The Thing Called Love is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Samantha Mathis as Miranda Presley, a young musician who tries to make it big in Nashville. River Phoenix, Dermot Mulroney and Sandra Bullock also star. While the film involves a love triangle and various complications in Miranda's route to success, it provides a sweetened glimpse at the lives of aspiring songwriters in Nashville. Its tagline is: "Stand by your dream".

The film was Phoenix's final complete screen performance before his death. Bogdanovich called the movie "a little picture with a slightly meandering French quality."A "making of" documentary is available on the film's DVD release, titled The Thing Called Love: A Look Back.