The 2010s produced plenty of great comedy movies, including a couple of Best Picture winners. Comedies don’t often compete for the biggest awards, but some of the funniest movies from the 2010s combined elements of psychological dramas and in-depth character studies. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t more traditional feel-good comedies, because the 2010s had a bit of everything.
In general, the comedies of the 2010s will probably be remembered for their darkness. After the 2000s were dominated by lighthearted, crowdpleasing comedies likeAnchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundyandMean Girls,comedy movies started getting darker in response. Movies likeParasite, The FavouriteandBlacKkKlansmanare all socially conscious comedies that offer a way for audiences to laugh at some disturbing real-world issues.
21 Jump Streetis based on a TV show of the same name that started in 1987, but it has an original style and sense of humor. BeforeThe Lego Movieand theSpider-Verseseries, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller showed that they could also work in live-action. Their stars are Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, who play two rookie cops working undercover in a high school to bust a mysterious drug ring.
Why 23 Jump Street Never Happened
Sony planned for the next 21 Jump Street sequel to be a crossover with the Men in Black movie franchise, but this ambitious idea was just too much.
21 Jump Streethas a creative approach to its buddy cop comedy. Based on the appearance of the two characters, it would be logical for Jenko to be the handsome, athletic doofus with Schmidt as the clumsy, intelligent one. Instead, they are both incompetent in their own ways, and they constantly hype one another up into having terrible ideas. Somehow, their weaknesses complement each other perfectly.21 Jump Streethas plenty of ways to make its audience laugh, from raucous slapstick to memorable quotes.
Game Nightcontinues the tradition ofhilarious mystery movies, but there are no cunning detectives to untangle the case. Instead, the story focuses on a group of friends who initially think that the crime is all part of an immersive game night. This illusion comes crashing down fairly quickly, and their quaint suburbia is thrown into chaos.Game Nightmixes in some action to maintain an exciting pace.
Game Nightcame out in 2018, but it feels like it could have been made 10-20 years earlier. Mid-budget comedies with great ensemble casts are becoming harder to come by these days.Game Nightmight broaden its appeal somewhat by splicing in elements of the mystery and action genres, but its primary goal is to make its audience laugh. With Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams both at the top of their game, it certainly achieves this goal,
Shane Black was a master of the buddy cop genre beforeThe Nice Guys, having written bothLethal WeaponandKiss Kiss Bang Bang,the latter of which marked his directorial debut. Still, the unlikely duo of Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe madeThe Nice Guysan odd proposition. Although it was a box office flop,The Nice Guysquickly gained a cult following, and there have been calls for a sequel ever since.
Although it was a box office flop,The Nice Guysquickly gained a cult following, and there have been calls for a sequel ever since.
Gosling and Crowe are a hilarious odd couple inThe Nice Guys.Crowe’s stoic tough guy act is the perfect foil to Gosling’s frantic nervous energy. While their dynamic is consistently brilliant to watch,The Nice Guysbacks them up with a murder mystery plot that bleeds into a political conspiracy. It’s intriguing every step of the way, and it forces the two mismatched detectives into a few tight corners. Naturally, this brings the best out of the characters and the actors.
After rising to global stardom as Kylo Ren in theStar Warssequel trilogy, Adam Driver has been showing off an impressive range. By taking interesting roles in both comedies and dramas, Driver has refused to allow himself to be typecast, as is so often the case with actors who achieve immense fame as part of a big franchise. InBlacKkKlansman,he and John David Washington play two police officers who infiltrate the KKK.
10 Best Performances In Spike Lee Movies, Ranked
Spike Lee has directed tons of great performances, with some of them even nominated for Academy Awards, and the best of these span his entire career.
Spike Lee’s continued exploration of the dark heart of racial tension in America has often been surprisingly hilarious.BlacKkKlansmanis just as funny as his early hits likeShe’s Gotta Have ItandDo The Right Thing.The unbelievable plot is based on a true story, which adds another layer to the humor. Lee gets his audience laughing at the audacity of the scheme and the ignorance of the KKK, but he turns the tables in an instant to deliver a confronting message.
Taika Waititi put together a string of great comedies in the 2010s. As well as co-directingWhat We Do in the ShadowswithFlight of the Conchordsstar Jemaine Clement, he also directedHunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo RabbitandThor: Ragnarok.Waititi appears in some capacity in a few of his movies, and he’s one of the stars ofWhat We Do in the Shadows,a mockumentary which follows a group of vampires living in Wellington, New Zealand.
What We Do in the Shadowsremains one ofTaika Waititi’s very best movies, showcasing his irreverent sense of humor and his talent for directing comedy. Whilethe script is packed with hilarious quotesand the actors are all superb, Waititi and Clement get a lot of laughs from jerky camera movements, odd framing choices, and knowing when to set things up in a wide shot and let them play out.What We Do in the Shadowssoon became a successful American TV show, but the movie created the formula.
Each one ofYorgos Lanthimos' moviesis characterized by his disturbing, surreal style. He has used this for psychological horror a lot, but he often tempers this with dark comedy.The Favouriteis a surprising combination of both. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz play two women competing for Queen Anne’s attention. They were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, and Olivia Colman won Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Anne.
The Favouriteprovides some moments of levity with disarming crude humor and childish fits of violence.
Lanthimos creates a confronting atmosphere inThe Favourite.His characters speak in odd, stilted phrases without any metaphor or lyricism, but they still have the capacity to lie to one another. This contributes to a singular political satire that draws parallels between petty personal conflicts and matters of global relations.The Favouriteprovides some moments of levity with disarming crude humor and childish fits of violence.
Michael Keaton revived his career withBirdman,a hilarious meta comedy about an actor most known for his performances in old superhero movies trying to gain relevance and respect at the same time. Alejandro González Iñárritu filmedBirdmanto make it look like one long continuous take, which adds to the sense of intense pressure that piles up around Riggan as he tries to stage a Broadway play.
The unusual style ofBirdmanalso maintains a snappy pace for the movie’s comedy.
The unusual style ofBirdmanalso maintains a snappy pace for the movie’s comedy. Riggan’s frantic pacing is often accompanied by jazzy percussion, as he gets more and more out of his depth.While the overall arc ofBirdmanis a tragic farce, there are also more succinct moments of humor.The cast includes great comedic actors like Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Norton.
Paddington 2bucks the trend of bad comedy sequels, improving on the original in almost every way imaginable. After the first movie introduces Paddington and the Brown family, the first sequel is a more exciting adventure, in which Paddington is framed for theft and sent to prison. The idea of poor wholesome Paddington being put behind bars is already funny, but the script repeatedly comes up with fresh jokes and unexpected developments.
Paddington 2is a great children’s movie, but it’s intelligent enough to entertain adults too.The key to its allure is that it doesn’t talk down to its audience. It juggles a lot of different characters without resorting to exposition dumps, and it gives them each a unique story which pays off in a roller-coaster third act. Mr. Brown’s skills on the coconut shy, Knuckles' newfound kindness and Mrs. Brown’s swimming all play a part in the finale. Shortly before the release of 2024’sPaddington in Peru,afourthPaddingtonmoviewas confirmed.
2The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Wes Anderson’s Flat Shot Compositions Hide A Lot Of Depth
Wes Anderson is famous for his quirky visual style, and none of his movies display this as evidently asThe Grand Budapest Hotel.However, there’s a lot going on just beneath the surface.The Grand Budapest Hotelis stunning to look at, but its story is just as entertaining. It’s essentially a convoluted caper which takes place in the shadows of a fascist uprising, with Ralph Fiennes playing an eccentric hotelier who finds himself a marked man.
The Grand Budapest Hoteltells the story of a man out of time, desperately trying to uphold a sense of decorum in a world spiraling toward chaos.
The Grand Budapest Hotelis arguablyWes Anderson’s best movie. It seems light and charming, but it conceals a surprising emotional gut punch. From its rigid physical comedy to its intentionally bathetic dialogue,The Grand Budapest Hoteltells the story of a man out of time, desperately trying to uphold a sense of decorum in a world spiraling toward chaos.The Grand Budapest Hotelintelligently uses two layers of a frame narrative. The unseen third layer is that the entire fabrication is Anderson’s attempt to reckon with his own artistic sensibilities.
The first non-English language movie to win Best Picture is a strong contender for the best movie of the 2010s, let alone the best comedy. Bong Joon-ho’s social satire follows a working-class family struggling to make ends meet until they slowly infiltrate the luxurious idyll of a wealthy family.Parasitepushes dark comedy to new extremes, and it has periods that are just as disturbing and bleak as a psychological horror movie.
10 Movies You Had No Idea Are Secretly Comedies
Sometimes, the most exciting comedy movies are the ones that don’t market themselves as comedies at all, falling into a different genre completely.
Parasitefinds a lot of humor in the grim social inequality of South Korean society. The first half has the same giddy joy of a heist movie, as the Kim family set up a long con to swindle the Park family. They’re easy to root for, and Bong injects a lot of humor to make them even more sympathetic. This sets up a terrifying second half, asParasiteinterrogates the very nature of dark comedy.Thecast ofParasitemasterfully guide the audience through this tonal shift, and their performance still elicit laughter in some incredibly bleak moments.
