2025 is proving to be Dakota Johnson‘s year for romance movies. From a movie that got an 8-minute-long standing ovation at Cannes to a movie that made 30 million dollars globally at the box office, the actress has been having a solid year so far.
These successes come after a dry year that’s marked by the underappreciated Daddio, where she’s cast opposite Sean Penn, and the most disappointing Madame Web.
However, another romance movie starring Johnson came out last year, between Madame Web and Daddio, but it flew under everyone’s radar due to the lack of marketing and hype. 2 years after its premiere at Sundance, Am I OK? was discreetly released on Max in 2024. Over the years, Johnson has actually quietly been racking up many romance movie credits.
Some of Dakota Johnson’s best movies are romance films, suggesting that the actress may have found a niche, even though many of the recent romance films have been indie movies that didn’t make a significant impact. She will also be forever á´€ssociated with the genre due to the publicity generated by the Fifty Shades franchise, which features her breakout role.
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Fifty Shades of Grey‘s reputation precedes it, and it’s somehow worse than what that reputation would lead you to believe. Marketed as the most taboo and dark romantic film of all time, it struggles to create even one scene with unadulterated eroticism because of its ill-conceived characters whose dialogue doesn’t just sound unrealistic and over-the-top, but also makes them insufferable.
Fifty Shades of Grey is Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan’s highest-grossing movie ever, because its promotional tour hyped up the supposed illicit nature and the explicitness of the material. However, the cast lacks chemistry, and the movie’s trying too hard to seem darker than it is. It disappoints even in the aspect it’s known for, because it plays too safe.
Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
What makes Fifty Shades Freed better than Fifty Shades of Grey is the knowledge that there are no more of these movies to follow. Fifty Shades of Grey did fail to breathe life into the thematic journey of Dakota’s Anastasia from losing innocence to finding whatever form of empowerment the film claims to champion, but it at least makes sense.
In Fifty Shades Freed, romance is merely a generic backdrop. There are action setpieces, elaborate schemes, and Anastasia is caught in a crime drama, somehow still not making the reasonable decision to finally leave Dornan’s Christian behind and save herself. Fifty Shades Freed is still an improvement because the leads’ lack of chemistry makes the other unnecessary subplots more interesting.
Fifty Shades Darker (2017)
No one needed a sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, but James Foley brought the characters back, thus immediately undoing the impact of Anastasia choosing to leave at the end of the first film, which is arguably its only positive aspect. However, Fifty Shades Freed is arguably the best in this romance trilogy, where romance plays a consistently dwindling role.
Among the many changes the movies made to the Fifty Shades books is reducing the extent of Christian and Anastasia’s fight in Fifty Shades Freed, but that is set up by the random reconclilation in Fifty Shades Darker, which is unironically better than both films because of the unintentional comedy in most of its scenes, especially the infamous helicopter scene.
Beastly (2011)
While 2017’s Beauty and the Beast may feature one of the worst changes made to Disney live-action remake movies, this reinterpretation of the fairy tale from 2011 will always be there to make its changes look tame in comparison. Beastly is based on Alex Flinn’s novel of the same name, and is most famous for featuring Mary-Kate Olsen’s final role.
Alex Pettyfer plays an arrogant man who unknowingly bullies a witch and is transformed into a bald, scarred, and tattooed version of himself. His curse can only be removed if he finds love. Vanessa Hudgens plays this love interest. It’s a wildly unserious romance movie that’s so bad it might be good. Dakota Johnson plays a minor role in it.
Persuasion (2022)
Being in a Jane Austen film adaptation makes you a bona fide romance movie star, and Dakota Johnson can boast of such an acting credit to her name, but Persuasion is as much an adaptation as it is a complete reinterpretation, making it a messy mixture of modern sensibilities and trademark Austenism that thinks it’s more effective than it is.
Persuasion has a meager 30% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film’s attempt to modernize the classic misfires because the dialogue doesn’t fit in the period setting. Despite Dakota Johnson’s most sincere efforts as the female lead, the characters in the film feel disingenuous and forcefully incorporated into a story that still carries some narrative force due to being relatively faithful to Austen’s final novel, albeit with confusing new details.
How To Be Single (2016)
Dakota Johnson, Alison Brie, Rebel Wilson, and Leslie Mann star in How To Be Single, one of the many romcoms streaming on Hulu, as four single women with different approaches to being single. One is a party girl who doesn’t want a steady relationship, while another is still trying to get over her ex and another hunts for the one.
Despite the combined comedic talents of its cast, the romcom falls flat because many of its gags don’t land. Its switchup of the genre is refreshing, and it has the perfect soundtrack, but it’s mostly forgettable. While the premise is promising, the film, despite a few funny moments, doesn’t dig deep enough to make meaningful observations about urban dating cultures.
The Five-Year Engagement (2012)
At the hands of Judd Apatow, any premise, regardless of how unconventional, carries a romantic beating heart, and this ensemble romcom from 2012 feels like an artifact of a lost era that’s finally attempting a comeback with major stars doing romantic movies today once more. While it bombed at the box office, The Five-Year Engagement deserves to be remembered fondly.
Jason Segel and Emily Blunt play an engaged couple who keep postponing their marriage over excuses of varying validity. While the premise sounds promising, the film drags in the middle before rewarding viewers for their patience. It’s one of Chris Pratt’s best non-MCU movies and has enough of his trademark, if tired, comedic moments. Johnson only has a minor role.
Am I OK? (2022)
Am I OK? follows Dakota Johnson’s Lucy after she comes out as gay in her 30s. When her friend Jane announces she’s moving for a job opportunity, she comes out in a moment of vulnerability, and the film depicts how their friendship is affected by Lucy grappling with being out later in life and Jane needing to leave the city.
Am I OK? is directed by Stephanie Allyne and Tig Notaro, who are married in real life.
Johnson is again a revelation, like she is in comedies, skirting the line between awkwardly funny and sincerely heartbroken. However, despite her fantastic performance, the film fails to entirely hit the mark because the ending of Am I OK? is too neat for the authentically messy story that’s interested in character moments, but pulls its punches at the last moment.
Materialists (2025)
The talk of the town is this overlooked summer romance by Celine Song, unfairly dismissed as “broke man propaganda” by many. Dakota Johnson plays a New York City matchmaker who struggles to find stability in her own dating life, even as she finds spouses for some of her clients. Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans play her two love interests.
All three actors give honest performances, even though Evans is the standout, and Dakota is underwhelming at times. The film jumps back and forth between drama and comedy too many times, but it still tells a compelling romance story, characterized by a heartwarming ending that embraces a direction that the genre used to champion once but has shied from recently.
The High Note (2020)
The High Note can feel overwhelming with its deep dive into the power dynamics and the culture of misuse that can be found at every level in the music industry, but the likable and relatable characters, and the sincere performances, especially by Tracee Ellis Ross, keep you invested in the story, and you inevitably start rooting for some of them.
The romantic subplot in The High Note is also compelling because of the chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Kelvin Harrison Jr., but the highlight is on Johnson. She’s truly the best when acting in comedies, and while Ross delivers the more compelling performance here, Johnson’s charm makes you believe in her character and her journey as an aspiring music producer.
