comfort movies

I don't do this anymore

how come?

Dazed & Confused, Rushmore, A Woman Is A Woman

Can't Hardly Wait
Dazed and Confused
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sixteen Candles
Empire Records

OK I have to add Can't Hardly Wair, Rushmore, and Empire Records now too.

SHALLOW HAL

Too long a list. I tend to put them on as background.

Sliding Doors

A lot of Altman stuff (esp. California Split and The Long Goodbye), The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, Head, Rock N' Roll High School, Eraserhead (strangely enough), Running on Empty.

The Big Lebowski
Anchorman
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Trainspotting

oh, and High Fidelity!

ENBB, yes to Empire Records!!

trainspotting is a big one too

repo man

god of cookery, shaolin soccer, kung fu hustle

ENBB, yes to Empire Records!!

I haven't seen it in so long! I should rectify that.

I was at a club once in LA and realized that the guy DJing was the long haired musician guy from ER and I was drunk enough that I totally went up to him and asked if it was him. It was and he gave me a CD. /boring story.

Mishima, M, Kikujiro, Spartacus, Zéro de conduite, lots and lots of others. Movies in general are comforting I think.

x-post Also I love Ethan Embry in that movie. Sadly he has not aged well.

Kung Fu Hustle - yes!

Kicking and Screaming (the Noah Baumbach one, not the Will Ferell one)

yes!

also: metropolitan, some kind of wonderful, kitty foyle, withnail and i, sixteen candles, parenthood, the secret life of walter mitty, la jetee

casino royale (2007)

miller's crossing

bullitt

ENBB did you know that in some countries Empire Records was called "Rock and Fun"?

AH - how could I have forgotten some kind of wonderful? I should count withnail too I think.

It turns out that I have a lot of comfort movies.

Sunny I did not know that but from now on that's what I'm going to call it. That's great - ha!

well i think movies are just kind of comforting. i mean unless you're watching like The Piano Teacher or something.

The Great Escape, even though it's shown every Christmas anyway. I suppose that it's a comfort because the plot is so familiar, also so many great lines ("I can see... really I can!" trips over James Garner). And while on a Pleasence tip, Fantastic Voyage, and also You Only Live Twice (OK then, that's two - and a half - Bond movies in my list).

Ok - I can't believe I didn't think of this until now but Waiting for Guffman.

The Italian Job (original version), which I'd forgotten about despite it being here on the shelf next to me. And it may not exactly be a movie, more of a documentary, but I used to watch ABBA: The Movie over and over.

I just recently realized that whenever I feel really down I feel like watching "The Thin Red Line" oddly enough. Not for the plot but the general sound, look, and ambience of it.

-- ryan, Monday, July 7, 2008 12:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

malick in general make sense - theres something v calming abt the contemplative qualities of his movies

i dont have any comfort movies that ill go so far as to put on but def if i stumble across them on tv i can get into it. awsome 80s comedies back to the future ferris bueller fletch and all sorts of spy/thriller type shit. i have a feeling in a few years time i will have seen the bourne movies 1mx

North By Northwest

Joy Luck Club, Muriel's Wedding, Ryan's Daughter - weepy shit like dat

Usually, this is what I use DVDs of TV shows for... Simpsons, Joy of Painting, et al.

But Wet Hot American Summer is one I can always put in and half watch.

It'll always be a new film. I really dislike rewatching films - when there is so much potential greatness (or rubbish) out there. I was in a bit of a funk a few weeks ago, went to see Mongol, and it cheered me up more than any rewatching of Zoolander would.

Cool Hand Luke

less than zero

Dude, Where's My Car?. I got it as a birthday present when I was 21 or 22, and I've watched it at least 10 times ever since. That movie has whole microcosm in it.

As for older movies, I guess this kind of a cliche, but It's a Wonderful World. They show it on Finnish telly every Christmas, and I've tried to watch it every year since I was 15, though I have missed a few times. I still cry every time I see it. This is basically the most Christmassy thing I do every year, because I don't have family Christmas or anything.

Oh, and Totoro, yes, absolutely! One of the most calm and soothing movies ever, it's bound to put you in a more peaceful state of mind.

you mean Its a Wonderful Life, right?

Yeah, that one, sorry about the typo.

this has been an interesting thread for me, how readily I can scan thru these lists and quickly identify those movies that tend to have a pleasant narcotic effect, and others that I disqualify because for one reason or another they induce/recall some sort of anxiety for me. Not sure why for many of them, though.

but

Clueless
Groundhog Day
Beverly Hills Cop
Any Harry Potter film

-- musically, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:21 (1 hour ago) Link

OTM

oh yeah, Less Than Zero, too!

Less than zero is so bad it's good but is actually so bad that I really kind of wish they would remake it and I don't say that about many movies. Sorry if that didn't make any sense. Too much caffeine. Argh.

miller's crossing

-- omar little, Monday, July 7, 2008 2:29 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yesss

Wow, nobody else's are even in the same genre, or same half of the last century, as mine. The only films I find endlessly rewatchable and comforting are musicals: Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland in "Summer Stock," and all the Busby Berkeley stuff, esp. "The Gang's All Here." Chorines waving bananas = comfort!

it is b/c you are special

Solaris

ohwhoa i can't believe i forgot to say, and no one else has said:

Bladerunner

Stand By Me

if i didn't, i should have said When Harry Met Sally (all time)

and still my best friend's wedding. it's like a vacation every time

hannah & her sisters

the great escape

any classic "up all night" movie like dazed & confused (noticed a lot of ppl chose that one)

xpost Along those same lines, I have been known to watch (at least parts of) those ridiculously long real-time YT videos of train trips through foreign locales. Super soothing and satisfying (but also intersting to see all the off the beaten path scenery).

Oh, yes, train videos. I can watch them for hours, particularly if it's a video of a really long trip. There is one about the train that goes between north and south Australia that is like video therapy.

My comfort show is MASH, probably because I used to watch it with my mother and brother.

This is Spinal Tap!

The first Paw Patrol movie, I must've seen it a dozen times now with the small one, but it's pretty good! I look forward to watching it. Encanto too.

for fans of slow tv this is an all time classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dHETOyiE6U

OMG, yes. My first thought was 'please tell me they didn't tack music or dopey narration onto this work of beauty' and they thankfully listened to my unspoken prayers.

Donald Sutherland scene in JFK

The Dave's Walks channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goFD-F8RrgA

No talking, no music, just an hour or so roaming the villages and countryside of England. He's got about 170 videos at this point.

The best way I can describe my connection to this movie is by relating a story my daughter told me. She is a tow truck driver who does a lot of impound work. The police recovered this guy's car. He seemed really put out and asked them if they were going to dust it for prints.

Even better: he also asked if they were going to get DNA evidence, since apparently the kids who boosted it left it in the parking lot of a McDonald's.

Bad News mfing Bears

could watch this damn movie a thousand times and never love it any less

so great

Englebert

There's chocolate all over this ball

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011). Fits all the hallmarks: consistent low key vibe, killer ensemble cast, a little bit melancholy, strong sense of time and place.

Started watching Dario Argento's Inferno but it was moving slower than a Robert Wilson opera, so I re-watched Abel Ferrara's King of New York instead.

The Martian, round our way

Wonder Boys

Frances Ha

Everybody Wants Some

Hopscotch
Let It Ride (Richard Dreyfuss horse movie)
To Be or Not to Be

hopscotch is so good

Moneyball

is every baseball movie a comfort movie? we just got bad news bears, everybody wants some! and moneyball

His Girl Friday
The Maltese Falcon
Cluny Brown
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie
Tootsie
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Frances Ha

xp baseball is definitely the "comfort movie" of sports