Movies To Watch When You’re Sick Of Valentine’s Day

It's not so much that I hate romance, or love, or relationships. It's that Valentine's Day after awhile gets so sweet, so saccharine, that you begin to feel like you've eaten too many conversation hearts. If you're single, it's the time when all your singleness comes home to you, what with the big boxes of heart-shaped candy and endless romantic movies on every single TV station. If you're in a relationship, it's a time of great hassle, when you have to make certain to buy cards, buy flowers (or expect flowers), make reservations, find out that you waited too long to make reservations, or argue about what movie you're going to watch on TV. It's just a hassle and there tons of expectations for all of us.

Lauren Humphries-Brooks

Published: Feb 14, 2013 12:14 pm

[h2]Buddy Movies[/h2]

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So maybe all that violence and depressive relationships just isn’t what you want in your Anti-Valentine’s Day viewing. Can’t imagine why. OK, so here are some more suggestions: why not go for a buddy movie? These are movies about love (sort of), but not the romantic kind. They’re all about your love for your friends.

Thelma and Louise

I don’t know what the female equivalent of a bromance is, but Thelma and Louise wins the award for the best one. While it is a movie about how horrible men can be, it’s also a movie about female friendship that never crosses the line into ‘hey, they’re totally lesbians.’ Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are two badass chicks who have experienced some really terrible relationships, but find comfort and power with each other. Nor are the men uniformly bad: there’s Harvey Keitel and (improbably) Michael Madsen. It’s really about two women who find greater happiness and freedom outside of relationships than in them. It might not end well for them, but even that’s OK. They’re free.

Lethal Weapon

Isn’t it bromantic? Lethal Weapon is one of the better bromances. It’s also an action movie, so could be listed under ‘blowing stuff up’, but my love for this movie is all about Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. They’re different! They’re cops! They’re partners! They love each other, they take care of each other, and even though one of them is potentially insane and suicidal, it’s OK. You know that they’re going to be there for each other. I really do like films that involve men actually showing affection for each other without someone shouting that it’s ‘totally gay’.

Brave

I put Brave in this category because it needs to go somewhere. This is sort of a chick flick – it’s more about the relationship between a mother and daughter than anything else. But what’s lovely about it is that it takes the Disney princess and instead of attaching her to a love interest, has her declare her intention to remain single until she falls in love. Instead of going the common route and having her finally fall for one of the chieftains’ sons who come courting her, the film allows her to go her own way. A modern movie, for the modern woman.