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Top 10 'Feelgood Films'...
....and 'Once More With Feeling' - Is One Of Them! |
10 TOY STORY (1995) Pixar’s computerised animations came of age with this blockbuster, but the technological wizardry would have fallen flat without a great script, Randy Newman’s bittersweet songs, or the unforgettable voice-performance of Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear.
9 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) In the same year that It’s a Wonderful Life boosted postwar moods, Powell and Pressburger offered their own whimsical take on the heaven/earth debate. An RAF pilot (David Niven) cheats certain death, falls for an American and argues for his life before a celestial court in a cosmic romance commissioned by the Ministry of Information to bolster Anglo-American relations.
8 GREASE (1978)
The ultimate in musical wish fulfilment, Randal Kleiser’s extravaganza cartwheeled the seedy 1970s into the feel-good 1950s. Even the cast were transported back in time — 29-year-old Olivia Newton-John worried she was too old to play a high-school student, but Stockard Channing was 34. John Travolta (above, with Newton-John), meanwhile, secured his leading role only after Henry “Fonz” Winkler turned it down. The Fonz, apparently, didn ’t want to be typecast.
7 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING (Season 6 DVD, 2002) How many TV shows feature demons turning your favourite characters into all-singing, all dancing puppets? The lyrics, in which Buffy and pals reveal the skeletons in their closets, display a dark subtext, but you’ve gotta love the chirpy tunes.
6 AMÉLIE (2001) Who said that Gallic cinema was all about Gitanes-wreathed pontification? French intellectuals carped at the quirkiness of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Montmartre, but Audrey Tautou’s eccentric, philanthropic mademoiselle could warm the frostiest of cockles.
5 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) Nearly 30 years on, Richard O’Brien’s musical paean to polymorphous perversity and B-movie pastiche still inspires wild audience participation (www.singalonga.com): rice thrown in the wedding scene, toast when Frank N. Furter proposes a toast. Where are they now? Frank, Brad and Janet all became stars (Tim Curry best in Muppet Treasure Island and Home Alone 2; Barry Bostwick in Spin City; and Susan Sarandon a truly A-list Oscar-winner); Nell set up her own New York nightclub; Riff-Raff presented Crystal Maze. And the muscular monster Rocky? He’s now an antiques dealer in England. Singing: “Don’t dream it . . . be it.”
4 CINEMA PARADISO (1990) Cheering, laughing, crying, jeering: the Sicilian cinemagoers in Giuseppe Tornatore’s fable are our sweetest demonstration of the power of the silver screen. What would they have been like if the town priest had not forced Alfredo the projectionist to remove the love scenes? Add Marco Leonardi’s cute juvenile cinephile and you have a throat-tightening arthouse landmark.
3 STRICTLY BALLROOM (1992) This fantastically camp updating of the Ugly Duckling tale, about a renegade ballroom dancer, is the first in Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain trilogy. It lacks the sweep of its later sisters (Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge!), but then, the budget was more Oz than Hollywood. Worth watching for the sculpted hairstyles alone.
2 THE OFFICE XMAS SPECIAL (2003)* It’s all about the contrast. The last episode was shaping up to be another exercise in excruciating naturalism. Until Dawn opens Tim’s secret gift and its message to “never give up” her creative aspirations, and returns to deliver the snog that he (and we) had doubted would ever happen. It still sends shivers down the spine.
1 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) For a much-loved family classic, It’s a Wonderful Life is the most brutal of Cinderella stories. Divine intervention saves James Stewart from suicide, but only to persuade him to resume his life as before, trapped in small-town America
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