100 Most Uplifting Films Of All Time

[The Boston Crab]

100. Tampopo (1985; Juzo Itami) was recommended on here a couple of times and when I got round to watching it, I wished I'd seen it years earlier. It's actually rather bleak at times, real gut-wrenching scenes of inevitable human tragedy, and yet it's one of the most joyous pieces of cinema which exists. This isn't childhood escapism (with which I have no problem whatsoever), this is an existential search for meaning and joy within stifled drudgery. It's about a long-haul lorry driver who helps a woman open a noodle shop. It's a comic, erotic celebration of food, of love, of friendship, of hunger (in all its forms) and of simply sharing life. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you will want to eat ramen!





Next.

[Famous Mortimer]

99. Wild Strawberries

Really, this should be no.1. It's probably my favourite film of all time, but it also has a really uplifting conclusion. A man, who's been too cold his entire life, finally warms on the way to receive a lifetime achievement award of some sort (that's not really important). There are jokes and an ending so bloody lovely you'll just be grinning.

[Ginyard]

98. The Shawshank Redemption

Even if fate kicks you in the particulars and you end up serving life inside, you'll be ok just as long as you're ready to chisel your way out and crawl through a one mile pipe full of rat shit. I think I've read it right there. That bit where he gets them beer makes me happy, and the opera bit makes me cry.

[Nobody Soup]

97 - Shine

It's just lovely, and the scene where he plays flight of the bumblebees is one of my favourites ever, and you get to see Geoffrey Rush naked

Spoiler alert

on a trampoline!!!!

[close]

[Johnny Townmouse]

96. The Castle (R.Sitch, 1997)

Clocking in at just 85mins this Australian comedy doesn't really go for big laughs, but rather for a quite quirky, relaxed observational style. It tells a rather mainstream story about one man's mission to protect his house from land developers and the ensuing David & Goliath storyline could easily be tedious if it wasn't for the endearing tone of the writing. Nothing surprising here, but it comes across as a kind of Erin Brokavich crossed with Napoleon Dynamite[nb]...on acid![/nb] (it is set in the 90s but feels and looks decidedly 80s). The ending is expected but it does genuinely warm the soul.

[ThickAndCreamy]

95. Harold and Maude

A young man falls in love with an old lady and finds his obsessions with death mean he's never truly lived. Then they roll down some hills.

[Famous Mortimer]

94. Safe Men

Indie comedy with Sam Rockwell, Steve Zahn and Paul Giamatti about a couple of safe crackers employed by the Rhode Island Jewish mafia. Just small and sweet and nice and you're all cheered up at the end of it.

[Serge]

93. Singin' In The Rain

An absolute explosion of joy from start to finish. If you're not uplifted by Donald O'Connor singing 'Make 'Em Laugh', Donald and Gene doing 'Moses Supposes' or Gene doing the title song, you should return your heart now IN THE BOX PROVIDED. I still find myself saying, "Dignity, always dignity," from time to time.

[Herbert Ashe]

92. Valerie And Her Week of Wonders

Being a teenager and going through puberty is a headfuck. Your mum hates you and want you out the way, lecherous men of authority lurk around every corner, and, well, there is this guy you like but, see, he might be your brother, or cousin, or maybe neither. Anyway, the adult world sure looks a load of shit and misery. But you know what? In the end, when we have sunny days, good food and drink, and the occasional love affair, this whole life thing can be pretty, pretty good.

[CaledonianGonzo]

91.  The Muppet Christmas Carol

Inevitably.



This film has no right to be as good as it is.  They could have sold it short, could have cut corners, could have gone for the cheap laugh and the pointless cameos that bedevil later straight-to-TV Muppet Movies.  As it was, debutante director Brian Henson decided to play it mostly straight, addressing the darkness at the heart of the story and thereby earning the great feeling of emotional catharsis that accompanies Scrooge's climactic transformation.  For make no mistake, this is the best version of this story, and given that there are 150 years worth of competing takes, that's praise indeed.

Caine is no Alistair Sim, true, but he fully inhabits both sides of the character in a way that even Sir Patrick Stewart couldn't manage.  Forced into the necessarily truncated running time of a children's movie, Jerry Juhl's script boils the story down to its essential beats, but this concision allows short, visual moments to deliver more impact than any lengthy exposition could.  This film does more with one 2 second shot of a homeless Bean Bunny shivering beneath a frozen drainpipe than the Sim version does in 40 minutes of dramatising Scrooge and Marley putting Fozziwig out of business.

Paul Williams songs are catchy, sure, but they also power the story, acting as a secondary narrative accompaniment to what is, all told, the film's greatest trick.  By placing Gonzo and Rizzo in the centre of the story as a Dickens manqué and his sidekick, TMCC allows more of Dickens prose to surface in the narration, finally allowing the actual text to come alive in the story in a fashion that most of the other versions neglect.  And lest they spoil the mood of the penultimate stave, they're cannily withdrawn offstage to let the dreadful events play out without any lapses in taste or tone.

The finale is another bravura display of storytelling in ellipsis, compacting events ahead of a finale that duly delivers all the seasonal sentiment one could wish for.  If you're not moonwalking into the kitchen afterwards to help peel the Brussels Sprouts, high-fiving granny along the way, then you're made of sterner, steelier, colder stuff than I am.

And as Gonzo says at the end – If you enjoyed this, why not read the book?

[gmoney]

90. Tillsammans



Set in Sweden during the 1970s, a wife leaves her husband, taking her kids to live with her brother in a socialist commune. Along the way deals with dysfunctional relationships, sexuality, and the value of comnpanionship. One of the most lovely endings to a film ever.

[munkybitch]

89. Spring Summer Autumn Winter and ... Spring



The final chapter (Winter) is quite breathtaking and makes you feel that in life anything is possible!

[Gulftastic]

88. Groundhog Day



For those who feel powerless to make any changes for the better in their life, and feel stuck in a cycle of despair, this is the film for you. An idea that could have been boring is elevated by a great script and a wonderful central performance from Bill Murray. Heck, even Andi McDowell can't drag this film down.

[BlodwynPig]

87. Housekeeping



Emotional, turbulent, yet thoroughly uplifting. For those who strive against convention.

[The Roofdog]

86. 12 Angry Men

If this doesn't make you want to put on a white suit and go out righting all the wrongs in the world then you're probably Richard Littlejohn. Even Lee J. Cobb's character, as tragic as he is, achieves catharsis which can't bring down the ending for me.

[nex]

85. Secrets & Lies

Completely bleak until ending in an incredibly uplifting and quite beautiful way.

[Dark Poet]

84. Children of Heaven



People rave about The Bicycle Thieves but I enjoyed this simple and human film so much more.