(Photo by Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection. Thumbnail image: New World/courtesy Everett Collection; Neon / courtesy Everett Collection.)
Let’s say you’re the type to laugh while handling the darkest subject matters: Murder, doomsday, blackmail, and maybe even a lil’ tasty cannibalism. If so, twisted friend, you sure have arrived at the right spot to get your gallows guffaws: The 60 Best Dark Comedies, Ranked by Tomatometer!
All this dark material ranges in variation of glib macabre glee, different styles that we’ll touch upon in our selection of the best-reviewed funny black comedies. Most common are movies about murder and the subsequent covering-up, especially when the corpses have a habit of popping up at the most inconvenient times. Think Best Picture-winning Parasite, Fargo, Burn After Reading, and Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry.
Another style of the black comedy movie: Mining jokes out of political fallout when millions of lives are at stake, as seen in Dr. Strangelove, In the Loop, and The Producers. Or how about movies that get you on the serial killer’s side, like being on the ride for The Voices or Monsieur Verdoux. They twist you around enough to make you feel amusingly guilty hoping they’ll get away with it all.
The emergence of the black comedy movie seemed to come around in the 1940s, when filmmaking had evolved enough to artistically interpret real-world horrors (e.g. World War II) with mordant humor, as seen in To Be or Not to Be and Arsenic and Old Lace. Of course, how would they have known their groundbreaking path through the dark side would eventually come to the taboo of cannibalism, as seen in appetizing films like Delicatessen and Eating Raoul? And lest you assume we’re not in touch with our more subtle side when it comes to comedy of the damned, we’ve included philosophical destroyers Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?, Carnage, and the brilliant Withnail and I.
Major players in the realm of dark comedies include status quo-defecating John Waters (Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos), Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse), and the devilish Danny DeVito (The War of the Roses, Ruthless People). Our final stipulation for their movies and everything else on the list is that each had to be rated Fresh, and have at least 20 reviews, to ensure enough critics have shared in the gleeful discomfort.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad (feel free to keep adding more) world out there these days: Grab life by the ruffled lapel and throw it into the wood chipper with The 60 Best Black Comedies, Ranked! —Alex Vo
This week on streaming video, we’ve got a handful of acclaimed indie films available for purchase, as well as two well-received films from 2014 on Netflix, a sci-fi series on Hulu, and some classics on Fandor. Read on for the full list:
This Oscar-nominated black comedy anthology from Argentina is comprised of six short tales in which ordinary people pushed to violence.
This Certified Fresh documentary tells the story of the legendary L.A. session musicians who backed up everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Beach Boys.
Rinko Kikuchi stars in this Certified Fresh drama about a woman who leaves behind her life in Japan to search for the buried cash in Fargo.
Al Pacino stars as an aging pop star on the downside of his career whose life is changed when he discovers a long-lost letter sent to him by John Lennon. His spirit reinvigorated, Collins attempts to mend his frayed relationships with family and friends. Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Garner Jennifer Garner Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer round out the cast.
This documentary profiles the titular English aristocrat who, after being elected to Parliament, was arrested for homosexual offenses in a landmark case, then later went on to invent a new form of tourism.
In this Certified Fresh thriller, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a freelance TV journalist who sells lurid crime footage to a local station. But as his career progresses, and his scoops become ever more explosive, Bloom’s shaky ethics threaten to overwhelm him.
Available now on: Netflix
Based on the Nick Hornby novel of the same name, this Certified Fresh comedy from Stephen Frears stars John Cusack as a music junkie and record store owner who reexamines his past love life after his longtime girlfriend leaves him.
Available now on: Netflix
John Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, and Yasiin Bey star in this caper comedy about a man who refuses to pay the ransom for his kidnapped wife.
Available now on:
A vampiric “virus” is discovered after a plane lands in New York with all but four passengers dead of mysterious causes. The remaining survivors gradually acquire a rapacious appetite for — can you guess? — blood.
Available now on: Hulu
99%
François Truffaut’s masterpiece — the story of a 13-year-old who knocks around Paris to escape his trouble home life — is one of the most influential of all the French New Wave films, and one of the most beloved.
Available now on: Fandor
97%
François Truffaut’s whimsical romantic comedy stars Jean-Pierre Léaud once again as Antoine Doinel, who in this film becomes a private detective and stumbles through some amusing misadventures.
Available now on: Fandor
91%
This fascinating documentary tells the story of a reunion of siblings who survived the Holocaust.
Available now on: Fandor
There aren’t many big new releases available this week on home video, but we’ve at least got one seasonally appropriate release (Deliver Us from Evil), along with a well-received indie dramedy and a handful of smaller films. In addition, we’ve got the complete series of a classic sitcom and a couple of noteworthy releases from the Criterion Collection, including a Jacques Tati compilation. Read on for details:
Scott Derrickson has recently chalked up a number of scary movies as writer and/or director, including 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, 2012’s Sinister, and Devil’s Knot, which premiered earlier this year. Sinister is his best reviewed work thus far, and his latest offering, Deliver Us from Evil, posed no threat to that title. Eric Bana stars as a police officer named Ralph Sarchie who begins investigating a series of mysterious crimes that all seem to be linked. As he digs deeper, he uncovers the supernatural cause of the city’s strange occurrences and teams up with a local priest to fight it. Critics agreed that Derrickson got some mileage out of his knack for chilly atmosphere, but also felt the film unwisely relied on overly familiar scare tactics, resulting in a mediocre 28 percent Tomatometer score. Special features include a commentary track, a profile of the real life Ralph Sarchie, whose experiences inspired the film, and a few making-of featurettes.
Back in 2007, director (and former bassist for Irish band The Frames) John Carney scored a surprise indie hit with Once, a thoughtful, melancholy drama about two musicians who share a brief time together. This year, he brought us Begin Again, another story about a pair of musical souls who meet, connect, and make music, but with a lighter touch. Keira Knightley is struggling and newly single songwriter Gretta, who impresses record exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo) so much that he signs her to his label. Faced with opposition from his partner (Mos Def), Dan suggests he and Gretta record her album independently, and the two begin an unlikely friendship. Begin Again was Certified Fresh by the critics at 82 percent; though many felt the film didn’t quite hit the high notes of Once, they were charmed by the chemistry between Knightley and Ruffalo. The only two special features available are a making-of doc and a few music videos, including co-star Adam Levine’s rendition of one of the film’s songs, “Lost Stars.”
In the latest adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, Life of Crime, Jennifer Aniston talks about her character’s triumphs. John Hawkes discusses his history of hitchhiking, and Will Forte talks about his favorite way to set the romantic mood.
On screen, John Hawkes is something of a chameleon, looking completely at home on the dusty, swear-heavy roads of Deadwood, the raging seas of The Perfect Storm, the snowy fields of Winter’s Bone, or the emotionally complicated modern world of Me You and Everyone We Know. His beginnings in a rural community, as he points out a couple of times in this interview, got him used to the certain kinds of classic films that were readily available to him, and later set him up for some memorable experiences with different kinds of art. His list has both, and he would like for it to be known that he could easily pick five completely different films if I were to return in five more minutes and ask again, which I would have happily done.
I grew up in a rural area and with four channels on a black and white TV. Birdman of Alcatraz would come on TV, anything with Don Knotts, like The Incredible Mr. Limpet, but Wizard of Oz was a big deal. That movie came on a couple times a year and as a little kid, as all kids are, I was pretty skeeved out by the flying monkeys. But I got past that and just really, really loved the film. I think that I related to the fantastical story as a whole, and also to the idea of being in a rural area and wondering what else is out there — what’s on the other side of the rainbow, so to speak. It was formative.
When I was 19, I moved to Austin, Texas, and I went to the Varsity theater — rest in peace, Varsity theater — and saw the movie as an adult. When they’re in Oz and it’s suddenly color, I gasped, because I only had a black and white TV, and in the back of my head I knew the movie turned to color, but I had forgotten. That was a really wonderful surprise. Also, seeing it on a big screen made the movie that much more of a great gift.
It’s corny but dark, dark, dark in spots. It was really dark when Jimmy Stewart is having his existential breakdown, wandering the town, having been given a chance to see what the world would be like had he not been there. We all kind of wonder that on some level — if not consciously, it’s probably part of what’s inside us. Something that is interesting about that film, there’s a character actor named H.B. Warner — he’s in all Capra films, playing a wide variety of roles. In this one, he plays the drunken druggist Mr. Gower. There’s a scene early on where Jimmy Stewart’s not even in the film yet. Young George has injured his ear in a sledding accident and Mr. Gower, drunk and depressed, accidentally sends George out with a prescription of poison to give a patient. When he figures it out and goes back, Mr. Gower is incensed, and beats him savagely. He hits him in the ear, and then when Mr. Gower realizes that the kid has saved this woman’s life and come back and he’s made a horrible mistake, he tries to embrace the boy. The boy’s fighting and the druggist is trying to comfort him, and himself at the same time. It’s a scene that if I think too hard about it, I’ll weep. It’s such a beautiful moment between two human beings. The kid was a great kid actor, but H.B. Warner is such a master, and I relate to character actors in a lot of ways. He was this guy who just bounced around from project to project, making everything he does, every story, richer for his presence. I have a lot of respect for that.
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971; 86% Tomatometer)
This was a life changing experience for me. I went to one year of college at a small college in Minnesota, and during that year I befriended an older student named Tim Streeter who I hung out with a lot. He played Tom Waits for me and handed me On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Since I’m from this small farming community, I wasn’t exposed to a lot of unusual art. I had seen The Seventh Seal when I was a kid on PBS.
One night [Tim Streeter] said “There’s a movie playing at the student union and you should go.” It was Harold and Maude, and I was amazed by it. There’s no dialogue for the beginning of the film, and it begins with Harold killing himself. His mother berates him for it. Bud Cort’s performance is so great, that this is when I began to become a Hal Ashby fan. I could name his films as all of my Five Favorites if I wanted. Being There is certainly near the top.
I chose this one because it was so formative for me. Ruth Gordon, when she tells Harold to go out and love and have experience and give him something to talk about in the locker room, it’s such a great thing, such a beautiful moment.
When Ruth Gordon throws the ring or piece of jewelry that Harold’s given to her, and she said, “Now I’ll always know where it is,” I think it’s in that scene where the camera catches a concentration camp number on her wrist that’s never mentioned or talked about. It gives me chills because it’s so affecting and subtle.
Jim Jarmusch film. So wonderfully done in black and white. John Lurie stars and does the music. It’s weird because there are no close ups in the film, it’s an objective viewing experience, and yet it’s subjective in the way that Jarmusch points you. You’re given anything to look at, but you’re always looking at the right things. And the idea that it began as a short, just called The New World, but they raised money to make the other two or three acts, is really interesting to me. Great performances, a lot of humor, really slow pace. These were things I wasn’t really used to — the European pace, even though I love The 400 Blows, it was a revelation at the time in 1984. And I saw it when it came out in Austin, and just I think it opened up a new world of storytelling and filmmaking to me on some level.
I could go with Shadow of a Doubt, any number of Woody Allen movies, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson — The Royal Tenenbaums I love — but I’m going to go with The Big Lebowski because it’s such a fully realized, beautiful film. John Goodman is amazing, [John] Turturro, [Steve] Buscemi, Sam Elliot — and then Jeff Bridges was fantastic. Julianne Moore. Just really, really, really, really such a satisfying film to watch, and so quotable, and something that I could have on a loop 24 hours a day in my home and never be bored with. Fantastic film. I’ll say no more.
Life of Crime opens Aug. 29 in select theaters.
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This week at the movies, we’ve got a spy on the run (The November Man, starring Pierce Brosnan and Olga Kurylenko), some haunted explorers (As Above/So Below, starring Perdita Weeks and Ben Feldman/), and four supernatural elimination specialists (Ghostbusters, starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd). What do the critics have to say?
Pierce Brosnan is best known for his stint as cinema’s greatest spy, James Bond. He plays a different sort of espionage agent in The November Man; unfortunately, critics say that while the film is slick and competently made, it suffers from convoluted plotting and middling dialogue. Brosnan stars as Peter Devereaux, an ex-CIA agent who’s lured out of retirement to protect an important witness. However, Devereaux quickly discovers that everyone’s out to get him. The pundits say that Brosnan is strong as a thoughtful, haunted protagonist, but The November Man is largely a generic spy thriller that’s weighted down by an overloaded narrative. (Check out this week’s Total Recall, in which we count down Brosnan’s best-reviewed films.)
What better place to set a horror movie than the catacombs beneath Paris, where the bones of millions of souls are part of an intricate series of dark tunnels? Critics say As Above/So Below occasionally takes full advantage of its chilling locale, but its characters aren’t particularly well-developed. It’s the story of three adventure seekers on a quest to find a mythical artifact. When they venture into the catacombs, however, they’re forced to confront horrors both tangible and psychological. The pundits say As Above/So Below is atmospheric and occasionally spooky, but it lacks the weight and urgency necessary to be a true head-trip.
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Yes, that’s right: Ghostbusters, one of the most beloved comedies of the 1980s is back in theaters in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Critics found it to be a sublime blend of witty banter and inspired special effects, and it’s barely dated a lick since its original release.
Starred Up, a British drama about an imprisoned teenager who attempts to change his life, is Certified Fresh at 98 percent.
Patema Inverted, an anime about a princess who escapes from her staid underground life, is at 89 percent.
Kundo: Age of the Rampant, a martial arts film about a group of bandits that rises up against the aristocracy, is at 86 percent.
The Notebook, a drama about 13-year-old twins abandoned in a small village who bear witness to the violence and hypocrisy around them, is at 75 percent.
The Congress, starring Robin Wright and Harvey Keitel in a half-animated, half-live-action fantasy about the movie business, is Certified Fresh at 73 percent.
Canopy, a World War II drama about a pilot who’s been shot down in enemy territory, is at 71 percent.
The Calling, starring Susan Sarandon and Topher Grace in a thriller about a serial killer who preys on the terminally ill, is at 64 percent.
Jamie Marks Is Dead, starring Cameron Monaghan and Liv Tyler in a drama about the ghost of a teenager who visits some of his old classmates, is at 63 percent.
Life of Crime, starring John Hawkes and Jennifer Aniston in a caper comedy about a man who refuses to pay the ransom for his kidnapped wife, is at 61 percent.
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, a thriller about a man whose search for his missing wife leads to disturbing places, is at 45 percent.
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, a documentary about how photography helped to shape African American culture, is at 45 percent.
Last Weekend, starring Patricia Clarkson in a comedy about a dysfunctional family that gathers at a summer cabin, is at 43 percent.
The Last Of Robin Hood, starring Kevin Kline and Dakota Fanning in a drama about the last years of Hollywood swashbuckler Errol Flynn, is at 38 percent.
The Damned, a horror film about a man who discovers a mysterious child in the basement of a remote hotel, is at 13 percent.
