In Praise of Comfort Films
In his latest video essay, Thomas Flight praises the comfort film and shares some examples (The Big Lebowski, Perfect Days, Mon Oncle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Moonrise Kingdom) from a few different types.
We want high stakes to make things interesting. But if you’re constantly being bombarded by conflict in your real life or the other media you’re consuming, it might be nice to spend some time with a story that takes a step back from high-stakes conflict as the primary narrative driving force.
I don’t know about you, but I am watching, reading, and listening to a looot of comfort media lately. (And by “lately”, I mean the past 8-10 years. 🫠) I felt this bit deeply:
There’s a point at which we can become trapped in chronic nervous system distress because of the media we’re consuming. Our brains are hardwired to scan our environment for potential dangers or problems. The media you consume can then end up releasing cortisol, raising your blood pressure, elevating your heart rate, inducing stress. And when we have access to this media in our pockets all the time, it means that places in our lives that may have typically been felt as a safe haven in the past, like maybe our living room or our bedroom, are now often the places where we’re really intensely and intimately consuming some of the most distressing media that we ever consume.
What are your favorite comfort movies? Any non-obvious ones? (E.g. I watch disaster movies as comfort films. The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, The Core, Deep Impact.)
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I’m all about comfort TV. Bakeoff and RuPaul’s Drag Race are my go-tos.
Your mention of disaster films as comfort media makes me think about the proliferation of true crime media. I know people who listen to it while they fall asleep. What’s that all about?
My comfort movies are 80s/90s thrillers (often but not always in the courtroom) where the good guys win in the end. My favorite is probably The Fugitive
The Fugitive is my all-time favourite movie!
Me too: I watched it yesterday, and thought "this is my definite comfort movie, even more than Jurassic Park or Lethal Weapon" and boom, an article about this today.
Air Force One was one I re watched recently in this vein! So good.
Amélie
Local Hero
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
The Wrong Box
It's an abbreviated list and although this is new I found myself watching The Ballad of Wallis Island 3 times in a short period.
And most anything Wim Wenders.
Movies where competent people solve big problems work for me: heist movies, Mission Impossible, 90s-era spy movies (e.g. Sneakers), documents documents movies, westerns (really found The Quick and the Dead to be cathartic), Lord of the Rings. I found Contagion to be weirdly comforting during the depths of the pandemic.
To me it's less about avoiding conflict and more about watching that conflict get unambiguously resolved in a positive way. A lot of movies from the last ten or fifteen years revel in nihilism and detailing the moral complexity and inequities in the world. It's nice to watch movies from times where a person or a group of people can fix a seemingly-impossible problem just by being Good At Something.
"watching that conflict get unambiguously resolved in a positive way" Absolutely! One of the things I remember from Emily & Amelia Nagoski's talk on Burnout at XOXO 2019 is how watching, reading, or listening to stories can help people complete a stress response cycle if they get stuck:
All those disaster movies? They save the world! Yay! Catharsis!
More here on what else you can do to help you through stressful times.
In the past few weeks, I've watched Sneakers, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and most recently, The Sting. All "tense" movies in a way, for sure, but as you point out, having characters good at what they do, then just freakin' figuring stuff out and getting the job done - immensely satisfying!
I've heard it called "competence porn." Very satisfying. I always point out how you find yourself rooting for the robbers in a heist movie no matter who you're "supposed" to be rooting for.
I've never heard that phrase before, and it has just entered my vernacular. Watching people do things well is so satisfying.
I recently read David Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife and he, slightly disparagingly, calls them "problem" stories. Meaning the problem can be solved by the end of the story. I found it fascinating that he explained sports and news commentary as versions of this, which feels like it covers a lot of modern media. He recognizes there is a place for them, but that they are not "art" in his estimation. I don't know that I agree, but understand the perspective and it helped me understand why they are so comforting.
That’s why I still love the Olympics even if I hate US coverage and the whole political theater of it — I don’t ever care who wins, but seeing people do amazing things is so soothing!
In a very loose order more or less corresponding to when they entered my rotation: Flight (2012), Heist (2001), World War Z (2013), Sexy Beast (2000), The World's End (2013), Blue Jean (2022), Eagle vs. Shark (2007), Leave the World Behind (2023).
It took me a long time to understand why the films I kept going back to were comforting to me. Plot-wise they're not by a long shot soothing. But it's the vibes I like. Movies with scenes and environments that feel lived in. It's probably more down to the cinematography interacting with my particular brain chemistry than anything else.
Sexy Beast causes me soooo much anxiety. Ben Kingsley yelling is the opposite of comforting (for me).
Zoolander, Old School, The Devil Wears Prada, Crazy Rich Asians, Gladiator, Master & Commander all come to mind. Murder Mystery 1 and Murder Mystery 2 are new entries to my rotation. And sometimes The Godfather and The Godfather Part II because I find it oddly comforting to be reminded that the human condition has always been messy and complicated.
For comfort, I enjoy movies/TV in which I get to watch a character with a relatable personality trait develop positively... Good Will Hunting, Ted Lasso, As Good As It Gets, Schitt's Creek
I faced this conundrum this weekend. I have a long list of movies I want to watch, movies that I ostensibly should watch, but then I open a streaming app and see Groundhog Day front & center. A movie about repetition is definitely a comfort rewatch for me!
I think the core comfort films for myself and all the gays and girls I know are Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada. Some additional comfort TV for me are Home Movies, Daria and Parks and Rec. Some people I know treat The Office as a comfort show but the interpersonal conflict in that can feel so visceral and real to me that it’s a major stressor.
Birdcage with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane and Hank Azaria is my go to. I can't believe it is almost 20 years old. It always makes me laugh and fantastic Miami Beach is in its glory.
Sports Night, Star Trek: TNG, 30 Rock
When I was in graduate school many moons ago I watched What's Eating Gilbert Grape dozens of times. It feels like a pair of comfortable slippers when I watch it now.
I've always kind of looked at movies the same way I look at food. Sometimes I want something that is complex, difficult to make, and prepared both with the finest ingredients and great care. Sometimes I want junk food. For me comfort films, like comfort food, are objectively "junk," but consuming them gives me pleasure.
For me, comfort movies are dopey, vulgar comedies, or bombastic spectacles, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars films. I don't have to think, they're fast paced, filled with absurdity and don't have a lot of nuance. If you think about them too much they fall apart, but they're endlessly rewatchable (not so much the comedies) and usually have pat happy ending.
Not to dive into a cult of any sort, but beginning with The Office, most anything that Michael Schur has been involved with has been a winner in our household, from Parks and Rec to Brooklyn 99 to The Good Place. We also thoroughly enjoyed Schitt's Creek, catching up with all 6 seasons this summer. And another shout out to Better Things, which we're re-watching now. BTW, does anyone else save series finales on their DVR because they can't stand to say goodbye to these characters who have brought them so much joy?
Today I learned about people who watch exciting movies for comfort! Sounded crazy at first and I’m not afraid to say it, but after reading the comments I now understand how a movie with a good resolution can be comforting.
Very cliche I know but:
Field of Dreams
The Shawshank Redemption
For tv:
Law and Order
The office
90s Star Trek
Elsbeth
Yes to all of this! I actually study media psychology as my day job, and comfort movies as a source of security, safety, familiarity and nostalgia is something I literally just published some new research on! I love when worlds collide https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15205436.2025.2519191
Tl;dr: it doesn’t matter the genre or even how hard/complex something is—comfort comes from how it makes you feel in relation to your life, and often that’s based on having seen it (or things just like it) before because that’s easier to process and connect to (which is why my colleague can love body-horror to calm down and I couldn’t be paid to watch scary things when I’m stressed, but watch all the predictable, resolvable, Justice-restoring murder mysteries on bad days)
For me, Roxanne and the BBC Pride and Prejudice are where I go when I need comfort. Or Monty Python (selectively; some of the skits are too dated) or comedies like Spinal Tap or the Christopher Guest films.
For my spouse, the ultimate comfort viewing is Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I don't disagree with that, either.
Ooh yes, The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Almost Famous, the BBC Pride and Prejudice and North and South, the Beatles Anthology, and then Gilmore Girls / Friends / The Office / Parks and Rec / Gavin and Stacey / Poirot and Partners in Crime…
Ever since 30 Rock called this out with "Hard to Watch," I lost interest in spending time watching movies that don't make me feel good.
My favorite is A League of Their Own. Entertaining, good people do good things, and they eventually reach their highest potential.
I find I can get "comfort" from new movies in the comedy/thriller/action catergories, but if I had to go back for comfort, Ocean's Eleven (Soderbergh), Jaws, Office Space, and the first three Raiders/Indiana Jones movies do it for me.
Oh thank you, I knew I was forgetting some in my regular rotation: Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Ten, and OF COURSE Office Space! The Last Cruisade, the first Raiders and DOH! I forgot Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan somehow!?! Even though it's one all-time favorite movies I never tire of watching?!
Another vote for LOTR (extended versions offer extended comfort). Extra Credit comfort - reading the books again. Not to combine post comments, but the nest can feel less empty when some room is left for the sharing of comfort movies when the yearlings return for a visit, although the search for DVDs/streaming source is its own dark wizardry.
Lately for me it's been Denis Villeneuve, specifically Blade Runner 2049, Dune, and Dune 2. Mad Max: Fury Road and Cloud Atlas do it for me as well. I don't have a clear understanding of why post apocalyptic movies calm me, it probably has something to do with people being strong against oppressors. I also lean heavily on Wes Anderson, The Life Aquatic and Fantastic Mr. Fox in particular always make me feel warm and fuzzy. Someone also mentioned Amelie which I keep close by too.
My whole life comfort movies have been somewhat dictated by what I've got lying around. Then DVDs now Plex.
I really think that you can't have too serious a movie be a comfort movie. What makes it comforting is knowing all the beats and getting a big payoff, for me
I often turn to the "Slick Caper" movies. Something involving an art, or bank, etc, heist. "Thomas Crown", "Oceans 8, and etc", "How to Steal a Million 😍"... or sometimes "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with it's classy 'heist - con man/woman' themes sprinkled throughout, but a bit of "I'm lost/tragedy"... I want to cozy up with these films. I want to have a date with my couch on a rainy day with them - and never, ever, feel bad about enjoying the entire day drifting between enjoying them and pleasantly napping.
I don't know if they're comfort movies or not, but we often have Grit, the TV westerns channel, on when doing things around the house. You don't have to spend a lot of attention on formulaic movies.
For myself, and not my spouse, I can always watch The Martian, Apollo 13, Twister for 'science guys do great stuff'; Short Circuit, Blues Brothers for nostalgic comfort. I'm also a fan of 'sports underdog' movies sometimes - my main two being Little Giants and Hoosiers
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