CULTURED Ranks 11 Messiest On-Screen Couples from Film History

CULTURED magazine published a listicle on June 18, 2026, ranking the 11 messiest couples ever seen on the big screen. The article, illustrated with film stills from Getty Images and studio archives, spans from 1940 to 2026. It includes archetypal screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940) with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell; toxic drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; polyamory farce Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with Elliott Gould and Natalie Wood; queer romcom The Wedding Banquet (1993) directed by Ang Lee; Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together (1997) with Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai; pastiche Down With Love (2003) starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor; family drama The Kids Are All Right (2010) with Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo; period romance Phantom Thread (2017) featuring Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps; period comedy The Favourite (2018) with Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone; tennis love triangle Challengers (2023) starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist; and the recent release The Drama (2026) with Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. The article frames messy couples as reflections of cultural shifts in gender, sexuality, work, and monogamy, noting that films like The Drama and Olivia Wilde's The Invite (opening June 26, 2026) continue the tradition.