10 Movies that will Make You Feel Really Glad You’re Single
This list is for anyone who needs to put toxic relationships in a proverbial bear suit and light it on fire.
Not all endings are happy. Relationships are messy. People cheat and lie and never communicate. Couples pretend everything is perfect on social media when it’s not.
But guess what? You’re single, so you don’t have to deal with those things! Congratulations: in any given horror movie, your chances of survival went up significantly because you don’t have another person weighing down your decision making!
Don’t believe us? These 10 movies are perfect for anyone who needs a reminder that being single definitely is not a bad thing.
Hamilton’s picks
The Strangers
It takes a lot for a movie to spook me, but this one did it. There are a couple of long-takes in this that are so unnerving and tense that I thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest. It’s the story about a couple who goes away to a vacation home and gets visited by psychopathic serial killers shortly after she rejects his marriage proposal. Literally this whole horrorshow could’ve been avoided if they’d just NOT BEEN TOGETHER. Watch through slatted fingers and sleep with the lights on, even though you know you’re safe because you’re not in the middle of nowhere nursing the tension of an ended relationship…and the killers in your house.
Midsommar
Ari Aster fanboy chiming in. Midsommar was wildly less successfully executed than Hereditary, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, per se. It’s a brutal, shocking exploration of the trauma of an emotionally abusive relationship and the primal joy of watching it go up, quite literally, in flames. If you’re looking for the catharsis of a big, horrific, final ending to something that itself was horrific, this might just be for you.
The Devil Wears Prada
I needed to put something here that isn’t horror-adjacent, even if the Devil is in the title. I’ll put it simply: this is one of the best movies of all time. It’s one of those that, after you see it, you crave it. Meryl Streep is in tip-top form, Emily Blunt is everything, and you want Stanley Tucci to adopt you. But here, you get to watch Andi (Anne Hathaway) shed the trappings of her own naive expectations of herself and the clutches of that genuinely horrible boyfriend, and then, most importantly, NOT TAKE THEM BACK. She finds her own freedom, forges her own path, and steps into the truest, most healthy version of herself. Alright, I want to go watch this again right now.
Get Out
If you haven’t seen Get Out by now, first of all how dare you. Second of all, the LAYERS in this film are an essay (or twenty) in and of themselves. Do you want clever commentary on systemic racism from the perspective of a POC? Check. Do you want a realistic depiction (so I, a white guy, am told) of the tension of being in an interracial relationship in the South? Check. Do you want a reminder of why it’s best to just shut yourself in a room and never speak to anyone ever again lest your soul be evacuated from your body in order to be a vessel for some rich white guy? Triple-check.
Ex Machina
Alex Garland’s brain-twister centers around a sort of backwards Turing Test: he is told that Ava is a complex AI up front. He has to decide whether or not that is true. When Caleb starts finding himself falling for her charms, you get a Big Brain exploration of consciousness, love chemicals, and the liberation that comes from shedding that which locks you up in order to find freedom in full-fledged self-realization …even if you happen to be a robot.
Shelby’s picks:
Ready or Not
Girl marries boy. Boy tells girl she has to play a game with her new family. Girl realizes the game is far more sinister than she could’ve anticipated. I won’t say anything more about this movie, but I guarantee it does not end like you think it will end.
Little Women (2019)
Greta Gerwig intentionally subverts the ending of Lousia May Alcott’s original novel to include the struggles Alcott herself faced when publishing the book. “But whom does she marry?” becomes a moot point by the end of the film, and that’s the whole point. It doesn’t matter. Not a single marriage-based relationship takes precedence in this film, and the ambiguous ending wraps up the theme of the movie with unparalleled elegance.
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Including this movie on this list might be an unintentional spoiler, but the whole film is dedicated to Julia Roberts learning to embrace her singleness despite heartbreak. It might trick you into thinking it’s a rom-com, but don’t be fooled. Also, the karaoke scene with Cameron Diaz bumbling through tone-deafness is iconic.
Moana / Frozen / Brave
All three animated films have at least one female character that subverts the normal Disney princess arc, and all three films ROCK. Moana, Elsa and Merida don’t end their storylines in marriage or with a prince — an important narrative for anyone of any age to remember. (Heck, Merida was originally supposed to win freedom from having to pick from those 3 nerds entirely, but when Pixar fired their only female director, the men changed the ending to her having to eventually marry. UGH. WHY.)
The Color Purple
Celie finds her freedom in leaving her abusive husband, finds comfort in the women in her life, and learns to love herself despite the countless obstacles in her way. Have tissues ready if you’ve never seen this iconic film before. It hurts a whole lot, but you’ll leave the movie inspired and overwhelmed. (Also, it’s Black History Month, so White People please please please watch this movie if you’ve never seen it.)
