If you’re anything like me, you’ve possibly already seen Heated Rivalry multiple times (or “Reheated Rivalry” as it’s called by those who agree the show benefits from at least three viewings). But, you know, there comes a time in everyone’s life when they need to move on from these sculptural hockey players embroiled in the longest situationship of all time. There’s a whole world out there—away from little chains banging against chests and intense, smoldering glances—even though it hasn’t felt like it recently.
There are also plenty of on-screen depictions of slow-burn romance that actually manage to do “yearning” even better than Heated Rivalry. Indeed, writer Rachel Reid didn’t invent the will-they-won’t-they genre—though she does a very good job of it. To that end, and if you want something different but basically the same, here are the slow-burn romances that walked so Heated Rivalry could cruise across the ice. And if you’re feeling particularly masochistic, why not just watch them all, one after the other, in no particular order?
Past Lives
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Forgive me for sounding cynical, but I feel like cinematic and genuinely affecting romantic movies are harder to come by in the 2020s, for some reason—maybe because love stories feel culturally out of reach? Bar 2023’s Celine Song-directed Past Lives, of course, which is the favorite film of a large majority of the Vogue office. Following two childhood sweethearts, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who find themselves torn apart by circumstance, chance, and choice, Past Lives is a love story in the purest sense of the word. I watched it twice at the cinema when it came out and remember audience members sobbing.
One Day
Photo: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
