era, it feels right to look back at how these films shaped what's now dominating streaming platforms like Netflix. And here's something worth noting: rom-coms are rarely released theatrically anymore, almost always going straight to streaming. That's not a coincidence. The 90s built the template, and Hollywood has been chasing it ever since.
For this list, we're looking only at films released between 1990 and 1999. These aren't ranked, just the ten films from the decade that most uniquely defined the genre. Is our selection method scientific? Absolutely not. But it's curated by an entertainment expert (me) who lived through the era and spent an embarrassing amount of time with these films.
Read More on Entertainment
Editor's Note: In putting this list together, one thing became impossible to ignore: the staggering lack of diversity in the rom-com genre. Which is exactly why comedian and genre superfan Naomi Ekperigin joined me on the Parting Shot Podcast to break down why rom-coms have such a diversity problem. (She has a theory you're going to want to hear.) Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Notting Hill
...
If you forced me to pick one rom-com to define the entire decade, it's Notting Hill. Not only is it just a great film, it used Julia Roberts' real-world celebrity to make the story hit even harder. The pairing of Roberts and Hugh Grant at the absolute peak of their fame was a stroke of genius, and the result was an instant classic. Perhaps no rom-com has been more quoted, and for good reason.
While You Were Sleeping
...
If Julia Roberts was the rom-com queen, Sandra Bullock and Meg Ryan spent the decade fighting for the title of princess. While You Were Sleeping arrived right on the heels of Bullock's breakout in Speed, and it cemented her as a full-blown star overnight. It also became that rare holiday-adjacent film that works both as a Christmas watch and a no-occasion, any-Tuesday rom-com.
Sleepless in Seattle
Nora Ephron knew exactly what she was doing when she cast Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in this classic. Despite the two of them barely sharing a scene until the very end, they somehow generated a chemistry that made the anticipation of their meeting unbearable in the best possible way. Sleepless in Seattle walked so You've Got Mail could run, and the two Ephron films will forever demand a double feature.
You've Got Mail
While Notting Hill is the best rom-com of the era, You've Got Mail is the one that really captures who we were as a culture in the 90s. The pursuit of love is evergreen, but using the technology of the moment to tell that story? You'd think it would feel dated immediately. Instead, the chemistry of Hanks and Meg Ryan makes even the dial-up references feel somehow timeless. (Don't ask me how often I still say "Don't cry, shop girl.")
My Best Friend's Wedding
...
I call My Best Friend's Wedding the anti-rom-com, because it really shouldn't work. The girl doesn't get the guy (sorry, spoiler), and she's not exactly the most sympathetic protagonist. But in Julia Roberts' hands, it just works. It also gave us one of the genre's most enduring tropes: the gay best friend, courtesy of Rupert Everett's scene-stealing performance. A genuine game-changer.
The Wedding Singer
...
In the 90s, everybody wanted to be as funny as Adam Sandler and everybody wanted Drew Barrymore as their best friend. That's a big part of why The Wedding Singer works as well as it does. It was also a nostalgic throwback in its own time, which makes it almost poetic that we're now nostalgic for a film about nostalgia. Maybe that explains everything about millennials, actually.
Clueless
...
Clueless is an interesting entry on a rom-com list because it isn't a traditional rom-com. Sure, it's rooted in Jane Austen's Emma, arguably the most famous romantic comedy ever written, but it's also a film about friendship, identity and figuring out who you actually are. It checks every box, and so much of that is due to Alicia Silverstone's performance, which dances between ditz and genius with remarkable precision.
Pretty Woman
...
Pretty Woman is the film that set the tone for everything that followed. Released in 1990, it sits right on the cusp between the excess of the 80s and the optimism of the 90s, and Julia Roberts transformed an unlikely heroine into someone we all desperately wanted to be. It also introduced the world to Roberts' laugh, which frankly deserves a supporting character credit in every film she's ever made.
As Good as It Gets
...
This is an Oscar-winning rom-com, thank you very much. One of the rare films to take home both Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Actress (Helen Hunt), it's a deceptively simple story from a master filmmaker in James L. Brooks. What makes it work is the same thing that makes so many of these films work: the lead starts out completely insufferable and somehow becomes the person you're rooting for hardest by the end.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
While Notting Hill is probably Hugh Grant's most famous rom-com, Four Weddings and a Funeral is the one that made him a star. Quintessentially British and unexpectedly universal, the film became an international phenomenon and paved the way for everything that came after it: Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones's Diary. None of those happen without this one.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines