New Movies – Sun, sand, and celluloid. These movies will transport you to Florida this winter

To mentally flee the recent bitter cold and snow, I set myself up on the sofa under a thick blanket with a rotund cat on my lap and held a Florida film festival. There are many — actually too many — movies set in Florida. I chose 11 of them. It was difficult to pick and I’m bracing myself for the ire of leaving out “Caddyshack,” “Hidden Figures,” “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Body Heat,” “Apollo 13,” and the recently released Amazon film “One Night in Miami.” Also, please forgive me for leaving “Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach″ off the list.

I tried to choose movies from all eras and genres to show the full span of what we’ll be missing this winter. Pour yourself a glass of orange juice, or, better yet, a screwdriver, and let’s get watching.

“Scarface” (1983)

Who says it never snows in Florida? There is so much cocaine in this bloody Brian De Palma classic that sun-bleached Miami appears to be completely dusted in the white stuff. “Scarface,” is a rags-to-multiple-murders story of a Cuban immigrant (Al Pacino) who comes to the United States to pursue the American dream by any means possible. It’s a look at the city before “Miami Vice” moved in and killed the buzz. It’s also essential viewing to see Michelle Pfeiffer’s sublime performance as the iciest mob wife in Miami.

“Cocoon” (1985)

If aliens are going to land anywhere on earth, you know it’s going to be in Florida. “Cocoon” finds a group of seniors, including Jessica Tandy, a breakdancing Don Ameche, and Wilford Brimley, living a peaceful, albeit dull existence at a Gulf Coast nursing home. Things get interesting when they discover a fountain of youth in the form of a swimming pool filled with martians encased in rocks. In the end they form a cult (sort of) and leave with the aliens in a spaceship for a galaxy far, far away. There are moving performances from Maureen Stapleton and Hume Cronyn, plus Steve Guttenberg wears short shorts.

“The Florida Project” (2017)

In the shadow of the Magic Kingdom is the Magic Castle in Kissimmee, a downtrodden hotel that represents everything Disney does not. Here, residents live hand-to-mouth, under the poverty line, and under the paternal eye of manager Willem Defoe in one of the best performances of his career. “The Florida Project” is a movie that will not only leave you gutted, it will also filet you, bread you, and deep fry you in despair. The story primarily focuses on a mostly unsupervised 6-year-old named Monee (Brooklynn Prince) and her negligent mother (Bria Vinaite). If the ending of “The Florida Project” does not leave you in tears, please check your pulse.

“Key Largo” (1948)

Lauren Bacall is luminous in this drama about the owners of a Key Largo hotel who are taken hostage by a group of counterfeiting gangsters. It was the last big screen pairing of Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, and although the chemistry between the two seemed to be waning, the riveting plot makes up for the lukewarm coupling. Claire Trevor, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a gin-soaked, washed-up singer, begins “Key Largo” as a woozy punch line. Ultimately she gives the film’s most emotional performance as a hurricane bears down on the hotel. The only downside to the movie is that you may wind up with Bertie Higgins’s retched 1981 song of the same name stuck in your head.

“Moonlight” (2016)

Here’s a Miami movie that takes you to parts of the city less traveled by tourists. Through the eyes of cinematographer James Laxton, Miami’s colors are sun-bleached at times, oversaturated at others. The result is quiet subtlety. Quiet and subtle are adjectives that are seldom employed to describe Miami. The Academy Award-winning coming-of-age drama shows off the city’s historically Black Virginia Key Beach and South Beach. The movie even makes Miami’s Metromover look lovely.

“Tony Rome” (1967)

Frank Sinatra does his best Humphrey Bogart impersonation in this swinging 1960s romp through Miami. As private eye Tony Rome, Sinatra zips around Key Biscayne in a yellow mock turtleneck and, for some reason, every beautiful actress in the movie throws herself at the slightly paunchy, toupee-wearing Sinatra. Perhaps it’s the turtleneck. Sinatra turns on the old Rat Pack charm and wisecracks his way into solving the mystery of a missing brooch. Perhaps not the most gripping plot, but there’s a lot of great 1960s Miami scenery and daughter Nancy sings the movie’s title song (yes please!).

“The Palm Beach Story” (1942)

For any fan of classic films, “The Palm Beach Story” is the best trip you can possibly take to Florida without leaving your living room. In fact, some may say that watching it is better than actually going to Florida. It has everything: a demure Claudette Colbert, director Preston Sturges’s whiplash-inducing dialogue, plus a “Pretty Woman”-style shopping montage with gowns by designer Irene! This is screwball, gold digging escapism at its best.

“The Bird Cage” (1996)

Close your eyes and imagine yourself back in the delicious 1990s, a more innocent time when Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake strolled publicly in matching denim evening wear and “Sex and the City” had yet to wear out its welcome. It was during these years that Hollywood became obsessed with drag queens, and what better setting for a film about drag than Miami’s South Beach. This American remake of “Les Cage aux Folles” may be dripping with gay stereotypes (hello Hank Azaria), but the farcical comedy offers a feathery and flamboyant glimpse into South Beach at its gayest and most colorful.

“Spring Breakers” (2013)

The opening scenes of “Spring Breakers” resemble a Hieronymus Bosch painting filled with bongs, breasts, and beer funnels. But somehow the movie still drags you into this mesmerizing hellscape and doesn’t let go, no matter how much you cringe and cover your eyes. It’s spring break in St. Petersburg and some of the most virginal actresses of the 2010s are robbing diners and snorting the devil’s dandruff (I’m talking about cocaine, again). The biggest takeaway from the film: Beware of white guys with cornrows and never go to St. Pete’s during spring break. Ever.

“The Heartbreak Kid” (1972)

Not to be confused with the 2007 Ben Stiller remake, 1972′s “The Heartbreak Kid” shows the glitz of a throwback Miami Beach honeymoon, complete with talk of dog races, jai alai, and watching bad comedians in slightly run-down hotels. This Neil Simon story of a groom (Charles Grodin) who falls in love with another woman (Cybill Shepherd) while on his sun-drenched honeymoon is visually arresting, but the twisting plot with Grodin nervously trying to talk himself in and out of situations is front and center.

“The Truman Show” (1998)

The pre-planned community of Seaside, Fla., is about as disturbingly perfect as any town could be. Its Stepford architecture and coordinating paint colors made an ideal backdrop for the Jim Carrey film about a man who is the unwitting star of a reality show. In the movie, Seaside is dubbed Seahaven and the uniformity of the town looks like a Hollywood set. Just like the movie, the world is a very different place outside of Seaside. Drive a short distance in any direction and the food trucks, bicycles, and parks are replaced by what this stretch of the Panhandle really looks like, which is a landscape dotted with Waffle Houses, trucks, and Dollar General stores.

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Christopher Muther can be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther.