Best Dark Comedies

[Yeagermeister]

I don't think Me, Myself & Irene or The Cable Guy ever got thr respect they deserved. Too many people can't deal with Jim Carrey in his darker stuff.

Only Jim Carrey could pull off fighting himself

 

[LaTunaNostra]

American Psycho was a dark comedy..it was Bret Easton Ellis parody of yuppiedom.

My favorites:

Buffalo 66 - Vincent Gallo is a trip.

American Beauty..Lester Burnham and the suburban nightmare.

And Justice For All - Pacino socks it to the legal system.


and of course, Dog Day Afternoon and The Graduate.


There have also been a couple of excellent dark comedy indies the past few years - most of them featuring Buscemi.

Two with drug themes were pretty terrific - Spun and the one that starred Ellen Burstyn, forget the name.

 

[zagnut]

Grifters?

Hard to tell the difference between a comedy and dark comedy or a dark comedy and just a great movie. Fight club has me laughing through most of the movie, but it isn't exactly in the comedy section at the video rental place. Here's a few though:

Rushmore - Not sure if it's dark or just paced very slow, but it would top my list.
There's Something About Mary and Kingpin from the Farrelly Brothers.
To Die For
The original Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder.
The Producers
The King of Comedy
Snatch
Trainspotting
Brazil
Throw Momma From the Train
Child's Play
Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness (a movie by Todd Solondz is part comedy, part cry for help - definitely high on dark, low on comedy. Hard to laugh at without feeling like a horrible human being.)
Spanking the Monkey

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Grifters?

Hard to tell the difference between a comedy and dark comedy or a dark comedy and just a great movie. Fight club has me laughing through most of the movie, but it isn't exactly in the comedy section at the video rental place. Here's a few though:

Rushmore - Not sure if it's dark or just paced very slow, but it would top my list.
There's Something About Mary and Kingpin from the Farrelly Brothers.
To Die For
The original Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder.
The Producers
The King of Comedy
Snatch
Trainspotting
Brazil
Throw Momma From the Train
Child's Play
Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness (a movie by Todd Solondz is part comedy, part cry for help - definitely high on dark, low on comedy. Hard to laugh at without feeling like a horrible human being.)
Spanking the Monkey

Great list. Brazil, definitely...one of the best.

On Solondz...I found Dollhouse bitterweet, but Happiness just plain vile. Just as Boogie Nights was great, but Magnolia flat out vulgar - Anderson , another director taking it one step too far, imo.

I can't think of the name of that teen angst flick with Buscemi and the Birch actress from American Beauty , but that fit the bill. Also the Buscemi film where he drove the ice cream truck.

Coo Coo's Nest is another dark comedy classic and the film that should have been the all time DC King...Catch-22, fizzled. Greatest dark comedy novel of the past fifty years imo.

 

[NickZepp]

Fight Club is the best dark comedy ever IMO. I think Eternal Sunshine is a pretty good dark comedy too.

 

[tiller77]

Bad Santa
The Royal Tenebaums
Rushmore

 

[No_Hands]

I can't think of the name of that teen angst flick with Buscemi and the Birch actress from American Beauty , but that fit the bill. Also the Buscemi film where he drove the ice cream truck.

Ghost World is what you're looking for and you're right; it is pretty good. Buscemi along with the Coen boys kinda define dark comedy for me.


Never thought of Fight Club as a comedy. Some funny stuff in there, but, a dark comedy....?

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Ghost World is what you're looking for and you're right; it is pretty good. Buscemi along with the Coen boys kinda define dark comedy for me.


Never thought of Fight Club as a comedy. Some funny stuff in there, but, a dark comedy....?

Thanks, Ghost World..Scarlett Johannsen was in it as well.

The Coens do make great dark comedy..my favorite was Blood Simple, tho that's probably not the one most folks would name first..Fargo probably. John Turturro's role in Miller's Crossing comes to mind too; in fact, that film may be the greatest American dark comedy gangster film .

It's a genre we do so well. The Europeans and others have often derided us for the simple morality of our dramas..good guys have to win, bad guys lose. Focus groups make it clear the hero dying will result in a boxoffice bust, and it's not unusual for Holywood to go back and re-film endings if the audience finds it too traumatic.

For example, just look at the Hollywood ending of The Vanishing (with Keifer Sutherland breaking out of a buried coffin to comuppance Jeff Bridges),and the original Dutch film in which the young man who wanted to know what had happened to his girlfriend REALLY found out. We produce some hard hitting dramas but our national optimism and cultural perspective demand Pollyanna finales, even if unlikely.

It's only with the dark comedy genre we allow ourselves much cynicism. They're probably our most sophisticated films in that respect, and we do them better than anyone - even the jaded Europeans.

 

[junk]

Two with drug themes were pretty terrific - Spun and the one that starred Ellen Burstyn, forget the name.

Requiem for a Dream? I wouldn't call that a comedy in any way, shape or form. That may have been the most depressing movie I have ever seen.

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Depressing it was, as well as visually stunning, but most critics would classify it as dark comedy, I think. Of course it's an anti-drug film extraordinaire, but the over the top camera work, the eye-popping rushes (Spun stole that), Burstyn's hallucinating refrigertor, the incredibly tragic endings that just overplayed any reasonable hope for the normal amount of 'luck', yeah it qualifies, imo .

Aronofsky's other classic indie, Pi, is more 'traditionally' darkcom.

If you found that depressing, check out Happiness. And the characters had no overriding addiction to balance the horrifying vulgarity of their lives.

 

[No_Hands]

The Coens do make great dark comedy..my favorite was Blood Simple, tho that's probably not the one most folks would name first..Fargo probably. John Turturro's role in Miller's Crossing comes to mind too; in fact, that film may be the greatest American dark comedy gangster film .

Miller's Crossing always comes up for me when discussing the great gangster films. I'm always surprised in the number of people who claim to looove gangster flicks and have never seen it.

Me and a buddy of mine were bored a couple of years ago when the AFI released their top 100 and put together our own Top 100 and I believe 4 Coen brothers films made the cut.....Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski and Fargo. I'll look through my email archives and see if I can find that thing.

It's a genre we do so well. The Europeans and others have often derided us for the simple morality of our dramas..good guys have to win, bad guys lose. Focus groups make it clear the hero dying will result in a boxoffice bust, and it's not unusual for Holywood to go back and re-film endings if the audience finds it too traumatic.

For example, just look at the Hollywood ending of The Vanishing (with Keifer Sutherland breaking out of a buried coffin to comuppance Jeff Bridges),and the original Dutch film in which the young man who wanted to know what had happened to his girlfriend REALLY found out. We produce some hard hitting dramas but our national optimism and cultural perspective demand Pollyanna finales, even if unlikely.

It's only with the dark comedy genre we allow ourselves much cynicism. They're probably our most sophisticated films in that respect, and we do them better than anyone - even the jaded Europeans.

good stuff....I get tired of the formulaic Hollywood blockbuster though I can squeeze entertainment out of most anything. But, I understand that if Hollywood couldn't make a bundle on huge popcorn movies then we probably wouldn't even be able to come up with a decent list of dark comedies to discuss. It's the give and take of the American movie industry that makes it work for us. Europeans can turn up their noses all they want. Most of them think that they are too cultured to be entertained and that's why, at the end of the year, that nearly all of the highest grossing films in Europe will be American made. People want to be entertained and escape for a couple of hours, not be reminded how ****ty and unsatisfying their lives might be.

 

[DallasEast]

Dr. Strangelove

War of the Roses

Very Bad Things

Serial Mom

Shaun of the Dead

Being John Malkovich

Someone else already beat me to it, but this list cannot exclude Heathers. Winona Ryder and Christian Slater made that movie into a cult classic.

Interesting how Kathleen Turner appeared in two of your top five. Those roles were tailor-made for her. A very underrated actress whose sultry voice alone made Who Framed Roger Rabbit? a solid PG-rated movie. :

 

[blindzebra]

Miller's Crossing always comes up for me when discussing the great gangster films. I'm always surprised in the number of people who claim to looove gangster flicks and have never seen it.

Me and a buddy of mine were bored a couple of years ago when the AFI released their top 100 and put together our own Top 100 and I believe 4 Coen brothers films made the cut.....Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski and Fargo. I'll look through my email archives and see if I can find that thing.



good stuff....I get tired of the formulaic Hollywood blockbuster though I can squeeze entertainment out of most anything. But, I understand that if Hollywood couldn't make a bundle on huge popcorn movies then we probably wouldn't even be able to come up with a decent list of dark comedies to discuss. It's the give and take of the American movie industry that makes it work for us. Europeans can turn up their noses all they want. Most of them think that they are too cultured to be entertained and that's why, at the end of the year, that nearly all of the highest grossing films in Europe will be American made. People want to be entertained and escape for a couple of hours, not be reminded how ****ty and unsatisfying their lives might be.

No top 100, with Coen's movies can be without O'Brother Where Art Thou, hands down their best movie, IMO.

I also liked The Hudsucker Proxy, Blood Simple, and The Man Who Was Not There much better than The Big Lebowski.

 

[blindzebra]

Someone else already beat me to it, but this list cannot exclude Heathers. Winona Ryder and Christian Slater made that movie into a cult classic.

Interesting how Kathleen Turner appeared in two of your top five. Those roles were tailor-made for her. A very underrated actress whose sultry voice alone made Who Framed Roger Rabbit? a solid PG-rated movie. :

Body Heat, grrrr.

One of the best lines in movie history said with that raspy voice, "You're not very smart are you, I like that in a man."

 

[blindzebra]

Just thought of a few more:

Dead Alive, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

[Kangaroo]

Ones I really like

Heathers- " I love my dead gay son"
Gross Point Blank- Good call Duane
Beetlejuice-
Throw Momma From the Train- Old school there Billy crystal
Weekend at Bernie's
Heaven can wait- Warren Beatty
The Gazebo-1959
Once Bitten- Jim Carey way before he was big time
I Love You To Death
Better of Dead- Best Cusak Dark Comedy and one of his best all time
Fargo- The wood chipper scene
Once Upon a Crime-John Candy;Cybill Shepherd and some other minor people you will recognize




Some I thought where ok

Rushmore- it is consider a comedy it is dark and wierd at the same time.
The Royal Tenebaums Gene Hackman and owen Wilson
Ghost World
Bubba Ho Tep
Mixed Nuts- Steve martin
Arsenic and Old Lace- Cary Grant my wife loved it I thought is was funny and ok
The Burbs- Tom hanks semi funny
Mr Wrong
Dead Man on Campus

 

[No_Hands]

Bubba Ho Tep

LMAO....for those who haven't seen this and think they have a sense of humor, please rent it. Joe Lansdale is the darkest of the dark and this is the only work of his I know of that has been adapted to the screen (probably for very good reason)...good one kangaroo. If you enjoy this movie, find Lansdale's short story collection By Bizarre Hands. If you dig that, you're a sick f'er and we can be friends forever.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I think I can honestly say Bubba Ho Tep is the worst movie I have ever seen lol

 

[zagnut]

Great list. Brazil, definitely...one of the best.

On Solondz...I found Dollhouse bitterweet, but Happiness just plain vile. Just as Boogie Nights was great, but Magnolia flat out vulgar - Anderson , another director taking it one step too far, imo.

I can't think of the name of that teen angst flick with Buscemi and the Birch actress from American Beauty , but that fit the bill. Also the Buscemi film where he drove the ice cream truck.

Coo Coo's Nest is another dark comedy classic and the film that should have been the all time DC King...Catch-22, fizzled. Greatest dark comedy novel of the past fifty years imo.

On Buscemi, the one where he drives an ice cream truck is Trees Lounge - unless he drives one in Ghost World, which I've never gotten around to seeing. Directed and written by Buscemi too. Really terrific movie. I'm surprised he doesn't write or direct more.

Magnolia vulgar? I'm guessing the Tom Cruise character's take on women was not appreciated.

Magnolia kind of missed with me too, but at least with PT Anderson, his movies put out some of the best soundtracks going - at least to my tastes.

 

[Kangaroo]

On Buscemi, the one where he drives an ice cream truck is Trees Lounge - unless he drives one in Ghost World, which I've never gotten around to seeing. Directed and written by Buscemi too. Really terrific movie. I'm surprised he doesn't write or direct more.

Magnolia vulgar? I'm guessing the Tom Cruise character's take on women was not appreciated.

Magnolia kind of missed with me too, but at least with PT Anderson, his movies put out some of the best soundtracks going - at least to my tastes.

Nope in Ghost World he works for a company and collects old records and has a bad back he is a geek loser in that movie still. Tree Lounge seen it to has Mimi Rogers in it