322 Best Lighthearted Movies to Watch (Page 20)

Sometimes, you just need a good movie that poses neither an emotional rollercoaster nor an intellectual challenge. Here are the best lighthearted movies and shows to stream now for a carefree and uplifying watch, from the funny to the offbeat.

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286. Heather McMahan: Son I Never Had, 2023

In terms of the quality of the material delivered in Son I Never Had, this special is really just okay at best. Heather McMahan has charisma and personality, but she has a tendency to run directly into the set-ups for her jokes, without the kind of build-up between segments that would make the whole hour flow better. And the comedy here is pretty standard, lightly raunchy fare that's often amusing but never really cuts deep into the various topics McMahan brings up. Where she's really successful, instead, is in the way she uses humor to contrast the lingering but gentle grief she feels over her father's passing. Son I Never Had, in its own roundabout way, becomes a sort of extended eulogy, emphasizing how our loved ones remain with us in our every memory.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Heather McMahan

Director: Jen Zaborowski

Rating: R

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287. Dee & Friends in Oz, 2024

There's a strong moral focus to Dee & Friends in Oz that helps keep it from being just a distraction for young children. The series logically continues the theme of outsiders learning to overcome their insecurities and courses this lesson through "Dorothy" herself—with much less peril and wicked witches involved, of course. But the show also finds itself stuck in the ways it expresses itself; the world of Oz here is both colorful and too ordinary, and its storytelling is both sincere and too rigid in its structure. For example, when Dee comes back home to the real world at the end of each episode, it's meant to feel as if she's applying the moral lessons to her daily life, but the connection is just too flimsy and makes these scenes feel more like unrelated epilogues.Genre: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Judah Edwards, Layla Capers, Sevien Desuyo, Sid Kamat
Rating: TV-Y

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288. Berlin, 2023

Berlin has everything it needs to be a big hit, from its connections to global sensation Money Heist; to the polished qualities of a Netflix production and the easy, pulpy thrills of a heist led by a cast of attractive people. But early on there's a sense that this spin-off/prequel is just spinning its wheels, stoking the obligatory sexual tension between crew members and getting its characters out of sticky situations far too easily. Berlin is familiar for sure, which means it can still be entertaining in bursts, with well-shot, well-edited heist sequences jolting each episode awake. But it's difficult to find any sort of emotional foothold here, as the title character's actions become even harder to understand.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Crime, Drama

Actor: Begoña Vargas, Joel Sánchez, Julio Peña, Michelle Jenner, Pedro Alonso, Samantha Siqueiros, Tristán Ulloa

Rating: TV-MA

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289. Love & Jane, 2024

Hallmark is the last place you'd expect to find a low-budget movie that decries excessive automation and advocates for local businesses, but for some reason this is the setting against which Love & Jane's story is told. And the movie doesn't come across as insincere either, as it uses a familiar romcom template to actually encourage its protagonist to grow beyond the romance novels she loves and to engage with her own experiences and emotions. Unfortunately, the rest of the film feels oddly obligatory, including a bland love interest and his half-baked chemistry with the heroine, and the inclusion of Jane Austen herself, who really has nothing to do here.Genre: Comedy, Romance, TV Movie
Actor: Aadila Dosani, Alison Sweeney, Benjamin Ayres, Corina Bizim, Debbie Podowski, Eduardo Britto, John Prowse, Kehli O'Byrne, Kendra Anderson, Lynn Whyte, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Nevin Burkholder, Vivin Oommen, William Vaughan
Director: David Weaver
Rating: G

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290. Big Girls Don’t Cry, 2024

Overnight dormitories, uniforms, and clubs… Boarding school has a distinct subculture that few get to experience, oftentimes limited to the privileged and academically gifted. While the United Kingdom is best known for this style of education, plenty of its former colonies, such as India, also adopted the practice, and part of this experience is shown in Big Girls Don't Cry (BGDC). It’s a familiar story, with new girl Kavya befriending the titular friend group, but BGDC is a bit scattered with its approach. Instead of establishing a strong protagonist in Kavya, or creating a dynamic somewhat like Mean Girls’ Cady and Regina, each of the seven girls in BGDC has their own plotline, has their own dilemma and conflict to deal with. It’s great to see how varied and interesting these teen concerns can be, but we wish BGDC allowed us to get to know each of them in a more natural pace, the same way Kavya would have gotten to know them.Genre: Drama
Actor: Afrah Sayed, Akshita Sood, Aneet Padda, Avantika, Dalai, Gauri Malla, Loveleen Mishra, Pooja Bhatt, Suchitra Pillai, Tanya Abrol, Tenzin Lhakyila, Vidushi, Zoya Hussain
Director: Karan Kapadia, Kopal Naithani, Nitya Mehra, Sudhanshu Saria

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291. Miseducation, 2023

Social media has undeniably changed the way we perceive each other, and Netflix’s South African series Miseducation understands this. The show has fun getting its characters canceled online and getting them to ridiculous antics to make up for it. The cast, including the charismatic Buntu Petse and the hilarious Prev Reddy, seems to have a great time getting into hijinks only university life offers. However, inconsistent characterizations and being unwilling to get more deep keep this show from meeting its full potential. It’s still a fun watch, if you’re into soapy teenage comedies.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Buntu Petse, Lunga Shabalala, Micaela Jade Tucker, Mpho Sebeng, Prev Reddy

Rating: TV-MA

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292. Congrats My Ex!, 2023

It’s surreal to watch Congrats My Ex, because the Thai production feels inspired by Indian romance films, with its musical numbers, elaborate dance sequences, and maximalist sets and costumes. With both India and Thailand culturally linked for centuries, it’s interesting to see how this film celebrates their commonalities. That being said, this film isn’t too focused on this, on the difficulties of having an intercultural, long distance relationship– it knows that it wants to be an over-the-top wedding rom com. It does overly rely on the standard rom-com tropes, with a dash of slapstick shenanigans, over-the-top wedding dramatics, and one too many reckless driving accidents. It’s still a fun watch for fans of Bella and Bright though, but it’s nothing new.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Anahita Bhooshan, Anjana Ghogar, Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree, Darina Boonchu, Mahir Pandhi, Passakorn Ponlaboon, Ranee Campen, Thongchai Thongkanthom, Vachirawit Chivaaree

Director: Prueksa Amaruji

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293. All-Time High, 2023

With every chaotic fight scene, ridiculous stunts, and crazy scheme, All-Time High is a wild ride where two scammers lie to each other and fall in love. It’s fun to see these irresponsible people reap the consequences, and it’s fun to see the way Youssef and Stéphanie recognize that they’ve met their match, made all the more fun with the natural chemistry between Nassim Lyes and Zoé Marchal. That being said, the film’s irreverent humor depends a bit too much on stereotypes and gags, and can be a bit too specific for viewers outside of France.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Adrien Essamir, Alexandre Kominek, Ciryl Gane, Guillaume Canet, Gustave Kervern, Hakim Jemili, Hedi Bouchenafa, Ichem Bougheraba, Kenza Fortas, Nassim Lyes, Panayotis Pascot, Paul Deby, Yassine Stein, Yousef Ramal, Yovel Lewkowski, Zoé Marchal

Director: Julien Royal

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294. Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli, 2024

The new stand-up special from Pete Davidson won't win over any skeptics, but there's something to admire in how the comedian heads straight towards edgy material, tells us he's going to go there, and still manages to surprise when he follows through. Which is to say Davidson's audacity might be more impressive than any of his actual writing in this special, with a good number of his jokes highlighting the bizarre situations his fame leads him into, but little more than that. It's stoner comedy for better or worse—observations about a strange world from a hazy point of view that may not always be coherent.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Pete Davidson

Director: Jason Orley

Rating: R

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295. Polly Pocket Sparkle Cove Adventure (2023)

More an extended episode of the Polly Pocket TV series that started in 2018 than a self-contained movie, Sparkle Cove Adventure really only exists to showcase various adventure sequences and magical powers possessed by Polly and the other characters. It's all harmless fun, with a last-minute message about working together that could've been much more subversive in a better written story. Unfortunately, there really isn't much else in this crudely structured, one-hour film to recommend, as lots of on-screen hustle and bustle threatens to blur into white noise. It doesn't help that the animation hasn't been upgraded in any way; after 60 minutes, the Flash-animated 2D style only begins to look flatter.

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Kids

Actor: Cherlandra Estrada, Emily Tennant, Shannon Chan-Kent

Director: Brent Bouchard, Thom Mckenna

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296. Irrésistible, 2023

At first glance, Irresistible doesn’t have the toxic ex-relationships, love triangles, or melodramatics known in the romance genre. As the main couple meet organically, and they’re able to share their ideas about love, the series had a promising slow-burn romance, that might be dialogue-heavy, but could possibly give out insights that any viewer would benefit to hear from. However, the casual way the protagonist Adele gets diagnosed with PTSD makes it feel like an insincere depiction of the disorder. And knowing that the male lead Arthur is married, and that they have such a casual fling, makes it hard to care if they’ll end up together. While there’s something that could be said about certain types of healing happening only through a relationship, Irresistible’s approach doesn’t seem to be headed that way, especially when it only has six episodes to tackle its nuances.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Camélia Jordana, Corentin Fila, Salomé Dewaels, Simon Ehrlacher, Théo Navarro-Mussy

Director: Antony Cordier, Laure de Butler

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297. Family Switch, 2023

Family Switch is a film clearly built to give its ensemble fun acting opportunities, with Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms being given excuses to loosen up more than expected, and Brady Noon and Emma Myers (arguably the movie's MVP) moving beyond mere imitation into more full-bodied performances as adults seeing through their kids' eyes. Unfortunately, the rest of the film saddles them with uninteresting situations that never take the body-switching aspect to more clever territory. Whatever mutual understanding that's learned by the end feels contrived, with the Christmas setting feeling especially tacked on—leaving these otherwise talented actors little to anchor their performances on.

Genre: Comedy, Family, Fantasy

Actor: Adam Lustick, Alanna Fox, Andrew Bachelor, Anwar Jibawi, Austin Boyce, Bashir Salahuddin, Benjamin Flores Jr., Bob Stephenson, Brady Noon, Carl McDowell, Chloé Wepper, Connor Finnerty, Cyrus Arnold, Dan Finnerty, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, Fortune Feimster, Hannah Stocking, Helen Hong, Howie Mandel, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Jason Rogel, Jennifer Garner, Lauren Ash, Mark McGrath, Matthias Schweighöfer, Naomi Ekperigin, Ned Bellamy, Paul Scheer, Pete Holmes, Preston Galli, Punam Patel, Ravi Kapoor, Rita Moreno, Rivers Cuomo, Ryan James, Scott Shriner, Sebastian Quinn, Vanessa Carrasco, Xosha Roquemore

Director: McG

Rating: PG

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298. Irish Wish, 2024

As far as destination romantic comedies go, Irish Wish is at least self-aware enough to commit to its corniness without making its characters too insufferable to follow. For once avoidable misunderstandings don't drive the conflict, as the story progresses as one extended "be careful what you wish for" journey of self-discovery. Still, one can't help but feel like this exact same message could have been told even without the central fantasy plot device—and it probably would have earned its resolutions much more this way. Every move the film makes is predictable, but it definitely still possesses the energy of a group of filmmakers who probably enjoyed their time making it.Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Actor: Alexander Vlahos, Ayesha Curry, Carl Shaaban, Dakota Lohan, Dawn Bradfield, Ed Speleers, Elizabeth Tan, Jacinta Mulcahy, James Rottger, Jane Seymour, Lindsay Lohan, Matty McCabe, Maurice Byrne, Steve Hartland, Tim Landers
Director: Janeen Damian
Rating: PG

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299. Unicorn Academy, 2023

While it certainly has a gorgeous world to show off, with lots of colorful art direction and varied landscapes to explore, Unicorn Academy can't help but buckle under its own weight. Its first couple of episodes (starting with a feature-length premiere) want to establish fun relationships between its characters; set up an epic, world-ending conflict; reflect on its protagonist's grief; and sell merchandise all at once. But the show is both too aimless with its writing and too sluggish in its pacing to allow these disparate parts to cohere under a unified tone. It constantly feels like it's having trouble deciding what to be—which isn't helped by the fact that the first episode has two, awkwardly-placed musical numbers, and the second episode features no singing whatsoever.

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Kids, Music, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Kamaia Fairburn, Kolton Stewart, Sara Garcia

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300. An American in Austen, 2024

As exciting as it sounds to have a real person transported into a fictional story, An American an Austen really doesn't do much with its protagonist's foreknowledge of the plot, nor is it particularly clear about the rules or consequences of Harriet's situation, if any. This means that much of the film consists of watching Pride and Prejudice play out in a slightly more tongue in cheek fashion, as the main character comments on things without doing too much about them. Similar to Hallmark's other recent Jane Austen-themed movies, however, there is a thoughtful message here about learning to face reality and not idealizing fictional romances—delivered in a pretty competent visual package. It's just a shame that this is buried at the end of a plot that has no stakes to speak of.Genre: Comedy, Romance, TV Movie
Actor: Bert Seymour, Calypso Cragg, Catherine Hannay, Charlotte Wakefield, Dominic Andersen, Eliza Bennett, Erica Ford, Grace Hogg-Robinson, J.R. Esposito, Kate Nichols, Nell Barlow, Nicholas Bishop, Olivia Benjamin, Richard Gibson, Robert Portal, Robin Weaver, Sarah Ferguson, Shin-Fei Chen
Director: Clare Niederpruem
Rating: G

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