My Favorite Pick-Me-Up Movies
10 movies to cure a bad day
This newsletter started, as many often do, with a recommendation request. A group chat buzzed with the news that one participant needed something to watch that could help cure a rotten day. The query had me mulling for quite a bit.
Some of you longtime readers of my work on Substack may be thinking right about now, “Marshall, didn’t you literally write an entire newsletter devoted to this topic during COVID for a whole year?” (Don’t subscribe to it; I’ll never publish on it again!)
But when you survey the full list of films (collected here for your convenience on Letterboxd), I wouldn’t say that any of these are guaranteed good times. Every film had its particular take on empathy, and by the end, I was honestly straining a bit to find a new movie every single day. So I thought about it further and came up with a further tier of films, one more concerned with viewers feeling better about themselves than the world.
Because I am prone to take things like this way too seriously, I devised a set of rules for this list in conjunction with its original requestor. We wanted films that were not just simple “nicecore” entertainment that felt naïve about the world without really dwelling too heavily on persevering through painful problems. (Sorry, friends, I just cannot summon your enthusiasm for Paddington 2.)
RULES:
No major character (or animal!) faces death, significant trauma, or prolonged sadness
Outlook is one of overall positivity, but this is achieved through neither ignoring nor battling the existence of real pain
Films have conflict, of course, but the stakes are generally low and do not involve the use of violence or other forms of physical intimidation
A happy ending can create winners and losers, but the losers do not end the film entirely vanquished or humiliated
Self-loathing has to be played for comedy, not pathos
Another note: you may find that the list skews a bit older because, well, I’d argue since the ‘60s film has gotten trapped in an ouroboros of irony. So if you want to watch more classic cinema and feel generally better, this is a list for you.
Bringing Up Baby, rental
I struggle to think of another movie that makes me grin from ear to ear so thoroughly like Bringing Up Baby does. This screwball comedy pairs the dynamite disruptor Katharine Hepburn with the serious and stubborn Cary Grant, who’s flummoxed by her every move. It’s comical that the movie wants us to think Grant’s David Huxley is about to get married to a woman we never get to meet. That immediate lowering of the stakes as his frustration with a character who would otherwise be seen as a homewrecker gives way to a burgeoning recognition he needs to loosen up a bit. This is a reminder that a great rom-com should feel predestined not because of lazy, schematic writing but because of the transformative power love has to make us who we really are (but sometimes struggle to present).
Clueless, Paramount+
There are surprisingly not a ton of teen movies that meet my arbitrary rules because high school is often a time when young people have to face difficult truths about the way the world works for the first time. There’s a winking and self-knowing charm to Amy Heckerling’s Clueless because the real journey of Alicia Silverstone’s Cher Horowitz is not one of overcoming hardship. (How many can exist in her posh Beverly Hills digs, anyways?) Rather, it’s an odyssey of awakening to the concerns of others — and learning how that can make you better and more whole as a person. There’s an unblinking commitment to the soft satire here that the jokes land with but the gentlest of stings.
Everybody Wants Some!!, Pluto TV (free with ads)
So much more than just “Dudes Rock: The Movie,” though that is a central part of the appeal of Everybody Wants Some!! Richard Linklater’s lackadaisical college orientation movie merits both the exclamation points in its title as it extols the value of play time associated with the venerated institution of college. If there’s any antagonist in the film, it’s time as the clock ticks ever closer to the start of class. This film just makes me feel alive and invigorated with all the possibility of being this young a man all over again. (For more on this film, check out last year’s newsletter post!)
The Little Rascals, Freevee (free with ads via Amazon Prime Video)
Sometimes we all need a bit of silly mode! The Little Rascals has been making me laugh for decades now with its clever, irreverent brand of juvenile humor. Though director Penelope Spheeris completely ignores the social context of the original shorts (childlike ignorance of the Great Depression), her adaptation doesn’t feel cheaper for it. There’s a complete lack of ironic distance in this family film. She treats all viewers as if they’re the age of subjects, and it invites us all to step back into a childlike state of blissful ignorance of how the world works.
Miss Congeniality, rental
Sandra Bullock's movies are always a balm to my soul, especially the comedies she made in her prime like Miss Congeniality. Her egoless self-deprecation sets the stage for characters like FBI agent turned beauty queen Gracie Hart, who must learn to get out of their way and better integrate their talents into society. “Gracie hewing closer to societal beauty standards does not ‘unlock’ some hidden potential deep inside,” I wrote in my 20th-anniversary appreciation of the film for Crooked Marquee. “The makeover is more about exposing the difficulty others face in reconciling the possibility that someone could be both objectified for their beauty and appreciated for their brains.”
Paterson, Amazon Prime Video
Adam Driver’s Paterson, is a bus driver by trade in the carcass of the old industrial town of Paterson, New Jersey. Not for a second do we pity what appears on the surface to be a humdrum existence. It’s the presence of a steady routine – his morning mosey to work, his regular route, his late-night dog walks, his quiet evening grabbing drinks at the bar – that allows him the headspace to write great poetry. In the absence of disruption or chaos in his life, Paterson can easily nestle his calling within his career. Thanks to Jarmusch’s understated but steady vantage point into Paterson, we get to notice the unexpected virtue of stability and the joy that comes from having the perception to notice the variations and deviations that break up the monotony. It’s a movie that teaches us how to be happy how we are, where we are, without dipping into the dangerous waters of regressive thinking.
Singin’ in the Rain, Max
Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s vibrant musical can make even the sudden disruption of an entire industry into something cheery and fun! The ecstatic studio musical Singin’ in the Rain has a sunny, smiling disposition as it wows with its Technicolor vibrance and general dancing ebullience. I don’t really know why I need to sell a movie routinely ranked among the greatest ever made, but it’s the rare canonical film that I truly believe is as good as its reputation.
Some Like It Hot, Max
OK, there’s some comic violence in Some Like It Hot that incites the need for two struggling Chicago musicians to hit the road in drag. But the Al Capone-knockoff gangsters in the film never feel like a serious menace. The real tension in the film comes from whether Joe and Jerry — I mean, Josephine and Daphne — can continue to keep up their high-wire act (and manage their various romantic pursuits). I find people all the time who somehow haven’t seen this uproarious comedy, and if you count yourself among your ranks, consider putting it on the next time you’ve had a crappy day.
That Thing You Do!, rental
This does come the closest to breaking my arbitrary rules as, well, the writing is on the wall from the beginning that these are one-hit Oneders wonders. But the highs of That Thing You Do! (again, exuberant exclamation point earned) are so stratospheric that even the inevitable coming back down to earth doesn’t dampen the mood. I had to pause writing this blurb to go watch the scene where the group first hears their song on the radio because the sense of awe-struck accomplishment is infectious. I could ride the high from their jubilation for days.
Waiting for Guffman, Tubi (free with ads)
At the risk of ruining the joke of Waiting for Guffman, Christopher Guest’s mockumentary pulls its greatest trick by showing the audience the production that a zany Missouri community theater group has pulled together before our eyes. We might expect something of a catastrophe, and even if it’s not exactly Broadway material, we can see the heart and vision that went into it. Guest’s vast ensemble comedies have a real affection for the odd people populating the world, even if they are not afraid of lightly mocking them. We can’t help but root for them. Even if this eccentric group of people are weird, they are also wholeheartedly sincere.
Back to you on Thursday to prep you for Sundance!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall
YES!! The perfect criteria for a movie list if I’ve ever seen one!