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Chickensoup:

Your initial ask was for feel good films that are not violent. But when one gets into the weeds and starts watching for nuances, boundaries blur. For example, you include Primer, Signs and Galaxy Quest in your list of favorites. You also add the Hercule Poirot series.

I’ve not watched the Poirot series, but I know Agatha Christie murder mysteries involve someone getting killed. I’m guessing that if you liked the Poirot series, you will like See How They Run, which is a delightful and funny film that begins with a beautifully scripted wink and a nod at the audience about the parameters of the genre. It’s basically an acknowledgment that, “Yes, we know you’ve probably seen plenty of Agatha Christie stories. We all know what the rules are. This is a fun knock off; just go along with it and enjoy the ride.” If you’ll do that, the Constable Stalker-Inspector Stoppard tapdance is worth your time.

There’s violence in Galaxy Quest, though it’s of the sci-fi spoof variety. There’s a fairly grisly accidental death in Signs, a lot of personal trauma, and some exuberant violence executed on an alien, if aliens count.

There are some quite violent films where the violence is so over the top that it is surrealistic and humorous. As we say in cinephile circles, “we be dealin’ with nuances here, so pass the Diet Coke [or other adult beverage of your choice.”] I enjoyed Blazing Saddles, The Death of Stalin, Tropic Thunder, and this year’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

My own point of entry when I post to the ping list is movies that are:

(1) Thematically conservative (broadly defined), or at least fair to conservative perspectives (i.e., they acknowledge hard choices and real costs);

(2) Recent, because if we want more of our kind of movies made, we need to actually watch some of them when they come out; the saving remnant in the industry is larger than many think, but it can’t survive if conservatives just walk away and resign the entire domain to the lefties and the cash grab slop crowd; and

(3) Reasonably good, or at least good enough that I’m not embarassed to recommend it.

I’m also interested in low and ultra low budget films, even microbudgeted films, because they are guerilla counterculture movies operating in reaction to tentpole disease and big studio bloat that has ballooned costs to ridiculous levels. You mentioned Primer. That was made for $7,000, most of which was spent on film. And it’s hard for the woke commissars to impose DEI nonsense on a writer-director team of one and a tiny cast.

I’m willing to go genre slumming to find movies that fit the above, and I try not to make fun of other people’s viewing preferences. As a group, freepers are big on sci-fi, westerns, and war movies. And freepers applaud the classic great films in all genres. Our collective blind spot is that we miss so much of the good stuff that is being made today.