Movies with very competent protagonists - difficulty level: no violence.

April 21, 2024 5:40 AM

I am in the mood for a movie or series with an ultra-competent, good-at-their-job protagonist. Difficulty level: no violence, gore, or grave injustice (not even injustice that's overcome in the end). I have seen this question but I'm looking for more and slightly different examples.

I was trying to not call it "competence p8rn" but that's basically what I'm after. I'm looking for feel-good and cosy more than thrilling. Cannot take any more sadness I guess. Bonus points for non-white male protagonists but not an absolute requirement - it's hard enough to find as it is.
I've already searched on TV tropes but haven't really found much - a lot of the examples were either thrillers or too sad or things I've already seen.
Anything I can watch tonight?

posted by M. to Media & Arts (46 answers total)

The first one that came to mind was Desk Set, with Katherine Hepburn as an ultra competent reference librarian dealing with a new piece of technology in her department. The injustices are minor and the leads are charming and good at what they do.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:49 AM on April 21 [16 favorites]

Heist movies are my go-to for this, Ocean’s 8 is one of the few with women.
posted by meijusa at 5:53 AM on April 21 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Sorry to thread-sit, I should have been more clear - I realize heist movies are not violent but I'm so mentally exhausted that I cannot take the suspense, or energy, of a heist movie right now.

Boring movies preferred :)
posted by M. at 5:58 AM on April 21 [2 favorites]

A League of Their Own
The Devil Wears Prada
Hidden Figures
The Sting
Legally Blonde (what, like it's hard?)
posted by the primroses were over at 5:59 AM on April 21 [4 favorites]

Maybe Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Not sure where you can find it, though. But, if you can, it’s a lovely documentary.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:59 AM on April 21 [12 favorites]

(Oh, on reread, Hidden Figures is not a match, obviously. Instead I suggest Beyonce's Homecoming concert film. Who is more competent than Beyonce?)
posted by the primroses were over at 6:17 AM on April 21

Maybe "The Founder", the movie about Ray Kroc turning McDonalds into a globe-striding colossus
posted by dis_integration at 6:23 AM on April 21

Dave has some attempted malfeasance but otherwise is about a competent and kind person.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:36 AM on April 21 [7 favorites]

The Martian, though you may consider the survival setting stressful.
posted by genrand at 6:42 AM on April 21 [6 favorites]

The American President has a competent politician in a nice tale. Plus it is a nice contrast to some of the more caustic political things we see these days though not without political conflict
posted by TimHare at 6:56 AM on April 21 [7 favorites]

Maybe Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Not sure where you can find it, though. But, if you can, it’s a lovely documentary.

I was going to suggest this as well, along with food-based movies in general, like Babette's Feast. Eater has a "top 34" list of cooking movies, and it's a category at IMDB also -- though in all cases you'll want to check that the plot doesn't include more violence than you want.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:04 AM on April 21 [3 favorites]

I sense a cooking/restaurant theme, like Chef
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:14 AM on April 21 [1 favorite]

Adding on to Dip Flash, I came on to recommend that you look on whatever streaming service you have for regular cooking shows with chefs of color at the helm. Not cook-offs or competitions, just regular competent chefs making delicious food.
If you are willing to forgo your bonus points and watch all white people, maybe the fact that it's in France will help. I am suggesting the Wiseman documentary Menus Plaisirs which is 3 hours of watching the Troisgros multi generational family of ultra, ultra competent French chefs making amazing food in their family's restaurant in a spectacularly pretty setting in the French countryside, with some parts showing ultra competent French food suppliers like cheese makers, very nice and humane goat keepers with sweet happy goats, and organic farmers with lovely tomatoes, etc. It's oddly calm for a restaurant kitchen. This film has no plot to speak of but I found it hypnotic and you can basically just watch it on and off without worrying if you missed some, free for a short while on pbs. https://www.pbs.org/video/menus-plaisirs-les-troisgros-rbfnou/
On edit: Wrote this without seeing the comment directly above, so I should say adding on to the last comment as well.
posted by ojocaliente at 7:17 AM on April 21

If competence can mean precision, creativity and skill, you might look at the documentary Rivers and Tides, about the artist Andy Goldsworthy. And it looks like there's a newer one as well, Leaning into the Wind. They are documentaries, though, not plot-driven stories.

He makes intricate art in nature, with found materials.
posted by Gorgik at 7:20 AM on April 21 [10 favorites]

Another cooking-related suggestion: Salt Fat Acid Heat. It's just lovely people making lovely food. The main chef, Samin Nosrat, has a very joyful and peaceful energy about her.
posted by ourobouros at 7:29 AM on April 21 [4 favorites]

I am sorry! I just looked at the PBS website and it looks like they put a paywall up for the Troisgros documentary I recommended starting today.
posted by ojocaliente at 7:31 AM on April 21

Response by poster: Thank you all for your suggestions! I should perhaps have clarified that I was looking for fiction/movies where the protagonist is so competent at what they do that we (the spectators) get the wish-fulfilling fantasy of going through life just being great at what we do without the pesky reality of bad days/incompetent managers/brain fog.

Some competence p8rn movies/series that scratch the itch for me are Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch and The Reacher - Season One - the ultra-competence of the main characters is the main focus of the movie and I'd love more stuff like that, just, you know, minus the violence.

The Devil Wears Prada is a great example of what I am looking for - Miranda is ultra-competent in an almost unrealistic way and we get to watch her be competent for half the movie (I admittedly always fast-forward through the romantic subplot just to watch Miranda plot her work intrigues).

I'd love more suggestions along this vein - "work movies" and "unrealistically good at what they do" and "wish fulfillment". Not really looking for cooking shows or documentaries right now.
posted by M. at 7:34 AM on April 21 [2 favorites]

It's an audiobook rather than a movie, but "The Operas of Mozart" scratches this itch for me. Bonus: it is real and not fiction! (Check your library / hoopla to see if they have a free streaming version.) Mozart was so ultra-competent that he composed magnificent operas in the back of his mind while goofing around with friends.

He was also sassy. As a lovestruck teenager, he proposed marriage to a young lady. When she rejected him, he immediately walked over to the harpsichord, started playing a melody, and sang in German, "Whoever doesn't love me can lick my ass".

Later, when he was jealous that his wife might be having an affair (while he was on a concert tour having his own affairs), he wrote the opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" about women cheating. I find it entertaining that he had this unbelievable talent (never matched before or since) and he took it for granted so much that he used it to express all these petty dramas.
posted by vienna at 7:57 AM on April 21

There's a genre of movie musical that's kind of a meta-musical -- a musical about making musicals? The principals are always very good at what they do (unless there's an incompetent villain, which there sometimes is, but if there is s/he gets a comeuppance).

Examples include:

Summer Stock
Singin' in the Rain
The Barkleys of Broadway
posted by humbug at 8:07 AM on April 21 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I just saw this exact question posted in r/movies. Check there for additional suggestions if it wasn’t you who made that post.
posted by Clustercuss at 8:11 AM on April 21

Ted Lasso scratches this itch for me. Ted is very good at his job.
posted by mekily at 8:44 AM on April 21 [1 favorite]

The September Issue (non-fiction, but if you enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada there's a good chance that you'll enjoy this).
Apollo 13.
Chariots of Fire.
posted by rjs at 9:08 AM on April 21 [2 favorites]

Working Girl with Melanie Griffith!
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 9:10 AM on April 21 [4 favorites]

Moneyball fits this.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:15 AM on April 21 [4 favorites]

Perhaps Drumline? It focuses on the rivalry between two highly talented college-band drummers rather than just one, though. Bonus: about life at a fictional HBCU. Very sweet.

I feel like this question could be fruitfully posed in an anime forum, especially if you're open to subvariant "potentially supercompetent person learns to achieve their potential." There are cooking anime, volleyball anime, Go anime, basically any sport or skill.
posted by praemunire at 9:16 AM on April 21 [2 favorites]

have you ever watched anime? There are lots of anime about people being extremely good at things, and diving into the mechanics of how to be good at it, and all the fun and tension is derived from that. Some are slice of life and some are sports or competitition plots, but there is lots of competence to be found. Ones about careers and industries will be about adults and have fewer coming of age themes than the sports ones.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 9:27 AM on April 21 [2 favorites]

If you have energy enough to read, try The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Tiffany Aching is a mistress of everything, from making cheese to rescuing her baby brother. And it's fun. BTW she's 12.
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:23 AM on April 21 [6 favorites]

Arrival, maybe? Or Contact?
posted by synecdoche at 11:27 AM on April 21 [7 favorites]

The two seasons of Julia, which though cooking is involved is also about a wonderful group of really competent people being almost entirely awesome towards one another as they make a wonderful TV show and make history.

Other shows about making TV & Radio might scratch your itch - Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sports Night, News Radio.
posted by brookeb at 11:53 AM on April 21 [3 favorites]

Heist movies might also fit the bill.

Thomas Crown Affair
The Italian Job
Hopscotch
posted by brookeb at 12:55 PM on April 21

The Librarian Quest for the Spear. The protagonist (white male) is brilliant but awkward, learns to trust his competence. The sidekick (white female) is his ultra-compentent body guard. Peril and "violence" is more goofy than perilous; e.g. Bob Newhart takes out a bad guy with a punch that obviously didn't even connect. Fun.
posted by evilmomlady at 1:09 PM on April 21

I love Drumline! A great suggestion.

All the President's Men would be good for this, I think.
posted by jgirl at 1:13 PM on April 21

Good Night and Good Luck
Support the Girls - Regina Hall plays the extremely competent manager of a Hooters-like sports bar on a complicated day at work.
Phantom Thread
Everybody Wants Some!! - the protagonist is just really good at fitting in and becoming part of a college baseball team.
posted by lizard music at 3:47 PM on April 21

A bit off-topic, but if you like watching hyper-competent people fix things, I highly recommend you find a way to stream The Repair Shop. It's a UK show where incredibly talented artisans repair cherished family heirlooms. Their technique and skill is jaw-dropping, and it's so soothing and lovely to watch them bring old items back to life.
posted by leftover_scrabble_rack at 3:56 PM on April 21 [7 favorites]

Anime series rec, absolutely watchable in two sittings: Yuri!! On Ice. Conflict is all extremely competent ice skating people learning to stop doubting themselves. Everyone is either friends or frenemies played for laughs, international flavor through a Japanese lens that is pretty unique, super duper cute.

Ramen Girl is a 2008 movie starring Brittany Murphy about a white woman who trains under a ramen chef in Japan, it is wonderful and wholesome while touching on some real issues of class and race and culture.

Bring It On is *the* cheerleading movie, a sleepover staple and source of numerous sapphic meanderings. Classism and racism based cheerleading rivalry overcome through girl power and badassery.

Drumline was suggested previously, I strongly second/third it. The energy alone might be a pick-me-up for you.

Ratatouille is food-focused competence porn, if you think about it!
posted by Mizu at 4:00 PM on April 21 [2 favorites]

I'm going to suggest Jimmy Stewart movies such as "No Highway in the Sky" (very competent aeronautical engineer) or "Harvey" (in which case it's the partnership of Jimmy Stewart and his invisible 6 foot tall rabbit pooka who are very competent). I love those movies, but YMMV.
posted by forthright at 4:40 PM on April 21 [1 favorite]

9 to 5? Lily Tomlin as the super-competent office worker who eventually gets the better of her awful boss, etc.
posted by daisystomper at 9:51 PM on April 21 [4 favorites]

I feel like light mystery shows might suit you.

White Collar is about an FBI agent and a former con man teaming up to solve crimes, everyone is highly competent and it's a very light show.

Leverage is in a similar vein, where a team of former criminals turn the tables on bad guys who are taking advantage of regular people. It's satisfying, and every episode has some sort of low stress heist or con.

Ms Fisher's Murder Mysteries is about a clever, fashionable heiress in 1920s Melbourne who becomes a private detective. There's a followup series set in the 1960s.
posted by champers at 2:24 AM on April 22 [2 favorites]

The protagonist of Hot Fuzz is a police officer so ridiculously good at his job it causes problems for him everywhere.

I'd also suggest Être et avoir, a quiet movie about a quietly good schoolteacher.
posted by snarfois at 3:56 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]

The Good Wife did this for me, providing lovely tidy interiors and nice clothes into the bargain.
posted by Grunyon at 7:19 AM on April 22

Fair warning, Hot Fuzz has quite a bit of gun violence and at least one very, very gory scene.

If you like older movies, the original Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit, both starring Alec Guinness, are charming.
posted by plinth at 10:21 AM on April 22

As I understand it, you're seeking soothing (personal/local stakes, low suspense) fictional movies or TV series starring protagonists who consistently demonstrate amazing competence.

I second the recommendation that you look into anime TV series where people make stuff or travel. And more generally, film/TV from outside the US, and/or film that was not intended to make big bucks via US theatrical distribution, is more likely to be willing to be low-key the way you want.

I second the recommendation of Desk Set! In general, comedies set in offices may have about the right levels of stakes for you.

I think you may be interested in the Jeeves & Wooster adaptations starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie; there's no violence/gore, the suspense level is low, and Jeeves always wins while seeming to glide through all the chaos.

I also recommend:

The Bishop's Wife (1947): Cary Grant plays an angel who is very good at his job and who basically glides through it all with a smile.

Clueless (1995): Alicia Silverstone is grasping the wrong end of the stick for about half the movie, but then things aright, and for most of the film she is very competent at the tasks she takes on. But nearly none of them are paid work, and she does get unfairly criticized once while doing work toward the end of the film.
posted by brainwane at 11:48 AM on April 22

Parks and Recreation is a feel good workplace comedy with a highly capable female central character (from season 2 onwards at least). I guess most people have seen it but if it somehow passed you by I’d highly recommend it.
posted by tomcooke at 12:03 PM on April 22

I wouldn't say His Girl Friday is a cozy film--it's a screwball comedy set at a breakneck speed. The plot involves an impending execution for a murder and corrupt officials, but it's just a backdrop for the wackiness.

The possessive in the title can only be taken as ironic. Ace reporter Hildy is the best in the business and her conniving ex-husband doesn't want to lose her as a partner. His manipulations might be too much for some viewers, but ultimately Hildy knows his true nature and puts up with it because she loves the work.
posted by hydrophonic at 5:23 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

The Wallace and Gromit series feature the remarkably bumbling Wallace and his hyper-competent, unperturable dog, Gromit.

The Knives Out movies are murder mysteries, but of the classic locked-room kind, not the sexual violence and gore kind.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 5:45 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

Doc Martin, maybe. Very talented but zero social skills doctor thrown into serving as the local doctor in a charming English village. Extremely low stakes, but there's some second-hand embarrassment if that's something you don't enjoy.

Call the Midwife is full of ultra-competent midwives but is also a little gory (medically, not violently), so it may not be what you need right at the moment.
posted by snaw at 11:13 AM on April 23