It changes, a few years ago it was certain Carry On movies, especially Camping and Up The Khyber. Woody Allen's Sleeper was a favourite, along with Diamonds Are Forever - bizarrely the only "proper" Bond in this list - and also the David Niven version of Casino Royale. At the moment it's Withnail & I, especially when it's cold and raining, and also the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
― snoball, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Dazed & Confused, Jackass
― milo z, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
and Wonder Boys
― milo z, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Dazed & Confused, Trading Places, nearly any b&w
― Granny Dainger, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link
i love having comfort movies. they kinda tend to be a bit on the super escapist side for me tho. first ones that come to mind and have held up for many years:
empire strikes back indiana jones & the raiders of the lost ark die hard aliens bourne identity
used to watch 'purple rose of cairo' and 'annie hall' as comfort movies in my early 20s but when i attempted to watch again a few years ago they did not comfort :/ there are a few go-to jane austen adaptations that i shamelessly go for when needing that kind of comfort. ah and 'shadowlands'
― rrrobyn, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:17 (fifteen years ago) link
and for some reason, this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kPSSviWMg34
― rrrobyn, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Clueless Groundhog Day Beverly Hills Cop Any Harry Potter film
― musically, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:21 (fifteen years ago) link
unnecessary rudeness from milo upthread
― Granny Dainger, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:22 (fifteen years ago) link
spinal tap gremlins alien/aliens of course
― latebloomer, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:24 (fifteen years ago) link
ELF
― jel --, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
my neighbour totoro
― jel --, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:27 (fifteen years ago) link
goonies better off dead
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Except for Bourne Identity (which is great, but I haven't seen enough) this is pretty much my exact list.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Pulp Fiction Heathers
anything by Almodovar with Carmen Maura
― warmsherry, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:29 (fifteen years ago) link
virgin suicides for the yellow color throughout - sunshining through blonde hair etc
― sunny successor, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Big Lebowski, Temple of Doom, Empire Strikes Back, Spinal Tap, Life of Brian, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant.
― chap, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Better off Dead Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club Say Anything Steel Magnolias Kicking and Screaming (the Noah Baumbach one, not the Will Ferell one) Fletch Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation RHPS So I Married an Axe Murderer Big Lebowski
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:33 (fifteen years ago) link
oh totally word on this, could watch x 5mil
― rrrobyn, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Also:
Buckaroo Banzai Big Trouble in Little China
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Any Miyazaki from Castle In the Sky on will do for me.
― chap, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link
rushmore, starship troopers, tons of HK action shit, film noir stuff, totoro
― omar little, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't do this anymore
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:44 (fifteen years ago) link
how come?
― Surmounter, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Dazed & Confused, Rushmore, A Woman Is A Woman
― C. Grisso/McCain, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Can't Hardly Wait Dazed and Confused Fast Times at Ridgemont High Sixteen Candles Empire Records
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:45 (fifteen years ago) link
OK I have to add Can't Hardly Wair, Rushmore, and Empire Records now too.
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:47 (fifteen years ago) link
SHALLOW HAL
― Surmounter, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Too long a list. I tend to put them on as background.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Sliding Doors
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 17:49 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Deric W. Haircare, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
The Big Lebowski Anchorman The 40 Year Old Virgin Trainspotting
― Finefinemusic, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:20 (fifteen years ago) link
oh, and High Fidelity!
ENBB, yes to Empire Records!!
trainspotting is a big one too
― sunny successor, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
repo man
― omar little, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:23 (fifteen years ago) link
god of cookery, shaolin soccer, kung fu hustle
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.
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Mishima, M, Kikujiro, Spartacus, Zéro de conduite, lots and lots of others. Movies in general are comforting I think.
― Noodle Vague, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post Also I love Ethan Embry in that movie. Sadly he has not aged well.
Kung Fu Hustle - yes!
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― lauren, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
casino royale (2007)
― omar little, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link
miller's crossing
bullitt
ENBB did you know that in some countries Empire Records was called "Rock and Fun"?
― sunny successor, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link
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!
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:32 (fifteen years ago) link
well i think movies are just kind of comforting. i mean unless you're watching like The Piano Teacher or something.
― Surmounter, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
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).
― snoball, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Ok - I can't believe I didn't think of this until now but Waiting for Guffman.
― ENBB, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― snoball, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― jhøshea, Monday, 7 July 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
At the worst of my drinking, I slept through Inglorious Basterds and Hot Tub Time Machine . . . in the theater. I suppose that doesn't count as napping.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:06 (four months ago) link
Clue took this spot for me this year. A perfect cozy movie to fall asleep to or put on in the background while I do chores, but I can still watch it any time and feel joy.
Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U have also been making their way into my regular rotation.
― peace, man, Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:09 (four months ago) link
Roadhouse is a big one for me
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:10 (four months ago) link
The Shop Around the Corner is one I go back to like a wooly blanket every sad drunken Christmas
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:14 (four months ago) link
i've been trying to hold off watching Sion Sono's Love and Peace until it's actually December but this might be the evening i crack
― Honnest Brish Face (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:17 (four months ago) link
last posted to this thread 13 years ago, jesus
Since then, Rogue One and Zodiac. also Someone Great, a Netflix not-quite-rom-com I love but no one else seems to have watched.
― Roz, Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:17 (four months ago) link
Ohhhh, you know what completely out of left field thing I watched somewhat recently and kind of loved and that will never get a mention anywhere else? The 1989 Jackée Harry television movie The Reluctant Agent (aka Double Your Pleasure, which sounds like something that has like 400% more anal than this movie). Prime cinematic alpha waves.
― It is a disgusting... (Old Lunch), Thursday, 30 November 2023 15:26 (four months ago) link
Better off DeadSixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast ClubSay AnythingSteel MagnoliasKicking and Screaming (the Noah Baumbach one, not the Will Ferell one)FletchVacation, European Vacation, Christmas VacationRHPSSo I Married an Axe MurdererBig Lebowski
― ENBB, Monday, July 7, 2008 1:33 PM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflagl
I haven't watched any of these in years but I will say that I've been fuming all week because I really want to watch Better Off Dead and it's not available streaming.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:11 (four months ago) link
Scenes from a Marriage
― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:12 (four months ago) link
the third man and picnic at hanging rock. both of them lull me into a nice place
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:17 (four months ago) link
The Big Lebowski is both my favorite comfort movie and my favorite movie, period.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:20 (four months ago) link
It's the best.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:21 (four months ago) link
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.
We both laughed hysterically when she told me this story, without ever mentioning Lebowski.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 30 November 2023 16:28 (four months ago) link
Mike Leigh's Another Year
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 30 November 2023 19:46 (four months ago) link
All Peter Hyams’ films, but especially Running Scared (1986) w/ Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 30 November 2023 20:40 (four months ago) link
School of Rock. First time I saw it was on a flight to Australia. I watched it four times.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 30 November 2023 21:46 (four months ago) link
otm love that one, good feels!
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 1 December 2023 01:15 (four months ago) link
yeah School of Rock holds up so well, it's my kid's fave too
― Roz, Friday, 1 December 2023 01:41 (four months ago) link
Ancient show biz wisdom says never work with kids or dogs because they'll always upstage you, but Jack Black needed all of that kind of help he could get.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 1 December 2023 01:48 (four months ago) link
This is kind of an alien concept for me, maybe because most of my favourite films are more entertaining to think about than to watch.
My ideal for "comfort viewing" is a TV show that ran every night in the late 80s, chronicling a real-time drive into downtown Toronto, to the tune of laidback jazz; but anything like unedited aquarium or outdoor camera footage conveys the same pleasant atmosphere (I don't like watching fireplace footage though).
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 1 December 2023 18:49 (four months ago) link
Lol I love the yuke log channel. We had a fireplace in the den and I'd still put that on TV growing up.
I think now I have comfort TV shows rather than movies and the biggest of those is, without question, The Golden Girls.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 1 December 2023 19:42 (four months ago) link
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).
― Great-Tasting Burger Perceptions (Old Lunch), Friday, 1 December 2023 20:09 (four months ago) link
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.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 1 December 2023 20:10 (four months ago) link
My comfort show is MASH, probably because I used to watch it with my mother and brother.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 1 December 2023 20:11 (four months ago) link
This is Spinal Tap!
― a very very unfair (Neanderthal), Friday, 1 December 2023 20:12 (four months ago) link
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.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 1 December 2023 20:17 (four months ago) link
for fans of slow tv this is an all time classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dHETOyiE6U
― Honnest Brish Face (Noodle Vague), Friday, 1 December 2023 20:45 (four months ago) link
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.
― Great-Tasting Burger Perceptions (Old Lunch), Friday, 1 December 2023 21:57 (four months ago) link
Donald Sutherland scene in JFK
― orifex, Friday, 1 December 2023 22:46 (four months ago) link
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.
― Hideous Lump, Friday, 1 December 2023 23:00 (four months ago) link
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.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 5 December 2023 21:11 (four months ago) link
Bad News mfing Bearscould watch this damn movie a thousand times and never love it any less so great
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 4 February 2024 00:20 (two months ago) link
Englebert
There's chocolate all over this ball
― never trust a big book and a simile (Neanderthal), Sunday, 4 February 2024 03:07 (two months ago) link
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.
― ryan, Sunday, 4 February 2024 03:12 (two months ago) link
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.
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Sunday, 4 February 2024 04:41 (two months ago) link
The Martian, round our way
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 February 2024 15:46 (two months ago) link
Wonder Boys
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 4 February 2024 19:57 (two months ago) link
Frances Ha
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 5 February 2024 09:34 (two months ago) link
Everybody Wants Some
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Monday, 5 February 2024 13:03 (two months ago) link
Hopscotch Let It Ride (Richard Dreyfuss horse movie)To Be or Not to Be
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 5 February 2024 13:16 (two months ago) link
hopscotch is so good
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 5 February 2024 17:01 (two months ago) link
Moneyball
― na (NA), Monday, 5 February 2024 17:26 (two months ago) link
is every baseball movie a comfort movie? we just got bad news bears, everybody wants some! and moneyball
― na (NA), Monday, 5 February 2024 17:27 (two months ago) link
His Girl FridayThe Maltese FalconCluny BrownThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie TootsieManhattan Murder MysteryFrances Ha
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 5 February 2024 17:27 (two months ago) link
xp baseball is definitely the "comfort movie" of sports
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Monday, 5 February 2024 17:31 (two months ago) link