I’ve seen a lot of movies. Like, a lot, a lot. I was one of the first people to sign up for Netflix and Fred Meyer had this thing where you could get older movies on dvd for like $5 on Tuesdays. I think it was their way of getting people to buy the old stuff on the release day for new stuff. I just happened to buy both. Whatever was new at the time (for full price, I might add) and then I got a bunch of other stuff for $5 each. David was also a collector of movies, so with our collections combined, we have hundreds of movies. This love of movies is what built the collection that plays at the Geekhouse. So, I guess we can think of it as a long term investment that finally paid off.

When David and I put our collections together there were a few movies neither of us had actually seen. We watched some of them, but then life just got crazy. Apparently it took a worldwide pandemic to slow us down. So we had some time to watch more movies. Yes there were a bunch of new ones and streaming shows we consumed, but it was the older ones that surprised me. Why hadn’t I watched these yet?!

There were a lot of meh movies, some bad ones, and some really great movies. In looking for a list of feel good movies in the ones I liked, I realized that they all had really cool families in them. So, I wanted to give them a shout out and recommend you check them out.

About Time (2013)

This one was on some list, like most underrated romance movies, and while I enjoy romances, I like my movies to have romance as the secondary plot line as opposed to the main plot point. So this wasn’t first on my list. But when I found out that it was the same people who made Love Actually, I perked up.

The plot is strange. On his 21st birthday, Tim’s dad tells him he has a superpower. Every male in their family has the ability to travel back in time. He has to go into a closet, or loo or somewhere dark and quiet, and he can travel to whenever he wants to. The tag line is “His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.” And, while he does use his power to get a girlfriend, it’s kind of secondary to Tim’s relationship with his family. Bill Nighy is fantastic as his dad, and the lessons he gives Tim about love, life and time is so heartfelt and impactful.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

In our foray through the Studio Ghibli films, I fell in love with Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and reaffirmed my love for Spirited Away, but it was My Neighbor Totoro that really surprised me. The magic and otherworldliness that is usually found in Miyazaki films was understated in this one, which really should have dropped this movie to the bottom of my Ghibli list. But I do believe My Neighbor Totoro is my favorite Ghibli film.

So, the plot of Totoro: A small family moves to the country in order to be closer to the hospital their ailing mother is currently in. We never do find out what the mother has, but it doesn’t matter. Mei and Satsuki, the two sisters, end up having some fun adventures with a tree spirit named Totoro while they wait for their mom to get out of hospital. While there is still a supernatural element, this movie is really about the relationship between the two girls. And kudos to Miyazaki, this is the best representation of a four year old I have ever seen. Mei is my spirit animal.

Easy A (2010)

I had no idea what this movie was about before I watched it. For some reason I thought it was about high school girl doing some less than appropriate things to get an A in some class. Boy was I wrong. It’s actually about a lie Olive tells her best friend to get out of going camping. That lie spreads around that school, and the next thing Olive knows, she’s labeled the school harlot. Instead of being offended that everyone thinks she’s a slut (even though she very much so isn’t) she owns it. She ends up helping some other misfit kids along the way, with additional lies, and it quickly spirals out of control. It turns the teen sex comedy genre on it’s head and it’s really sweet and wholesome.

But it’s Olive’s family who won me over. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are brilliant together as her parents. And their parenting style, although a bit unconventional, is perfect. My favorite scenes are when the whole family is eating breakfast. The chemistry is palpable. They are really funny and you can tell they love each other.

Family Weekend (2013)

Our movies were on random shuffle when this gem popped up. It was the cinematography that caught my eye. The shots are gorgeous, the framing, striking. Which was good because the opening scene is really strange. It introduces the Smith-Dungy family. I honestly couldn’t relate to any of the five family members, even our point of view character, they seemed a bit like over exaggerated characters. But the quality of the filming kept me watching. And thank goodness it did!

The movie is about a 16 year old girl, Emily, who is obsessed with jump rope. When her entire family fails to attend her semi-final competition because they have become so self-obsessed, she takes it on herself to fix her family before her final competition … by kidnapping her parents. It is absolutely nuts, with all of the strong crazy personalities, but somehow it works. There’s a turning point in the movie where you can really feel the how real these characters actually are, despite the first impressions. And Joey King, the actress who plays Emily’s little sister Lucy, was brilliant and only 14 years old when the movie came out!

Win Win (2011)

I have always liked sport movies, I have no idea why. I’m not particularly sporty and I don’t follow any sports, but I like movies about them. It might be because my favorite sport movies use sport as a catalyst for a bigger picture messages. Who knows, but Win Win is no exception.

This story follows a struggling attorney named Mike, who to earn a bit of money on the side decides to become the guardian of one of his court appointed clients, Leo, who has early stage dementia. When Leo’s grandson Kyle shows up at his door, Mike ends up responsible for him as well. While trying to get a hold of Kyle’s mom, Mike and his wife Jackie, take Kyle in, enroll him in school and he joins the wrestling team. It turns out that Kyle is really good at wrestling and gives the school’s (rather pathetic) wrestling team a chance at state.

Kyle is such a sweet character and his relationships with Leo, Jackie, Mike and the boys on the wrestling team is heartwarming. Plus, let’s take a moment to appreciate Paul Giamatti as an actor. He’s so good. He should be in way more movies.