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Genre: Black Comedy

Dwayne Johnson in a scene from the 2006 film Southland Tales, looking anxious and troubled.Black Comedy

Southland 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.…

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Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory Knox in a scene from the 1994 film. TITLE: Natural Born KillersBlack Comedy

Natural 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…

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Christoph Waltz as SS officer Hans Landa sits at a wooden table in a farmhouse kitchen, holding a glass of milk during theBlack Comedy

Inglourious 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…

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James Mason in a dark suit sits at a table, his expression controlled and distant, embodying Humbert's facade of civility.Black Comedy

Lolita (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…

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Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in a tailored suit, face blank and eyes cold, embodying the film's deadpan satire of WallBlack Comedy

American 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…

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A modern minimalist house with geometric architecture sits on a hillside, with steps leading up to its entrance behind aBlack Comedy

Parasite (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…

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Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry in a cluttered retro-futuristic office surrounded by pipes and bureaucratic machinery.Black Comedy

Brazil (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 two…

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