In honor of that most beloved and hated of holidays, we’ve compiled a list of movies and albums for everyone. Whether you’re looking to snuggle up to a romantic movie or drown your sorrows with a breakup album and a box of candy hearts, Dive’s got you covered this Valentine’s.
Love
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Alright, so it’s not exactly a make-out movie. Nevertheless, this wholly original, cleverly written gem is a profound testament to the strength of human connection. With its oddball romantics and refreshingly candid dialogue, the film is flirtatious as it transports you through the mind of a man who has decided to procedurally erase the memory of his ex-girlfriend. This triumph of the heart over the mind is too moving for any couple to ever forget.
— Rocco Giamatteo
Wall-E
To say that a couple acts like robots is no longer a biting insult.
This animated tale of post-apocalyptic robot love between Wall-E and the fertile EVE displays a greater range of romantic emotion than even many humans can muster.
Through the digital coos and erotic whistles of these lovers it’s easy to hear, with the right kind of ears, the lingua amore of the future.
— Jonathan Pattishall
High Fidelity
In “High Fidelity,” John Cusack’s elitist record store clerk Rob Gordon compares relationships and their difficulties to the making of a compilation tape.
It’s a fitting observation for a man who sees everything in his life in terms of pop-culture and lists and decides to recount his “Top Five Breakups” after his latest girlfriend leaves him. Hilarious and surprisingly heartfelt, it’s the perfect choice for those who like their romance films with a dose of cynicism and reality.
— Mark Niegelsky
Annie Hall
At the beginning of this 1977 Woody Allen classic, it looks like the film will take a tongue-in-cheek look at love.
And so it does until suddenly, you find that Woody has surprised you with a moving, bittersweet look at what love means.
So goes Annie Hall. You might cry, you might cringe or you might laugh, but most likely, you’ll experience a little of each.
With its playful filmmaking — like the male/female subtitles — the film is a warm, poignant and genuine look at love in the real world.
— Linnie Greene
Gone With the Wind
Quotable, iconic and damn near more romantic than any movie ever made, 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” is a Southern love story on a grand scale.
Distanced by war, society and their own stubbornly prickly personalities, Scarlett O’Hara (an exceptional Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable at his sarcastic asshole best) finally manage to carve out a life for each other in postbellum Georgia.
It’s certainly no fairy tale, but there’s one thing the couple in this movie never forgets: the fact that they love each other immensely.
—Jordan Lawrence
Love sucks
Bill Callahan
Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle
On Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle, Bill Callahan isn’t just breaking up with a girl. He’s breaking up with faith. Rumored to have stemmed from his breakup with singer Joanna Newsom, Eagle finds Callahan lamenting, “I used to be darker/ then I got lighter/ then I got dark again.” And while his loneliness is cause enough to mourn, Callahan also delves into religion and faith in “Faith/Void,” a meditation on belief. It’s a break-up record by definition, but it’s far from conventional.
— Linnie Greene
Death Cab for Cutie
Transatlanticism
Welcome to Ben Gibbard’s head. It’s a dreary landscape, but by the end of Transatlanticism, you discover that beauty lies even in the darkest of places.
Gibbard’s understated vocals are a major contributor to the album’s haunting ambiance, a quiet whimper that occasionally builds to a mournful wail. And Transatlanticism’s songwriting is an equally moving force. With its nuanced melodic shifts and heartbreakingly earnest lyrics, it makes you bristle at the glove compartment’s taunting name.
— Linnie Greene
Kanye West
808s and Heartbreak
Not that he was ever one to hold back, but between the death of his mother and split with his fiance, Kanye had a lot of fodder for his Auto-Tune opus.
Lines such as “Goodbye, my friend, I won’t ever love again” and other moments of self-pity and grief are relatable in a genre too often alienating.
Of course, the album wouldn’t be complete without fits of jealousy and anger, but this bleeds “emo-rap” and will be the most commercially viable and successful album to ever come out of said sub-genre.
— Benn Winneka
Ryan Adams
Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams’ debut album Heartbreaker is an hour of sheer anguish.
Vintage country, blues and folk color songs about all types of relationship trouble – from waiting on the phone call that never comes to cheating on your partner with their friend. You’ll feel slightly better about yourself as Adams howls lines like “I just want to die without you” and “Rose-colored sunsets, no flowers for me.” Being heartbroken never sounded so good.
— Anna Norris
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon’s haunting falsetto reaches the depths of broken hearts and latches on completely. As he picks away at his own emotional scars with an album about disconnected love, he manages to instill a spark of hope. While the lyrics “Only love is all maroon,” serve as painful reminders of what once was, the album’s closer, “Re: Stacks” resonates with the notion that the end has yet to come.
— Elizabeth Byrum
