It’s not spring, but love is still in the air here at Watch With Us.
2026 has been a terrific year for romantic comedies, and we want to spread the gospel of love by highlighting three exceptional rom-coms with great Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Voicemails for Isabelle is a serious rom-com about a grieving sister who finds love with a stranger played by Love, Simon’s Nick Robinson.
2026’s other great love stories include newcomers like Alien: Romulus’ Spike Fearn and Mare in Easttown’s Angourie Rice and established stars like Alexander Skarsgård and Zoey Deutch.
3. ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ (2026)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88 percent
Jill (Deutch) has a lot going on in life right now. She’s an aspiring baker barely getting by in San Francisco, and her love life leaves a lot to be desired. More importantly, she’s still not over her younger sister Isabelle’s death and continues to leave her detailed voicemails about her life as a coping mechanism. Unbeknownst to her, Isabelle’s phone number now belongs to Wes (Nick Robinson), an Austin real estate agent who can’t help listening to Jill’s digital confessions. He falls head over heels in love with her, but how can she reciprocate when she doesn’t even know he exists?
Voicemails for Isabelle has a premise that stretches credibility, but it works because the writer-director, Leah McKendrick, commits fully to the bit. She could’ve played it for laughs, and while the film does have humor, it’s surprisingly serious about Jill and Wes’s romance — and Jill’s grieving process after her sister’s untimely death. Combine all that with some gorgeous on-location shooting in San Francisco, and you’ve got the rare Netflix original rom-com that is actually a decent film. Any love story that ends with Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” is a winner in my book, and the critics agreed by giving it a higher-than-expected Rotten Tomatoes score.
Voicemails for Isabelle is streaming on Netflix.
2. ‘Finding Emily’ (2026)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 89 percent
At a party one night, Owen (Fearn) meets the girl of his dreams, university student Emily, and gets her phone number. It’s only the day after that he realizes her number is missing a digit, which prevents him from contacting her. Desperate, he posts flyers all over the school’s campus to find her. He sort of succeeds by catching the attention of another Emily (Rice), a third-year psychology student who needs a case study for her thesis on how romantic attachments cause people to do irrational things. She agrees to help him but doesn’t reveal why, and he accepts without realizing she might be the Emily he needs in his life.
Finding Emily was dumped in the dog days of August, so it didn’t get the attention it deserved. Critics loved it, though, and you will, too. It’s a breezy film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and Fearn has a shaggy-dog appeal that makes you want to see his gawky hero end up with the Emily of his dreams. Stay tuned for the end credits, which doubles as a music video with Fearn singing an original song and a postscript showing what happens to all the characters.
Finding Emily is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and other digital vendors.
1. ‘Pillion’ (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 99 percent
Colin (Harry Potter’s Harry Melling) and Ray (Skarsgård) are a typical opposites-attract couple — Colin is shy and ordinary-looking, while Ray is handsome and an extrovert — but their love story is anything but. Both are fully immersed in a BDSM subculture, where Ray is a dominant partner and Colin is a submissive. Ray’s rules are strict — they can have sex with each other, but any kind of intimacy is off the table. But Colin is a traditional romantic, and he desires more than just handjobs and rough sex — he wants true love, and that’s something Ray might be able to give.
Pillion’s clever marketing campaign touted the film as cinema’s first “rom-dom,” and while it features explicit sex acts and full-frontal, albeit obviously prosthetic, nudity, it’s a surprisingly tender romantic drama about the intimate awakening of both men. Colin’s new to sex, but he’s willing to try new things to please his lover. Ray isn’t so brave, and he’s reluctant to let Colin in for reasons only he knows. Pillion has an almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, higher than Oscar-winning films like Oppenheimer and Anora’s critical scores, and it is one of the most original and affecting love stories of the last decade.
Pillion is streaming on HBO Max.
