Five go-to films

 Even though tomorrow is "Freedom Day" (or as I like to think of it, "Gentle Re-Opening Day", we still can't get to the movies. Thankfully, hairdressers, massage therapists and beauticians are back to work tomorrow, so I have a massage and a haircut booked for Saturday and I can't wait. 

But other than the curfew is being stopped and for the collective of Melbourne going out to get overdue haircuts, nail treatments, eyebrow prunings and leg waxes, and being able to go to somebody's place who isn't your lover or your bubble buddy without fear of fine - or, or go to somewhere to eat with twenty others indoors, fifty outdoors - not that much is changing. My colleague wailed in our team meeting today, "I just wanna go to KMart." Got a bit of a giggle out of that. 

But rather than extol the virtues of our first steps out of lockdown, I'm going to talk movies. Because I've missed them. And I love them. And I saw a Buzzfeed article about comfort movies.

So here are five of my favourite go to movies, which make me happy and keep me thinking and I'll watch them over and over again because they give me comfort. 

Almost Famous (2000)

How can a movie which contains Phillip Seymour Hoffman (vale), Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup fail. Cameron Crowe's coming of age story about a boy who ends up following the next best thing around the country for Rolling Stone Magazine. Kate Hudson is aethereal as Penny Lane. Patrick Fugit is perfect as the naive, yet brilliant William. Frances McDormand is is overbearing mother. 

My soft spot for this film comes from when I friend once said that I was like Penny Lane. I have no idea what he meant by that. I hope it was a good thing as I'm not about to OD and pass out in a hotel bathtub.

The music is fantastic. 

And it will have you shouting, "I AM A GOLDEN GOD" from the rooftops. Go on, dare you. 

Logan Lucky (2017)

Daniel Craig in a prison onesie with a suntan and a Southern Accent. A Stephen Soderbergh caper film with a HUGE heart. It's fun. Channing Tatum and Adam Driver as brothers. Some quirky characters. It makes me happy. 

Gosford Park (2001)

An ensemble piece and a whodunnit, set in an English country house with a stellar English case including Clive Owen (be still my near dead ovaries). There is a big murder. Everybody is a suspect - well not the servant, but you know, who cares about them? There are some killer lines. A very sleazy Ryan Phillipe, Alan Bates and Derek Jacobi as warring butlers, and a bedazzling Kristin Scott Thomas. Everybody's awful. It's wonderful. 

Their Finest  (2016)

This is a film about writers. And the Second World War. And London. Some of my favourite things. Kathrin (Gemma Arterton) is pressganged into working with the Ministry for Information helping the script department develop war propoganda. There is love, there is bombing and there is film making. It's a gentle English film, directed by Lone Scherfig, a Dane. It has a section filmed in Cornwall, which makes me very nostalgic, as my family hails from down that way. It's a simple film about a time when people cared about their country, documenting a surprising incident from the war. Oh, and it has Bill Nighy, playing Bill Nighy, of course. Oh and Sam Claflin plays a wannabee wanker. Who knoew?

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Great things about this. John McTeirnan of Die Hard fame directed it. It's peppered with Nina Simone's music with a bit of Simon and Garfunkel thrown in for good measure (a nod to the original Steve McQueen/Fay Dunaway outing). And there's a young Pierce Brosnan in the titular role, just finishing his run as Bond and at is best with a slightly dodgy Scottish accent who's an art thief to boot. And a wonderfully strong, flawed, Renee Russo. Okay, so I watch it for the gratuitous bum shot. It's fun, stylish and about art and money and New York. Nobody dies.  What more do you want with a feel good film? 

Today's song: