12 of the best… Feel Good Movies.

January can be a hard month. Brexit is coming, the Bills are piling high, it’s freezing cold, dark, and everything feels uphill. There is only one solution: Go to your happy place!

As always, this list is a starting point in the conversation, not a definitive rundown. Please feel free to comment and suggest something better. If it makes you happy, it’s worth a mention!

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The joy of Some Like It Hot is very simple: Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane is so utterly gorgeous you can’t take your eyes off her. Add to that the comic genius of Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis in wigs, and the fun never stops! Pre-empting film style by a whole generation, Billy Wilder gave us a film of such pace and relentless laughs that it always feels about an hour long and is over way too soon. A film with characters so good we want to be with them forever!

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Skipping forward 28 years, John Hughes’ jewel in the crown owes a lot to Billy Wilder. It also borrows from every genre in the book. Reflecting its charming protagonist, this film is smart – so much smarter than it first appears. It allows you to be part of it from the very start, directing dialogue right at you out of the screen, and hopes you get every wink, nod and irreverent moment. We’ve all been teenagers, we all sing in the shower, we all lied to our parents, we all wished we could join a parade as guest of honour and drive a Ferrari into a ditch! Cool but geeky. Great music, great laughs, great dialogue, and the character Matthew Broderick will always be. An influence on every teen movie worth its salt ever since!

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“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Need I say more? Well, yes, a lot more. Because the joy of The Princess Bride is almost infinite! Told as a fairytale to a boy sick in bed, who doesn’t like the slushy stuff, until he finds he can’t do without it. Peter Falk as the grandfather anchors this contender for most uplifting film ever made, but it is the detail of the epic love story between Buttercup and Wesley where we find true joy. Swashbuckling, charming, surreal and incredibly funny at every turn – it is possible to point to almost every minute as your favourite bit. The one film I would insist parents show their children. I have heard many people say this is their favourite film of all time, and I am not going to argue with that. Almost crying talking about it; do you want your romance to be above reality? As you wish.

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The film that made us realise Tom Hanks wasn’t just a goon, but had some really big acting chops! Personally, I think this should have been his first Oscar; so perfect is his body / age swap interpretation (that was in vogue but never matched at the time) that you can see the younger Josh at all times during this wonderful performance. So much fun, but always grounded in the idea that being a grown up is horrible, and we shouldn’t do it! There is the iconic giant piano playing; the shimy, shimy, cocopop song, the trampoline sleepover and the white tux caviar scenes, amongst so many good moments. In the end it is his mother’s joy to have him back that breaks the heart!

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Let’s be straight: Mrs Doubtfire has faults. It is sentimental, uneven and at times a bit dull, actually. That said, there is one thing that lifts it, and that is, of course, Robin Williams. He exudes personality, and it could be argued this was the peak of his comedy improv powers, as far as his film career was concerned. It is no Tootsie, which it naturally owes a huge deal to, but it does have immense charm all of it’s own, thanks to the key scenes of William’s empathy and caring, that you just can’t fake. So satisfying as both a comedy and a family film that forces us to think about the lighter side of a break-up, where the children are the most important thing. Lots of feels, tons of interesting comment on roles within gender.

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Oh, look… 4 years later and a different Robin Williams. What is the difference? Well, Matt Damon for one thing. This is perhaps the most serious of the feel good films, riding that boundary boldly and without apology. I was obsessed with this film when it hit its Oscar vibe. I wanted it to win everything, such was its impact on me, and still is. No moment in cinema is more likely to break me than “It’s not your fault“. I am not sure I have ever seen it outside of the cinema without taking a pause there… Minnie Driver made two good films, this and Grosse Point Blank. And in this she is perfectly cast. The feel good factor comes from enduring the pain and seeing it to its conclusion, as Damon rides into the gloom to chase his girl. Perhaps the most satisfying end credits of all time! Just watch him drive towards happiness…

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“What boys do ballet?” One of my favourite memories of being in a cinema. It was The Filmhouse, Edinburgh, and we had heard this was getting good reviews, but were less than keen. From the first needle drop on T-Rex, through London Calling and The Jam, as Billy explores his passion for dance and expression in the face of Northern English prejudice and fear, I was in rapture! Julie Walters is the cornerstone performance-wise, but the immediate screen presence of Jamie Bell as Billy is undeniable. It reminds me so much of my own story that it will never fail to remain special. The feel good takes a while, and comes with lots of painful moments. But… when dad and brother witness that final moment… goosebumps on goosebumps!

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Where to start in one of the most perfect films ever realised? The photography and colours are an artwork enough to make this a classic. Then there is the music of Yann Tiersen, so French, so romantic, so tinged with sadness in just the right way. It is a love story. But a love story about fear and shyness; about moments of melting and regret. A film about people and their history and passion, and failures. A film about the heart beating against all odds. A nostalgic film, but a very modern one too (in 2001); a feminist film, with a powerful message against looking backward too much! We can’t help but feel every melancholy cry of Amélie’s wonderful soul as she looks for love and fears it may never appear. If your eyes are dry at the end, then you are broken.

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A stunning film of disfunction and family values, where every character has a different quirk contributing to failure and unhappiness, brought together by young Olive, who just wants her moment in the spotlight. A pithy commentary on America in the early 21st Century, that relies on pathos and and a very modern sense of individuality to mine its comedy. A sequence of powerful monologues and a road trip that always looks like failing; the pay-off in Little Miss Sunshine is seeing the value of hope against all odds. Even when that hope is hinged on something ultimately so trivial. It makes me laugh and yearn for them to “win” so much! And the coup de grace is the way they win and come back together. Forgiveness x innocence = Joy.

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This is not a love story, that is made very clear. It is a boy meets girl story. It is a boy loves girl story. And there it diverges. Some of the best moments of this film are not in the comedy or cuteness, which are abundant, but in the darker moments of sadness and self-discovery that are painful and harsh. Amidst an amazing soundtrack, and lead performances of utter charm, this is a story about growing up. Tom wants romance, he wants love, he wants happiness. What he finds is disappointment, disillusion and let-down on every level. So, why does it feel so good? Because the writing transcends the idea of every love story ever told on the silver screen and reminds you that, in the end, Autumn follows Summer and that is exactly how it should be. Love yourself and let the rest fall away with a wistful smile.

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Chemistry. It can’t be bought, on screen or off. At the time of Silver Linings, we pretty much knew what a talent Jennifer Lawrence was, but Bradley Cooper was still an unknown, having made a string of bad to awful films where we didn’t get to see what he was really all about as an actor. The director too, despite some interesting efforts hadn’t really nailed it yet. So the joy of this one is seeing it all come together! Nothing is more satisfying than an underdog story that lets you believe it just isn’t going to happen. And then to see the fairytale distilled into reminding you it was never about winning, it was about moving forward and really loving someone for who they truly are, not what they can give. A modern love story that rings true and deserves multiple re-watches.

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I have gone on quite a bit about this one recently. I just think it is wonderful, and by far the best and least mawkishly sentimental work from Richard Curtis, of Love, Actually infamy. It makes me laugh so hard; the perfect awkwardness of Domhnal Gleason against the cute intelligence of Rachel McAdams; the exquisite turn by Bill Nighy as the time travelling father; and every small character and very British nuance in-between – it is such a pleasure. It also makes me cry… a lot! What I like about it is that it feels exactly like being in love. Exactly! There will be regret and pain, but in the end there is that one person that gets you and always will. And that idea… feels good!

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I hope this list provides some inspiration to break the blues and see the best in life. Thanks again for visiting The Wasteland. Shares, likes and comments spread the joy! This post has been a work in progress, and needs a secondary 12 that nearly made it… Your suggestions could be persuasive…

Shantih Kx