It’s ‘About Time’ you sit back, relax, and watch these comfort movies
Self care, self love, and making time for ourselves have seldom been more spotlit than in the current climate of 2021. It seems like nearly every time we open up Instagram, there’s an infographic preaching about the importance of making time to relax for our mental health’s sake.
Taking time for personal comfort is a foreign concept to those who’ve let that little voice in our heads telling us to do more to run our day to day. However, even workaholics have to admit, when stressors reach an all-time high, some mental health time is definitely necessary, and what’s better for a mental health break than a comforting movie?
From childhood favorites to relatable rom coms, there’s a wealth of comfort movies out there spanning the whole genre spectrum. Although comfort movies can vary based on personal experience, we’ve gathered some of streaming’s most relatable comforting films to help escape the stress of the day to day.
About Time
It’s about time you check out About Time (get it now?). Director Richard Curtis brought us 2013’s About Time after Love Actually bulldozed all early 2000s rom coms out of the spotlight in 2003.
Rachel McAdams & Domhnall Gleeson star in the UK-set fluff piece that’s about as emotionally complex as its poster featuring the happy laughing couple in the rain (aww). About Time is a time-traveling love story, and for most audiences, such a fantasy movie is pure comfort.
Superbad
For suburban millennial (boys), 2007’s Superbad is a movie that puts all other comfort films to shame. Superbad captures the well-worn story featured in teen comedies for decades of two guys trying to get laid at the big year-end party before high school ends.
However, the greatest thing Judd Apatow ever touched is such because Superbad manages to be laugh-out funny without the mean-spirited bro-iness of the films it drew from. Language & certain bits are already dated in 2021, but Superbad ends up being a touching coming-of-age movie about friendship and the thrill of being young.
Most importantly, Superbad may be one of the last great comforting comedies which doesn’t rely on pop culture references for laughs. If you grew up in the U.S. during the late 2000s, it’s hard not to find comfort in reliving the thrill of trying to buy booze with a fake ID in Superbad.
The Shawshank Redemption
Prison movies are anything but comforting – that is, except for one movie. 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption has held a place on nearly every top 100 list for American movies for years, especially by non-professional critics, and for good reason.
Shawshank hits audiences so directly because the film features an ending with the ultimate release; where so many crime movies hit us with a dose of the harsh reality of the prison-industrial complex and its many victims, Shawshank gives audiences everything they want by the films end.
There is seldom a transition more comforting than when the dark grey we see for most of Shawshank’s run time turns a bright blue (as blue as it has been in my dreams).
Friday
What is so comforting about a single-day movie? From Die Hard to The Breakfast Club to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, movies that take place during a single day seem to cross-list with comforting fan favorites again & again, and Friday is one of the best of all time.
F. Gary Gray made history when Friday dropped in 1995, giving us the legendary feel-good story of Craig Jones on his day off (you ain’t got no job, and you ain’t got sh*t to do) and a ground-breaking depiction of south central L.A. that would help solidify a movement of similarly-set films throughout the mid 90s.
Friday feels like a sturdy play that comes & goes in a flash, after laughs & thrills bring us to a neatly wrapped feel good-ending. Listen to Smokey: “relax, it’s Friday.”
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What’s your favorite comfort movie? Let us know in the comments!
