Everyone has at least a handful of go-to comfort movies they can turn to when they need it the most. And sometimes, you simply don’t feel like doom-scrolling through your streaming queue or committing yourself to an obscure gem you had on your radar, especially after a hard day of work.
Today, we’re counting down ten timeless masterpieces that continue to inspire deep obsession and only seem to get better with each extra viewing. They come in all shapes and forms — from screwball comedies and action adventures to grisly supernatural horror — and chances are you’re already familiar with most of the following titles and maybe you can even recite their dialogue like gospel, but keep reading and you might as well find your next cinematic obsession. So get comfortable, grab a bag of popcorn, and let us know in the comments what other certified bangers we missed that you can gladly sit down to watch from start to finish every day of the week.
1. The Big Lebowski (1998, Coen Brothers)
In all fairness, you could stick nearly every Coen film to date on this list — the filmmaking duo’s directing credits boast perhaps the highest batting average of any of their peers and is filled with endlessly quotable cult favorites that remain fresh and re-watchable well into the double digits. But only one title in their extensive back catalog can claim to have inspired annual conventions and a full-blown religion with over 600,000 affiliated members styled on their lead character’s Zen-like attitude.
We’re obviously talking about “The Big Lebowski”: One of the best movies of the 1990s and the quintessential entry in the L.A.-stoner movie canon starring Jeff Bridges on peak form as the Dude himself (also known as His Dudeness or El Duderino), a fortysomething unemployed slacker and a man of simple pleasures who only wants to bowl with his pals and get his urinated rug replaced but gets roped into a knotty case of mistaken identity involving millionaire tycoons, Nihilists, porn directors, avant-garde artists, severed toes, and the tenets of National Socialism. Did I mention John Goodman chews up the scenery with a spot-on John Milius impression?
The plot is as convoluted and nonsensical as the Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled novels to which it pays homage, but it’s the whip-smart script, hilarious characters, and whiz-bang dialogue that keep bringing us back time and time again. Almost every line delivery is a nugget of gold (we’re partial to “obviously you’re not a golfer” and every “shut the fuck up, Donny!”) that only gets better every time you watch it.
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
Shortly after helming the first batch of modern blockbusters and busting the whole film industry wide open in the latter half of the 1970s decade, the showbiz combo of business-savvy movie-brats George Lucas and Steven Spielberg teamed up once again to synthesize their fond childhood movie-watching memories into a rip-roaring filmic alchemy strewn from bits and pieces of Saturday afternoon serials, pulp magazines, and 1950s B-movies.
While both “Temple of Doom” and “Last Crusade” are perfectly enjoyable by any reasonable metric, it’s safe to say no sequel or thinly veiled rip-off that has aped its formula for the past half century has ever come close to topping the 1981 original. A perfectly paced middlebrow rollercoaster, “Raiders” instantly immortalized Harrison Ford’s fedora-wearing archeologist — something of a cross between James Bond, Toshiro Mifune, and Humphrey Bogart — as a timeless big-screen icon and re-defined what action-adventure flicks at large could mean for generations to come.
Forget the kind of schlock Marvel pumps out nowadays — this is what any ‘theme-park’ movie worth its salt should always make the viewer feel like: Exhilarated, overwhelmed, constantly on the edge of their seat, and compelled to hit the replay button almost as soon as the credits roll.
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
Even if you were to remove the entire Dollars trilogy from their respective resumés, Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood would both have more than enough heavy-hitters under their belt to still be regarded today as undisputed masters of their domain. But for this viewer at least, their greatest contribution to the signature genre that turned them into bona fide global icons came when they worked hand in hand near the southern coast of Spain during the mid-’60s.
It feels like splitting hairs, but of all three films in the acclaimed saga featuring Eastwood’s now-iconic Man with No Name, the last and strongest entry overall, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, is not only one of the greatest westerns of all time but, hands down, one of the best films, period (go ask Quentin Tarantino if you disagree).
A fairly simple and familiar set-up — three mean gunslingers (Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach) set on a deadly collision course square off in a race against time to locate the whereabouts of a hidden stash of money as the American Civil War rages on in the background — is stripped down to its bare essential and reconfigured into a potent deconstruction of the Wild West, a somber meditation on greed and violence, and a sublime showcase for the trio of stars that transcends any genre and steadily builds up to a climax for the ages.
There are too many iconic moments to name, but the film’s final centerpiece — a three-way Mexican standoff that simmers up the tension up to a boiling point with the legendary soundtrack by Ennio Morricone blasting at full volume — is virtually guaranteed to give you the goosebumps no matter how many times you’ve seen it referenced and spoofed across media.
4. Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
As grateful as we are to have a living legend like Martin Scorsese still knocking it out of the park at the spry young age of 81, it shouldn’t be controversial at all to claim that “Goodfellas” will forever be the director’s magnum opus, the central reference point for his creative marriage with his frequent muse Robert De Niro, and a heavyweight contender in the category of most compulsively re-watchable and morbidly funny movies of all time.
Much ink has been spilled on this decade-spanning epic based on the life and times of Brooklyn mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), with many unfairly accusing Scorsese of purportedly condoning or even glamourizing the gangster life. Pay those holier-than-thou naysayers no mind: While “Goodfellas” does acknowledge the intoxicating lure of the criminal lifestyle it so vividly depicts, it also notes the steep price of running afoul of the law with uncompromising candor.
If anything, it’s a testament to Scorsese’s directing prowess — who can forget that opening trunk scene, the Copacabana Steadicam sequence, the slow-mo shot of Jimmy smoking a cig to “Sunshine of Your Love”, or the four-minute “Layla” montage — that this cracked-mirror vision of the American Dream has embedded itself so deeply into the zeitgeist and retains its foothold in pop culture thirty-odd years on as a go-to comfort movie for all tastes, all while boasting one of the highest body counts in modern American cinema.
5. Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-wai)
Two lovesick cops reeling from a breakup, a blonde-wigged drug smuggler, and a quirky waitress at a takeout restaurant cross paths, brush past each other and reach out for human connection while roaming through the bustling, neon-soaked streets of pre-handover Hong Kong in this vibrant, off-kilter and impossibly stylish urban fairy tale by Wong Kar-wai.
One of the great films about romantic longing, the hurried existence of modern city life, and expired canned pineapples in all cinema, Wong’s international breakthrough is a paean to lovelorn daydreamers and melancholic misfits that captures the pang of heartache and giddy rush of a chance encounter with pin-point accuracy and an electrifying visual style to match. Clocking in at a crisp, tight 102 minutes, “Chungking Express” is the rare case of a movie high both in style and substance that manages to cram so much joy, life, and detail into every frame that every watch feels like the first. Just take our word for it —you’ll be humming California Dreamin’ for the rest of your days.