50 M O V I E S TO M A K E Y O U F E E L G O O D

There are movies that make you feel good and there are
feelgood movies. The latter is a stupid word (like 'chick-
flick' or 'rom- com') that has become a vague, dubious
genre of films specifically and cynically designed to fill
the shallowest hole in your soul - your need for mild,
'heartwarming' entertainment. They often star Meg Ryan
or Hugh Grant, and they are as fleetingly satisfying as
cheap burgers. But you can always go back to something
better, the movies that you can, as Quentin Tarantino
put it, "hang out with". They will always pick you up,
never let you down, and whether in jest or seriousness,
they only tell you what you want or need to hear. Here is
a list of 50 that might work. You're welcome to disagree,
if it makes you feel good.

50. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Right from the

get-go of the Coen brothers' rambunctious, bluesy,
southern-fried reworking of Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses
Everett McGill (George Clooney), is exasperated by the
defeatist attitude of fellow escaped convicts Pete (John
Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson). "Consider the

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lilies of the goddamn field," he suggests, with twitchy
good cheer.

49. Braveheart (1995) Mel Gibson's short-arsed rebel

gizzard- slitter William Wallace cries "Freedom!" even as
his guts are pulled out, thus ending three gruesome,
tearful, rousing hours of cod- historical romance and -
particularly for Scots with an angrily vague memory of
oppression - cathartic images of Englishmen being
hacked into quivering chunks.

48. Shakespeare In Love (1998) Even Harold Bloom, the

critic who ranks Shakespeare above God in the cosmos,
concedes that this rigorously witty imagining of the
Bard's London love affair is "an enjoyable travesty".

47. Jean De Florette/Manon Des Sources (1986) Over the

course of two movies and four generations, Claude
Berri's morality tale about a hunchback tax collector
(Gerard Depardieu), and the neighbours who covet the
water from his well drops into the dark reaches of human
nature, but pulls itself back up into the sunshine with a
sublime sense of patience and justice.

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46. Evil Dead 2 (1987) "Who's laughing now?" shrieks Ash
(Bill Campbell), as he taunts his own left hand, which he
has just chopped off because it was possessed by
demons. The most violent, delirious and hilarious
slapstick comedy ever made.

45. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1988) Two time-

travelling fools (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) with a
passion for Van Halen guitar solos, but no aptitude for
book-learning, kidnap famous historical figures to help
them with their school project. Abraham Lincoln
articulates the spirit of the film with his final address:
"Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes."

44. True Romance (1993) "What you did was so

romantic," says Patricia Arquette to her new husband
Christian Slater after he kills her vicious pimp. And in a
sick, sweet way, she's right. Writer Quentin Tarantino
originally had an unhappy ending in mind, but director
Tony Scott liked these kids, and wanted them to get
away. He was right, too.

43. Les Parapluies De Cherbourg (1964) Catherine

Deneuve's pink, glowing teenager falls in love with Nino
Castelnuovo's garage mechanic, who gets her pregnant
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before being called away to war. Every word between
them is sung, in French, but that's okay, because they
sound true and beautiful.

42. Cinema Paradiso (1989) Incurable movie-lovers tend

to romanticise the whole experience of going to the
pictures and Giuseppe Tornatore's story about an old
village projectionist (Philippe Noiret) and his persistent
young assistant (Salvatore Cascio) tugs agreeably at
those memories of the cinema, and their place in your
life.

41. Field of Dreams (1989) Kevin Costner builds a

baseball pitch for ghosts, plays catch with his dead
father, and essentially creates an outlet for the unshed
tears of men with bottled-up paternal issues.

40. Trading Places (1983) Yappy conman Eddie Murphy

and insufferable stockbroker Dan Aykroyd have their
fortunes reversed in this cheerfully crude Regan-era
satire, but its enduring assets are the supporting
characters - Jamie Lee Curtis's admirable, forthright
hooker, Denholm Elliott's delightful butler and Paul
Gleason's ludicrously hostile corporate fixer.

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39. Say Anything (1989) More people know and love
Cameron Crowe's later chocolate-hearted smash-hit
Jerry Maguire, but this attraction of opposites between
honourable underachiever John Cusack and beautiful
academic Ione Skye provides lasting delight - sharply
observed, nervously plausible and brilliantly played.
Young men who watch this will go on to secretly imagine
themselves as a Cusack figure in all subsequent
relationships.

38. Dazed and Confused (1994) The music, clothes and

accents are specific to suburban Texas in the mid-
Seventies, but Richard Linklater's loose, woozy movie
recalls the emotional tangle of nostalgia, relief and
sunbeaming possibility that you probably felt on your
own last day of school.

37. Avanti! (1972) Jack Lemmon, wound up tight as

ever, goes to Italy to collect his father's body, and finds
that the old man was known locally as a poetic and
magnificent lover. Funny that this smart, heartfelt work
by Billy Wilder remains so unsung, since it makes you
want to bellow like a fat tenor.

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36. Jamon, Jamon (1992) The love triangle between the
heir to an underwear empire (Jordi Molla), the daughter
of the town whore (Penelope Cruz), and a well-hung
ham-factory worker (Javier Bardem) is played out with
ecstatic, spectacular carnality. Not to sound crude, but
this movie could give even the most kosher viewer both
a literal and metaphorical hunger for hot pork.

35. The Princess Bride (1987) The Cliffs of Insanity, The

Rodents of Unusual Size, Wallace Shawn's pathetic evil
genius, and Inigo Montoya, the ridiculously determined
revenger - there is much to enjoy, and absolutely
nothing to dislike, about Rob Reiner's swift, sweet
fairytale pastiche.

34. Smoke/Blue in the Face (1995) Wayne Wang and

novelist Paul Auster made a great movie about the
invisible, mostly positive connections between cigar-
store customers in Brooklyn, then hung around to
improvise another collection of scenes blending the
characters with real locals, in itself a graffiti-coloured
shout out to the joys of city life.

33. Die Hard (1988) Bruce Willis, left, shoots a bunch of

high- tech international thieves who are basically trying
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to steal Christmas, saves his marriage in the process,
and makes it back home to the kids through a
snowstorm of broken glass and singed paperwork.
Charles Dickens would most assuredly have loved it.

32. The Straight Story (1999) Most of David Lynch's

movies are like the kind of nightmares you have after
eating too much cheese, but this semi-true story about
an old guy riding cross-country on a lawnmower has the
slow, awesome power of a Johnny Cash song and wise
things to say about age, time and brotherly love.

31. Midnight Run (1988) "If you say another word, I will
bury this telephone in your head." Forming between the
lines of such wonderfully terse and abusive dialogue, the
reluctant, underplayed friendship between Robert De
Niro's tetchy bounty hunter and Charles Grodin's white-
collar prisoner makes Martin Brest's road movie a lost,
dusty treasure.

30. Local Hero (1983) Part-magical, part-realistic story of

the bonny Scottish village that sells out to Burt
Lancaster's oil company. The oil men aren't all bad, the
villagers aren't exactly martyrs for local heritage, and

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there are a hundred good jokes and revelatory details
half-hidden in the story and performances.

29. The Fisher King (1991) Terry Gilliam's bizarrely

affecting modern knight's quest, as guilt-ravaged radio
presenter Jeff Bridges and grief-deranged schizo Robin
Williams redeem themselves by stealing a delusory holy
grail from a New York billionaire's mansion. At one
breathtaking point, everybody in Grand Central Station
begins to waltz.

28. The Big Lebowski (1997) The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is

only mildly fazed by a series of phantasmagorical
encounters with the nihilists and pornographers of the
Los Angeles underworld. He is, in his own languid way,
the most subversive role model in recent cinema, tacitly
suggesting an ideal existence spent bowling, drinking
milky cocktails, smoking powerful cannabis and watching
The Big Lebowski.

27. Central do Brasil (1998) Gruff old cynic Fernanda

Montenegro helps Vinicius de Oliveira's cute little orphan
boy find his father, and the experience profoundly
changes both of them. In synopsis, it sounds obvious

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and revolting. In the telling, it builds awesome power
through observation and restraint.

26. Gregory's Girl (1981) The horizontal dancing, the kid

in the penguin suit, "bums, tits, fannies, the lot" - every
scene in Bill Forsyth's movie is memorable and likeable,
the cumulative effect a kind of midsummer magic,
catching all the flailing pathos of teenage years spent in
Cumbernauld or anywhere else.

25. When We Were Kings (1996) Mohammed Ali captured

on Leon Gast's camera, like a hummingbird in mid flap,
at his most glorious moment - The Rumble in the Jungle,
aka the world heavyweight championship, Zaire, 1974.
Ali spars, dares and goads you into becoming a more
interesting person.

24. The Jungle Book (1967) Disney's most exuberant

cartoon, in which Baloo the Bear (voiced by Phil Harris)
becomes so enraptured by the beat of King Louie (Louis
Prima) and the singing orangutans that he is compelled
to dance, shaking loose his coconut-shell monkey
disguise and getting our heroes in big trouble.

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23. Down By Law (1986) Jack the DJ (Tom Waits) and
Zack the pimp (Rod Lurie), both too laid-back to avoid
being framed for crimes they didn't commit, are thrown
in the slammer with Italian optimist Roberto Benigni,
who doesn't speak English too good but knows an escape
route. Scruffy but uplifting, like a barfly with a
tremendous singing voice.

22. Modern Times (1932) Charlie Chaplin's last silent

movie, the last dance of The Tramp, doesn't seem quite
so funny any more, but it's still the purest display of his
genius - one man's grace and humour used as a weapon
against machinery, clockworks, dayjobs and boredom
itself.

21. Ikiru (1952) Sad can feel good. Akira Kurosawa's

overwhelming tale of a dying businessman (Takashi
Shimura) who compensates for an unfulfilled life of
conformity by building a kid's playground is one of the
few films that might actually inspire you to change for
the better.

20. Big Night (1996) Brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and

Secondo (Stanley Tucci) cook a monumental last-chance
supper out of love and desperation for their failing
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restaurant. The film itself is a whole- hearted effort,
passionate about food and compassionate about people.

19. Toy Story (1995) Mass-produced plastic toys have

their own lives, neuroses and social structure - Pixar
Studios digital- animation classic works because you
want it to be true, and the characters make you believe
it. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) is the spirit of Don Quixote
trapped inside a new-fangled Action Man.

18. Anand (1970) Cancer patient Rajesh Khanna spends

his last few months laughing at death and everything
else. "Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin," he says
(life should be grand, rather than long) and this
Bollywood classic expresses itself with more vigorous
conviction than the many Hollywood movies that say
pretty much the same thing.

17. Shaolin Soccer (2001) Stephen Chow's joyously goofy

Hong Kong blockbuster is a serious recent contender for
the most pure-fun movie of all time, as Fung (Ng Man
Tat) trains his amateur football team using the power of
Shaolin Kung Fu. The Cup Final against Team Evil is a
billion times more exciting than any real match - the ball

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kicked so hard it releases atomic shockwaves and fiery
demons.

16. It's A Wonderful Life (1946) Frank Capra came home

from World War Two and made his "special picture" - this
strong, simple, infinitely watchable parable about the
cosmic importance of one person's life and dreams, as
Jimmy Stewart has his darkening worldview adjusted by
an angel called Clarence (Henry Travers).

15. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) A resounding wake-up

call from the Eighties - "Life moves pretty fast. If you
don't stop and look around once in a while, you could
miss it." Heed Ferris. Phone in sick, open the curtains,
play Sigue Sigue Sputnik loud, and make alternative
arrangements for the day.

14. Roman Holiday (1953) Princess Audrey Hepburn and

journalist Gregory Peck, left, riding on a scooter in a
romantically portrayed Eternal City. It really is ever so
dreamy.

13. Amelie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet's giddy vision of a

Paris suburb in a parallel universe ruled by whimsy,
where a cute, fantastical mooncalf (Audrey Tatou,

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above) makes sure everybody gets who and what they
secretly want with omnipotent, benevolent cunning. The
whole film runs on the same kind of wishful thinking that
keeps fairies in the air.

12. Together (2000) Swedish writer-director Lukas

Moodysson loves every one of his characters - the
befuddled, outdated founders of a socialist commune,
and their estranged, embarrassed disco-generation kids
- and his second film radiates with a warm orange aura
of human comedy and empathy.

11. Tokyo Story (1953) Watching Yasujiro Ozu's smiling,

sighing, painful and truthful generation-gap drama is like
spending a few weeks at high altitude - it hurts quite a
bit at first, but it does you the power of good.

10. The Philadelphia Story (1940) George Cukor's

masterful adaptation of Philip Barry's rapid-fire theatrical
farce zings with just as many wisecracks as comparably
perfect entertainments His Girl Friday and Bringing Up
Baby, but this one's got the combination of Cary Grant's
twinkling ex-husband, Jimmy Stewart's dignified writer,
and a mighty Katharine Hepburn, announced by the

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posters as "The Snooty Society Beauty Who Slipped And
Fell - IN LOVE."

9. Singin' In The Rain (1952) Playful, fluid, splashy, fizzy,

romantic jubilation in Technicolour - the only musical
that works properly, in that you don't want to smack the
characters when they break out into the big production
numbers. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen took the duff
old studio showtunes they were given, shined them up in
a hurry, set them to eye-popping, off-the-cuff
choreography, and turned out the greatest work of pop
art.

8. Rocky (1976) All sports movies run on the ever-ready

inspirational dynamic of unknown underdogs
surmounting insurmountable odds to go the distance in a
million-to-one shot, but none surmount with quite the
same winning idiocy as Sylvester Stallone's meatheaded
skid row boxer. If only real life contained such
exhilarating training sequences and a constant,
triumphant theme tune like Bill Conti's Gonna Fly.

7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Harrison Ford's battered,

charismatic, grouchy and resolute archaeologist Dr
Indiana Jones faces down the entire Third Reich in his
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determination to secure the remains of the Ten
Commandments for his local museum, but wisely shuts
his eyes before the wrath of God. If only real life
contained such exhilarating chase sequences and a
constant, triumphant theme tune like John Williams's
Raiders' March.

6. Spirited Away (2001) Hayao Miyazaki's wonderful,

colourful and compassionate vision of the spirit world,
which works in the same deep, weird way as the best
dreams, banging a gong, in a pagoda, in a garden,
somewhere inside your head.

5. Raising Arizona (1987) The Coen brothers' breakneck,

big- hearted, baby-snatching comedy screwballs even
wilder and faster than the Hollywood classics it bounces
off, pitting Nicolas Cage's dazed robber and his zero-
nonsense cop wife Holly Hunter against hell's own angel
(Randall Tex Cobb) in a hysterical good vs. evil battle for
a child of their own.

"There's what's right and what's right, and never the

twain shall meet," explains Cage.

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4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) For all the prison-
movie cliches and bible-parable martyrdom, Frank
Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's novella - Tim
Robbins suffers, suffers, and escapes the hell of wrongful
incarceration - transmits a powerfully pure and simple
belief in hope and transcendence.

3. Groundhog Day (1993) Bill Murray's crabby, egocentric

weatherman finds a new path to enlightenment - live the
same dull day, in the same dull place, over and over
again until your cynicism becomes so boring that it gives
way to joie de vivre. The rest of us may be waiting a
long time for that shift, but Groundhog Day provides a
taste of it.

2. The Ladykillers (1955) Wilfully nasty but ultimately

moral, as true comedy always is - Ealing Studios'
masterpiece about the malevolent, ineffectual gang of
crooks (including Alec Guinness at his finest and Peter
Sellers at his most gracious) unwittingly outmanoeuvred
by one little old woman (Katie Johnson) appeals
endlessly to your faith in goodness by showing you, with
meticulous hilarity, how good can succeed without even
trying.
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1. Some Like It Hot (1959) Nothing feels as good as sex.
Sex, in theory, and hopefully in practice, never gets
boring. And since Billy Wilder's great, great comedy
focuses all its combined craft and genius on nothing
other than sex - the gangster stuff is just window
dressing - Some Like It Hot will never get boring, or stop
feeling good. Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn
Monroe, all of them wearing women's clothes (but only
Monroe looking like "a whole different sex"), exchange
one-liners so definitive they might have been written in
fire, and create genuine delight through relentlessly
elegant vulgarity. This movie is the next best thing to
"the fuzzy end of the lollipop".

Copyright 2004 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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