My Favorite Comedy Films of the 2020s (So Far)
Last week, I told y'all about one of my favorite comedy TV shows, Extraordinary. (The second season is out now on Hulu, or on Disney+ outside the USA!) And I also listed some other TV comedies that I've been enjoying a lot. But there are also a metrick fucktonne of great comedy films coming out lately!
Movies can be funny! It's a revelation.
I don't know about you, but I've been needing to laugh a lot these days, as the world slowly melts into a toxic slurry. (I don't have anything against Dark Serious Entertainment, such as Prestige TV and most Oscar-bait movies — but I'm no longer interested in just wallowing in the garbageness of human nature. I can literally open any news publication or political commentary on the internet to discover that people care about propping up farcical hierarchies, or seeming "tough," more than allowing other human beings to live. Simply put, go ahead and grapple with the nature of evil, but don't just proclaim that evil is natural and then congratulate yourself.)
Anyway, comedies! Here are some from the 2020s that I really enjoyed a lot. (A few of these might be action comedies, or dramadies, or whatever. Let's just live!)
Palm Springs (2020)
This movie is like a master class in taking an old trope — the Groundhog Day time loop thing — and making it brand new through creative thinking. I have a rant I've been wanting to do about the fact that Groundhog Day stories were almost always about a single person repeating the same day endlessly, until roughly five years ago when there was some kind of sea change. Nowadays, pretty much every time loop gets to have two people caught in it, which allows for an evolving relationship on both sides rather than one individual's personal growth. And Palm Springs either helped to inspire that change or was at the vanguard of it. (See also, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "As I Have Always Been," Mike Chen's novel A Quantum Love Story, and a few others I can't think of right now.) Anyway, this movie is freaking hilarious and an actual great work of speculative fiction to boot.
Plan B (2021)
On one level, this is an extension of a trend that's been happening for a while: the raunchy teen comedy, starring girls instead of boys, e.g.: Blockers and Book Smart. But this story of a teenage girl who accidentally has a condom failure and drags her friend on a desperate road trip to get Plan B emergency birth control is both funnier and more savagely political than those other films. Plan B is a romp, a pants- wetting hilarious story of teen girls blundering into outrageous situations and trying to act cooler and more grown-up than they really are. But it also does an incredibly deft job of showcasing the assault on reproductive freedom in the United States, without ever descending into a political lecture. You can feel the main characters' desperation to avoid being stuck with an accidental pregnancy that would ruin all of her life plans. Natalie Morales, formerly star of The Middleman (the greatest TV show ever made), directs, and I would love to see more movies from her.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Even though this movie was produced by Lord and Miller, who gave us The Lego Movie and the Spider-Verse films, I was a little leery because it looked like one of those family comedies where the clueless man-baby dad turns out to be right about everything. I needn't have worried: this film is hilarious, and the man-baby dad has to do some growing up and learning, even as his daughter also grows up. The rampaging robot army who cannot distinguish between a dog, a cat and a loaf of bread feel even more on point now that we are living in the age of Fake A.I. This is one of those movies that tugs at your heartstrings while still delivering some very sly satire.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
I've seen a lot of unfunny spy comedies in my time, so Barb and Star represents a real breath of fresh air. It's also a love story about platonic friendship, and a genuinely gonzo science fiction adventure. Barb and Star lose their jobs at a furniture store and decide to go on a vacation, where they uncover a sinister plot. The other thing I'll say about this movie is that it completely sidesteps the reflexive sex negativity of most "adults go on vacation" comedies. At one point, Barb and Star have a threesome, and at no point afterwards is this treated as something to be ashamed of, or to have remorse for. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumulo are utterly brilliant, and I would watch them do anything. (I'm so pumped for Wiig's upcoming show Palm Royale.)
The Lost City (2022)
The whole time I was being bombarded with the publicity campaign for the movie Argylle, I kept wondering why nobody brought up this movie, which has the same basic plot idea. Sandra Bullock is a romance novelist whose novels accidentally contain real insights into the location of a long lost city, but it's not because of some improbable plot twist — she's just really smart and interested in archeology. She and her beautiful cover model, played by Channing Tatum, find themselves in hot water with a super villain who wants to find the lost city for nefarious purposes. Unlike some of the other movies on this list, The Lost City was a huge hit because Sandra Bullock is magic.
Darby and the Dead (2022)
And then... there's a movie that nobody paid attention to. Literally the only reviews I saw of this film were bizarrely negative, whereas I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was cute and hilarious. Darby is a high school outcast, and the fact that she can see and communicate with ghosts does not boost her social standing. When a popular girl named Capri accidentally dies, her ghost haunts Darby — Capri forces Darby to become popular herself, with Capri's expert help, so Capri can live vicariously through Darby and get revenge on her rivals. Yes, it's a bit Mean Girls. And yes, the third act gets somewhat muddled. But it's still a hilarious good time, with some real heartfelt moments — and it's also a movie about female friendship, since Darby and Capri are former friends who had a falling out. I wish more people had seen this movie — it was taken down from Hulu, so you have to pay $4 to rent it from an online service now. PS: this film was directed by trans filmmaker, Silas Howard, who deserves way more props for his incredible work on Dickinson.
The Bad Guys (2022)
And... another animated comedy. Like its vulpine protagonist, voiced by Sam Rockwell, this film was just so charming. It's pretty much your standard movie about a group of slick thieves whose leader sort of decides to go straight, but the big reveal about the main female character voiced by Zazie Beetz — which I won't spoil — elevates it to a whole other level. And the supporting cast is just uniformly adorable, including Akwafina as a tarantula and Marc Maron as a snake.
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
I'm guessing you've probably heard of this one by now... all I'll say is that Michelle Yeoh is an incredible actor who deserves all of her recent acclaim, and I'm still upset that there won't be a second season of The Brothers Sun. Also, hooray for mother-daughter stories where neither woman has to be a monster or even just a selfish jerk. The approach this film takes, of throwing bizarro concepts at the screen one after another and making them feel utterly believable, is a kind of small miracle. I am always grateful for works of pop culture that remind us that realism is not realistic, because life is fundamentally absurd.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
This film finally made me a convert to the Chris Pine fan club. I know, I'm very late. Honestly, the whole cast is great, with Michelle Rodriguez getting better material than she usually gets and Justice Smith proving that he is an utterly brilliant actor. Not to mention Hugh Grant as a wonderfully oily villain. Like a lot of the other comedies on this list, Dungeons & Dragons manages to go way over the top while still having a lot of sympathy and respect for its characters, which is a tough balancing act. I appreciate any comedy whose characters seem to be genuinely trying to be better people, while screwing up over and over again. Also, the CGI monsters and other effects help tell the story instead of being a gaudy distraction!
Joy Ride (2023)
I basically sought this one out because of Stephanie Hsu, who plays Jobu Tupaki in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Joy Ride is another raunchy comedy with heart, that manages to delve into some fascinating questions about identity and the immigrant experience. Ashley Park plays Audrey, an Asian-American attorney, who gets sent to China to finalize a deal — but the guy she's making the deal with wants to meet her family, to see her Chinese roots. So she has to track down the mother who gave her up for adoption when she was born — cue another road trip, except this one crosses China and eventually Korea. Audrey is accompanied by her chaotic loser friend Lolo (Sherry Chen) and a famous actress, played by Hsu, and they get into endless scrapes involving piles of drugs and a whole men's soccer team. And there's an off-the-chain bizarre sequence where the main characters pretend to be K-pop stars. I just love that we're getting so many raunchy comedies about ladies — enjoy it while it lasts, folks!
Polite Society (2023)
Nida Manzoor blew me away with her TV show We are Lady Parts, whose second season I am anxiously awaiting. So I was pumped for this — and yet, I was not ready for how joyfully silly this movie gets. Priya Kansara plays Ria, an aspiring stuntwoman whose sister Lena is preparing to marry the perfect guy -- but Ria is convinced Lena's suitor, Salim, is up to no good. So the teenage Ria sets about trying to expose her sister's fiancé and stop the wedding, through an increasingly wild series of hijinks. This movie zigs and zags a lot, to the point where it risks becoming a little bit incoherent — but it ultimately pays off beautifully, and the fight/dance sequences are so gorgeous and joyful, they'll take your breath away.
Bottoms (2023)
This movie got a decent amount of attention, but I still wish more people would see it. It's another raunchy teen comedy — yay! — in which two loser dykes try to get laid by starting a fight club. Or rather, a self-defense class. The comedy gets pretty broad at times, but it all really works, thanks to some committed performances and a determination to keep finding new layers in the story's underdogs. Much like Plan B, this is a team comedy that allows its characters to be total fuck-ups and vigorously defends their right to be themselves. Also, Ayo Edebiri is incredible as Josie.
Quiz Lady (2023)
I already shouted about this movie in a recent newsletter. Awkwafina is Anne, a nerdy, introverted office drone who's obsessed with a quiz show loosely modeled on Jeopardy, while Sandra Oh is Jenny, her reckless party-girl sister. Both actors are on top form here, with Oh clearly having the time of her life playing a hedonistic chaos agent, a reversal from the roles she often gets where she's the strait-laced foil to a chaotic character (e.g., Killing Eve, The Chair.) Quiz Lady is endlessly delightful, including clever gimmicks like a gangster who holds people's dogs for ransom, only to pamper them so much he winds up losing money on the deal. Will Ferrell, playing the host of the aforementioned quiz show, is utterly charming and sincere. The ending of this film made me laugh my face off and also cry a lot.
American Fiction (2023)
Here's another movie you've probably heard about already. Jeffrey Wright is brilliant as a Monk, literary novelist whose books are ignored in favor of stories he sees as exploitative and presenting a stereotyped view of the African American experience. So he writes a Blaxploitation novel as a joke, and is startled when the publishing industry embraces it and turns it into a huge hit. It's a little bit like the Producers in a way. Writer-director Cord Jefferson (my former coworker from Gawker Media) carefully sidesteps the respectability politics inherent in this premise, as he discussed in a recent episode of On The Media. The result is sardonic but humane, with Issa Rae playing an author of that allegedly stereotyped fiction who is allowed to have a legitimate point of view. And Sterling k. Brown steals the show as Monk's gay, cocaine-snorting brother. I'm so glad this movie is in the awards conversation this year.
(Before you ask, I haven't seen Barbie yet. Or The Holdovers. I know! I'm waiting for them to show up on a streaming service that I happen to be subscribing to that month. Soon, I hope!)
My Stuff
Sorry this newsletter is late this week! I will hopefully get out next week's on Monday or Tuesday once again.
On Saturday March 23, I'm once again helping to organize the Bookstore and Chocolate Crawl, where we visit all the bookstores in a neighborhood and buy tons of books, while also stopping for chocolate. This time around: Rockridge!
The latest episode of Our Opinions Are Correct just came out. This time, we're talking about how video game movies finally beat comic book movies (and this goes for live-action TV as well.) For two decades, comics were Hollywood's go-to source material, while video games were treated like garbage — and now, this appears to be reversing. To find out more, we talk to video game/comics writer Evan Narcisse. Plus: we rant about boringly sympathetic villains — does every villain nowadays need to have a tragic backstory? Some people just really suck, and it's okay for pop culture to reflect this.
You can buy two trade paperback collections featuring Escapade, the trans superhero I co-created: New Mutants Vol. 4 and New Mutants: Lethal Legion. If you want the very first appearance of Escapade, you need to find a copy of the 2022 pride issue, which is on Marvel Unlimited but otherwise (sob) out of print.
I've also written some books! The Unstoppable trilogy is a fun young-adult space fantasy with loads of ambient queerness. Never Say You Can't Survive is a guide to writing yourself out of hard times. Even Greater Mistakes is a weird, silly, scary, cute collection of stories.