Promising Young Woman (2020) Review
Carey Mulligan plays a medical school dropout who fakes being drunk to catch predatory men. The first act is a 7, the middle sags to a 4, and the third act took me by surprise. It's a 6.5, worth it…
Genre: Black Comedy
Jokes about the things nobody is supposed to joke about, told straight enough that the audience has to decide when to laugh. Eight reviews here, including Brazil, Parasite and American Psycho, all of which are funnier than their reputations suggest.
Black ComedySouthland Tales (2006) Review
Southland Tales (2006) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Richard Kelly took an unfinished cut to Cannes because nobody turns down a competition slot, was booed, recut it, and watched it earn under four hundred thousand dollars.…
Black ComedyNatural Born Killers (1994) Review
Natural Born Killers (1994) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Oliver Stone made a satire about media appetite for violence that is itself a two-hour delivery system for violence. Tarantino wrote the story, disowned it, and asked…
Black ComedyInglourious Basterds (2009) Review
Inglourious Basterds (2009) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Tarantino wrote it in 1998, could not solve the ending, made Kill Bill instead, and came back a decade later. The opening scene is a twenty-five minute conversation…
Black ComedyLolita (1962) Review
Lolita (1962) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Kubrick adapted a novel about a predator by removing everything the Production Code forbade, which was most of the subject. He later said that had he understood the censorship…
Black ComedyAmerican Psycho (2000) Review
American Psycho (2000) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mary Harron read a novel everybody called unfilmable and found the comedy in it. Made for seven million dollars, mostly in Toronto, and it is far funnier and…
Black ComedyParasite (2019) Review
Parasite (2019) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A house built on a vertical axis, a family climbing it, and a genre change at the midpoint that almost no film survives. The first non-English winner of Best…
Black ComedyTriangle of Sadness (2022) Review
Triangle of Sadness (2022) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A luxury cruise, a great deal of vomit, and an island where the toilet manager is in charge. Blunt satire in three parts, and the third one…
Black ComedyBrazil (1985) Review
Brazil (1985) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A clerical error kills the wrong man and a whole film proceeds from a typo. The most internally consistent world in the genre, and Gilliam fought Universal for most…