It’s kind of a shock to realize a zany movie that came out when you were a teenager is now considered one of the great enduring cinema classics. That’s particularly true when said movie is
What a surprise and joy it is to watch an animated movie, and even more, a Christmas animated movie, that’s charming, funny, heartwarming, and entirely original. 2019’s Klaus is an alternative origin for the myth of Santa Claus but never
I was in the mood for a wacky comedy, so I chose 1997’s spoof, George of the Jungle. While sticking closely to the “throw in any joke you can think of” sensibility of the original 1967
Do you ever watch a movie and spend the entire time wondering what genre it’s supposed to be? Is it intended to be a comedy or a drama or a thriller or just what exactly?
I think a lot of people have avoided Boogie Nights because they think it’s about something other than it actually is. Released in 1997, the story focuses on a young man from an abusive family who escapes
Screwball comedy is a fragile genre. If you have wacky characters, you need a realistic scenario, and vice versa. If both the characters and the story are bizarre, there’s nothing for the audience to cling
As an experiment, one year I watched only holiday movies between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Except for one. I really need a frickin’ break … from all that … frickin’ joy). A new one to me
2012’s warped comedy, Small Apartments, is about as delightfully weird as any movie I’ve ever seen. Star Matt Lucas, from the brilliantly funny sketch-comedy series Little Britain, is the glue that holds the preposterous premise together and makes
I love strange and bizarre movies (probably not a surprise to you), and 2015’s Look Who’s Back (Er ist wieder da) may be one of the oddest I’ve ever seen. Based on a best selling German novel by Timur
Frank Capra, one of Golden Age Hollywood’s finest directors, helmed a fantastic film version of the stage hit Arsenic and Old Lace in 1942, however Warner Brothers had agreed to not release the film until the comedy had
Woody Allen’s 1972 satire Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) may be vintage Woody, but most of it isn’t classic Woody. Based on David Reuben’s famous (and scholarly) 1969 sex manual of the
Funny and touching, 2012’s comedy-drama Quartet examines the challenges met by aging artists as their lives appear to have less and less meaning. Although somewhat uneven in tone, the story of elderly opera singers in a retirement
Looking for an engaging, classic Christmas movie? How about the delightful, if eccentric, 1934 musical comedy Babes in Toyland (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers). It stars the iconic comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as toy makers who muck
A rainy afternoon means it’s classic movie time. Today it was the Marx Brothers starring in 1933’s zany and biting Duck Soup. Many people consider this to be the brilliant comedy team’s finest film, and I certainly
Black Comedy requires a very fragile balance of the macabre and the hilarious. 1966’s British romp, The Wrong Box, finds the perfect equilibrium. Two elderly brothers, in cahoots with their immediate families, try to murder
Sometimes when a movie is utterly original, and executed with an abundance of affection and fun, it becomes irresistible. 2019’s romance-comedy-fantasy-musical, Yesterday is one of those movies. An unsuccessful musician experiences a bizarre blip in
Can the complete and total annihilation of Earth and every living being on it ever be funny? Netflix’s Don’t Look Up proves it can be hilarious, albeit in an unsettling way. It sits firmly in
I hadn’t seen it since I sat in a theatre in 1986, so I figured why not? Rewatching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I was surprised I found it less laugh-out-loud funny than I remembered, but
