Valentines day is upon us! Hurrah – it’s time for roses, the beautiful tyranny of the heart-shaped object, and endlessly going through restaurant reservations until you realise everything has been fully booked for over a month. If you’re not type A and just chill like that, worry not. This holiday is also the perfect time for a fun night of #netflix #and #chill. Stay home, horizontal, cocooned in a fresh duvet.
And we don’t necessarily mean with your situationship present. February 14 has been presented to us as a high-gloss celebration of coupledom and romance. But love, as we know, is far less coordinated. We might be used to the idea that it’s only reserved for your boyfriend (which is still embarrassing if you have an embarrassing boyfriend, btw!) But love is also: your vape, your best friend, or your group chat. It’s your devotion to a perfect bowl of pasta. It’s your encyclopedic knowledge of queer history.
So this year, consider expanding the brief. Celebrate love, yes — but also obsession, friendship, longing, self-indulgence, and yearning. Love in all its strange little forms! Here are our editors’ picks for what to watch this Valentine’s Day. And no, it’s not only Wuthering Heights propaganda or sappy romcoms (though we would never fully rule them out).
For someone who L-O-V-E-S food. Like, capital-L, rearrange-your-life-around-dinner love food: The taste of things (2023) Directed by Trần Anh Hùng
Set in 1889 France (costumes, copper pots, yearning), The Taste of Things follows legendary gourmand Dodin Bouffant and his longtime cook and lover Eugénie, who have essentially built a private universe out of butter and devotion. They’ve shared decades of meals and a bed, but Eugénie refuses to marry him. So Dodin does the only rational thing a 19th-century French food obsessive can do: he decides to cook for her. As a reviewer on letterboxd said: This is the most hardcore food porn since Big Night or Babette’s Feast.
There’s barely any dialogue, but you won’t miss it because there’s so much beautiful FOOD. Even as a vegetarian, watching these characters put their whole heart and soul into broiling fish in milk was inspiring. Furthermore, everything is communicated through glances that feel borderline indecent, through the brush of a wrist passing a plate, through chopping and stirring and tasting. And then there’s a scene with a pear, less obscene than the CMBYN peach scene but still very hot. And did I mention the star of the show is Juliette Binoche???
For saphhic nerds who love to research, dig, investigate: The Watermelon Woman
At first glance, the plot seems simple: Cheryl, a Black lesbian filmmaker, goes looking for the story of a forgotten 1930s actress known only as “The Watermelon Woman.” But through its witty, faux-documentary style, the film slowly reveals its many layers. What seems like a small personal project becomes a subversive meditation on film history, erased Black canon, and desire. It never feels inaccessibly academic or distant — it works through warmth, wry humour, and an implicit breakage of the fourth wall. By the end, you’re itching to start digging yourself, to question archives, chase footnotes, and happily disappear down a research rabbit hole (how we wish we could also visit the C.L.I.T — the Centre for Lesbian Information and Technology). While it might be hard to find The Watermelon Woman in cinemas this season, MUBI got your back!
For anyone who loves their mom (or just wants to ugly-cry): Steel Magnolias (1989) Directed by Herbert Ross
Six women and one beauty salon = endless laughter, gossip, and heartbreak. Sally Field is the mother you wish you had, Julia Roberts is incandescent and doomed in equal measure, and Dolly Parton exists to bless your soul. Pastels, southern accents, and tearful hugs galore. The perfect Valentine’s night if your love language is maternal devotion — or if you don’t have mommy issues, you definitely will after this. P.s. this movie will destroy you.
For if you’re NOT in the mood for love: Mongolian Ping Pong (2005)
If you want windy fields but don’t wanna go to Wuthering Heights, this is your moment. On the vast Mongolian steppe, boredom and boundless imagination bounce off of each other like monkeys on a trampoline. Bilike has never seen a ping-pong ball before, and when he and his friends stumble upon one floating in the creek, they assume it’s some kind of holy orb. They try everything to find out its meaning (i.e., waiting all night for it to glow up like a heavenly pearl and consulting wise lamas) before a blurry TV broadcast declares it the “national ball of China.” They decide they must trek all the way to Beijing to return it. It’s safe to say they don’t know how far Beijing is. A whimsical ode to children’s questions and confusions, figuring out the world around them, barren landscapes, horseback riding, nomadic existence… all without a single brooding romantic gaze.
For the exposure therapy lovers, a good-old cathartic watch could sooth your mind: Sick of Myself (2022) directed by Kristoffer Borgli
Imagine what would happen if Worst Person in the World (2021) meets The Substance (2024); existential dread, exquisite color grading, bad decisions, and self-obsession turning into body horror. Well, Sick of Myself, kinda comes standing in as the (also) Norwegian erratic cousin of tamer but just-as triggering Worst Person in the World. Protagonist Signe feels overshadowed by her boyfriend’s rising celebrity in the contemporary art world and starts acting out in a desperate attempt for attention. Also we’re not letting art-bf leave this conversation unscathed – he’s kind of insufferable. Both characters’ narcissism will make you laugh, squint, and grimace all at the same time. Signe decides that poisoning herself is worth it, all for sweet glory of attention and why not a little bit of cover news stardom. Sometimes confronting ourselves to someone else’s acting out can be the relief we’ve all been needing. Indulge in this gore-frenziness set in gorgeous (mostly) summer-time Oslo and stray away from that little Russian pill. It’s also kind of a Mubi resident, so no excuses for not finding it!
For anyone who loves love that’s weird, wet, and utterly obsessive: The Shape of Water (2017)
Elisa is a mute cleaning lady in 1962 Baltimore, living a life of routines and silent longing… until she meets a very strange, very scaled creature in a high-security government lab and suddenly everything is electric. What follows is a tender, moist, cinematic romance that somehow manages to be about desire, danger, and the pure thrill of connecting with someone (or something) who sees the world differently. There are water tanks, midnight swims, secret plans, and a love story so specific and absurd it almost hurts to watch. Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece is a fairy tale for adults, a wet dream of empathy and longing. For some, love doesn’t always fit into neat, human-shaped boxes.
