Cineciccia Picks: Films that will pull you out of a slump
To find out why comfort watching works and what the studies say about it, read the main article.
The selection below jumps between genres, but all the titles have one thing in common. The characters are dealing with something that completely overwhelms them at the start, and in the end they come through it. Sometimes friends help, sometimes it is enough that they change their approach. And often it turns out that what they had been longing for all along was simply blocking their view of what would have made them truly happy. The solution tends to be simpler than it looked. The feature format of feel good films also gives the characters room to go through that change slowly and believably, so by the end you feel you have got somewhere with them.
The list is updated on an ongoing basis. Last updated: 16 September 2026
"You'll come to see that a man learns nothing from winning. The act of losing, however, can elicit great wisdom. Not least of which is, uh... how much more enjoyable it is to win. It's inevitable to lose now and again. The trick is not to make a habit of it." Uncle Henry, A Good Year
Availability on streaming services changes. We therefore link to an overview of current availability on the Czech market.
A Good Year | 2006
comedy | drama | romance 😆🎭❤️
London investment broker Max Skinner inherits a vineyard in Provence from his uncle, the place where he spent his childhood summers. He arrives with a single intention, to sell it as fast as possible and get back to the money. But the south of France has a pace of its own, and then there is the owner of the local café and a previously unknown cousin with a claim on the estate. Ridley Scott made the most atypical film of his career here, one in which nobody hurries and nobody dies.
Director: Ridley Scott. Cast: Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, Albert Finney, Freddie Highmore, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander.
Why it works: It transports the viewer to a sun-drenched Provence, where a cynical, work-obsessed London banker gradually discovers, through his uncle's legacy, the charm of a country vineyard and a new love, that real wealth is not measured in money but in slowing down, family memories and living in the present moment.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
About Time | 2013
fantasy | romance | drama 🐉❤️🎭
Shy twenty-one-year-old Tim learns a family secret from his father: the men in their family can travel back into their own past. Tim immediately starts using the ability for what matters most at his age, which is getting a girl. Thanks to an unlimited number of attempts, things with Mary work out perfectly. But life cannot be replayed forever and every return comes at a price. Beneath the wrapping of a romantic comedy is a film about a father and a son, and about how an ordinary day is worth something simply because it exists.
Director: Richard Curtis. Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy.
Why it works: A deeply moving feel good film, because it uses the time travel device not for grand science fiction twists but for a warm and wise celebration of ordinary family life, reminding the viewer that the greatest art is living every ordinary day with love and gratitude, as if it were our last.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Amélie | Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain | 2001
comedy | drama | romance 😆🎭❤️
Amélie works as a waitress in Montmartre and lives rather apart from everyone else. When she one day finds a box of childhood treasures belonging to a long-gone tenant in her flat and decides to return it to its owner after all those years, she discovers that a small gesture can turn someone's day around completely. So she starts secretly arranging happiness for the people around her. The only person she cannot manage it for is herself, not even once she meets Nino.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Jamel Debbouze, Dominique Pinon, Isabelle Nanty.
Why it works: A film built on small kindnesses and on Paris. Through its playful visual poetry and captivating music it celebrates the beauty of tiny everyday joys and shows how a shy young woman can transform the lives of those around her with small secret acts of good, and in the end find her own happiness and love too.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
As Good as It Gets | 1997
comedy | drama | romance 😆🎭❤️
Melvin Udall writes trashy romance novels, lives alone in Manhattan and takes pleasure in making life unpleasant for everyone around him. The only person with a tongue sharp enough to put him in his place is Carol, a waitress at his favourite restaurant. When Melvin learns that she has a seriously ill son, he starts behaving in a way he cannot explain. Not even to himself.
Director: James L. Brooks. Cast: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Why it works: An unacceptable man slowly learns to be bearable, and the film does not hand it to him for free. Through humour and honest humanity it shows that even deeply flawed and lonely people can find their way to change, to love and to a real connection with others.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Avanti! | 1972
comedy | romance 😆❤️
An American businessman flies to Italy to collect the body of his father, who died while on holiday. Once there he discovers that his father had been going to the same island spa every year for a decade, and certainly not alone. Wilder's late comedy unfolds at an endlessly slow Italian pace that first drives the protagonist to distraction and then gradually remakes him.
Director: Billy Wilder. Cast: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill.
Why it works: A pace that is in no hurry and a Mediterranean setting you will want to stay in. The film carries the viewer off to a sunlit, carefree Italy and shows with romantic detachment how a rigid man can shed his stress under the influence of the Mediterranean rhythm, give in to an unexpected love and finally start enjoying life.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Fly Me to the Moon | 2024
comedy | drama | romance 😆🎭❤️
The sixties, NASA is preparing for the Moon landing and the public could not care less. Marketing specialist Kelly Jones arrives at Cape Canaveral to sell the mission to America, which drives launch director Cole Davis to distraction. And when the White House sends word to prepare a staged version of the landing just in case, the countdown starts getting complicated.
Director: Greg Berlanti. Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Jim Rash.
Why it works: A good old screwball comedy on a scale almost nobody attempts any more. With lightness, retro charm and sparkling chemistry between the two leads, it connects the cynical world of marketing with the pure idealism of the space programme and offers the warm reassurance that truth, love and human heroism will win out over even the most elaborate illusion.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
L'Animal | 1977
comedy | action | romance 😆💥❤️
Stuntman Mike Gaucher is dealing with dire finances, a fiancée running out of patience, and an actor he is meant to double for who is his exact opposite. Belmondo played both roles at once and performed most of the stunts himself. A French comedy that turns the film business into a carousel of chases and falls.
Director: Claude Zidi. Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raquel Welch, Dany Saval, Charles Gérard.
Why it works: Through unbridled energy, absurd stunt gags and irresistible self-mockery it celebrates pride in honest craft and delivers a warm story about how true love and a man's honour can triumph over money even in the maddest corner of the film business.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Midnight in Paris | 2011
comedy | fantasy | romance 😆🐉❤️
Gil arrives in Paris with his fiancée and her parents. He is an unsuccessful writer in love with the 1920s and convinced he was born into the wrong era. When he sets off alone through the streets one evening, an old car picks him up at midnight and takes him where he would rather belong. A film about how the illusion of a golden age is just a generation older version of the same illusion.
Director: Woody Allen. Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody.
Why it works: With enchanting lightness it brings romantic nostalgia for past eras to life, and through the dreamlike atmosphere of the city at night it delivers the liberating realisation that the key to happiness lies not in escaping into the past but in the courage to live the present moment fully. And Paris shot like a postcard.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Project Hail Mary | 2026
sci-fi | adventure | drama 🚀🎭
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spacecraft light years from Earth and cannot remember even his own name. As his memory returns, so does his task: work out what is causing the Sun to go out, and save the Earth. All he has is his own knowledge and some fairly unorthodox ideas. And then it turns out he does not have to do it alone.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller. Cast: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Milana Vayntrub.
Why it works: Despite the threat of global extinction it bets on the infectious optimism of scientific discovery and above all on a touching, spontaneous intergalactic friendship, proving that the greatest force in the universe is the willingness to help one another and to communicate.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Singin' in the Rain | 1952
musical | romance | comedy 🎵❤️😆
Late-1920s Hollywood is switching to sound and the stars of the silent era are discovering that not every voice holds up. Don Lockwood falls for aspiring actress Kathy and together they look for a way to rescue a production heading for disaster. Along the way they more or less invent dubbing. A satire on Hollywood, a romantic comedy and the finest musical in history all in one.
Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly. Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Cyd Charisse.
Why it works: Pure joy in movement and music, a film without a single unkind thought. Singin' in the Rain is the absolute feel good film, because through the infectious delight of dance, catchy melodies and irrepressible optimism it celebrates a pure love of making things and the human ability to come through even the biggest personal or professional storm with a smile and some grace.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Some Like It Hot | 1959
comedy | crime | romance | musical 😆🕵️❤️🎵
Chicago, 1929. Musicians Joe and Jerry happen to witness a gangland execution and the only way out of town runs through an all-female band, which hires them in disguise. On tour in Florida, Joe falls for singer Sugar, while an elderly millionaire takes a shine to Jerry. A comedy that still tops every list of the greatest comedies ever made, and deservedly so.
Director: Billy Wilder. Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft.
Why it works: Through brilliant pacing, sparkling humour and likeable heroes in absurd situations it celebrates the freedom to be yourself and human tolerance, which its iconic closing line confirms perfectly: nobody's perfect.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
The Birdcage | 1996
comedy | drama 😆🎭
Armand owns a celebrated club in Palm Beach and has raised his son Val with his partner Albert. Val wants to get married and his chosen one is unfortunately the daughter of an ultraconservative senator who has just founded a coalition for moral order. The parents are therefore meant to transform themselves into a thoroughly conventional couple for one evening, a plan with zero chance of success. Nathan Lane delivers one of the finest comic performances of the nineties.
Director: Mike Nichols. Cast: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Hank Azaria.
Why it works: Through unbridled energy, superb situational humour and gloriously eccentric characters it celebrates unconditional parental love, pride in your own identity and a family's ability to stick together in the face of every prejudice.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
The Holiday | 2006
romance | comedy ❤️😆
Amanda from Los Angeles and Iris from the English countryside have the same problem just before Christmas and nine thousand kilometres between them. They swap houses online to finally get a break from men. Amanda ends up in a tiny cottage in snowy England, Iris in a luxury villa in California, and within a week both run into exactly what they were running from.
Director: Nancy Meyers. Cast: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach.
Why it works: It offers the perfect winter escape from reality and, through its cosy atmosphere, shows that a radical change of scene and the courage to open up to new people can heal a broken heart and bring unexpected happiness.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
The Man from Acapulco | Le Magnifique | 1973
comedy | action | romance 😆💥❤️
Bob Saint-Clare is the best agent in the world, eliminating enemies in Acapulco without ever breaking a sweat. Except that Bob exists only on the pages of novels written in a Paris flat by the clumsy and permanently broke author François Merlin, who projects everyone who complicates his life into his books, turning his publisher into the arch villain and the neighbour from upstairs into a beautiful agent. When he genuinely falls for that neighbour, the novel starts getting away from him.
Director: Philippe de Broca. Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Vittorio Caprioli.
Why it works: With disarming charm and exaggeration it parodies every spy cliché while delivering the warm satisfaction of watching an ordinary, overlooked writer find, through his own runaway imagination, the courage and the love he lacked in real life. He even survives the workmen in his flat.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
The Martian | 2015
sci-fi | adventure | drama 🚀🎭
Astronaut Mark Watney is left alone on Mars after a dust storm, because his crew believed he was dead. He has thin supplies, one base and plenty of time, so he sets about the only thing left to him: solving each problem one at a time and growing potatoes on a planet where nothing grows. While he improvises, a rescue operation gets under way on Earth that draws in half the world.
Director: Ridley Scott. Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Michael Peña.
Why it works: Competent people solving problems, and a hero who does not lose his sense of humour even alone on Mars in a critical situation. It celebrates indomitable human ingenuity, optimism and solidarity, as the whole world joins forces to save one lost individual through science and the necessary jokes. The disco soundtrack gives it just the right flavour.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
The Mask | 1994
fantasy | action | comedy | crime 🐉💥😆🕵️
Bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss is a loser nobody notices. When he fishes an ancient wooden mask out of the river and puts it on that evening, he turns into a green-faced creature with the powers of a cartoon character. In the mask he deals with his landlady, a gang of thugs and the crooks at the garage, but in the morning he still has to go to work. Jim Carrey does something here he never did in any other film, playing a living person with the physics of an animated cartoon.
Director: Chuck Russell. Cast: Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene.
Why it works: The pace and the visual gags leave no room to think about anything else. The Mask works as a feel good film because its unrestrained energy, cartoon absurdity and infectious delight in absolute freedom let the viewer escape reality entirely for a while and live out a wild fantasy of unlimited self-confidence.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability
Tootsie | 1982
comedy | romance 😆❤️
Michael Dorsey is a capable actor his colleagues respect, but nobody will hire him because of his reputation as an unbearable perfectionist. So he tries auditioning as a woman and lands a role in a daytime soap. Dorothy Michaels becomes America's sweetheart, except that Michael falls for his co-star and her father falls for him. A comedy that, under the cover of a disguise, notices rather precisely how women are treated at work.
Director: Sydney Pollack. Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray, Charles Durning.
Why it works: Through brilliant situational humour and a woman's disguise it offers not only honest entertainment but a warm story about the reform of an egocentric man who only understands the value of respect, empathy and real friendship once he is living as a woman.
WHERE TO WATCH: ▶ current availability