Rom-Coms certainly haven’t been dead in recent years (Sleeping with Other People and The Big Sick would like to have a word with you if you think that), but they haven’t been thriving. In the thick of tentpole studio trends and on the heels of a particularly nasty spat of early aughts misfires (2009-2011 was a particularly sorrowful time), romantic comedies got the boot for a minute there; the once cherished and profitable genre of the 80s and 90s relegated to a handful of ill-advised misfires. But 2018 marked a major comeback for the genre, from Netflix's super successful Summer of Love to some of the best-reviewed and highest-performing theatrical releases of the year.

Call it a sign of the times. I only have colloquial evidence, gathered among me and my friends, but many like myself (even in my most dedicated horror and weird-loving circles) suddenly have an appetite for easy, positive entertainment. With political divisiveness and toxic discourse flooding the world, with the relentless negativity of social media always biting at our heels, more people seem to be turning to the simple pleasures. I can’t believe how many people confessed this year — myself included — that they became fans of romantic comedies after a lifetime of dismissing the genre. In a year like this one, everyone needs a little love and happiness in their lives.

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Image via Netflix

At the same time, the movies themselves are getting better. It should come as no surprise that the romantic comedy's path to resurgence was laid by inclusivity and diversity, inviting all kinds of audiences to imagine themselves in a fairytale romance. In 2018, rom-coms were for everyone; multi-cultural, body-positive, LGBT-inclusive, and more. They weren't all succesful, but at least they took swings, updating the often lazy and corrosive tropes of the much-maligned genre in favor of smarter scripting and more interesting characters. Sometimes, a genre just needs to shake up its formula to find new life.

Without further year, let's look at the essential romantic comedies of the year, from worst to best. We're not including every rom-com released this year, just the must-see entries that hit it big at the box office, dominated the conversation, or took the genre to new heights.

10. Sierra Burgess Is a Big Loser

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Image via Netflix

The bottom of the barrel in Netflix’s Summer of Love, Sierra Burgess Is a Big Loser seems to be all about the idea that lying, cat-fishing, violating boundaries of consent and imitating the disabled are just quirky little personality traits of an insecure girl on the hunt from love. Stranger Things star Shannon Purser stars as the titular big loser, a high school outsider type who’s down on herself because of her looks, but when she strikes up an unexpected friendship with the school it girl Veronica (Kristen Froseth) winds up at the middle of a case of confused identity when a popular football player from a near-by school stats texting her thinking she’s Veronica. It’s supposed to be a modern spin on the old Cyrano De Burgourac yarn, but in internet age, it’s just extra-creepy and inappropriate. Then Veronica and Sierra stage a kissing switcheroo and things go from creepy to predatory. Poor Noah Centineo, who stole hearts in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before gets nothing to do here but smile and look pretty for the camera. The surprise friendship between Sierra and Veronica ends up being the highlight of the film, but even that is messed up by the end when Sierra turns into a full-on bully after a falling out. She may not be a loser, but one thing’s for sure, Sierra Burgess is a Trash Person.

9. Destination Wedding

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Image via Regatta

Yikes, what happened here? When somebody hands you the layup of a misanthropic romance between Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, how do you miss that shot? Somehow, Destination Wedding manages that heartbreaking feat, reuniting Reeves and Ryder on screen for the first time since 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but with none of the chemistry. There’s a lot of potential in writer-director Victor Levin’s script, which finds two cynics stranded together at a destination wedding, but the execution is off base, leaning way too hard into a self-satisfied unpleasantness. The characters aren’t just jaded, they’re mean-spirited and off-putting. How do you make Keanu Reeves not sexy? I didn’t even think that was possible, but here we are with a movie that includes an extended sex scene between two of the most iconic sex symbols of the 90s and makes it borderline unwatchable. Destination Wedding heats up in the third act when the characters finally start to open up and reveal more shades of their character beyond the surface-level terribleness, but it’s too little too late and it’s impossible not to mourn the wasted potential. Well hey, at least we have a movie where Winona Ryder describes Keanu Reeves penis as “balletically formed,” and that’s worth something, right?

8. I Feel Pretty

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Image via STX

A well-intended misfire, but a misfire all the same. Amy Schumer delivers her brand of crass body-positive comedy in I Feel Pretty, starring as an average woman who experiences a head trauma at spin class and suddenly acts with the confidence of a model-hot woman. I mean yikes, I don't know how anyone read that on paper and didn't see how people were gonna be mad about it -- plainly, I Feel Pretty is a movie that condescends to the audience it pretends to uplift. It's also just kind of not it. Schumer's not as funny as she can be and her love interest is a vanilla bore, and the both the film's romance and comedy fall flat more often than not. Thank god for Michelle Williams then, whose baby-voiced fashion mogul makes the whole thing worth watching.

7. The Kissing Booth

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Image via Netflix

Pure, ridiculous escapism. The Kissing Booth is like somebody blended up all the most popular tropes in fan-fiction and e-book romances and and made a sticky, sugar sweet smoothie out of them. As goofy and textbook as the movie is, it’s also pretty darn fun from start to finish, largely thanks to the charms of Joey King, who stars as Elle, a teenage girl who has to own up to her secret crush on her best friend’s bad boy brother (Jacob Elordi) after running a fundraising kissing booth. King and Elordi have sensational chemistry, even if their characters are as two-dimensional as cardboard cutouts, and their sexy, forbidden dynamic is the spark that makes The Kissing Booth fun to watch, even in the film’s goofiest moments. Compared to the smartest of Netflix’s summer of love rom-coms, The Kissing Booth is straight-up old school trifle, pure confection based on embracing tropes rather than subverting or updating them, but there’s nothing wrong with a shallow throwback here and there, especially in a year this full of diverse and exciting options. Come for the tortured bad boy angst, stay for the extreme 360-degrees spinning camera first kiss. It’s all indulgent trash, but there’s a reason why it was Netflix’s most re-watched movie of 2018 — sometimes indulgent trash is all you want.

6. Overboard

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Image via via MGM & Pantelion Films

The thing about Overboard is that it's inherently an extra-creepy meet cute and gender swapping it isn't gonna change that fact. Based on the 1987 movie about a working man who convinces a rich, snobby woman with amnesia that she's his wife and uses her as a housemaid and nanny.... until they fall in love. It may be your mom's favorite moment, but safe to say it doesn't hold up. And yet, in a surprise to us all, this year's remake kind of makes it work. Much like the original, it comes down to the leads, and sure, no one can match the majesty of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, but Anna Farris and Eugenio Derbez are still an immensely watchable duo, with plenty of charisma to spare between them. But still, really, it's just a creepy and sad story and it's pretty hard for your lead character to recover from relentless manipulation, child endangerment, and um, kidnapping.

5. Book Club

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Image via Paramount Pictures

The main draw in Book Club is watching the team-up of four of our best veteran comedic actresses -- Diane KeatonJane FondaCandice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen -- and while the movie ultimately never does anything interesting enough to deserve that calibre of cast (Bridesmaids, this is not), Book Club is a sweet little tale of love and friendship with a good hook. The dynamite leading ladies star as a group of old friends who've maintained the same book club for decades, but when they decided to read the Fifty Shades trilogy, they realize their lives have become a bit sexless and stagnant, making it their mission to rekindle the flame. Cute, right? It's a pretty special thing to see a studio rom-com directed at women over 45, especially with a cast this good, and even if Book Club would have benefited from giving its cast a bit more to do,  Keaton, Fonda, Bergen, and Steenburgen make what they're given work with charm to spare.

4. Set It Up

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Image via Netflix

Everybody Wants Some!! standouts Zoey Deutch and Glenn Powell unite their shared charisma for the forces of romance in Claire Sanclon’s relentlessly delightful Set It Up. Built on the bare bones of rom-com tradition, Set It Up unites the hardest workers in an NYC office building, who set out to give themselves some free time by setting up their ridiculously gorgeous and powerful bosses (played by Lucy Lui and Taye Diggs for maximum effect). Naturally, somewhere along the way the pair realizes their the true soul mates and it’s all very charming, with a lot of pizza. Katie Silberman’s script updates the working woman tope of the rom-com to reflect a more realistic, often harried woman who has little time for sleep between meetings, let alone a full blowout. As it is in so many great romantic comedies, the secret weapon here is the chemistry between Deutch and Powell, which migrates from convincing camaraderie to obvious affection with ease. Best of all, Set It Up lets all the key characters be smart and realistic, easy to root for and always fun to watch.

3. To All the Boys I've Loved Before

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Image via Netflix

Ah, the delights of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. *Chef’s Kiss* Inspired by the hit novel from Jenny Han, Susan Johnson’s Netflix sensation takes on a classic romance trope — two people pretend to be in love and wind up falling in love for real — and rounds it out with fantastic characters, witty banter, heart-warming family dynamics, inclusivity, and some of the best casting you’ll see this year. Lana Condor is a fabulous leading lady, smart and confident in a casual unaffected way, but the breakout on top of the breakout was Noah Centineo as Peter Kavinsky, the internet’s boyfriend du jour, who’s just as charming as his throngs of devotees would have you believe. Together, they’re a dynamite pair, and that chemistry is at the heart of what makes To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before so special, on top of pitch-perfect direction and a smart script.

2. Love, Simon

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Greg Berlanti's touching teen romance Love, Simon is a landmark movie for LGBTQ+ inclusion -- the first major theatrical studio rom-com about a queer teenager -- but it also happens to be a fantastic little film with great family dynamics, an adorable love story, plenty of teen drama, and even an absorbing bit of mystery. Nick Robinson stars as Simon, a closeted teen who confesses his secrets to a stranger online and finds his perfect match on the other end of the line -- he just doesn't know who it is. Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker's script subverts the standard romcom structure, instead building their film around the mystery of who's on the other end of Simon's confessional emails, with Simon discovering more about himself on his hunt for the truth. Heart-warming and occasionally tear-jerking, Love, Simon hits all the right notes, ultimately delivering an adorable romance and with a great coming-of-age story to match.

1. Crazy Rich Asians

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Image via Warner Bros.

Crazy Rich Asians has it all. A dreamy romance, economic fantasy, exotic locations, and a cast that just doesn’t quit, earning a well-deserved SAG Ensemble nomination this year. Speaking of nominations, leading lady Constance Wu has a Golden Globe nom in her pocket (not to mention the film’s Best Musical or Comedy nomination) for her nuanced, consummately charming performance as Rachel Chu, a New York economics professor who learns her prince charming boyfriend Nick Young is one of the world’s most eligible bachelors when she travels with him to Singapore and learns his family is extravagantly, absurdly wealthy. It doesn’t hurt that Nick is played by 2018 breakout Henry Golding, who established quite the heartthrob foundation this year in this and the tragically underseen A Simple Favor, nor that Nick’s imposing mother is played by the inimitable Michelle Yeah, Add in the sharp direction from Jon Chu, who translates the knack for performative spectacle he demonstrated in Step Up 2 and Catch Me If You Can 2 into transportive romantic fantasy, Crazy Rich Asians is one of the most emotional, engaging, and aesthetically breathtaking romantic comedies ever made.