These days I’m all about comfort. My company has casual dress until January. As soon as I get home, I change into my yoga pants and t-shirt or a pair of pajamas. I’m even watching comfort TV, - cooking shows, reality programs, wrestling, and old dramas I missed twenty years ago.
It then logically follows that I also want my comfort movies. What’s a comfort movie? It’s like comfort food – something that just makes you happy inside. It’s like a bowl of chili topped with cheese and sour cream on a cold day, or a cup of Twinings English Breakfast Tea while you have your morning bagel.
My comfort film list is pretty diverse. It shouldn’t come as a shock to ANY of you (and if it does, you have no business reading my weekly diatribes) that my ultimate comfort film is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. It’s like Audrey says – nothing bad can happen to me while I’m there. But some of these other films might sound a bit off. This list has a disclaimer that my sanity could, indeed, be called into question at any point.
“Bringing Up Baby” – the best comedy ever made. Period. It’s got my other favorite Hepburn, along with the most suave actor ever to grace the screen, Cary Grant. It’s got geeks and it’s got animals. More importantly, it’s got lots and lots of laughs.
I’ll also throw “Duck Soup” in here. I came to the Marx Brothers late in life, and can’t imagine why it took me so long. Modern comedians wish they could be this funny. For a bad day at work, try “Office Space”, but most people already knew that.
Not all comfort films are comedies, though. If I need a good cry, I might go over to Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnificent “Magnolia”, which makes me cry every time I see it. For a strong drama, I’m liable to put in “The Godfather Part II”. I guess it’s the Italian thing, but it never gets old. To feel pretty, I’ve been known to put on “Coyote Ugly” or “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (and someday I WILL look like that in that dress, even if it takes me another life).
To feel like a kid, try “The Princess Diaries”. To feel grown up, I try “Desk Set”. To sing, try “Grease” or “Xanadu” or “Moulin Rouge” (Spectacular, Spectacular!). For a good scare, there’s nothing like Kubrick’s “The Shining” with the scariest ending shot EVER in modern cinema. I even have a Christmas comfort film – “Love Actually”.
But the oddest comfort film is the most recent, and certainly the most ironic. (No, it is not “Gladiator”, nor does it involve Nic Cage.) The other night I simply couldn’t fall asleep for anything, so I turned on a random channel. They just HAPPENED to be running “The Empire Strikes Back”. I kept it on, and was asleep in about ten minutes. I’ve always said that Lucas-affiliated dialogue could put me straight to sleep!
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