“Feelgood” movies are often thought of as big-hearted romantic comedies, comforting classics, or childhood favourites that still hold up decades later. In our series, My feelgood movie, Guardian writers reflect on their go-to flick, and explain why their pick is endlessly rewatchable.
This list will be updated weekly with further picks.
Want more options? Here is our earlier list of the best 100 movies of the 20th century and the best movies about movies.
Pink Flamingos
Starring: Divine, David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce
Directed by: John Waters
Why our writer loves it: “The will to create a movie for the specific purpose of appalling anyone unaware of its true meaning turned Pink Flamingos into the ultimate litmus test. You either got its sick jokes or you didn’t. But those who did got something far more lasting than a laugh. We got a one-way ticket to an underground populated by parallel dissidents, an entire community of the unruly and free. That’s a lot to gain, which is why, even decades after I first saw Pink Flamingos, I return to it whenever I need to be reminded there’s a universe of possibilities out there not reflected in the world we know now.” (Jim Farber)
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Defending Your Life
Starring: Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks
Directed by: Albert Brooks
Why our writer loves it: “Life-affirming” is perhaps an overused adjective, but few movies have successfully illuminated the human condition as well as this one. Fear is commonplace in our daily lives, but Albert Brooks’s film might hold the key to ridding the worries of anxiety-ridden people such as myself. As the new year often brings about feelings of regret and unease, Defending Your Life is the warmest hug you can receive.” (Oliver Macnaughton)
Defending Your Life is available to rent digitally in the US and the UK
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Notting Hill
Starring: Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant
Directed by: Roger Michell
Why our writer loves it: “What is so wonderful about the film is how effortless it all seems. The story isn’t complex; there are no gunfights or CGI raccoons; the greatest jeopardy in the film involves Grant having to catch Roberts before she goes back to America – a problem that reads as plausibly insurmountable in 1999 but today would be remedied with a few WhatsApps. But, despite the illusion of effortlessness, getting everything right in this way is deceptively tricky. Has a single romcom ever managed to marry all of the necessary elements – cast, script, timing, an intangible magic – so perfectly? (No. The answer is no.)” (Ralph Jones)
Notting Hill is available on Netflix in the US and Channel 4 in the UK
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Married to the Mob
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Why our writer loves it: The movie is a long list of quirky pleasures, including a “starter kit of premium 80s college rock (New Order, Pixies, the Feelies), well-placed family dog reaction shots, and an FBI agent who dresses himself like Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit shorts. Few of the laughs in the film feel like punchlines or payoffs to some heavily orchestrated joke. Demme’s approach is more low-key and breezy, cruising confidently on the assumption that his DayGlo gangland will be fun enough without him having to push too hard. He catches a rhythm and does the mambo Italiano. It feels like your feet never touch the floor.” (Scott Tobias)
Married to the Mob is available on Hoopla, Kanopy and Pluto in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK
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Rush Hour
Starring: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Why our writer loves it: “Rush Hour taps into something that stirred my heart then and now: an ease settles into the two actors, Chan and Tucker’s joviality feeling so genuine that the east-meets-west tropes evolve into characters who have something real at stake, and who are also having fun.” (Tammy Tarng)
Rush Hour is available on Netflix in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK
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Father of the Bride
Starring: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short
Directed by: Charles Shyer
Why our writer loves it: “Why do I come back to this film again and again? As a girl and younger woman I was emphatically against marriage (though I’ve since softened) and watched it more as a comedy horror than anything aspirational. The only aspect of the Bankses’ life I’d want is the kitchen. And yet watching Franck and the family put on their ridiculous show makes me want to be part of it. I love ritual, and ceremony, and Steve Martin, and Martin Short, and Diane Keaton.” (Laura Snapes)
Where to watch: Father of the Bride is available on Hulu and Disney+ in the US and on Disney+ in the UK and Australia.
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Diggstown AKA Midnight Sting
Starring: James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr
Directed by: Michael Ritchie
Why our writer loves it: “Diggstown is the perfect feelgood movie – a breezy but exciting genre mashup with enough of a hangout vibe that you can have it on in the background, but also enough stakes that you will inevitably end up giving it your full attention.” (Zach Vasquez)
Where to watch: Diggstown is available on Amazon Prime.
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Burlesque
Starring: Cher and Christina Aguilera
Directed by: Steve Antin
Why our writer loves it: “Many of those who panned Burlesque on its release would feel punished by this cosmically appointed choice of comfort movie. A sequined patchwork quilt of all manner of backstage musicals and melodramas from various eras of Hollywood – starring, in a naked reach for cross-generational gay fandom, dual divas Christina Aguilera and Cher – the film inspired critical comparisons to A Star is Born, Cabaret and Showgirls, most of them unflattering. It made $90m at the global box office: not a flop but not a palpable hit either, least of all for a film where the feather budget alone could have funded a modest indie drama. Antin, whose long but scattered pre-Burlesque career ran the gamut from acting to screenwriting to stunt work to producing Pussycat Dolls reality shows, hasn’t directed another film since. The world, by and large, hasn’t mourned.” (Guy Lodge)
Where to watch: Burlesque is available to watch on Netflix in the US, on Sky Cinema in the UK and ABC iView and Amazon Prime in Australia.
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Head of State
Starring: Chris Rock and Bernie Mac
Directed by: Chris Rock
Why our writer loves it: “I’ve come back to this film so many times after the election for laughs, only to wind up seeing the whole picture as a clearer allegory for Kamala Harris’s defeat than Obama’s victory. Like Harris, [Chris Rock starring as Mays Gilliam, a small-time politician turned presidential hopeful] was a party sacrifice, offered up to make a certain loss look less bad on the cards, thrown into the fray at the 11th hour, plugged into a humming campaign apparatus, and touted as a history maker. It really makes you think about how close comedy is to horror.” (Andrew Lawrence)
Where to watch: Head of State is available to stream in the US on Freevee, Tubi, Paramount+ and MGM+, in the UK on Paramount+ and on Amazon Prime in Australia.
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A Knight’s Tale
Starring: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon and Paul Bettany
Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Why our writer loves it: “To me, watching a feelgood film is an intensely nostalgic exercise. That’s because whenever a film is special or timely enough to take up lodging in your heart, rewatching it is also an act of remembering an old version of yourself. A Knight’s Tale is shaded by the genuine sadness of Ledger’s death only seven years after its release, but when I watch it I also remember the way it used to make me feel, as a girl who loved the jousting because her older brother did, all the while secretly cherishing an action film for being so brazenly sentimental.” (Francesca Carington)
Where to watch: A Knight’s Tale is available on Amazon Prime in the US and available to rent digitally in the UK and Australia.
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Alita: Battle Angel
Starring: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connelly
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Why our writer loves it: “My feelgood movie for when humanity lets me down is Alita: Battle Angel, a movie where much of humanity hangs out in a city-sized junkpile. And though I don’t press play with this aspect particularly in mind, it’s nice to imagine a future where things have gone terribly wrong (that just seems realistic at this point) yet unforeseen triumphs still emerge from the tech-nightmare garbage heap. There are plenty of more time-honored films that take a more direct path to temporary bliss, including sci-fi movies better-equipped to restore faith in humanity.” (Jesse Hassenger)
Where to watch: Alita: Battle Angel is available to watch on Hulu in the US, on Netflix and Disney+ in the UK and on Disney+ in Australia.
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I Know Where I’m Going!
Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown
Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Why our writer loves it: ”I Know Where I’m Going! offers up such portentous moments of mystical and romantic significance lightly, alongside comical asides and colourful eccentricity. It’s a disarming strategy, which tends to leave the audience every bit as bewitched as (the film’s main character) Joan. In this corner of the universe, anything might be possible, even an ancient curse.” (Pamela Hutchinson)
Read the full review for I Know Where I’m Going!
Where to watch: I Know Where I’m Going! is available to watch on Tubi, Amazon Prime and the Criterion Channel in the US and is available to rent digitally Australia and in the UK and watch on BBC iPlayer.
