While Valentine’s Day usually gets the spotlight for its roses, candlelight dinners and chocolate-covered strawberries, the real magic happens on Feb. 13, when the unofficial-turned-essential holiday of Galentines takes over. “I think Galentine’s Day is a super fun way to celebrate with my friends that I know support and care about me,” sophomore Ishani Agrawal said.
In a 2010 episode of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” protagonist Leslie Knope famously named the day before Valentine’s Day as a day for “ladies celebrating ladies.” From its origins, Galentine’s Day has become a cozy day, with everything from DIY spa treatments and wine tastings to movie marathons and baking. . While you enjoy your heart-shaped macarons and strawberry cookies, Horizon has compiled ten recommendations for the best movies to watch for Galentine’s Day.
- When Harry Met Sally
The story of this classic centers around Harry Burns, a cynical pessimist, and Sally Albright, a precision-oriented optimist, who are forced to share an 18-hour car ride from Chicago to New York. Afterwards, they part ways, thinking they will never see one another again, only to cross paths again several times in New York. As they transition from strangers to acquaintances to best friends to perhaps something more, both Albright and Burns struggle to ignore the undeniable chemistry that threatens to destroy their beautiful friendship.
- Crazy Rich Asians
Rachel Chu, a brilliant NYU economics professor, travels with her boyfriend, Nick Young, to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding. Upon arrival, Chu is shocked to discover that Young’s family is among the wealthiest in Asia, and that Young is the most eligible bachelor. Suddenly thrown into a world of backstabbing socialites and unimaginable luxury, Chu must face off against Young’s tradition-bound mother, Eleanor Young, who believes Chu will never be enough for her son’s legacy. As the pressure threatens to tear their relationship apart, Chu must find the strength to stand up to the Young family and prove that her worth is more than a number in her bank account.
- 27 Dresses
Jane Nichols is a wedding-obsessed woman who has served as a bridesmaid 27 times but never had a wedding of her own, keeping each dress as a trophy of her loyalty. To make matters worse, her younger sister Tess arrives in town and starts dating George — the boss Nichols has secretly been in love with for years. On top of that, a romance-skeptical journalist named Kevin Doyle who wants to write an article on “perpetual bridesmaids” for his newspaper, begins following Nichols around. As Nichols plans her sister’s wedding, she must also navigate the pain of losing George and look past her self-sacrificing tendencies to discover that she deserves to be the bride of her own story — with Doyle.
- Bridesmaids
Annie Walker is in the middle of a rough patch when her best friend Lillian Donovan gets engaged, and she is asked to be her maid of honor. However, an ultra-wealthy, polished bridesmaid, Helen Harris III, is determined to ruin Walker’s attempts of being the perfect wedding-planner and constantly tries to out-best-friend her. Walker’s life spirals into a series of comedic disasters as she tries to balance saving her friendship while navigating a surprising and passionate connection with a kind-hearted traffic cop.
- La La Land
Set in vibrant Los Angeles, the story centers around Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress, and Sebastian Wilder, a jazz pianist who dreams of opening his own club. As the two spend time with each other around the city, they fall into a sweeping romance. However, as they both begin achieving the professional successes they had been striving for, the artistic dreams that brought them together begin to push them apart. The two must decide whether their ambitions are worth sacrificing their love, or if their crazy lives can balance both.
- She’s the Man
After the girl’s soccer team at her school is cut, Viola Hastings disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian on a secret trip to London and takes his place at his boarding school, Illyra. Although she initially simply wants to make the soccer team and beat her old school, showing all the guys how well a girl can play, things get complicated when she starts falling for her roommate, Duke Orsino. However, Orsino thinks Hastings is a male student and is in love with a girl named Olivia Lennox, who actually begins falling for Hastings in disguise. In this exciting and unexpected turn of events, Hastings must decide if winning the game is worth losing the boy she loves.
- Clueless
Cher Horowitz, deemed the “Queen of Beverly Hills”, is a wealthy and popular high school girl who spends all her time conquering the social hierarchy and, of course, shopping. In her free time, Cher also likes to play matchmaker between students and teachers. When she takes a “charity case” makeover project on the new kid under her wing, Horowitz becomes so focused on trying to curate everyone else’s love that she realizes she has been ignoring her own feelings — specifically for her ex-stepbrother, Josh Lucas. Horowitz struggles to look past her own superficial-leaning tendencies in order to finally secure a genuine relationship with the one person she never expected, but always needed.
- Mamma Mia
Truly a classic for every generation, Mamma Mia is an ABBA-filled musical celebration of a 20-year-old woman named Sophie Sheridan prepping for her wedding on the Greek island of Kalokairi. Having never known her father, Sheridan reads her mother Donna Sheridan’s old diary and finds out there are three potential candidates from her mother’s youth, and secretly invites all of them to the wedding. Although she was convinced she would know her father the moment she saw him, after spending more time with Bill Anderson, Harry Bright and Sam Charmichael, Sheridan ends up finding a connection with each of them. On the other hand, as her mother, now a romance-wary woman, is confronted with her former lovers, the island becomes a stage for a whirlwind of nostalgia, laughter, confusion and maybe even old flames.
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Andie Anderson, a “How to” columnist for Composed magazine, starts a new article called “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Her goal is to find a man and drive him away using every classic dating mistake a girl can make. She sets her sights on Ben Barry, an advertising executive who has a bet of his own; make Anderson fall in love with him in 10 days to land a major jewelry account. As Anderson tries to be the most annoying girlfriend possible while Barry forces himself to be the perfect boyfriend, this two-sided manipulation results in hurt feelings and a love neither has experienced before.
- 10 Things I Hate About You
In the most popular 90s romcom on this list, high school sophomore Bianca Stratford isn’t allowed to date until her boy-averse older sister Kat Stratford does. Since the elder Stratford is a sharp-tongued, combat-boot-wearing rebel who hates everyone, Bianca’s suitors decide to hire the school’s well-known, mysterious bad-boy, Patrick Verona, to date her. What begins as a simple transaction to allow Bianca to date turns into a messy, vulnerable romance between Kat and Verona as they realize they have more in common than they thought.
