| marc 10 comedy |
        Top Ten Comedy Films of the Decade
This next list has been the hardest to parse, by far. I had to kill a lot of my babies in this process, but isn’t that the point of comedy – and by extension everything else – killing babies? I have a feeling this list will be more controversial than the others so far. Sure the Dark Knight could have been number one instead of number two, etc., but there are many great films that didn’t even make the comedy list. But that’s one of the reasons I want to make things like this. It gives a very good excuse to think about art and entertainment to a degree that you don’t usually have excuse to do. Humor is subjective to be sure, and this list is very subjective. Heck, there are only three films on the list made after 2004. And that hopefully says more about me than it does the state of comedy filmmaking, or should I say, Judd Apatow. But I think you’ll find a lot to agree with.
The Almost Made-Its: the Royal Tenenbaums, High Fidelity, Role Models, Wet, Hot American Summer, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Club Dread
Dir: Larry Charles
Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the pure comic talent of Sacha Baron Cohen. And even more so his team-up with Larry Charles. Without a doubt, the first thought in every Ali G fan’s mind when they heard about a Borat movie was, “There’s no way it will sustain itself for 84 minutes.” But somehow, with a genius mix of documentary, narrative, stand-up, and performance art, Cohen and Charles (along with a long list of talented people) shocked the world. Lampooning regionalism and xenophobia much better than Bruno’s seeming consent of homophobia, Borat and his titular character run around America with a skewed, but candid eye. Borat is a racist, boorish, ignorant burden on everyone he encounters, but somehow wins his way into your heart – it’s probably the naked hotel wrestling. Sure a few scenes are exploitative and scripted, but if your biggest gripe with a comedy is that the Pamela Anderson scene didn’t seem real enough, I think you’re doing ok.  School of Rock, 2003
Dir: Richard Linklater
This is surely one of the more controversial picks on the list, but here me out. School of Rock is awesome. Firstly, Jack Black is in his element here and I truly believe his best place is in family comedies. The more I listen to and watch Tenacious D, the more I realize they’re not that funny. “The D” have two jokes: 1) Enthusiastically being the most epic acoustic band ever, and 2) Singing curse words enthusiastically. The first joke is funny but gets old, and the second joke isn’t funny at all. I guess it was kind of humorous to hear about Cleveland Steamers when I was 14, but that comedy hasn’t really aged well. However, what’s always been funny about Black is the childlike intensity he brings to everything, and that translates so well to family films. Here we get the same acting-inappropriate-in-front-of-children that happens in the rated-R Role Models or Bad Santa, but instead of alienating children, Black, Richard Linklater and screenwriter Mike White embrace them. Sure Black is a bad influence, but he believes whole-heartedly in the power of rock and roll, and he instills that positive enthusiasm to his students and the audience. Specifically, Black says one line that wins me over every time. After pulling the class clown, Freddy Jones, out of a different band’s van, Freddy asks what’s wrong with hanging out with real rockers. Black quickly squashes such silly notions: “You listen to me, those aren’t real rockers; they’re poseurs. Rock ain’t about getting loaded and acting like a jerk. This is serious…One great rock show can change the world.” That line summarizes how I feel about the misrepresentation of rock perfectly. There are so many people and bands making music to be cool, just as there are so many people making movies to be cool. And that’s just not what art’s about. Perhaps it’s my unnatural affinity for the inclusive styling of Bill Cosby, but I truly believe that sometimes great comedy can be watched with eight-year-olds in tow. Oh yeah, and the soundtrack and original music written by the Mooney Suzuki is totally bitchin’.
Dir: Ben Stiller
The number eight spot was occupied for a while with O Brother Where Art Thou. But after I watched the awesome Coen brothers film again, I realized something. Though the film may be a better musical and a better story, it is not a better comedy than Zoolander. And though that’s quite a surprising revelation, who wasn’t surprised the first time they saw this film? I wasn’t expecting much more than a few cheap laughs and to maybe make-out with my date. Neither of those things happened. Stiller’s directorial follow-up to the off-key the Cable Guy, Zoolander starts pretty strong, but then just keeps going up. For me, the moment the movie turned from “worthwhile comedy” to “stellar-ass classic” was the male-model gasoline fight set to Wham! I mean, there are many standout lines in film up to that point, but from then on, Zoolander is on a crash course for greatness – steering through black-face coal plants of New Jersey, David Duchovny, Billy Zane, break-dance fighting, and most of all, Blue Steel. This is also one of my favorite Will Ferrell roles. A good deal before Anchorman, and well before we grew tired of his antics in Semi-Pro and Blades of Glory, Mugato, the fashionista and the inventor of the keyboard necktie, was making me cry. And incredibly, Ferrell outlandish character is able to play the straight man when Stiller’s lovable idiot is spouting lines like, “How are the kids going to learn to read if they can’t even fit inside the building?! This needs to be at least…three times as big!” I know Zoolander< is probably the stupidest movie on this list, but it does stupidest best. And sure Jerry Stiller’s character isn’t funny at all, but you can’t strive for brilliance without falling short every now and then.
Dir: Spike Jonze
Charlie Kaufman is clearly brilliant. I doubt many people would argue that. He has created some incredible screenplays. But I think what some people miss is how important it is for him to be teamed with a director to reign him in. Synecdoche, New York was stunning for sure, but not without some faults. Kaufman needs that solid “No”-man to precariously balance his complex, interweaving script,so it doesn’t tip too far into highfalutin phooey. Enter Spike Jonze, Dr. 90’s Music-video himself. Together, the team somehow create a film that begins as an absurd self-reflexive drama complete with heavy dramatic actors Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper and ends as a preposterous parody of itself. As Kaufman wrote both himself and his invented twin brother into the story, they smartly cast the only person in Hollywood with enough risibility to pull it off – my main man, Nicolas Cage. In an incredible dual-role for the ages, Cage channels nervousness and self-loathing so palpably, I think he actually gave me an ulcer. You know a film is good when you laugh so hard in the theater, an old couple comes up to you and says: “Try watching it without the drugs next time.” True Story. My favorite line belongs to Chris Cooper: “Then one morning I woke up and said, ‘Fuck Fish.’ I renounce fish. I will never set foot in that ocean again – that’s how much fuck fish.”
Dir: David O. Russell
After the first time I saw I [heart] Huckabees, I had no idea how I actually felt about it. I didn’t know whether the Philosophy 101 dialogue was enough to sustain as a screenplay. I was worried that the film was all gimmick. After watching it again (and then again, and again, and again), I discovered what I was missing the first time, and why the film now means so much to me. The world of this film, dialogue and all, is some sort of topsy-turvy reality where everyone thinks like I think. And instead of being some terribly awkward conversationalist, I am the norm. The outliers are the few people who are happy, like Jude Law and Naomi Watts, who don’t concern themselves with existential crises and underlying messages of life. Oh what a wonderful world it would be. A world where Mark Wahlberg tells little children that Jesus is very angry with them, Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin can survive as husband-and-wife existential detectives, and where Naomi Watts wears a bonnet. David O. Russell may be a raging asshole, and Shania Twain may not be the greatest actress, but nothing can stop me from dreaming that this is the real world, and that I can chop up whomever I desire to with a samurai sword just by closing my eyes and laying in a zip-up black bag.
 Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain (aka Amelie, 2001
Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Oh Amelie you are my angel! You are my bright shining star to the east (or, I guess due to the Prime Merdian, the west). You are the smiling face that cracks my crème brulee, and brightens the lives of everyone you meet. It seems silly to choose one of Jeunet’s films for a list, as they all bring me so much joy, but Audrey Tautou’s vibrant cheeks and proto-hipster haircut is too much to ignore. Of all the delightful idiosyncrasies that populate this sugar-coated candy-fest, my favorite is the event that triggers the large-scale shift in Amelie’s life (as expounded by the booming narrator). The death of Princess Diana sets in motion a chain that makes Amelie radically rethink her life, but not because of the emotional demise of an international icon, but because when she is watching a news report about the event, she finds a box. In this little moment, Jeunet affirms what the film is doing politically, albeit slight. Diana is the icon of icons, the regular person elevated to royal status and adored by millions. Who’s to say whether she should be or shouldn’t be, but what the film says here, and what I believe in my soul, is that Queen of Hearts has been supplanted. Amelie becomes Princess Diana in this small moment. Jeunet suggests to look elsewhere than celebrities; there’s no need to become royalty to display importance. Amelie’s life never ascends past our own capabilities. The silly, naïve, delightful message of this whimsical tale is simply this: Make your own life royal and look at everything that makes your life as important as Amelie’s or as Princess Di’s. It’s easy to schmaltz up a message like that, but for some reason Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain gets it right, melting me with every second.
Dir: Christopher Guest
I don’t know what the usual amount dialogue is shot for comedies, but for some reason I think 100 hours is probably excessive. But that’s what you get when Christopher Guest and company fabricate a improvised comedy one shot at a time. More than any of his other films, which are all incredible, I’m able to lose myself in the world of Best in Show and believe all of these characters exist out there somewhere. I am able to do this not just because of the stellar performances of forever scene-stealing Fred Willard, Michael McKean, and Parker Posey; but more for the subdued supporting roles of Jane Lynch, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr. and Guest himself (among others) that really ground the film and add the crucial foundation making it work so well. Waiting for Guffman was a touch esoteric and A Mighty Wind got too sentimental on me (the ending felt more like A Prairie Home Companion than Spinal Tap), but Best in Show has a ten-point landing and it keeps me coming back again and again. I don’t care how many American Pie movies Eugene Levy tries to ruin his career with – he’ll always have two left feet to me.
Hot Fuzz, 2008 Dir: Edgar Wright
Some people call me crazy for liking this more than Shaun of the Dead, and perhaps I am, but there’s something about Hot Fuzz’s ability to actually work as a member of the genre it parodies that catches me so off-guard. Where Shaun is a comedy that parodies horror films, Hot Fuzz seems more like an action film that makes fun of action films. You know, like if Last Action Hero were better. Pegg, Frost and Wright have been striking the hot iron for a while now, but nothing tops that surreal rhythm and absurd caricatures that inexplicably work on every possible level. When talking about Zoolander, I mentioned that Jerry Stiller’s character is the only one that really doesn’t work, and that’s a miracle. But even more miraculous, I don’t think anyone falls flat here. Each actor is suited perfectly for their roles and the roles are suited perfectly for the film. I doubt Timothy Dalton ever had more fun with a role in his life. How could he? The self-satisfied villainous supermarket owner he plays here is having the time of his life just being alive. Hot Fuzz succeeds as a parody because it is exactly as far away from an action movie as it needs to be and no more. The last act of this film is a joke with a thirty-minute punchline – and it’s incredible.
Punch Drunk Love, 2002 Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
I love this film. I truly love this film. I don’t care if the harmonium scene doesn’t make any sense; I don’t care if the pretentious Jeremy Blake Scopitone stuff doesn’t work at all; I don’t care that I have to look at Adam Sandler’s face for 95 minutes. I, love, this, film. The love story has a nonsensical lyricism that just makes sense to anyone who has made illogical decisions about passion. The characters have just enough in common with you to be believable, but more than enough audacity to allow you to distance yourself. And most of all, you have Adam Sandler playing a character that can be most accurately described as “what the Adam-Sandler-movie-character would be in real life.” He is a self-hating, timid man-child prone to emotional outbursts. But instead of creating humorous situations where he beats up Bob Barker, or yells at Jack Nicholson a lot, he just cries alone. And that makes me so happy. So much of the success of “Adam Sandler” films is due to the American males’ (and perhaps western males’) obsession with being a 35 year-old, petulant child; it makes me sick to my stomach. It makes me sick that everything always works out for the douche bag who refuses to grow up yet is magically married to some incredible woman and has a great job that he inexplicably can’t stand. What P.T. Anderson asks in Punch Drunk Love is, “What would that character be like in the real world?” Oddly enough, he’s a lot more sympathetic that in a Hollywood film because good luck just doesn’t fall into his lap – he’s required to grow to become happy. Gee, what a concept. Oh, and everything out of Luis Guzman’s mouth is magic.
Idiocracy, 2006 Dir: Mike Judge
How could I pick any film other than this one? It describes the decade better than just about any other film out there (with the exception of Cache -- foreshadowing the Drama list a bit?), and it makes me laugh harder than any other film just thinking about it. Mike Judge has the uncanny ability of dissecting the common man with surgical precision, and then laughing heartily at his follies before putting him back together completely out of order. And Idiocracy, the cautionary tale of an ever-dumbing world just gets ever closer to reality with each passing year. The genius of the film lies within its ultra-high-concept, ultra-low-brow humor. Sure there are sustained jokes throughout the film like everybody in the future wearing complete outfits made out of basketball jersey material, but then you watching a clip from the #1 television show, “Ow! My Balls!” The film somewhat falls apart in its third act, but that just proves how incredible the film is. There are only 65 minutes of goodness and it’s still better than everything else ever. This movie is the inevitable future of entertainment, so you might as well kick back and enjoy it – and get yourself a Starbucks Latte while you’re at it. “Don’t worry, scrote. There are plenty of tards living kick-ass lives. My first wife was traded; She’s a pilot now!”
Coming Soon: Top Ten Documentaries Top Ten Horror Films Top Ten Dramas |
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