Sad Movies I Can Never Watch Again
The Devil Wears Prada
I accept a clutch of comfort-blanket movies, only this is currently my favourite, and I blush to recollect I once derided it. Meryl Streep is imperishably enjoyable in this adaptation of Lauren Weisberger'due south novel, reportedly inspired past Anna Wintour. Anne Hathaway plays the callow higher grad who flukes a task at the colossally prestigious style magazine Runway, edited by Streep's terrifying Miranda Priestly, the boss from hell. Stanley Tucci is wonderful as her long-serving, longsuffering senior executive and this was the film that launched the elegant Emily Blunt on the earth, every bit the super-snobbish fashionista who is to be Hathaway'south unwilling guide. Peter Bradshaw, Guardian film critic
The Apartment
I've been drawn towards old greats recently and have watched The Apartment quite a few times. Billy Wilder is a favourite of mine subsequently Cameron Crowe graciously introduced me to his films. Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon just have me laughing and crying every time. I love this film and so much information technology has become like a family friend. Information technology gives me hope and inspires me. The respect for dearest blows me away. Samantha Morton, actor
Radio Days
My become-to comfort movie is always Radio Days, Woody Allen's glorious, crazy, nostalgic kaleidoscope of warmth and humanity, hilarity and sadness. With its enormous cast of beautifully realised character performances and its succulent cornucopia of popular 1940s music, it resonates with my showbiz experiences and evokes my own postwar provincial Jewish babyhood. It'south similar watching a home movie. I love it. Mike Leigh, director
Dancehall Queen
Anyone who knows me knows that I am deeply Jamaican. Thus, my comfort film is Dancehall Queen. Set in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, it's a rags-to-riches indie pic in which Marcia, a struggling street vendor trying to raise two children, must boxing all sorts of adversity to get the reigning dancehall queen – all while hiding her identity. Information technology's perfect. Candice Carty-Williams , author
The Amazing Mr Blunden
Lionel Jeffries fabricated this adorable film in 1972 equally a kind of follow-up to The Railway Children, but information technology has practically vanished from history. It's basically The Railway Children, but with ghosts. Ii children, exiled to a land house, go friends with ghost children of their own age. Then they go back in fourth dimension to save the ghost children from a burn – and they become the ghosts! Amazing! Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster
Madagascar iii
It is a rude supposition among people who oasis't seen enough blithe films to think there'south a diminishing-returns principle, each sequel the same every bit the last, simply less good. Information technology's true of Dice Difficult, information technology's non true of the Madagascar franchise, which goes from a playful fish-out-of-water romp in the showtime moving picture, through some coming-of-age and communitarian sagas in the 2d, to the 3rd, which has one of the best villains in cinema history. Frances McDormand voices Chantal DuBois, the animal catcher on a single-minded, vivacious cocky-destruct, culminating in a rendition of Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien that is more than poignant (seriously) than Édith Piaf'due south. Zoe Williams, Guardian columnist
Days of Sky
I had never previously considered Terrence Malick's period drama as a comfort blanket. It's near a family of itinerant workers who prey on a dying farmer. It climaxes with an apocalyptic plague of locusts. But I've just rewatched it twice in the space of a week, and it's all I tin do non to put it on again. Malick's whisk of painterly fields and whispering grass has become a kind of refuge from the din of the business firm and the clamour of the news. It's an invitation to sit on the porch and watch the sun slowly sink over 1900s Texas. Xan Brooks, Guardian film author
The Princess Bride
I loved this film from the moment I saw the paper-thin cutouts promoting it in my local cinema. Information technology's action-packed, romantic and unbelievably funny, but perhaps the nigh remarkable thing is that it still works for all ages. I recently watched it with my 12-year-one-time nephew, who is interested only in Minecraft and YouTube. I have never seen him serenity for so long. As he left to get home that weekend, he said: "As you wish." I tin't wait to share information technology in future with my newborn daughter. Alexander McQuiggan, Glasgow
Clueless
Clueless is a romcom that never gets syrupy; a stone-cold satire with a middle of gilded. I hundred golden minutes of pithy wisdom on all life'due south thorniest subjects: boys, friendship, sexual activity, drugs, accessorising, parking. Everything useful I know almost life I learned from this film. Jane Austen invented the female gaze 200 years ago (like, duh!) and her Emma, a prototype millennial feminist, is reborn in Alicia Silverstone for 1990s Beverly Hills. A gum-snapping, popcorny movie with subconscious depths as well every bit heavenly outfits. Jess Cartner-Morley, Guardian associate editor, fashion
Ratatouille
I've said often that the greatest art in cinema now happens in animation, only at that place is also something deeply blanketing to the soul nearly Ratatouille. It may be that then much of it takes place in a kitchen; I always feel you lot can smell the food. And it contains the beautiful beat when cynical super-critic Antoine Ego is returned to innocence by tasting his outset mouthful of Remy the rat's ratatouille. Proust would have been proud, merely that moment can bring the states all, I call back, for a second, back to babyhood. Ratatouille is comfort pic food. David Baddiel, writer and comedian. David Baddiel's Jews Don't Count is published on Th
Center Phase
I'm not proud. I wish information technology were Varda. But I'm trash, and Center Stage is a trash pic. There's something for anybody to hate – the whitest, nearly inconsequential beloved triangle committed to film, an angry black daughter who'south tamed into obedience, a "fat" girl who'southward never not shoving food down her gullet – and nevertheless every fourth dimension I run into Jody whip her caput up in that way-besides-shut-to-cornrows hairdo that miraculously materialises out of nowhere, mid-performance, I get chills. Desiree Akhavan, director
The Bye Daughter
My favourite all-time comfort pic is the romcom The Farewell Daughter, with Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and child role player Quinn Cummings. Bones plot: single female parent and her precocious but lovable girl become shafted by Mum's ex. He sublets their apartment to an eccentric but likable actor who lets them stay on in the flat. The two fight simply fall in love. The "panties on the line" scene in the bathroom is a cinematic classic. Star-crossed lovers with a funny kid thrown in and a hilarious, camp Richard III that gets Dreyfuss sacked. Monique Roffey, author
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Brian Blest shouting his head off on a horse. Kevin Costner and Christian Slater not bothering to practice British accents. That encarmine theme vocal. There's a lot to mock about Kevin Reynolds' 1991 box office botherer, but as a wearisome Sunday afternoon choice this has been my go-to for virtually twenty years. It'due south simply the right mix of pantomime and blockbuster, plus you go to see Alan Rickman, Alan Rickmanning the hell out of everything. Lanre Bakare, Guardian culture reporter
Shakespeare in Love
I love Tom Stoppard. He plays games and has fun, simply is a good, precipitous writer. In this film, he drops lots of gags virtually actors, "the manufacture" and Shakespeare himself, yet overall weaves a tale with all the elements of Shakespeare's plays: comedy, tragedy, majesty, dearest, boys as women/women as boys, fights ... and a scrap with a dog. In the end, the prove goes on and all ends well. How? It's a mystery … Peter Stamp, Cranleigh
The Graduate
What a cast: Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, Anne Bancroft. What a premise: you fall in love with a gorgeous girl and are seduced by her sexy, unsafe mum. What music: Simon & Garfunkel's greatest hits. Information technology's a comedy, but it gets truly night. And finally – that ecstatic catastrophe. (Or is it?) Equally a immature Jewish boy watching, it offered such a thrilling glimpse into my future (of course, it would all happen to me!). 50-odd years on, it provides such a comforting trip to the past. Simon Hattenstone, Guardian writer
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
The 1998 Bollywood extravaganza Kuch Kuch Hota Hai comes in at just over three hours long and manages to cram joy into every minute, from its eye-searing 90s outfits (including a necklace that spells out the word "cool") to its high-free energy songs and full-cast trip the light fantastic routines. Experience gratuitous to ignore the slight plot (a love triangle involving two best friends) and old-fashioned sexual politics and just wallow in the perfect chemical science of megastars Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan. Homa Khaleeli, deputy features editor
Two-Way Stretch
As a young teenager I think it expressed the mix of parody, blasphemy and slapstick that suited me dead right. To revisit information technology is to exist in myself in happy times. Michael Rosen, author
Trading Places
At that place are some films that are funny precisely considering yous have learned the punchlines and know they're coming. Trading Places is one of those films. The pleasure is less in the near-perfect plot structure, where two characters intersect on their fashion to cocky-sensation, simply in its piffling gems of dialogue. Like virtually movies at the time it has its off-white share of tropes nigh race, only the jokes are and so cleverly self-aware in their obviousness that they state perfectly every time. Nesrine Malik, Guardian columnist and author
Singin' in the Rain
I first saw it when I was 4 or five years old, and I recollect dancing around in my local park trying to do the numbers from it. This pic made me want to be "an entertainer", an idea that never went abroad and led me directly towards my career. How many times have I watched it? Information technology runs into the hundreds. Denis Lawson, actor
My Neighbor Totoro
Y'all don't demand to be a child to find Hayao Miyazaki's lovingly detailed depictions of rural Nippon ravishing; perfect blue skies, fluffy white clouds, lush green countryside, traditional architecture, beneficial mythical creatures. It'southward a identify you desire to exist: tranquil and reassuringly nostalgic, yet tinged with just plenty mystery and strangeness. The gentle step of the story means all the more than fourth dimension to enjoy in it. Steve Rose, Guardian motion-picture show author
The Dejection Brothers
The celebrated musical sections in The Blues Brothers seem to have been dropped in from 10,000 feet, but when the world seems deadening, it doesn't affair. When John Belushi pushes a cassette into the Bluesmobile and a Sam and Dave soul classic plays. When Belushi appropriates Dan Aykroyd's bed and Aykroyd consoles himself with a scratchy Louis Jordan LP. When James Brown leads a singing church from observance to mass hysteria and backflips. The credits roll: the planet over again seems tolerable. Hugh Muir, Guardian interim G1 editor
Tokyo Story
This is a great classic, but I saw it just v years agone and was knocked out by it. The people are ordinary: a family. They live their lives, they beloved each other, they fail each other. The film has a placidity insistence, which is never showy, but is utterly compelling. It's beautifully shot; the score is sublime. This is a piece of work of art with humanity in every frame. Big, universal stuff that creeps up on you. That's what I want at the moment. I can get laughs in our kitchen. Lindsay Duncan, thespian
Mrs Doubtfire
There should be something deeply unnerving about watching a eye-aged Robin Williams warehoused in kilos of prosthetics and pearls, deceiving his manner dorsum into his kids' lives post-obit a divorce. And notwithstanding, this performance in 1993's Mrs Doubtfire has always been a condolement lookout. It's in the kindly, Mr Rogers lilt of Williams'southward character, his narrative arc of redemption and the underlying moral that the bond of a caring parent volition win out – something to truly have comfort in during this fourth dimension of isolation. Ammar Kalia, Guardian assistant TV editor
Destry Rides Once again
This is a gentle comedy western, starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, with a message. There is the occasional anomaly (for instance, the inevitable black maid cameo) – it is later all, more than eighty years old – but I reckon if every The states schoolkid was compelled to lookout this, the NRA and Walmart would be out of business earlier Donald Trump could say "Make America Swell Once again" over again. Ken Stott, histrion
What'southward Up, Doctor?
This guaranteed blues-banisher is every bit giddy as the screwball classics (Bringing Upwardly Babe et al) to which it pays homage. Barbra Streisand is the mischief-maker turning the life of a poor schnook (Ryan O'Neal) upside down; every face in the cast (including the peerless Madeline Kahn) is an accented cut-upward. Streisand purrs Cole Porter'southward You're the Summit over the credits. And this is. Ryan Gilbey, Guardian writer
Splash
On the surface, Splash sounds incredibly hokey: a love story between Allen (Tom Hanks in his first major screen role) and Madison (played by Daryl Hannah), who meet fleetingly every bit children and are reunited years afterward when Madison rescues Allen from a boating accident. The twist in the tail (distressing) is that Madison, unbeknownst to Allen, is a mermaid. As much as it is a love story, it is too a story about sharing, sacrifice and giving. I related to being a fish out of h2o, as a closeted gay kid, and I all the same notice slap-up comfort in it today. Information technology is a great tonic for these broken-hearted times. Justin Lightbown, Manchester
The Lady Vanishes
A "comfort film" for me means black and white, clipped and ever-so-English accents (or "excents") and the reassuring presence of certain character actors. It helps if, on summit of that, the film is superbly written and directed. And so the obvious choice is Hitchcock'due south The Lady Vanishes, a reassuring teatime watch that also happens to exist the piece of work of a cinematic genius on height form. Jonathan Coe, author
Hannah and Her Sisters
"I experience I screwed up very badly," said Woody Allen of his Oscar-winning 1986 comedy. The happy catastrophe especially: "That was the role that killed me." It's what makes this, for me, the most warm and soothing of his stories. I love information technology all: Von Sydow's bluster, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, "she got drunker and drunker and finally she turned into Joan Collins", the scene in which Mia Farrow and Woody Allen effort to persuade Tony Roberts to be a sperm donor. But that final triple hurrah for Dianne Wiest – Talented! In love! Meaning! – is just joy. Catherine Shoard, Guardian film editor
Superbad
This moving-picture show transports me into the rubber of the American suburbs and the lives of nerdy outsider teenage boys. Whenever I listen to the soundtrack, I feel instant comfort and tin pic my teenage self listening to it on my iPod shuffle on the train into Crawley to meet my friends. Their antics remind me of the kinds of night you take with a best friend where it starts off tame and organised and and so goes completely sideways. The moving-picture show reminds me of how much I love those moments after a night out when you lot plow to your friend and say: "WTF happened?!" Maddie, London
The Adventures of Robin Hood
If I had to choose, it would exist the Michael Curtiz movie The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn swashing his buckle in fetching light-green tights, and a glorious score by Erich Korngold. I saw information technology commencement as a child more than 50 years ago and love information technology still. A moving-picture show for children anile between ten and 100. Stephen Moss, Guardian author
Only You
No motion picture scratches the crawling for escapism quite as finer as Norman Jewison'southward sharp and fallacious 1994 confection Only You. Doubling upwards as a seductive Italian travelogue, with electric chemistry between Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr, it never fails to lift a bad mood. Benjamin Lee, Guardian United states of america arts editor
The Sting
Nostalgia is always comforting, and The Sting is shot through with nostalgia in every frame. Its portrayal of depression-era Chicago – all sepia-toned palette and ragtime soundtrack – draws you in from the off, while the plot – mannerly rogues outwitting a mean, trigger-happy cheat via an elaborate con – is effortlessly entrancing. Did I mention Robert Redford and Paul Newman? A duvet coat for the encephalon. Dan Kuper, writer
Before Sunrise
This is the starting time of a trilogy – Before Sunrise, Before Dusk, Before Midnight – in which we follow the relationship between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's characters every bit the years get past. Similar Boyhood, also directed by Richard Linklater, the trilogy was filmed over several decades. Here, though, there's something really charming about coming to the next motion picture and finding them older, then them coming together again and finding their way through love and life. It's glorious. Derren Brown, illusionist and writer
The Skilful, the Bad and the Ugly
I've loved this motion-picture show similar a brother since childhood. Its dissection of western heroic myth via civil war tragedy only increases in power equally the years pass. Beneath the playful surface theatrics, it evokes, more than e'er, a mood of pity, fraternal honey and a deepening awareness of mortality and loss. Like Tuco says of his brother Pablo, this pic will never refuse you a bowl of soup. Matthew Holness, author, role player and director
Summer Madness
Katharine Hepburn lonely on holiday in Venice. Her dazzler, the city's labyrinth, her hunger for emotion, excitement and change. My life is fast and full of stress, only, when I drop into hers, I tin can feel the languor of an afternoon, the tickle of desire. And her voice! Summer Madness is a great, alone masterpiece, like Kurosawa'south Ikiru, or Varda'south Cléo from 5 to vii. Marking Cousins, writer and film-maker
The Producers
My favourite picture show to spotter if I'm feeling down is The Producers. It was made in 1967, starring Cistron Wilder and the genius Zero Mostel, with Mel Brooks directing his own Oscar-winning screenplay. I love it because, even though I've watched information technology a 1000000 times, information technology never fails to brand me express mirth and think. Giles Terera, actor
Starship Troopers
In the days before streaming permanently altered the landscape, the kind of film you lot always watched "when it was on" was a special breed – familiar, comforting and never disappointing. Peak of my list has ever been Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven'southward cartoonish sci-fi satire that manages to be incredibly violent yet amazingly romantic. If anything will get us through the lockdown blues, it has got to be this. Andrew Pulver, Guardian associate editor, film
The Incredibles
The Incredibles is the 1 picture show we've taken our kids to see at the cinema – and then all gone back to see it a week later (and there were seven of us). It had enough animated action to keep the kids entertained, nonetheless had throwbacks to old sci-fi and James Bond movies, to keep me in a warm state of nostalgia throughout. Similar reliving your babyhood and sharing information technology with your children at the same time. Now, where did I leave that DVD? Joseph Harker, Guardian deputy editor, opinion
Don't Exist a Menace to Due south Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
I did my A-level media studies coursework on this film, but I never tired of the jokes. It is a spoof of 90s hood movies and no subject is off limits; my favourite character is the Afrocentric activist who is addicted to white women. I spend 90% of my life being serious almost blackness, just sometimes you take to meet the funny side. Kehinde Andrews, professor of blackness studies, Birmingham City Academy
Pride and Prejudice
When I'grand having a bad twenty-four hours or feeling very depressed, I put on Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, because it gives me the warm-toned escapism of Regency-era Austen. I experience like I'm seeing my friend Elizabeth Bennet living her life in her state farm, giggling and arguing with her sisters. I dear this movie because it allows me to escape into a world where the characters' biggest problems are meddling mothers and who is on their dance cards. Sometimes you just want to worry over these small-scale issues rather than what's going on in your own life. Afia, Stoke-on-Trent
Die Hard
Yippee ki-yay [redacted]! Who could resist the charms of Die Hard, everyone's favourite Christmas-set, hostage-based activeness picture show – and a highly quotable one at that (a personal favourite: "At present I take a machine gun, ho ho ho"). Bruce Willis'southward kickass cop, John McClane, and Alan Rickman's perfectly devilish Euro-baddie, Hans Gruber, make for perfectly matched opponents in a festive classic that is also a film for all seasons. Hannah J Davies, Guardian deputy Tv set editor
While You Were Sleeping
Sad cat-spinster, orphaned railway worker Sandra Bullock inveigles her style adorably into the life of a dim, handsome, comatose banker. His entire family fall in beloved with her, including the broker's bawdy, twinkly eyed blood brother, played by Bill Pullman. She ends up forgiven, rich, happy, married and in love. All gain, no pain. Bidisha, writer
Ghostbusters 2
There are many words to describe this overlooked sequel – zany, funny, slimy (that's literal slime) – but the give-and-take I'd utilize is "cathartic". A catholic slime that reacts to negative human being emotions builds upwards under the metropolis, eventually opening a portal to another realm and its demons. Surely this is a metaphor – how the unfriendliness, unkindness and rampant me-kickoff culture that festers in cities threatens all the proficient in them (well, in my city, anyhow). But thankfully fifty-fifty imminent devastation tin be overcome with humour, cooperation, friendship and Dan Aykroyd. Busting makes you feel skilful! Coco Khan, Guardian writer
Sis Act
Of the hundreds upon hundreds of hours I take spent watching this film, none have been wasted. Whoopi Goldberg is dazzling as Reno order singer Deloris Van Cartier, who winds upwardly in witness protection in a convent subsequently she sees her mob boyfriend shoot a police informant in the head. Certain, there are the funnies about no sex, no booze, no men, but the real heart of this motion picture is the music. Goldberg takes charge of a tired and tuneless choir, introduces the women to the magic and wonder of Motown and breathes fresh, glorious life into the church. In plough, the nuns shows her the truthful pregnant of sisterhood. Jenny Stevens, Guardian commissioning features editor
The Philadelphia Story
Like many condolement films, this is a love story (or rather, a love quadrangle, equally the socialite Katharine Hepburn must decide between ex-husband Cary Grant, journalist Jimmy Stewart and John Howard, the man she is supposed to be marrying). It is a cocktail with a kick, 1 that comes with a salient moral: you love a person for their flaws, not despite them. Or, in the words of Grant: "You'll never exist a first-grade human beingness or a beginning-class woman until you lot've learned to have some regard for human frailty." Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, Guardian writer
Due west Side Story
Has there ever been a more inspiring singalong film than this 1962 adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim'south gang wars archetype, which transports Romeo and Juliet to the streets of New York? The film-knife free energy of the dance numbers, the sarky wit of Puerto Rican Anita, the plodding humour of the bumbling cop Krupke, the soaring romance of Tony and Maria. 1 to hold close, from your commencement cigarette to your last dying twenty-four hour period. Claire Armitstead, Guardian books editor
Terminator ii
Terminator is technically the amend motion-picture show. Cleverer, deeper and doing far more with less. Just Terminator 2 is what I desire. Terminator 2 is what I need. Give me, in times of strife, a ripped Linda Hamilton doing pull-ups in her cell, preparing as for escape and Judgment Day. Requite me reprogrammed metal endoskeletons thrusting forth an invincible hand and offer salvation. Give me a worthy simply ultimately vanquished foe via what must surely be the most richly satisfying and to the lowest degree dated special effects in film history. Give them to me again and once more, this seamless blend of Arnie action, suspense and noble sacrifice, heart and hope. I'll be back. Lucy Mangan, Guardian TV critic
It's Complicated
This is a film and so comforting that I watched information technology with my partner the night earlier our ceremonious partnership and in the throes of grief after my mum's decease – and still do and so whenever I'm premenstrual. If comfort, to you lot, equals a stoned Meryl Streep making pain au chocolat from scratch while flirting with Steve Martin, prepare to be swaddled in Nancy Meyer's finest 1,000-thread Egyptian cotton romcom. In short, it's non complicated. Chitra Ramaswamy, writer
The Fast and the Furious
The entire franchise is my ride-or-die when it comes to comfort films. There is piddling in the manner of plot, but practiced guys fighting bad guys while racing cars and doing ridiculous stunts in exotic locations. I have zero interest in cars and don't fifty-fifty know how to drive, yet I absolutely adore information technology. I'm also a lesbian, only would watch the films for Vin Diesel's muscles lone. 10/10, fine family fun. Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian writer
She'south the Homo
She's the Human being, starring the romcom icon Amanda Bynes, is the perfect comfort motion picture because information technology has no tension any. Instead, it has a soundtrack that is so bad information technology'south adept, ridiculous physical gags such as using tampons for nosebleeds, a vague message of daughter power and lines such as: "Viola, darling, recall to chew similar you take a surreptitious." Information technology came out in 2006, when I was fourteen, and makes me nostalgic for that era's terrible mode. Aamna Mohdin, Guardian community diplomacy contributor
Paris Is Burning
It's virtually people who accept been cast out from lodge who find solace, joy and family in cocky-expression, music and dance. It is a testimony to the ability of music, creativity and being yourself. Kate Fagan, London
Homeward Spring
This was one of my daughter's favourites as a kid and when I'm missing her or feeling a bit blue I'll lookout man it to experience closer to her. The animal interaction is simply pure joy and really helps me clear my heed of the chaos nosotros are going through. My daughter lives in some other state and because of Covid we've had to give up our visits this year. Simply I can curl up and sentinel this movie and remember when she was petty – and warm my centre in the nostalgia. Susan Laskey, Texas
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/03/52-perfect-comfort-films-to-watch-again-and-again
0 Response to "Sad Movies I Can Never Watch Again"
Post a Comment