52 perfect comfort films to watch again and again | Film

Samantha Morton loves The Apartment, while David Baddiel prefers Ratatouille. Film-makers, writers and Guardian readers on the movies they always curl up with

The Devil Wears Prada

I have a clutch of comfort-blanket movies, but this is currently my favourite, and I blush to think I once derided it. Meryl Streep is imperishably enjoyable in this adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s novel, reportedly inspired by Anna Wintour. Anne Hathaway plays the callow college grad who flukes a job at the colossally prestigious fashion magazine Runway, edited by Streep’s terrifying Miranda Priestly, the boss from hell. Stanley Tucci is wonderful as her long-serving, longsuffering senior executive and this was the film that launched the elegant Emily Blunt on the world, as the super-snobbish fashionista who is to be Hathaway’s unwilling guide. Peter Bradshaw, Guardian film critic

The Apartment

I’ve been drawn towards old greats recently and have watched The Apartment quite a few times. Billy Wilder is a favourite of mine after Cameron Crowe graciously introduced me to his films. Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon just have me laughing and crying every time. I love this film so much it has become like a family friend. It gives me hope and inspires me. The respect for love blows me away. Samantha Morton, actor

Radio Days

My go-to comfort movie is always Radio Days, Woody Allen’s glorious, crazy, nostalgic kaleidoscope of warmth and humanity, hilarity and sadness. With its enormous cast of beautifully realised character performances and its succulent cornucopia of popular 1940s music, it resonates with my showbiz experiences and evokes my own postwar provincial Jewish childhood. It’s like watching a home movie. I love it. Mike Leigh, director

Dancehall Queen

Anyone who knows me knows that I am deeply Jamaican. Thus, my comfort film is Dancehall Queen. Set in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, it’s a rags-to-riches indie film in which Marcia, a struggling street vendor trying to raise two children, must battle all sorts of adversity to become the reigning dancehall queen – all while hiding her identity. It’s perfect. Candice Carty-Williams, author

The Amazing Mr Blunden

Lionel Jeffries made this adorable film in 1972 as a kind of follow-up to The Railway Children, but it has practically vanished from history. It’s basically The Railway Children, but with ghosts. Two children, exiled to a country house, become friends with ghost children of their own age. Then they go back in time to save the ghost children from a fire – and they become the ghosts! Amazing! Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster

Madagascar 3

It is a rude supposition among people who haven’t seen enough animated films to think there’s a diminishing-returns principle, each sequel the same as the last, only less good. It’s true of Die Hard, it’s not true of the Madagascar franchise, which goes from a playful fish-out-of-water romp in the first film, through some coming-of-age and communitarian sagas in the second, to the third, which has one of the best villains in cinema history. Frances McDormand voices Chantal DuBois, the animal catcher on a single-minded, vivacious self-destruct, culminating in a rendition of Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien that is more poignant (seriously) than Édith Piaf’s. Zoe Williams, Guardian columnist

Days of Heaven

I had never previously considered Terrence Malick’s period drama as a comfort blanket. It’s about a family of itinerant workers who prey on a dying farmer. It climaxes with an apocalyptic plague of locusts. But I’ve just rewatched it twice in the space of a week, and it’s all I can do not to put it on again. Malick’s whisk of painterly fields and whispering grass has become a kind of refuge from the din of the house and the clamour of the news. It’s an invitation to sit on the porch and watch the sun slowly sink over 1900s Texas. Xan Brooks, Guardian film writer

The Princess Bride

I loved this film from the moment I saw the cardboard cutouts promoting it in my local cinema. It’s action-packed, romantic and unbelievably funny, but perhaps the most remarkable thing is that it still works for all ages. I recently watched it with my 12-year-old nephew, who is interested only in Minecraft and YouTube. I have never seen him quiet for so long. As he left to go home that weekend, he said: “As you wish.” I can’t wait to share it in future with my newborn daughter. Alexander McQuiggan, Glasgow

Clueless

Clueless is a romcom that never gets syrupy; a stone-cold satire with a heart of gold. One hundred golden minutes of pithy wisdom on all life’s thorniest subjects: boys, friendship, sex, drugs, accessorising, parking. Everything useful I know about life I learned from this film. Jane Austen invented the female gaze 200 years ago (like, duh!) and her Emma, a prototype millennial feminist, is reborn in Alicia Silverstone for 1990s Beverly Hills. A gum-snapping, popcorny movie with hidden depths as well as heavenly outfits. Jess Cartner-Morley, Guardian associate editor, fashion

Ratatouille

I’ve said often that the greatest art in cinema now happens in animation, but there is also something deeply blanketing to the soul about Ratatouille. It may be that so much of it takes place in a kitchen; I always feel you can smell the food. And it contains the beautiful beat when cynical super-critic Antoine Ego is returned to innocence by tasting his first mouthful of Remy the rat’s ratatouille. Proust would have been proud, but that moment can bring us all, I think, for a second, back to childhood. Ratatouille is comfort film food. David Baddiel, writer and comedian. David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count is published on Thursday

Center Stage

I’m not proud. I wish it were Varda. But I’m trash, and Center Stage is a trash film. There’s something for everyone to hate – the whitest, most inconsequential love triangle committed to film, an angry black girl who’s tamed into obedience, a “fat” girl who’s never not shoving food down her gullet – and yet every time I see Jody whip her head up in that way-too-close-to-cornrows hairdo that miraculously materialises out of nowhere, mid-performance, I get chills. Desiree Akhavan, director

The Goodbye Girl

My favourite all-time comfort film is the romcom The Goodbye Girl, with Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and child actor Quinn Cummings. Basic plot: single mother and her precocious but lovable daughter get shafted by Mum’s ex. He sublets their apartment to an eccentric but likable actor who lets them stay on in the flat. The two fight but fall in love. The “panties on the line” scene in the bathroom is a cinematic classic. Star-crossed lovers with a funny kid thrown in and a hilarious, camp Richard III that gets Dreyfuss sacked. Monique Roffey, author

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Brian Blessed shouting his head off on a horse. Kevin Costner and Christian Slater not bothering to do British accents. That bloody theme song. There’s a lot to mock about Kevin Reynolds’ 1991 box office botherer, but as a slow Sunday afternoon choice this has been my go-to for nearly 20 years. It’s just the right mix of pantomime and blockbuster, plus you get to see Alan Rickman, Alan Rickmanning the hell out of everything. Lanre Bakare, Guardian culture reporter

Shakespeare in Love

I love Tom Stoppard. He plays games and has fun, but is a good, sharp writer. In this film, he drops lots of gags about actors, “the industry” and Shakespeare himself, yet overall weaves a tale with all the elements of Shakespeare’s plays: comedy, tragedy, majesty, love, boys as women/women as boys, fights ... and a bit with a dog. In the end, the show goes on and all ends well. How? It’s a mystery … Peter Stamp, Cranleigh

The Graduate

What a cast: Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, Anne Bancroft. What a premise: you fall in love with a gorgeous girl and are seduced by her sexy, dangerous mum. What music: Simon & Garfunkel’s greatest hits. It’s a comedy, but it gets truly dark. And finally – that ecstatic ending. (Or is it?) As a young Jewish boy watching, it offered such a thrilling glimpse into my future (of course, it would all happen to me!). Fifty-odd years on, it provides such a comforting trip to the past. Simon Hattenstone, Guardian writer

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

The 1998 Bollywood extravaganza Kuch Kuch Hota Hai comes in at just over three hours long and manages to cram joy into every minute, from its eye-searing 90s outfits (including a necklace that spells out the word “cool”) to its high-energy songs and full-cast dance routines. Feel free to ignore the slight plot (a love triangle involving two best friends) and old-fashioned sexual politics and just wallow in the perfect chemistry of megastars Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan. Homa Khaleeli, deputy features editor

Two-Way Stretch

As a young teenager I think it expressed the mix of parody, irreverence and slapstick that suited me dead right. To revisit it is to be in myself in happy times. Michael Rosen, author

Trading Places

There are some films that are funny precisely because you have learned the punchlines and know they’re coming. Trading Places is one of those films. The pleasure is less in the near-perfect plot structure, where two characters intersect on their way to self-awareness, but in its little gems of dialogue. Like most movies at the time it has its fair share of tropes about race, but the jokes are so cleverly self-aware in their obviousness that they land perfectly every time. Nesrine Malik, Guardian columnist and author

Singin’ in the Rain

I first saw it when I was four or five years old, and I remember dancing around in my local park trying to do the numbers from it. This movie made me want to be “an entertainer”, an idea that never went away and led me straight towards my career. How many times have I watched it? It runs into the hundreds. Denis Lawson, actor

My Neighbour Totoro

You don’t need to be a child to find Hayao Miyazaki’s lovingly detailed depictions of rural Japan ravishing; perfect blue skies, fluffy white clouds, lush green countryside, traditional architecture, benign mythical creatures. It’s a place you want to be: tranquil and reassuringly nostalgic, yet tinged with just enough mystery and strangeness. The gentle pace of the story means all the more time to bask in it. Steve Rose, Guardian film writer

The Blues Brothers

The celebrated musical sections in The Blues Brothers seem to have been dropped in from 10,000 feet, but when the world seems irksome, it doesn’t matter. When John Belushi pushes a cassette into the Bluesmobile and a Sam and Dave soul classic plays. When Belushi appropriates Dan Aykroyd’s bed and Aykroyd consoles himself with a scratchy Louis Jordan LP. When James Brown leads a singing church from observance to mass hysteria and backflips. The credits roll: the planet again seems tolerable. Hugh Muir, Guardian acting G1 editor

Tokyo Story

This is a great classic, but I saw it only five years ago and was knocked out by it. The people are ordinary: a family. They live their lives, they love each other, they fail each other. The film has a quiet insistence, which is never showy, but is utterly compelling. It’s beautifully shot; the score is sublime. This is a work of art with humanity in every frame. Big, universal stuff that creeps up on you. That’s what I want at the moment. I can get laughs in our kitchen. Lindsay Duncan, actor

Mrs Doubtfire

There should be something deeply unnerving about watching a middle-aged Robin Williams warehoused in kilos of prosthetics and pearls, deceiving his way back into his kids’ lives following a divorce. And yet, this performance in 1993’s Mrs Doubtfire has always been a comfort watch. It’s in the kindly, Mr Rogers lilt of Williams’s character, his narrative arc of redemption and the underlying moral that the bond of a caring parent will win out – something to truly take comfort in during this time of isolation. Ammar Kalia, Guardian assistant TV editor

Destry Rides Again

This is a gentle comedy western, starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, with a message. There is the occasional anomaly (for instance, the inevitable black maid cameo) – it is after all, more than 80 years old – but I reckon if every US schoolkid was compelled to watch this, the NRA and Walmart would be out of business before Donald Trump could say “Make America Great Again” again. Ken Stott, actor

What’s Up, Doc?

This guaranteed blues-banisher is as giddy as the screwball classics (Bringing Up Baby et al) to which it pays homage. Barbra Streisand is the mischief-maker turning the life of a poor schnook (Ryan O’Neal) upside down; every face in the cast (including the peerless Madeline Kahn) is an absolute cut-up. Streisand purrs Cole Porter’s You’re the Top over the credits. And this is. Ryan Gilbey, Guardian writer

Splash

On the surface, Splash sounds incredibly hokey: a love story between Allen (Tom Hanks in his first major screen role) and Madison (played by Daryl Hannah), who meet fleetingly as children and are reunited years later when Madison rescues Allen from a boating accident. The twist in the tail (sorry) is that Madison, unbeknownst to Allen, is a mermaid. As much as it is a love story, it is also a story about sharing, sacrifice and giving. I related to being a fish out of water, as a closeted gay kid, and I still find great comfort in it today. It is a great tonic for these anxious times. Justin Lightbown, Manchester

The Lady Vanishes

A “comfort film” for me means black and white, clipped and ever-so-English accents (or “excents”) and the reassuring presence of certain character actors. It helps if, on top of that, the film is superbly written and directed. So the obvious choice is Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, a reassuring teatime watch that also happens to be the work of a cinematic genius on top form. Jonathan Coe, author

Hannah and Her Sisters

“I feel I screwed up very badly,” said Woody Allen of his Oscar-winning 1986 comedy. The happy ending especially: “That was the part that killed me.” It’s what makes this, for me, the most warm and soothing of his stories. I love it all: Von Sydow’s rant, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, “she got drunker and drunker and finally she turned into Joan Collins”, the scene in which Mia Farrow and Woody Allen try to persuade Tony Roberts to be a sperm donor. But that final triple hurrah for Dianne Wiest – Talented! In love! Pregnant! – is just joy. Catherine Shoard, Guardian film editor

Superbad

This film transports me into the safety of the American suburbs and the lives of nerdy outsider teenage boys. Whenever I listen to the soundtrack, I feel instant comfort and can picture my teenage self listening to it on my iPod shuffle on the train into Crawley to meet my friends. Their antics remind me of the kinds of night you have with a best friend where it starts off tame and organised and then goes completely sideways. The film reminds me of how much I love those moments after a night out when you turn to your friend and say: “WTF happened?!” Maddie, London

The Adventures of Robin Hood

If I had to choose, it would be the Michael Curtiz movie The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn swashing his buckle in fetching green tights, and a glorious score by Erich Korngold. I saw it first as a child more than 50 years ago and love it still. A film for children aged between 10 and 100. Stephen Moss, Guardian writer

Only You

No film scratches the itch for escapism quite as effectively as Norman Jewison’s sharp and beguiling 1994 confection Only You. Doubling up as a seductive Italian travelogue, with electric chemistry between Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr, it never fails to lift a bad mood. Benjamin Lee, Guardian US arts editor

The Sting

Nostalgia is always comforting, and The Sting is shot through with nostalgia in every frame. Its portrayal of depression-era Chicago – all sepia-toned palette and ragtime soundtrack – draws you in from the off, while the plot – charming rogues outwitting a mean, violent crook via an elaborate con – is effortlessly entrancing. Did I mention Robert Redford and Paul Newman? A duvet coat for the brain. Dan Kuper, writer

Before Sunrise

This is the first of a trilogy – Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight – in which we follow the relationship between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s characters as the years go by. Like Boyhood, also directed by Richard Linklater, the trilogy was filmed over several decades. Here, though, there’s something really charming about coming to the next film and finding them older, then them meeting again and finding their way through love and life. It’s glorious. Derren Brown, illusionist and author

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I’ve loved this film like a brother since childhood. Its dissection of western heroic myth via civil war tragedy only increases in power as the years pass. Beneath the playful surface theatrics, it evokes, more than ever, a mood of compassion, fraternal love and a deepening awareness of mortality and loss. Like Tuco says of his brother Pablo, this film will never refuse you a bowl of soup. Matthew Holness, writer, actor and director

Summer Madness

Katharine Hepburn alone on holiday in Venice. Her beauty, the city’s labyrinth, her hunger for emotion, excitement and change. My life is fast and full of stress, but, when I drop into hers, I can feel the languor of an afternoon, the tickle of desire. And her voice! Summer Madness is a great, lonely masterpiece, like Kurosawa’s Ikiru, or Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7. Mark Cousins, writer and film-maker

The Producers

My favourite film to watch if I’m feeling down is The Producers. It was made in 1967, starring Gene Wilder and the genius Zero Mostel, with Mel Brooks directing his own Oscar-winning screenplay. I love it because, even though I’ve watched it a million times, it never fails to make me laugh and think. Giles Terera, actor

Starship Troopers

In the days before streaming permanently altered the landscape, the kind of film you always watched “when it was on” was a special breed – familiar, comforting and never disappointing. Top of my list has always been Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s cartoonish sci-fi satire that manages to be incredibly violent yet amazingly romantic. If anything will get us through the lockdown blues, it has got to be this. Andrew Pulver, Guardian associate editor, film

The Incredibles

The Incredibles is the one film we’ve taken our kids to see at the cinema – and then all gone back to see it a week later (and there were seven of us). It had enough animated action to keep the kids entertained, yet had throwbacks to old sci-fi and James Bond movies, to keep me in a warm state of nostalgia throughout. Like reliving your childhood and sharing it with your children at the same time. Now, where did I leave that DVD? Joseph Harker, Guardian deputy editor, opinion

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

I did my A-level media studies coursework on this film, but I never tired of the jokes. It is a spoof of 90s hood movies and no subject is off limits; my favourite character is the Afrocentric activist who is addicted to white women. I spend 90% of my life being serious about blackness, but sometimes you have to see the funny side. Kehinde Andrews, professor of black studies, Birmingham City University

Pride and Prejudice

When I’m having a bad day or feeling very depressed, I put on Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, because it gives me the warm-toned escapism of Regency-era Austen. I feel like I’m seeing my friend Elizabeth Bennet living her life in her country farm, giggling and arguing with her sisters. I love this movie because it allows me to escape into a world where the characters’ biggest problems are meddling mothers and who is on their dance cards. Sometimes you just want to worry over these small problems rather than what’s going on in your own life. Afia, Stoke-on-Trent

Die Hard

Yippee ki-yay [redacted]! Who could resist the charms of Die Hard, everyone’s favourite Christmas-set, hostage-based action film – and a highly quotable one at that (a personal favourite: “Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho”). Bruce Willis’s kickass cop, John McClane, and Alan Rickman’s perfectly devilish Euro-baddie, Hans Gruber, make for perfectly matched opponents in a festive classic that is also a film for all seasons. Hannah J Davies, Guardian deputy TV editor

While You Were Sleeping

Sad cat-spinster, orphaned railway worker Sandra Bullock inveigles her way adorably into the life of a dim, handsome, comatose banker. His entire family fall in love with her, including the banker’s earthy, twinkly eyed brother, played by Bill Pullman. She ends up forgiven, rich, happy, married and in love. All gain, no pain. Bidisha, writer

Ghostbusters 2

There are many words to describe this overlooked sequel – zany, funny, slimy (that’s literal slime) – but the word I’d use is “cathartic”. A cosmic slime that reacts to negative human emotions builds up under the city, eventually opening a portal to another realm and its demons. Surely this is a metaphor – how the unfriendliness, unkindness and rampant me-first culture that festers in cities threatens all the good in them (well, in my city, anyway). But thankfully even imminent destruction can be overcome with humour, cooperation, friendship and Dan Aykroyd. Busting makes you feel good! Coco Khan, Guardian writer

Sister Act

Of the hundreds upon hundreds of hours I have spent watching this film, none have been wasted. Whoopi Goldberg is dazzling as Reno club singer Deloris Van Cartier, who winds up in witness protection in a convent after she sees her mob boyfriend shoot a police informant in the head. Sure, there are the funnies about no sex, no booze, no men, but the real heart of this film is the music. Goldberg takes charge of a tired and tuneless choir, introduces the women to the magic and wonder of Motown and breathes fresh, glorious life into the church. In turn, the nuns shows her the true meaning of sisterhood. Jenny Stevens, Guardian commissioning features editor

The Philadelphia Story

Like many comfort films, this is a love story (or rather, a love quadrangle, as the socialite Katharine Hepburn must decide between ex-husband Cary Grant, journalist Jimmy Stewart and John Howard, the man she is supposed to be marrying). It is a cocktail with a kick, one that comes with a salient moral: you love a person for their flaws, not despite them. Or, in the words of Grant: “You’ll never be a first-class human being or a first-class woman until you’ve learned to have some regard for human frailty.” Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, Guardian writer

West Side Story

Has there ever been a more inspiring singalong film than this 1962 adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s gang wars classic, which transports Romeo and Juliet to the streets of New York? The flick-knife energy of the dance numbers, the sarky wit of Puerto Rican Anita, the plodding humour of the bumbling cop Krupke, the soaring romance of Tony and Maria. One to hold close, from your first cigarette to your last dying day. Claire Armitstead, Guardian books editor

Terminator 2

Terminator is technically the better film. Cleverer, deeper and doing far more with less. But Terminator 2 is what I want. Terminator 2 is what I need. Give me, in times of strife, a ripped Linda Hamilton doing pull-ups in her cell, preparing equally for escape and Judgment Day. Give me reprogrammed metal endoskeletons thrusting forth an invincible hand and offering salvation. Give me a worthy but ultimately vanquished foe via what must surely be the most richly satisfying and least dated special effects in film history. Give them to me again and again, this seamless blend of Arnie action, suspense and noble sacrifice, heart and hope. I’ll be back. Lucy Mangan, Guardian TV critic

It’s Complicated

This is a film so comforting that I watched it with my partner the night before our civil partnership and in the throes of grief after my mum’s death – and still do so whenever I’m premenstrual. If comfort, to you, equals a stoned Meryl Streep making pain au chocolat from scratch while flirting with Steve Martin, prepare to be swaddled in Nancy Meyer’s finest 1,000-thread Egyptian cotton romcom. In short, it’s not complicated. Chitra Ramaswamy, writer

The Fast and the Furious

The entire franchise is my ride-or-die when it comes to comfort films. There is little in the way of plot, just good guys fighting bad guys while racing cars and doing ridiculous stunts in exotic locations. I have zero interest in cars and don’t even know how to drive, yet I absolutely adore it. I’m also a lesbian, but would watch the films for Vin Diesel’s muscles alone. 10/10, fine family fun. Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian writer

She’s the Man

She’s the Man, starring the romcom icon Amanda Bynes, is the perfect comfort film because it has no tension whatsoever. Instead, it has a soundtrack that is so bad it’s good, ridiculous physical gags such as using tampons for nosebleeds, a vague message of girl power and lines such as: “Viola, darling, remember to chew like you have a secret.” It came out in 2006, when I was 14, and makes me nostalgic for that era’s terrible fashion. Aamna Mohdin, Guardian community affairs correspondent

Paris Is Burning

It’s about people who have been cast out from society who find solace, joy and family in self-expression, music and dance. It is a testimony to the power of music, creativity and being yourself. Kate Fagan, London

Homeward Bound

This was one of my daughter’s favourites as a child and when I’m missing her or feeling a bit blue I’ll watch it to feel closer to her. The animal interaction is just pure joy and really helps me clear my mind of the chaos we are going through. My daughter lives in another state and because of Covid we’ve had to give up our visits this year. But I can curl up and watch this film and remember when she was little – and warm my heart in the nostalgia. Susan Laskey, Texas

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