What's Your Favorite Sick Day Movie?
Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 10:40AM by Daniel Crooke
Any film fan knows that when they’re feeling under the weather, there’s at least one silver lining to spending the day in bed: the opportunity to put on a movie in the middle of the day. Just like the definitive cure for the common cold, it’s up for debate how to maximize your debilitated duration. Is this the ideal time to finally begin binge-watching The Americans? Should you opt for the comfort food route, watch old favorites, and boost your health with the warm and fuzzies? Or is this a golden opportunity to burn through your Netflix queue and finally watch the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Melanie Lynskey starring vehicle I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore?
Now that the seasons are changing it’s that time of the year when coughs and sneezes materialize so ubiquitously around you that they begin to sound like street noises – so it’s time to strategize your sick day viewing head-on.
As I’m currently in the thrilling throes of nose and throat congestion, I’ll share my selections first. Perhaps it’s the general dread of missing out on real life while your day revolves around Vitamin C but I always go for something slice of life with a bit of movie magic schmaltz around the edges, with a cast of real people in a very specific milieu. So yesterday Nicole Holofcener’s lovely first feature Walking and Talking was just what the doctor ordered.
How about you: what do you like to watch when you're sickly and stuck at home?
Reader Comments (24)
When I was younger, I liked to watch Space Jam when I was home sick from school.
It depends on how sick. If I'm sick but still physically capable of normal activities, like laundry, cooking, and stuff, a quick sci-fi comfort food. 2001, Dune, A.I., any Star Trek movie, etc.
If I'm full-blown, bedridden ill I need an Oscar-winning classic. Amadeus is a good one. All About Eve is a standby too.
I typically take sick days because I get terrible migraines, which means I can't watch anything. Awful for a movie fan.
When I need a pick-me-up, I like to watch recent movies that make me laugh - Bridesmaids, the Coen brothers' comedies, The Grand Budapest Hotel, American Hustle.
Sense and Sensibility!
Watching poor sick (and lovesick) Kate Winslet wander through the rain to catch a glimpse of her beloved Willoughby, just melts me. She eventually overcomes her ailment and so, too, will I (I being sick and watching the movie in this scenario).
Clue
Any Universal Horror from the 1930's and 1940's.
One Fine Day, You've Got Mail, anything that involves streets and shops and maybe some rain while people conflict and then love.
I just turn on TCM and let that wash over me whenever I'm sick.
If I'm sick & alone at home, I want something that will make me sob out snot buckets, Viola-style, until I'm sitting in a mountain of used tissues. Bridges of Madison County, Terms of Endearment, Kramer vs Kramer, English Patient, etc.
I love Walking and Talking, but when I'm sick I'm probably watching Erin Brockovich.
English period dramas; Howard's End, Gosford Park, the Cranford box set.
Or Lord of the Rings trilogy is always a fail-safe fall-back.
It used to be The American President, but now I tend to use a sick day to catch up to TV I've completely missed. My last flu finally brought me Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Technology has changed my viewing habits to the point that when I'm sick in bed, I don't watch anything (no screens in my bedroom). If I can make it to one of my viewing devices, it's TV binge watching for me. I used to appreciate old black-and-white Hollywood movies on sick or rainy days.
Serial Mom, Muriel's Wedding, Monster-In-Law, What About Bob?
Big Business. Always Big Business.
George ,C Scott in The Hospital. LOL!
Yeah when I'm sick I'll take anything from any channel. TMC, AMC, TNT, sure, all that good stuff, but sometimes Syfy's nonsense, and this winter I was down with mono and my dad pulled me down the rabbit hole of the Hallmark channel. When I'm sick the standards drop to "anything to distract me from the pain in my face".
Musicals, any and all. Last time it was that Stockholm Syndrome "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (with songs like Bless Yore Beautiful Hide, what's not to like?). The time before that, Mamma Mia!.
(P.S. Don't binge-watch The Americans; better to let each episode rest a day or a week; it will be worth the wait. And if you're sick, you probably won't even understand what's going on. But please do on comedies like Crazyhead, Mozart in the Jungle, Lovesick, Crashing (Phoebe Waller-Bridge version)).
My go to, always, is Riding in Cars with Boys. I love this film, it's my favourite one of 2001 and one of my favourites of all time. Whenever I'm sick and I put the DVD in, I just feel like I'm wrapped in an extra blanket of coziness.
I know this isn't a popular movie among folks, but it is my favourite Drew Barrymore performance and I still stand my ground that she should have been Oscar nominated for it.
Star Wars Return of the Jedi, Moulin Rouge!, Beauty and the Beast, any of the Harry Potter films, Perks of Being a Wallflower. I really don't know why?
If I'm sick and feeling miserable I want bright and shiny so I'll either turn to an early Doris Day musical like My Dream is Yours or Romance on the High Seas or some lush melodrama in Technicolor where everyone is terribly rich and suffers nobly or causes no end of trouble to those who do along the lines of Woman's World or Written on the Wind.
JBoo: Big Business: yes! Also Secret of My Success, Adventures in Babysitting, Lost Boys, Goonies. 80s comedies and anything that reminds me of childhood friends and home is always comforting when I'm sick (and inevitably feeling sorry for myself).
I also lean into sunshine: Chef, There's Something About Mary, A Good Year. I have to avoid anything that will make me cry and churn up more mucus...
When I'm sick I like Technicolor, beautiful clothes, lots of girls.
My current favorite is Down with Love. Slinky sexy Ewan McGregor, articulate quick-talking David Hyde Pierce, Renee Zellweger at her best, and the fabulous spectacle of Sarah Paulson in a comedy, wearing great clothes and exemplifying panache and joie de vivre.
I also second:
Jared: Sense and Sensibility
JBoo: Big Business
Kari: A Good Year
Pam: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Then I look up the biographies of all the dancers. I love the guy who danced with the Ballet Russes under a fake Russian name.
PETA animal cruelty videos.