What is your favorite comfort movie?
The one you go to when the world feels all too surreal.
When the constants in your life waver into unpredictable variables...
What do you watch to help you decompress and find your footing?
Something that can relieve you from an uncertain moment.
As we find ourselves in one of those shared singular moments, I invite you to take a step
back.
And offer yourself a temporary break... to catch your breath...in the familiar warmth
of a comfort movie.
Today we will be taking a look at different types of satisfying films and how they help
us unwind and find some much-needed inner peace.
There are movies that we will always keep revisiting, we watch them on a bad day or
on a special occasion.
They become tied to a tradition or used to simply pass the time.
There is a certain level of intimacy that they manage to attain because they where introduced
to us at a very formative part of our lives.
The movies we watched (and re-watched) as children, or while forming our identity in
our teens, re-inventing our identity in our early adulthood and following us throughout
any significant changes in our lives...all the while cementing themselves in our memory.
That's why with every re-watch, they evoke old feelings and bring us back to a place
when things where easier, like an emotional time machine.
They also remind us of the people we might have shared it with... friends, family and
make us feel right at home...filling us with a sense of security.
There can't be an actual definitive list of nostalgic movies because it depends on when
and where you were born, and your personal lived experience.
One of the most recent nostalgic series of movies is Harry Potter.
As each movie was coming out the young viewer was growing a long side the main character
and maturing as the movie started to explore its darker themes.
It's very rare type of relationship with a movie series, which explains why people have
such a strong attachment to it.
My favorite movie being the third one, not just because of Alfonso Cuaron's direction
but the fact it's an in-between movie, characters transitioning from childhood to being teenagers
and where the delineation between the fantasy world and the real one is increasingly blurred
out.
Personally, whenever I want to activate my nostalgic synapses, I watch the first Star
Wars Trilogy and Indiana Jones.
I don't even remember when the first viewing happened, I just know that my brother and
I grew up with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as our babysitters, being influenced by their
stories of fantastical space operas and archaeological action adventures.
Movies were our daily entertainment and unbeknownst to us at the time... an escape.
Our parents being newfound immigrants, managed to shield us from those early struggles of
finding your place in an unknown world.
We didn't have a lot, but we did have the simple distractive pleasure of movies
Their own emotional escape.
-I did not hit her, it's not true.
It's bullshit!
-I did not hit her.
I did not.
-Oh hi Mark!
We all have a certain movie we like but are hard-pressed to find anyone else that agrees
with our choice.
And maybe you're aware that the movies shortcomings are hard to defend but it's proudly sitting
on your Blu-ray shelf and you re-watch it more times that you would like to admit.
It's those imperfect movies, overlooked by critics and could never hope to win any awards.
The acting choices are questionable, the story is bewildering or littered with plot holes,
the dialogue is cheesy, and the jokes are...let's say dated.
But for some reason you accept them, wrinkles and all, because the satisfaction they bring
you is undeniable.
These are the mindless fun movies that promise a good time.
Perhaps something unrealistically violent.
An absurd comedy.
A so bad its good movie.
A cheesy action flick.
They're like going out for a walk ...it's low effort but refreshing and ultimately,
it's something you can control.
And for us, our guilty pleasure movies are Dumb and Dumber, Gremlins, and The Other Guys...
Yeah...
I know, we have a channel that advocates for more elevated cinema ...but for some reason
we quote those dumb movies all the time.
-Are you thinking what I'm thinking partner?
-Aim for the bushes.
Let's be honest, not all the movies you like are going to be about exploring the human
condition...sometimes we just need a senseless snack that hits the right spot.
We don't really know why we latch on to them and that's the point...It doesn't matter.
There are some movies choices that defy explanation, but we are grateful for the personal enjoyment
they provide.
-My mama always said: Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're
going to get.
I have a preference for ambiguous movies with bleak endings.
I like it when a film leaves me asking questions and searching for answers but there are moments
where I realize that we need something a bit more concrete and uplifting.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Children of Men but I can't bring myself to watch a
dystopian movie right now because it would ironically feel too on the nose with how reality
seems to be taking a page out of a science fiction novel.
In these moments, we can see the importance of an inspirational movies.
Films that unlike nostalgic or guilty pleasures, don't just look to the past for emotional
comfort but to help us aspire forwards.
We follow characters going against the current.
Following the underdog in sport movies like Rocky and Creed and seeing them beat the odds.
Or in biopics, discovering the real-life examples of people struggling against adversity and
prevailing.
It pumps you up and reenergizes you.
And also, the movies that are visually refreshing.
Like the beautiful symmetrical world of Wes Anderson and his doll house aesthetics that
are inherently filled with childhood whimsy.
The same can be said with Taika Watiti's inviting work and delightful kiwi sense of humour.
Or the beautifully animated productions of Ghibli movies, with Hayao Myiyazaki's inspired
attention to detail recreating the small human behaviors that usually go unnoticed.
Mamoru Hosoda's heartwarming stories of the tenacity of families that can overcome nature,
time and the unknown.
The cathartic historical revisionism of Quentin Tarantino.
The precise editing and comical visuals of Edgar Wright that make you feel like your
hanging out with old friend.
But our personal feel good movie is The Lord of the Rings and it was also the selection
that kept coming up in the comments.
The epic fantasy story of Frodo and the fellowship embarking on a quest to destroy the ring of
power.
Perhaps it's because I grew up with it and it formed my early teenage years.
We used to watch it with our family almost every Christmas.
It will always make me think of home, but I specifically feel attached to The Two Towers.
Filled with inspirational speeches, fight scenes and turns of fates that will surely
give you goosebumps.
But our favorite scene, has to be Sam's monologue at the very end.
It's an adaptation from the novel and it ties together the themes of the trilogy although
it wasn't originally part of the script.
It was added in response to another historical dark moment.
"It's all wrong By rights we shouldn't even be here.
But we are.
It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the
end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why."
Comfort movies are there to catch our breath, to remind us of something important we might
have forgotten and to ground us in something familiar so we can keep moving on.
-That there's some good in this world Mr. Frodo and it's worth fighting for!
In a world of unsettling variables, it's important to reach out to the simple constants in our
lives.
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Until next time.
For sure.