Thursday
Dec292016
Good Morning, Get Happy
Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 9:00AM It's been a devastating week in mourning so let's take Carrie Fisher's cue and prescribe some cookies to one another in the form of cinematic treats. I'm sure we could all use a little lift. Which movie moment cheers you up the most when you're feeling blue?
Reader Comments (19)
Devil Wears Prada- Compulsory watchable, wickedly funny and ridiculously underrated.
Groundhog Day- Ditto, except for the "underrated" part.
Every clever comedy out there. Love & Friendship! Talk about critics collectively loosing theit minds for not pushing this delight into the Oscars frontrunners. Nuts!
Animation does the trick pretty well, too-
Who can't beat Ratatouille in the department? It's a hoot!
Sorry, I young love of mine (and thinking about clever Jane Austen's adaptations: Clueless! Brittany Murphy (RIP) was a firecracker commediene. Alicia Silverstone has never been better than this.
Any classic musical number does the trick- there is feel good magic in that combination of song and dance that creates joy.
@Jaragon
True! The vilified Sound of Music was my first cinematographic crush. I know it's an all out fantasia. But what a deathless soundtrack! Many indelible scenes in this one. The fisrt (and only) musical for kids, perhaps? (Oliver! and Bugsy Malone were not) I just love it.
Julie Andrews was always an uplifter delight. Victor Victoria! God bless Blake Edwards. So many to mention.
One movie moment that cheers me up when I'm scared or blue is the ending scene in Beetlejuice where Winona Ryder starts singing "Jump In The Line" and dancing in mid air.
My Lord. How could I forget Tootsie! Ok, enough.
Ok, one more. Right now. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Camp at its best. Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving deserved Oscar nominations for putting a stright face and soul to these impossible characters. Australian cinema was on a roll of overblown campiness in the early 90s (Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom) What happened to that?
The Sound of music forever and ever.
When I'm blue I usually watch the 1954 ultra plush Woman's World, it's like wrapping myself in a warm cushy blanket...but that's an entire film
So for a joyful moment I'd go with the Varsity Drag finale in 1947's Good News or The Trolley Song in Meet Me in St. Louis.
The last scene in Cinema Paradiso, with that beautiful score. I'm a true sucker for movie montages, so it's kind of a cheat, but all those kisses...
At the moment, "Another Day of Sun" is keeping me afloat.
Am I the only weirdo who derives happiness from the horror genre? Give me a repeat viewing of Bram Stoker's Dracula or The Omen. They're like comfort food.
Eddie Murphy and Chevy Chase comedies from the 1980s. Those always cheered me up.
The Sylvia Sidney stuff in Beetlejuice.
Any of the musical numbers in New York, New York.
"I never drink...wine." "Children of the night, what music they make."
"Almira Gulch, just because you own half the county doesn't mean you have the power to run the rest of us! For 23 years, I've been dying to tell you what i thought of you! And now... well... being a Christian women I can't say it!"
And gratuitous (or not) beefcake in a scene can usually chase the blues away.
The "Tiny Dancer" bus sing-along scene in "Almost Famous."
The mambo/dance-off scene from "West Side Story." (Also "America" - but nothing beyond, it gets too sad after that.)
The barn-raising scene from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
Pretty much any scene from "Mary Poppins" or, for just plain belly laughs, "This is Spinal Tap."
I echo the "Clueless" shout-out, too. That's a pick-me-up movie if there ever was one.
Five of mine:
"I shot an arrow in the air/It fell to earth in Berkley Square."
The present day opening of Guardians.
Hagrid coming through the door in the first Harry Potter.
The Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Read Good (And bleep Zoolander No. 2 with a rusty chainsaw. The opening ten minutes are mostly given over to the most spitefully cruel, basically a retcon, moment I've EVER seen.)
"Faster than a Bastard Maniac. More powerful than a loco-madman. It's...Super Freddy!"
Watching Woody Allen and Dianne Wiest run into each other at the record shop in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS is a cinematic high for me if there ever was one. And pretty much any and every moment from WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, particularly Catherine O'Hara's drunk scene in the Chinese restaurant.
Moulin Rouge! Pick any scene with Ewan and Nicole singing and falling in love.