If you’re suffering from the post-holiday January blues, prepping for the Oscars by re-watching some best pictures of years past likely won’t pick you up out of that slump. The Oscars have a tendency of giving the big awards to, well, long, depressing films. War, slavery, death, debilitating mental illness, and we’re still only in the 2000s. Good news, they have let a few upbeat, crowd pleasers slip through and take best picture!
Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire, 2008
I know, Slumdog has it’s violence and death, but, it also has romance, and a final ten minutes that are a heart racing, cheer inducing reminder of the collective joy that cinema is all about. And a Bollywood dance number. Danny Boyle’s unique visual style, and the earnest performances he draws out of his, at the time, unknown young actors further elevate an exemplary adaptation from Simon Beaufoy. Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.
Gwyneth Paltrow & Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love, 1998
Gwyneth Paltrow is one of those anomalies who has actually become a successively worst actress with each film she makes. She should have quit after her heartbreaking, hilarious, endearing Oscar winning turn in Shakespeare in Love. She stars as the cross dressing actor and lover that inspired both Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. Every actor in this film is perfectly cast, and as long as you aren’t expecting a factual Shakespeare lesson, there is much to love in this sexy and smart take on Elizabethan theatre. “What’s the name of the play?” “Mercutio.” Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.
Diane Keaton & Woody Allen in Annie Hall
Annie Hall, 1977
If you’ve been watching his most recent movies, wondering what everyone loves about Woody Allen and why we keep giving him second changes, this is why. Annie Hall is one of those rare films that is still just as funny, and just as relevant forty years later. Diane Keaton is lovable and goofy and imperfect and real. Allen’s script is one of the funniest and perhaps most genuine scripts ever written on modern relationships. Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.
Gene Kelly & Leslie Caron in An American in Paris
An American in Paris, 1951
When it was released it was advertised as “the greatest dance entertainment ever put on screen!” I’m not sure about that, but it certainly has all the appeal of technicolor dreaminess, lavish dance sequences, and romantic mix-ups. This is Gene Kelly’s favorite musical of his own, and that does say something. Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.
Halliwell Hobbes, Spring Byington, Dub Taylor, Ann Miller & Mischa Auer in You Can’t Take It With You
You Can’t Take it With You, 1938
This screwball romance won Frank Capra his second Oscar for Best Director as well as Best Picture. Chaos ensues when Alice, played by Jean Arthur, has her boyfriend, played by Jimmy Stewart, and his old money, high class parents over for dinner. They aren’t prepared for her family, with her sister doing ballet through the living room, explosions from the basement and her uncle posing in a toga for a sculpture. Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.
Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night, 1934
The first Oscar grand slam winner, It Happened One Night is one of the original screwball romantic comedies. Claudette Colbert (not British, just affected) and Clark Gable crackle in this love/hate caper which features Colbert fleeing from her father and fiancé, and Gable trying to keep up to get the story, and the girl. Everything from Bugs Bunny to When Harry Met Sally was influenced by this film which put Frank Capra on the map. Watch it on Amazon Instant Video.