Sometimes, we all need some cheering up. Here are 13 classic comfort movies that just might help.
Spirited Away (2001)
If this isn’t one of the greatest animated films of all time, I’ll eat my shoe. There’s something so magical about Spirited Away from Studio Ghibli. It follows the story of Chihiro Ogino, a little girl who gets separated from her parents after they go exploring inside an abandoned amusement park before sunset.
Realizing that her parents have been turned into pigs, young Chihiro enters a bathhouse full of spirits and befriends a boy named Haku, who helps her on her journey back to her parents.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Screenwriter: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono, Bunta Sugawara.
Where to Watch: Max (with subscription)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Based on the 1813 novel by Jane Austen, this adaptation is just delightful in so many ways. It captures that wistful, romantic essence of the 1800s so perfectly. If you want to imagine you’re running through fields in the English countryside by day and walking through hallways holding a candle by night, this movie will take you there in your imagination. Plus, it has one of the most epic love stories ever told. One of the best comfort movies ever.
Director: Joe Wright
Screenwriter: Deborah Moggach
Cast: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Tom Hollander, Penelope Wilton, Judi Dench
Where to Watch: Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video (for purchase)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
This classic stars Marilyn Monroe in one of her most unforgettable roles. She plays Sugar, a jazz singer who meets saxophone player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his friend Jerry (Jack Lemmon), who are fleeing for their lives after witnessing a murder by the mob. They dress up as women and join Sugar’s jazz band, hopping a train bound for Florida.
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenwriter: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Joe E. Brown, Pat O’Brien
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video (with subscription), Tubi (free)
The Princess Bride (1987)
This classic fantasy movie has it all: pirates, princesses, heroes, villains, and of course, rodents of unusual size. Following the story of young Buttercup and Westley, the farm boy she falls in love with, it’s an epic tale of romance with lots of action, drama, and humor mixed in.
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriter: William Goldman
Cast: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Robin Wright, Peter Falk, Billy Crystal
Where to Watch: Disney+ (with subscription)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
This one never gets old. Starring Robin Williams in one of his greatest roles opposite Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in the film that changed their lives forever and earned them an Oscar for best screenplay, Good Will Hunting will really pull at your heartstrings. Matt Damon plays Will Hunting, a recent prison parolee who is secretly a mathematic genius. He starts working nights as a janitor at MIT, where he casually solves an incredibly challenging math problem, starting him on his hero’s journey.
While out drinking with his pals, including Affleck’s character Chuckie Sullivan, he meets Skylar, a charming British woman studying at Harvard played by Minnie Driver. Robin Williams plays Will Hunting’s court-mandated therapist, who helps him address his childhood trauma.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård, Casey Affleck
Where to Watch: Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video (with subscriptions)
Groundhog Day (1993)
In this totally lovable comedy, a TV weatherman gets stuck in a strange loop where he relives the same day over and over again. In the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania while reporting on Groundhog Day, he meets a woman who changes his outlook on life. This is one of our favorite comfort movies ever!
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriters: Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis
Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott
Where to Watch: AMC+ (with subscription)
Billy Madison (1995)
Billy Madison stars Adam Sandler as Billy, a man-child whose father challenges him to go back to grade school and pass all his classes on his own — or risk being booted from the family business. This comedy is full of hilarious lines, like Sandler’s reminder to a little kid to appreciate his childhood in elementary school: “For the love of God, cherish it!”
Director: Tamra Davis
Screenwriters: Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler
Cast: Adam Sandler, Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald, Darren McGavin, Mark Beltzman, Larry Hankin
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu (with subscriptions)
Before Sunrise (1995)
This is one of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s about two travelers who have a chance encounter on a train in Europe. Ethan Hawke’s character convinces Julie Delpy’s character to spontaneously get off the train with him in Vienna and spend the night wandering the streets with him. It’s very romantic. And if you like Before Sunrise, there’s a whole trilogy where that came from. This is one of those comfort movies you’ll never forget.
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ (for purchase)
Back to the Future (1985)
Who doesn’t love Back to the Future? This is an absolute classic. When an experiment by his mad scientist friend Doc Brown goes wrong, Marty McFly travels back in time to the 1950s, where he has to make sure his parents fall in love or he’ll cease to exist. There’s also a whole trilogy where this one came from, too.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriters: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson
Where to Watch: Netflix (with subscription)
Notting Hill (1999)
This one has got to be among the greatest romantic comedies ever made. What sets it apart, besides Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, might be its stellar script with genuinely funny dialogue full of British humor. It’s got everything you could want in a comfort movie: a will-they-won’t-they love story, beautiful scenery from a cute little neighborhood in London, a great soundtrack, hilariously awkward moments, and a very endearingly odd Welsh man played by Rhys Ifans.
Director: Roger Michell
Screenwriters: Richard Curtis
Cast: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Rhys Ifans, Hugh Bonneville, Gina McKee, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Emily Mortimer, James Dreyfus, Clarke Peters
Where to Watch: Starz, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video (with subscriptions)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
If this doesn’t make you feel better after a rough day, I don’t know what will. In one of Jeff Bridges’ most iconic roles, he plays Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, who gets mistaken for a guy named Jeffrey Lebowski — the Big one. This sets the metaphorically smaller Lebowski on a course that gets very out of hand very quickly.
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Screenwriters: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Tara Reid, Sam Elliott, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ (for purchase)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Never fear the summertime sads or the Sunday scaries — Indiana Jones is here to save the day. Out of all of the many Indie films, this one is, I think it’s safe to say, universally considered the best in the franchise. It’s the first one, and it came out in 1981, starring Harrison Ford as an archaeologist who tries to get ahold of an ancient religious relic before the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriter: Lawrence Kasden
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Alfred Molina, John Rhys-Davies, Frank Marshall
Where to Watch: Pluto TV (free), Disney+ (with subscription)
Bonus: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Of all the Wes Anderson movies we could have put on this list, The Grand Budapest Hotel might just be the most comforting. Set at a 1930s ski resort, it stars Ralph Fiennes as Gustav the concierge, who befriends junior lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori). But when one of the many elderly women patrons that Gustav has an… interesting relationship with dies and he inherits a priceless painting, he becomes a murder suspect.
Director: Wes Anderson
Screenwriter: Wes Anderson
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Tony Revolori, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, F. Murray Abraham, Saoirse Ronan
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ (for purchase)
Liked This List of 12 Comfort Movies to Cheer You Up Anytime?
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Main image: Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot. United Artists.