looking for movie/tv recs

[vom_marlowe]

So, my mom and I have been trying hard to work on positive, uplifting aspects of our relationship, and one of the things we do to bond is to watch beautiful stories together.  Right now, we are listening to Little Women from audible.  In the past, we have shared other audiobook loves, like Terry Pratchett (now her favorite beloved author), Jane Austen, Shakespeare, etc.  She read to me a lot as a small kid, and somewhere I have a cassette of her reading snippets of my very favorite stories--she sent it to me, when I was in college and lonely, and the last bit was the sound of our then-dog's beloved nails racing across the floor.

Recently, we watched our very favorite two movies to watch together, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, and we're looking for something else to see.

I'd LOVE to have some recommendations for gentle stories that are uplifting and have zero-to-no-violence, ideally with great acting and beautiful scenery/appearance/sets/etc.  Any genre is welcome!  

Everybody's gonna laugh, but over the summer, we spent a delightful time watching British reality TV shows, particularly Big Dreams, Small Spaces (highly, HIGHLY recommended!) and, of course, The Great British Bakeoff.  The latter was tricky because mom can't have sugar any longer, and also, um, we'd get over-invested and WORRY BECAUSE SO TENSE IS THE CAKE GOING TO BE LEFT IN THE RAIN?
AHHHHH PLEASE EVERYBODY BE OK!
OH MY GOD WHAT IF IT'S SOFT IN THE CENTER, um. Yeah.  Maybe, um, assume we can get a little emotionally overinvested in making sure everybody turns out OK, haha.

Just for example, although she loved the appearance of the recent RDJ/Lawe Holmes' movies, with all the Ritchie artwork, they were too violent to continue.  We ran into similar trouble with Elementary, because although some eps are low violence, others have a lot.  Quirky and artistic is most welcome--we watched a pretty nifty adaptation of the Magic Flute on youtube some time back, animated, that was great. 

Oh, and, I should add, she loves the early Harry Potter movies, but hasn't seen the latter ones because they're too damn sad.  (She loves Harry, as who among us does not.)

We did try Kiki's Delivery service, years ago, but found it too twee.

So, I guess it's a balance!  

Any suggestions welcome!

Comments

[yhlee]

If you can do anime, Kiss Him Not Me is a hilarious anime with an unexpected and 100% awesome ending, and it's about an anime fangirl who ends up being courted by several guys at her high school. I would advise skipping ep. 5, in which the heroine gains weight back and there are some fat jokes, but other than that it's solid gold, funny, and very sweet. It's high school romance-adjacent comedy so I don't recall there being any violence whatsoever.

[heavenscalyx]

I always recommend TV Grandpa, I mean David Attenborough and his nature documentaries for beautiful.

If you haven't tried My Neighbor Totoro, I highly recommend it -- it's geared for a youngish audience, but I remember being a bitter 20-something in a room of bitter 20-somethings watching it (on a multi-generation fansub videotape, so we couldn't even see the quality of the art) and at the end, everyone just kind of sighed and smiled.

Akycha and I have recently marathoned the 2 seasons of The Good Place that are on Netflix, which is surprisingly kind and thoughtful, with surprisingly excellent acting. I heart Tahani.

Steven Universe: there's cartoonish violence, but it tends to be brief, and never overshadows the excellent dialogue and plot.

[loligo]

My kids and I loved Natsume's Book of Friends. I'm not sure if it totally fits what you want: there are some eerie moments, not every episode ends 100% happily, and the main character has been unhappy in the past (living with various resentful relatives) but his life is much better now. Overall it is a gentle, joyful show about healing; it might be worth more research to see if it fits your needs.

[ranalore]

Two of my favorite films are British period productions that I think might fit the bill. The first is Cold Comfort Farm, in which a young Kate Beckinsale sets about tidying up the lives of her relatives in the 1920's English countryside. The second is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and stars Frances McDormand as the practical companion of flighty nightclub singer Amy Adams in pre-war London. I know the first is based on a book, and I think the second might be, as well. I also love the remake of The Last Holiday, with Queen Latifah and Timothy Hutton.

[the_rck]

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is also on my list of suggestions for you. I liked it enough to buy the DVD after watching it from the library.

[ruric]

If you like Brit reality TV and Big Dreams, Small Spaces maybe try Grand Designs (if you've not already seen it). I think there are about 17 seasons!

[the_rck]

If you haven't tried Bride and Prejudice, you both might like it as it's a retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern India.

For other musicals, I love Singin' in the Rain (in spite of the long and kind of inexplicable dance sequences). The Music Man (the first version not the remake with Matthew Broderick) is probably my favorite musical movie, and I'm very fond of the movie version of Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury and Linda Ronstadt.

Possibly some screwball comedies from the 30s might work? I'm blanking on names beyond Bringing Up Baby at the moment.

All three of us liked the recent Disney movie, Christopher Robin. A lot of the story beats were predictable, but the human characters acted like people.

If foreign language movies/shows that require subtitles are acceptable, I suggest the following:

Aria the Natural - This is an anime series with mostly female characters. It's more or less slice of life, but it's a science fictional setting. The main character is a girl learning to be a gondolier in New Venice (Mars got terraformed). The DVDs I have don't have a dub track. I don't think the show has ever been released in the US with a dub track. There's zero violence, not even emotional violence, but there are small conflicts and puzzles and experiences new to the characters.

Dae Jang Guem - This is a long Korean historical drama. The first episode has a good bit of violence because it sets up the main character's parents and their tragedy which puts the main character on her path. It's important information to know but could be gotten from a summary. The protagonist is a girl who gets a position in the court kitchens. She's based on a real person who actually became the first woman to be physician to the King of Korea. There's a lot of intrigue and political maneuvering and a lot of constraints on the characters-- Women who work in the household are considered to belong to the King. They're supposed to be celibate unless they catch his attention, and, generally speaking, he's unlikely to notice the seamstresses and cooks and such that way. Most of the characters are girls or women, and their relationships with each other are the major focus. Once the show gets past the main character's parents, there's not a great deal of on-screen violence in the first season (I haven't yet seen more). I don't think there's a dub anywhere, so it's subtitles all the way.

The Painting - This is a French movie about people in an unfinished painting. Social class is determined by how much of a person was painted before the work was abandoned. There is violence early in the film when the ruling class group (the fully painted folks) catch a sketch sneaking around their party. The rest of the movie is a small group of characters trying to fine the Artist to discover why he never finished his work. This involves, eventually, leaving their own painting and visiting others. One of the visited paintings is a war scene that seems to be caught in a loop. This one is very pretty but may be more violent than you want.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - This show ran one season. It's not a murder of the week sort of thing, and I'm not sure I'd call it a mystery series. It's set in present day Botswana. There is one case that involves a person who disappeared years before and who turns out to have been murdered, also years before. There is also an abusive ex-husband who attempts to blackmail the main character at one point. The actors are all excellent.

Little Lunch is an Australian show about school children interacting on the playground. The kids all mean well. The episodes are short and very funny in a gentle way. Most of the humor comes from the fact that the kids are telling us what they think happened and why while we're seeing the scenes of what actually did happen.

The Big Hero 6 TV series is massively better than a spinoff from a cartoon movie has any right to be. There's superhero violence, but I never felt like there was real risk of Bad Things happening, and the fights aren't the focus at all. That's on the character interactions and the humor.