January is feeling a bit too chilly these days (it’s cold, okay?) So we asked some of our favourite actors and filmmakers – from Kristen Stewart to Succession’s mighty Brian Cox – to recommend spirit-lifting movies to settle down to while we wait for this whole January thing to blow over. And they didn’t disappoint.
“Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is my favourite! I think I’ve seen it forty times and I still sweat laughing at it.” – Kristen Stewart (Spencer)
“My favourite film is The Court Jester. It’s one of the funniest films ever made. It didn’t do very well when it opened but it’s become a classic. Danny Kaye is extraordinary.” – Brian Cox (Succession)
“Watch Network again! Everything [screenwriter] Paddy Chayefsky wrote about in 1975 came true.” – George Clooney (director, Tender Bar)
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s is always one. It’s such a cliché but I could watch that a million times. Is it because of the cat? It is! Poor old sad old cat with no name.” – Caitriona Balfe (actor, Belfast)
“Airplane! always makes me laugh.” – Jesse Armstrong (creator-writer, Succession)
“It’s probably a comedy for me, something like Anchorman, although I get a lot of comfort from watching Kramer vs Kramer.” – Jamie Dornan (Belfast)
“I love the animated Aladdin. I skip forward to Robin Williams’ bits because the genie always cheers me up.” – Sarah Snook (Succession)
“I watched The Sopranos during lockdown and now we have a dog called Tony. I don’t know whether it puts you in a fantastic mood, but it’s involving.” – Jarvis Cocker (The French Dispatch)
“I love Edward Scissorhands. It’s just a work of art. It’s weird, he’s the outcast and he’s not accepted. I love everything about that.” – Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)
“I recommend a film called I Know Where I’m Going! by Powell and Pressburger. It’s set in the Hebridean island and it stars Roger Livesey, who was Colonel Blimp.” – Dame Judi Dench (Belfast)
“The Addams Family. Morticia and Gomez Addams are the best couple, and the world makes total sense even though it’s completely bonkers.” – Rupert Friend (The French Dispatch)
“It’d be a Barbra Streisand movie…Barbra is beautiful and I’m an actor because of her.” – Sean Harris (Spencer)
“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder’s forward roll is the best entrance ever in a film.” Stephen Graham (Boiling Point)
“The Squid Game is amazing and dystopian. Maybe its value is helping us to see what’s going on in a different light.” – Steve Park (The French Dispatch)
“I love Tootsie, it’s so hopeful. They don’t make movies like that anymore – where people were allowed to just be messy and the camera would hold the frame and people were just alive. It always makes me happy.” Mireille Enos (Hanna)
“Ball of Fire, 1941, with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Howard Hawks. Check it out, you’ll love it.” – Alan Ruck (Succession)
