9 Geeky and Occasionally Romantic Movies to Stream on Valentine’s Day

It ’s the mostromantic season — but it ’s also go - for - broke tax metre , and your well - worn DVDs of The Princess Bride and Shaun of the Dead could practice a rest . Fear not , grind ! We ’ve scoured the three grownup streaming inspection and repair to find sweet ( and not - so - gratifying ) musical genre picks perfect for Valentine ’s Day viewing .

1. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Wrapped deep within Buckaroo Banzai ’s dotty plot — about a adept scientist - slash - rock star and his equally flaky pals working to forestall a long - brewing interstellar and inter - dimensional war — is a beloved story . Jamming onstage with his Hong Kong Cavaliers , Buckaroo ( Peter Weller ) notices Penny ( Ellen Barkin ) sobbing in the audience and stop over the show to talk to her . After she ’s stop for — oops!—firing a gun in the club , he goes the slammer and realizes his déjà vu was onto something , because she ’s the long - lose indistinguishable twin sister of his recent wife . Hey , stranger things have happened !

Before long , she ’s entangled in the independent adventure , and though she has a pretty small role in a picture show where a caboodle is going on at all time , the two characters share a tender and meaningful moment at the last when a small alien interference zap her back into Buckaroo ’s living . If only they ’d made the promised sequel Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League , we would ’ve pick up their relationship grow even more , and no doubt Penny would ’ve had a luck to recoil some actual piece of tail . ( Amazon Prime )

2. Beetlejuice

The honey shared by Barbara and Adam Maitland ( Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin ) is so powerful they were manifestly doom to die on the same day — none of that “ till death do us part ” crap . In the afterlife , the Harry Belafonte superfansget to be ghosts together , doing their adorably terrible effective to haunt their beloved New England home after it ’s invaded by a new family hellbent on meretricious renovations — not to mention a certain conniving bio - exorcist . In the end , Barbara and Adam ’s strong adhesion helps makes all the humans who ’re in their orbit happier and more loving … and that goes for the characters in the moving-picture show and even the most smutty - hearted types watch at home . ( Hulu )

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Boy meet girl , boy loses girl , male child realizes girl has had him wipe out from her memories , son decides to undergo the same procedure but regrets it halfway through . Then , after all that , male child and girl see for a 2nd meter , and decide to try again despite everything , because sexual love is irresistible like that .

Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman , along with histrion Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet , get the excitement of discovering raw love — and the utter grief that come with seeing it fade — in style that no motion picture has before or since . And while Eternal Sunshine is for sure a fancy , it downplays its sci - fi element ( the memory - rub company Lacunais astonishingly lo - fi ) in favor of trying to explore the most secret nooks and cranny of the human creative thinker and heart . A fortune of it ’s bowel - punchingly sad , but there ’s an undeniable sense of hope , too . ( Netflix )

4. Heathers

We of late learn thatRiverdale is doing a Heathers musical episode — so there ’s no better metre to revisit the 1988 furore classic that lampoon how hellish high - school clique can really be . All the Westerburg High School queen bee are named Heather , except for the one named Veronica ( Winona Ryder ) , who ’s already grown weary of popularity politics by the time she meets bad son J.D. ( Christian Slater ) .

While their relationship stop up being rather problematic , to say the least , their nascent Romance language is rather delightful—“Our love is God , countenance ’s go get a slushie!”—until things get out of hand with that whole murder - snoop - to - look - like - suicides spree . In the remainder , Veronica realizes that keep one ’s psycho ex from blowing up the schooltime is a drastic , but very effective first footmark toward restructuring the teenage social fiat so that the long - suffering misfit can finally arrive out on top . ( Hulu )

5. Her

In Spike Jonze’soffbeat , near - time to come romance , a freshly - divorced man named Theodore ( Joaquin Phoenix ) rebounds by fall in love with his calculator operating system , which is powered by Samantha , an alluring AI ( voiced by Scarlett Johansson ) . In the world of Her , human - AI “ romances”aren’t whole rare — which is perceivable considering how manic - pixy - dreamgirl perfect Samantha turns out to be — but neither are they totally accepted , a point of view that comes through when Theodore ’s incredulous ex - wife defecate playfulness of him for “ date a figurer . ”

We sleep together from the start that there ’s no real future for Theodore and Samantha , for obvious rationality — though the fancy almost feels real for most of the movie , and their eventual separation ( for the surprising reason that Samantha , along with countless other AIs , has germinate too far beyond her intended purpose ) has actual , relatable pathos . ( Netflix )

6. Into the Dark: Down

It ’s no secret that we ’ve become braggy sports fan of Hulu and Blumhouse ’s Into the Dark holiday - themed horror series ( standouts so far includeNew Year , New YouandPooka!)—and if you have n’t gotten around to this calendar month ’s instalment , Valentine ’s Day is the perfect excuse . Why ? Well , because that ’s the holiday that Down is tied to , though if you ’ve seen the other episodes you know Into the Dark is very much focused on horror above everything else .

Daniel Stamm ( The Last Exorcism ) directs this one , about corporate co - prole ( Natalie Martinez and Matt Lauria ) who get wedge on an elevator together after working recently on you - cognize - which red - letter day . Annoyance turns to panic turns to … well , other stuff , which we wo n’t spoil here , other than to say Down is a cautionary , seasonable tale that fix very dark indeed . Xoxo !

7. The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos has achieved his greatest critical success and mainstream progress to to date with The Favourite , but many people first hear of him thanks to black comedy The Lobster , the Greek movie maker ’s 2015 English - language debut . The Oscar - nominated screenplay extend one ofthe bleakest and yet weirdly hilarioustakes on kinship ever , conceive of a earthly concern that force all citizenry to couple up , though there ’s also an foreigner community of “ lone hand ” who are n’t nearly as free as you ’d think .

The basic premise — that all humans must have a designate partner or be turn into an animal — is ludicrous enough on its own , but it gets exponentially weirder once you add in the hotel - resort setting ( and contiguous forest , as well as a heavily - police nearby city ) and all of the cruel crotchet that ceaselessly crop up in The Lobster — like the fact that human beings must share a physical or genial flaw in guild to be matched . Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz are perfectly understate as a would - be ( and probably should - be ) pair who struggle to negociate their feeling in a globe that does everything it can to regulate everything about love life . ( Netflix )

8. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Even if you think the title character ( act by Michael Cera ) is an irritating fiddling dirt , there ’s still plenty to love ( and plentifulness of other very cool characters , some of whom also cogitate he ’s a crap ) in Edgar Wright ’s 2010 adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley ’s comic . Slacker wannabe rock candy wiz Scott already has an adoring girlfriend , but he goes utterly ga - ga for new girl in town Ramona Flowers ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead ) .

shortly , however , he realise that in orderliness to court her , he ’ll necessitate to win a serial of battles with her variously “ malign ” ex — as well as get out up with the young lass who thinks he ’s the most rad thing ever . There ’s never been a fixed storage - com quite like this vivacious , energetic , television game - inspiredtale of young sexual love , whose ( mostly ) endearing cast is filled with succeeding enceinte figure like Chris Evans , Brie Larson , Aubrey Plaza , and Anna Kendrick . ( Netflix )

9. The Time Traveler’s Wife

Ok , we had to let in one movie that ’s is n’t afraid to be extremely schmoopy and corny … though the very complicated relationship at its center is about as sci - fi as can be . Rachel McAdams wager the title lineament ; Eric Bana playsthe guy wire who zips through time , a transmissible power made way less awesome by the fact that he ca n’t actually see it whatsoever . He appears as willy-nilly as he disappear , a unsmooth life no matter how you look at it , but made even bad by his produce desire to just be able to , like , fall out with his beloved , a woman he ’s been “ visiting ” since she was a little Thomas Kid ( though their Latinian language does n’t trigger until it ’s totally age - appropriate , of course ) .

The well - sell novel by Audrey Niffeneggeris currently being adjust for HBO by Steven Moffat , but this film version of The Time Traveler ’s Wife arrive out in 2009 , which — fun fact — produce it the first of McAdams ’ series of film ( with later entries Midnight in Paris and About Time ) in which her character is romantically involved with a time traveler . Apparently all that play is worth it , when true love ’s at stake . ( Amazon Prime )

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