My Favorite Comfort Films
Pride & Prejudice
The Classic
Okay, I’ll be honest. I didn’t actually watch this classic until like a year ago. It had always been on my list of movies I needed to watch, but I never got around to it until I kept seeing people I followed on Tumblr compare the end sunrise scene—”you’ve bewitched me, body and soul”—to one between Bellamy and Clarke in The 100 season 6 finale, so obviously I had to check it out (seriously, that was my true motivation). I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge period piece person—especially when they stay true to the dialogue from the time era—so on my first watch, it was honestly a little hard to understand what was going on sometimes. Like I got the gist of the storyline, but it took another watch to catch some important details and other little things I missed. Despite that little hiccup, the 2005 adaption starring Kiera Knightly has captured my heart and quickly become a comfort movie that I’ll turn on when I’m in the mood. I’m not even sure what mood it is, maybe just feeling like a hopeless romantic who longs for someone to pine over me with just as must angst as I’m pining over them. Angst and slow-burn love stories get me every single time, I swear to God. I probably romanticize it way too much, but all of the scenes between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are made for a fan of the enemies to lovers trope. From the sassy banter at their first meeting to the entire party disappearing when they dance with each other to the angsty declaration of love in the pouring rain to the reconciliation subset moment… It’s a complex, complicated love story that I can’t help but root for. One a side note, this movie also sparked my love for the words “incandescently” and “bewitched.” We love a good dictionary moment. (Watch on Netflix)
Stuck In Love
The Underrated
You know how people never know how to answer the question “what is your favorite movie of all-time?” Well, I don’t have that issue because this is it. I seriously try to get everyone to watch it because it is so good and yet so underrated. I mean this is a 2012 film starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, Logan Lerman, and Liana Liberato (+ even Kristen Bell has a small part!)… how was it not more popular?! I don’t even care though because it holds such a special place in my heart, so it feels even more special since it’s like my little secret. But I still try to make every guy I’m interested in watch it to better ~understand~ me. Other than the all-star casting, there are so many reasons why I watch this movie at least 3 times a year. First of all, the soundtrack is incredible—it has everything from “Gospel” by The National to “Between the Bars” by Elliott Smith to “Home” by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. And then there are literary references everywhere—the plot does revolve around a family of writers after all. Of course, I’m a sucker for a good romance and this movie has 3(!!!) different love stories within it. From a tumultuous, addicting first love to falling for the nice guy despite being scared of love to holding out hope that love will return after years apart, Stuck In Love has it all. This movie affected me so much that I literally bought the book of short stories by Raymond Carver (What We Talk About When We Talk About Love) that Bill (Greg Kinnear’s character) quotes in the last scene of the film. Lily Collin’s character, Samantha Borgens was also my inspiration as I was heading into college. I desperately wanted to become a young writer with her effortless confidence when it came to relationships. In reality, I had already started writing my own novel at the time, but after embracing her detached mentality towards love and relationships, I found myself becoming way too cynical and a little reckless. But that’s a story for another time… the point is, if you haven’t watched this movie yet, please go do it now. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)
The Princess Bride
The Nostalgic
I can’t remember the first time I watched The Princess Bride, but it was one of the first movies I watched as a child that stuck with me (other than The Fox and The Hound, which I cried at when I was only two years old LOL). The epic love story features an unlikely trio of criminals, giant rats that are hilariously bad special effects, Lord Humperdinck—who I am convinced was the inspiration for Lord Farquaad in Shrek—and a young Mandy Patinkin (see: “my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”). In fact, the entire movie is quotable—from “as you wish” to “inconceivable!” to “mah-ridge, it’s what brings us together today”—but they truly only make sense if you are as familiar with the film as I am. Like seriously, I was trying to explain this film to Julia and she’s like “WTF are you talking about?” Definitely a cult classic. Despite its age, it’s such a comforting and nostalgic film to rewatch every now and then. I actually made my last roommate watch it with me one night when we were up late drinking (he fell asleep on me LOL). There were rumors a while back that someone wanted to remake the movie and immediately I was like NO, do not touch this masterpiece. It was meant to be a film in 1987, not 2020. Although I think a bunch of celebrities ended up doing a table read style remake at home during quarantine, which, I guess, is acceptable. But regardless of modern day remake or not, it is imperative that you watch the original starring Robin Wright and Carey Elwes. (Watch on Hulu or Disney+).
The Dark Knight
The Blockbuster
So not all of my top choices are romantic chick flicks… Surprise! She has range! This is probably going to sound like a cliché explanation of why I love this movie so much because a lot of it has to do with Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker and the psychology of the Joker’s antics throughout the film. I personally think the Joker is one of the most complex villains in the superhero world. I remember watching a documentary in high school Behavioral Sciences (Hi, Mr. Snyder!) about how each villain in the Batman universe represents a different mental illness and it really stuck with me for some reason. (I’ve always been intrigued by abnormal psychology and getting into the minds of criminals, which also explains my obsession with Criminal Minds and true crime documentaries). The Joker representing complete psychopathy just makes the perfect villain because there is really no rhyme or reason to what he does. Even though his plans are extremely well-thought out, he is just there to cause chaos. He’s not after money, doesn’t hold any personal vendettas; it’s just utter chaos. Every time I see this movie playing on TV while I’m channel surfing, I have to put it on. Somehow that makes it another one of my “comfort films.” I actually came to the realization of why I think I find strange comfort in movies and TV shows about psychopaths and serial killers having something to do with the fact that in the fictional stories, the bad guys always get caught/the good guys win. I know how things are going to end compared to the uncertainty of things happening in the real world that I don’t have any control over. Any therapists out there who can confirm or deny this theory? Anyway, I do enjoy the entire trilogy because I love Christopher (+ Jonathan!) Nolan’s work—see Inception, Interstellar + West World as further proof of this—but there’s just something about this movie that stands out more than the others for me. (Watch on Netflix).
National Treasure
Family Favorite
At this point on the list, we reach the iconic Nicholas Cage film with an outrageous plot line of stealing the Declaration of Independence to follow the hidden clues on the back of it to find the Templer’s Treasure. Well, after the insurrection on the Capitol earlier this year, it actually seems like it may not have been such a far-reaching plot for a white man to break into government buildings and steal important documents… Regardless, this family-friendly movie is my family’s ultimate favorite. We literally watch it on every family car ride (Ang is OBSESSED), can recite every line by heart, and even named our black lab Riley after Benjamin Gates’ sidekick, Riley Poole. When we went to Philadelphia two summers ago on family vacation, we went to walk through the cemetery featured in the scene where Ben is being chased down by Ian’s henchmen and it took major restraint not to detour during the guided tour of the Liberty Bell (you would be curious to check out the bricks on the tower too if you’re a true fan). Honestly, I also think a lot of the U.S. history facts I know were retained from this movie. So what I’ve concluded is that all of my movie/TV consumption can actually be educational! I think those historical facts sprinkled in throughout the film is what made me become a little bit of a history nerd. No shame. I’m also still waiting for the third film to come out—we have to know what’s on page 47!—even though it’s been over 13 years since the second one hit theaters. I’m not giving up hope that we can finish out with a trilogy eventually! But regardless, the original movie is an easy family favorite. (Watch on Disney+).
The Holiday
Holiday Favorite
Do I even need to explain this one? If you don’t watch The Holiday every year around Christmas, I think I’m convinced you don’t believe in love or just don’t have a heart. Because how else could you deprive yourself of watching Jack Black in his best role ever?! I know people absolutely love him in School of Rock, and I get it, but you will quite literally fall in love with him in The Holiday. I mean he could solely be the reason this movie makes the list because I can NEVER get over the song he composes for Kate Winslet’s character Iris that “uses only the good notes” and his fist pump and grin when Iris agrees to be his date for New Year’s Eve? My heart cannot handle it. But Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Graham’s (Jude Law) relationship is just as good! I mean who wouldn’t want to run into (young) Jude Law on their solo trip to London over the holidays? I won’t lie, I definitely cry at a lot of movies, but when they are laying down in the tent that Graham’s (surprise!) daughters made looking up at the cut out stars it gets me EVERY. TIME. Because when the younger girl calls them “the 3 musketeers” (just like Amanda used to call herself and her parents before they got divorced) and Graham just reaches over to grab her hand, I just bawl. I swear I watch this at least once before I go home for the holidays, once or twice while at home with my mom (Ang is a huge fan of this one as well) and sometimes even another time randomly during the year if I’m feeling it. Lastly, we all have experienced a toxic f*ckboy like Jasper before, so Kate Winslet’s monologue telling him off is *chef’s kiss* GOLD. Square peg, round hole! IYKYK. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video for $2.99 or I swear it gets added to Netflix around the holidays).