25 feel-good movies you can watch right now

Joe Johnston’s ode to the gee-whiz derring-do of Saturday matinee serials flopped on initial release in 1990 but has acquired a devoted cult following over the last 30 years, and it’s time you joined tribe. Billy Campbell stars as a 1930s stunt pilot who comes into possession of a top-secret jet pack designed by Howard Hughes. The Nazis are keen to swipe this technology, of course, which hurtles our hero and his best girl (Jennifer Connelly) into conflict with a traitorous swashbuckling movie star (Timothy Dalton in fine mustache-twirling form). It’s old-fashioned Hollywood fun that’ll leave you grinning for days.

Between 1940 and 1948, writer-director Preston Sturges made eight of the greatest comedies of all time. They’re raucous, rat-a-tat affairs peppered with witty dialogue, eccentric characters and unpredictable twists. All of them will lift your spirits, but if you’re looking for peak Sturges, you’ll find it in this giddy contraption about a young man (Eddie Bracken) embarrassed to return home after being discharged from the Marines for hay fever. A group of Marines (led by the great William Demarest) take sympathy in his plight, and they resolve to prop him up as a war hero. Myriad complications ensue as they scramble to maintain their charade. Former middleweight champion Freddie Steele is a delight as a mother-obsessed palooka.

Paul Brickman’s underseen follow-up to “Risky Business” stars Jessica Lange as a mother struggling to keep her family together after her husband dies in a freak accident. This big-hearted movie throws some nifty narrative curveballs: Lange’s teenage son (Chris O’Donnell) takes up with an older nurse (Joan Cusack) who lives in their apartment building, while her youngest (Charlie Korsmo) starts breaking into houses and stealing VCRs. Movies about overcoming tragedy and adversity are plentiful, but Brickman spikes his story with an off-kilter sense of humor and a host of terrific performances. (Kathy Bates is a hoot as an abrasive gourmet grocery owner.) If you’re looking for tears and laughs, you can’t do any better than this gentle gem.

Purists scoffed at this Hollywood-ized adaptation of Terrence McNally’s single-set play about “a man and a woman. Not young, not old. No great beauties, either one.” Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer certainly do not fit the last part of that description, but once you accept that director Garry Marshall has transformed the work into a workplace comedy, you get to fall head over heels for a humanistic film about the life-sustaining power of romance. Pacino plays an ex-convict who takes a short-order cook gig at the diner where Pfeiffer plugs away as an overworked waitress. It’s hardly love at first sight. Pfeiffer rebuffs Pacino’s advances, but he keeps trying to sweep her off her feet. The dynamite supporting cast including Héctor Elizondo, Kate Nelligan and Nathan Lane keep the film buzzing on the periphery.

The whimsical films of Bill Forsyth are a perfect tonic for our cynical times. “Gregory’s Girl," “Comfort and Joy” and “Housekeeping” are well worth your time, but the jewel of the filmmaker’s oeuvre is this charmer about an oil company executive (Peter Riegert) charged with buying up a sleepy Scottish village so his boss (Burt Lancaster) can build a refinery there. Riegert’s errand grows complicated as he slowly begins to fall in love with the town and its kooky inhabitants (particularly a marine biologist played by Jenny Seagrove). It’s a lovely, hopeful film that wants you to believe people, even Lancaster’s tycoon, are inherently good.

Stephen Chow takes kung-fu to the pitch in this enormously entertaining action comedy that finds a group of former monks using the beautiful game to spread their Shaolin philosophy. They eventually wind up battling Team Evil, which seeks to overpower the purity of Shaolin via the injection of an American-made, performance-enhancing serum. Chow’s unfettered optimism (also on display in the equally wonderful “Kung-Fu Hustle”) is welcome at a time when studio event films seem hellbent on out-dour-ing one another. 

“Admiral, there be whales here!” The “Star Trek” franchise took a considerable risk in 1986 by following up the successes of “The Wrath of Khan” and “The Search for Spock” with a fish-out-of-water comedy that finds the renegade crew of the demolished Starship Enterprise time traveling to mid-‘80s San Francisco to find a couple of killer whales which might stave off the destruction of Earth in the future. The change of pace was precisely what the series needed. Director Leonard Nimoy strikes a perfect balance between serious, save-the-whales messaging and broad comedy. It’s still the most purely enjoyable “Star Trek” film and a much-needed beacon of hope in our time of turmoil.

Steven Zaillian, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “Schindler’s List," made his directorial debut with this based-on-real-life account of a child chess prodigy (Max Pomeranc) who struggles with the rigors of high-level competition at an early age. His sportswriter father (Joe Mantegna) is encouraging at first, but, in tandem with a taskmaster instructor (Ben Kingsley), they eventually push the youngster too hard. You don’t have to know anything about chess to get caught up in the film’s human drama, nor to white-knuckle your way through the tense final match. It’s an inspiring, finely wrought film all the way to the beautiful closing line of dialogue.  

The let’s-put-on-a-show formula gets a hilariously raunchy spin in this Craig Brewer film about the making of Rudy Ray Moore’s cult classic “Dolemite." Eddie Murphy is magnificent as the foul-mouthed comedian determined to make his big-screen dreams come true, while Wesley Snipes gives his best performance in decades as alcoholic director-actor D’Urville Martin. It’s an uplifting reminder that it’s never too late to pursue your passion and that success is defined by your own feeling of accomplishment.

In between the dark duo of “Shutter Island” and “The Wolf of Wall Street," Martin Scorsese gifted the world with this stereoscopic 3D rendering of Brian Selznick’s illustrated novel about an orphan who lives in Paris’ wondrous Gare Montparnasse train station in 1931. It’s a family movie that exudes a love of handmade cinema via the pioneering work of Georges Méliès, which you can turn around and show to your children on YouTube once the film is over. It’s as effective a gateway drug to movie love as has ever been designed.  

We effused over the crackerjack genius of this B-horror classic back in January , but now that you’re every bit as isolated as Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and the rest of the gang, why not dig into your beer/soda supply and imagine you’re evading giant, stinky, subterranean monsters instead of a novel virus? S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock’s screenplay is endlessly inventive and as tight structurally as “Back to the Future." You also get to see Reba McEntire and Michael “Steven Keaton” Gross play heavily armed survivalists. This is truly a movie with everything.

The Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers dance musicals of the 1930s are varying levels of sublime, but there’s no topping this George Stevens-directed classic about a gallivanting, engaged-to-be-married gambler (Astaire) who falls for a dance instructor (Rogers). It’s a terribly flimsy plot, but that doesn’t matter; this is a first-rate showcase for the light-fantastic glory of Astaire, Rogers and choreographer Hermes Pan. Jerome Kern’s superlative score features the all-timer “The Way You Look Tonight”.

Prior to walking away from his massive Comedy Central deal, Dave Chappelle opted to host a massive block party in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. What could’ve been a mere concert film featuring exuberant performances from Dead Prez, Mos Def, Jill Scott and a reunited Fugees becomes something more inclusive and humanistic given the Xenia, Ohio-dwelling comedian’s decision to invite regular folks — white and black — from the Midwest to partake in the celebration. Chappelle’s curiosity and lack of judgment instill a sense of community that extends beyond segregated neighborhoods and state borders. For one day, everyone’s welcome, and everyone’s having a great time. This shouldn’t be a utopian vision, but 60 years after the height of the civil rights movement, it still is.

There’s nothing more satisfying than a long-con movie. If done right, it’s like a magic act: The filmmakers deftly seed the first hour with obvious and subtle setups that start paying off in the late second act until the viewer’s clobbered with the sucker punch of the prestige. Few films have pulled this off with greater élan than this perennially underrated flick about a recently paroled conman, Gabriel Caine (James Woods), who goads a town of boxing nuts into a wager revolving around the pugilistic prowess of one Honey Roy Palmer (Louis Gossett, Jr.). If Palmer can knock out ten Diggstown men in one day, Caine and his associates will make a fortune. If he can’t, Caine stands to lose a lot more than money. It’s best to go in cold and let director Michael Ritchie and his stellar cast work you over.

Screwball comedies helped get Americans through the Great Depression, and the best of them are available on various streaming outlets to assuage your grief and anxiety for 90 minutes a pop. One of the greatest works of this era is Gregory La Cava’s “My Man Godfrey," a zany number about a “forgotten man” (William Powell) who becomes the butler to a family of wealthy eccentrics. The bullfrog-voiced Eugene Pallette is a scream as the put-upon patriarch, but the movie belongs to Carole Lombard as the deliciously daffy daughter who falls hard for their new in-house employee.

This irresistible Mike Nichols comedy stars Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill, an ambitious Wall Street secretary who’s tired of wasting her considerable business acumen on her chauvinistic stockbroker bosses. When Tess gets reassigned to the office of a female executive (Sigourney Weaver), she sees a way to show off her financial genius and finally smash through the glass ceiling. Harrison Ford was one of the biggest stars on the planet in 1988, but he happily takes third billing as an exec who teams with Tess on a risky merger deal. Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” propels this inspirational classic all the way to its stand-up-and-cheer finale.

A box office bomb in 2001, this live-action take on the Hanna-Barbera tune is actually a razor-sharp satire of the recording industry and consumerism in general. Writer-directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan have concocted an amped-up, Day-Glo universe dominated by squabbling boy bands, trend-obsessed teens and rapacious executives. In the middle of it are our heroes (Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid), a pop-rock trio looking to hit the big time on their talent alone. They’re eventually coopted and corrupted by a slimy manager (Alan Cumming) and his scheming boss (Parker Posey), but their love for music and each other conquers all. The band’s catchy songs are belted by Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley and written by an all-star roster that includes Babyface, Adam Duritz and Jane Wiedlin. Reid’s shower rendition of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” is priceless.

Backstage bedlam is the order of the day in this winning yarn about an alcoholic, out-to-pasture movie star (Peter O’Toole) guesting on a popular 1950s TV variety show (clearly modeled after “Your Show of Shows”). Mark Linn-Baker plays a young comedy writer tasked with looking after the Errol Flynn-like actor; while he worships the man and his movies, he soon finds that keeping him sober and out of trouble is a full-time job. O’Toole hurls himself into the role with all due charm and histrionics; though he’s a handful, he offers his young minder spot-on love advice and when the night of the show arrives, he comes through in surprising fashion.

Today’s generation of rom-com fans worship at the altar of Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail," which suggests they’ve never treated themselves to the Ernst Lubitsch-directed original about two quarreling leather-goods employees (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) who fall in love via anonymous correspondence. The Lubitsch touch has never felt more effortless; the main plot unfolds with Swiss-watch precision, while the supporting characters are skillfully sketched. It’s an elegant workplace comedy that evokes one of the happiest cries you’ll ever experience.

“This is not Mel Tormé.” The Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker oeuvre is a collection of can’t-miss laugh-fests, but their absurdist spoof masterpiece, “Top Secret!," tends to get lost in the shuffle. A box office dud in 1984, this insane mélange of Elvis movies, spy flicks and, in one bizarrely protracted sequence, “The Blue Lagoon” is easily one of the funniest movies ever made. Highly recommended as an ‘80s Val Kilmer comedy double feature with the equally delightful “Real Genius."

That rarity of rarities: an uplifting movie set during World War I. Alfonso Cuarón’s English-language debut is an enchanting adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s novel about a young girl (Liesel Matthews) suffering under the imperious rule of a boarding school headmistress (Eleanor Bron) after the presumed death of her father in combat. Cuarón’s gift for visual splendor is on full display in this gorgeously shot (by Emmanuel Lubezki natch) masterpiece that should have a place in the family-film firmament alongside “The Wizard of Oz” and “E.T."

Not to trivialize our current state of affairs, but there is a possibility that one of the few reasons to look forward to the second half of 2020, the release of “Bill and Ted Face the Music," might get delayed. In the meantime, you’ll probably reacquaint yourself with the beloved first movie, but will you venture forth with the oddball 1991 sequel? Yes, it concludes with a deus ex machina courtesy of an alien named Station, but along the way you get William Sadler as a harried Grim Reaper who sucks at Battleship, a visit from a sinister Easter Bunny and Pam Grier turning into George Carlin. It might not be as structurally immaculate as the first movie, but it’s every bit as joyous. 

David Mamet threw us for a loop in 1999 when he inexplicably mounted this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s long-mothballed play about a young British cadet who brings shame to his prominent family when he is accused of stealing a postal order. The stakes might seem awfully small, but Mamet imbues the creaky plot with genuine purpose. Nigel Hawthorne’s first-act interrogation of his son is absolutely spellbinding; you know the boy is telling the truth because no one on Earth would dare lie to this man in this moment. Jeremy Northam enters the film later as an accomplished barrister who seeks to prove the child’s innocence, and he manages to generate chemistry with Rebecca Pidgeon, which is no mean a feat. Let right be done!

You can’t throw a house party in our moment of social distancing, but you can relive the ebullience of a carefree, homebound throwdown via this musical comedy from Reginald and Warrington Hudlin. Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin play a couple of fun-loving teenagers in search of a good time and a couple of fine young women (Tisha Campbell and A.J. Johnson). The laughs are abundant thanks to Robin Harris as Kid’s strict, Dolemite-loving father and John Witherspoon as an irritated neighbor desperate for a good night’s sleep amid the festivities.

In 1994, World War II veteran Alvin Straight climbed aboard his John Deere tractor and, at 5 miles per hour, undertook a 240-mile odyssey to make amends with his estranged, ailing brother. This may not sound like grist for a David Lynch film, but it is entirely in keeping with the artist’s belief in kindness and redemption. It’s essentially Agent Dale Cooper’s Buddhist philosophy stretched out over one overwhelmingly compassionate movie. If there’s one film we need right now, it’s this one. (Available on Disney+ this April.)