Film
You+Me - Against the World
A glossy French romance about the gap between the life you're allowed and the one you actually want. Alma hides her filmmaking dream from a family that expects law; Vadim carries a past he won't explain. Their slow-burn student-film romance unfolds under the gaze of someone with an agenda, giving the swoon a paranoid edge. Good for anyone who wants young love with real stakes.
If you liked this
Call Me by Your Name2017
The gold standard for secret, all-consuming first love — sun-drenched, aching, and unbearably tender, with two performances that make every stolen glance feel like a confession.
But It's slow and mostly interior, with none of the plotted mystery — patience is required, not curiosity.
Cruel Intentions1999
Wealthy families, hidden agendas and a manipulator lurking behind every polite smile — the trashy, delicious ancestor of every 'someone's watching the golden couple' plot.
But Camp and cynical where your film is earnest; the tone is knowing wickedness, not swoon.
Élite2018
Spanish teens, class warfare, and a mystery unraveling in real time — if you liked the campus tension and the sense everyone's hiding something, this scratches the same itch across seasons.
But It escalates into full soap territory fast — murders, cover-ups — far pulpier than a tender romance.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Splendor in the Grass1961
Same engine as your film — a couple squeezed between what their families demand and who they actually are — but made when 'teen romance' as a genre didn't exist, and treated with total seriousness rather than gloss.
Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty as small-town teenagers whose desire collides head-on with family expectation and social judgment — raw, devastating, and decades ahead of its time in taking teenage feeling seriously.
But It's a genuine melodrama from 1961 — slower pacing, big swings of emotion, no irony to hide behind.
More like this (8)
Gossip Girl2007
An anonymous watcher exposing the secrets of rich, beautiful teenagers — almost the same premise, just dialed up into gossip, glamour, and Manhattan excess.
But It's frothier and more cynical, more about status games than genuine feeling.
Pretty Little Liars2010
If the idea of an unseen figure threatening to expose your secrets gave you a chill, this stretches that dread across years, with real emotional stakes underneath the mystery.
But Seven seasons is a huge commitment for what's essentially a very long game of who's-texting-us.
The Fault in Our Stars2014
A tender, hurts-so-good teen romance that isn't afraid to break your heart on purpose — great for the mood after a good cry.
But No thriller undertow at all; it's romance played completely straight, with tragedy instead of mystery.
Twilight2008
A secretive, brooding love interest, a heroine hiding what she really is, a family who can't know the truth — same bones, just wearing fangs instead of a film camera.
But The performances and dialogue are famously wooden; you're here for the mood, not the craft.
LOL (Laughing Out Loud)2009no page yet
French, funny, and warm — a teenage romance with the same Parisian ease and family undercurrents, good comfort viewing if you want something lighter in the same accent.
But It's considerably fluffier and more comedic, with none of the watching-you tension.
The Kissing Booth2018no page yet
Pure mainstream teen romance comfort food — secret relationship, disapproving best friend, all the tropes played completely straight and unembarrassed.
But It's much shallower and safer; nobody's actually threatened here, just mildly inconvenienced.
Whisper of the Heart1995
The same core idea — a hidden artistic passion, a family who thinks you're becoming someone else, a romance built through collaborating on the work itself — just told in Japanese animation instead of French melodrama, with all the threat removed.
A gentle, gorgeously drawn Studio Ghibli film about a girl secretly chasing a creative dream her family doesn't know about, falling for a boy chasing his own — one of the most honest films about ambition and first love ever made.
But It's animated, unhurried, and almost entirely without danger or conflict — a mood piece, not a plot machine.
It Follows2015
Take the 'someone is watching them, determined to destroy them' thread from your film and strip away the romance-drama wrapping — this is that exact anxiety turned into literal, stalking horror, about young people who can never quite feel safe or alone together.
A lean, dread-soaked horror film where something unseen is always coming for a young couple — genuinely unsettling, and one of the smartest horror films of the last decade about the anxiety of being watched.
But It's horror, full stop — if you came for romance and swoon, the constant low-grade terror is a very different evening.
People
Cast
Vittoria Di SavoiaAlma Lancaster
Lucas BarskiVadim Arcadi
Aymeric FougeronBasile Lancaster
Zoé GarciaClémentine
Léo LegrandTimothé Vallas
- Gabrielle TaittingerLily Lancaster
Directing
- Manon GaurinDirector
Writing
- Emma GreenNovel
- Alix LetribotScreenplay
- Éliane VigneronScreenplay
- Manon GaurinScreenplay