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, as well as Phoenix's final film which released during his lifetime. 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.