Comfort Movies

Among the shelves of DVDs in my house and the vast ocean of streaming options, I've got a few of what I call comfort movies. It's not so much that they're great films, although many of them are. There are plenty of movies I love that aren't comfort movies, though. 

It's not just me. Occasionally, late at night (you might call it early in the morning, if you're a bad person) Tom will decide he's done with whatever he was doing, settle into the couch, and watch The Time Machine (the 2002 version with Guy Pearce). That's how he winds down that long evening of world-building or drinking or both. I don't think he's ever described it as a comfort movie, just a good one, but that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. 

Like comfort food, a comfort movie feels like home. It doesn't matter how many times you've seen it; it never gets old. If anything, familiarity makes it better. Just looking over the three I picked to go with this post – my current main comfort movies – I'm noticing that they're all kinda chatty, fun movies that don't take anything too seriously. I don't think that part is a requirement, even if we're only talking about me.

Anyway, here's my list. I'd love to hear who else has comfort movies and what a few of them are.

• Murder By Death (1976): I first saw this in the theater as a kid and it's been a favorite ever since. Everyone in my immediate family and several friends I tied down Clockwork-Orange-style to watch it will quote lines from it at the slightest provocation.
• Go (1999): I missed this one initially but saw it shortly after as a rental. I was never a huge partier or anything like that, but this brings back the times I did visit the night life and I feel like I know these characters.
• Scare Me (2020): I discovered this one during this year's Halloween Season horror binge. I think calling it horror is a little iffy. It's definitely about horror, but I wouldn't really say it is horror. Anyway, the fact that it's so recent makes it an oddball as a comfort movie, but I watched it twice the night I first saw it and have re-watched it several times since and kinda want to watch it again right now, so yeah, it counts. I get such a strong sense of being in that cabin in the mountains, trading stories by firelight, and it's a nice feeling. It's such a great depiction of people creating together, too. It reminds me of some of the better role-playing game sessions I've been in. I've never had much luck collaborating on fiction projects -- that seems to be something I have to do alone -- so it doesn't remind me of that, but anyway, the energy is cool.