Warming up: movies and series that will make your soul a little warmer

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“Nine Total Strangers” (2021)

Exhausted by neuroses, residents of a big city go on an expensive retreat. Nine people who have never met each other (are you sure?) and, in principle, should never have, are set to rest. Advertising of the resort promises them complete peace and healing – souls, bodies, and, in principle, everything they want. The sanatorium is run by the frighteningly enlightened hostess Masha (Nicole Kidman). True, it quickly turns out that Masha’s methods are somewhat dubious, and it seems that she knows more about the guests than they would like. And here all the skeletons begin to crawl out of all the cabinets in each room. “Everyone has their own story,” says one of the characters, and you can’t argue with that.

This series is an adaptation of the bestselling book of the same name by Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies. So, without tangled ups and downs will not do. As, and without crime, of course.

“Love with an Accent” (2012)

Vacation is not necessarily a Turkish, Egyptian or Crimean coast. The heroes of the movie almanac Rezo Gigineishvili spend their free days in Georgia. True, they have different goals. So, the heroine of Anna Mikhalkova, dreaming of a child, is trying to find a potential father for him in Tbilisi (spoiler: successful!). The characters of Artur Smolyaninov and Philip Yankovsky go to get married and get divorced, but change places. As a result, one of them has to impersonate the groom at someone else’s wedding. And a couple in love (Nikita Efremov and Tinatin Dalakishvili) head to Batumi to hide from their parents.

As a local, the director himself simply confesses his love to the mountains, the sea and flavored with a triple portion of khachapuri cheese. Warning: Watching this movie can lead to buying tickets to Tbilisi and five extra pounds as a result of getting to know Georgian cuisine. We are not responsible for this!

“Vacation” (2021-2022)

Someone spends every vacation in different places, and someone prefers proven locations, so he goes to Gelendzhik for the eleventh time. Yes, even without the participation of a wonderful man from the incorruptible group “Leningrad”. The heroes of the TNT series do just that: they regularly rent housing from the same local family in the Krasnodar Territory. Naturally, over such a long period of time, relations between vacationers and locals become practically related with all the consequences: from love to hate and back, there is only one step. In addition, the eldest son of vacationers Sasha has long been in love with Lucy, the daughter of the owners, while his parents’ marriage is falling apart.

All this was in the first season, and the new one starts on October 31st. Mikhail Galustyan joined the cast in the form of a recent inhabitant of places not so remote, trying to start a new life. And Roman Kurtsyn will play the impossibly correct new lover of Larisa, the mother of the Severyan family. Will the characters be able to relax in the new complicated family circumstances? This is the intrigue of the second season.

“Little Nicolas Vacation” (2014)

Screen version of the main French children’s classic. However, a series of books by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe about the adventures of the schoolboy Nicolas and his eccentric parents are familiar far beyond the borders of their homeland – usually this is the first thing that foreigners who decide to study the language of Voltaire and Dumas read in the original. The previous film about the little Frenchman was released in 2009 and was dedicated to his school days. In “Vacations …” the school year is over, so the family goes on vacation to the resort town of Mer-les-Bains. This is where all the fun begins: Nicolas makes new friends, a girl falls in love with him (while Nicolas already has “someone” at home), and mom and dad will definitely throw out something like that.

To read, watch and love stories about little Nicolas, it is not necessary to be a child or just have children. In a sense, it’s “Welcome, or no strangers to enter”, only with a strong French accent. And you can laugh at “Vacations …” at the age of 99, and even older.

“Happy End” (2020)

Early in the morning, an elderly man (Mikhail Gomiashvili) wakes up on a Thai beach. He has no answers to any of the important questions: who is he, what happened, and why the hell did he even end up in Southeast Asia. It is only obvious that the stranger speaks Russian and has a very vile character. Meanwhile, the mysterious hero manages to quickly navigate the area: he finds work and housing, begins to respond to the name Xenophon, and even organizes a small illegal business. In short, it’s ok!

The reason for Xenophon’s mysterious “blackout” will become clear only towards the end of the film, and will turn out to be rather prosaic. But the main reason why you need to watch “Happy End” is incredible optimism. After all, you can get out of any situation – you just need to pull yourself together and … be smart, of course.

“Beach Bum” (2019)

We have seen Matthew McConaughey in different guises, but it seems that the poet, rebel and just a free man named Moon Dog is the funniest. A weird guy who looks a bit like the Big Lebowski smokes a lot, drinks and hangs out on the ocean. The Moon Dog also writes poetry, however, he cannot publish his collection in any way, because something interferes with him all the time (how could it be otherwise ?!). But it doesn’t bother him. As well as the fact that the world around is rapidly changing. The moon dog just lives and, as they say, does not take a steam bath.

An endless holiday as a way of life is, of course, a dubious idea. But still, through the clouds of smoke in this picture, you can see a simple recipe for happiness: to live here and now, and worry less about those things that we are not able to control.

“On the sea!” (2008)

People who are not lucky enough to live in a cold climate (yes, we are talking about you and me) like to spend their holidays by the sea. The heroes of this domestic comedy are no exception. Several families from Russia fly together to Tenerife, where there is warm water, white sand, and that’s it. Just like the characters in “Knockin’ on Heaven” they dream of seeing the sea as soon as possible. True, something always interferes with them: either the desire to celebrate a long-awaited vacation with appropriate libations, or the evacuation of a rented car, or acquaintance with local law enforcement officers at the police station. As a result, this seemingly simple goal turns into an almost impossible challenge.

If you have ever lived in an all-inclusive hotel with a large number of compatriots, then many situations from the film will seem painfully familiar to you. And consider the hilarious duet of Yuri Kolokolnikov and Pavel Derevyanko to be the icing on the cake, which you managed to grab on the “buffet” system.