comedy

TONI ERDMANN: 2016's Most Inexplicable Critical Success Story
TONI ERDMANN: 2016’s Most Inexplicable Critical Success Story

There is a story with immense emotional depth within Toni Erdmann, but the movie is so frequently dull, when the moments of comedy arrive they can feel somewhat cynical.

THE NEW MAN: An Intimate Portrait Of Modern Fatherhood
THE NEW MAN: An Intimate Portrait Of Modern Fatherhood

The New Man is a fascinating insight into modern fatherhood, male identity, cultural expectation and the torturous path of late parenthood.

CAPTURE: An Unusual & Fun Documentary
CAPTURE: An Unusual & Fun Documentary

The humor in Capture is one of its best qualities. This isn’t the humor that comes from telling a good joke, but rather from the spontaneous situations that the people find themselves in.

MINDHORN: A Strong Contender For Funniest Film Of 2017
MINDHORN: A Strong Contender For Funniest Film Of 2017

Mindhorn, the debut feature film from theatre director Sean Foley, has one hell of a concept that has been created as a Frankenstein’s monster, taking bits and pieces from other British cult comedies from the last two decades.

TROLLS: Sugar High Study In Primary Colors
TROLLS: Sugar High Study In Primary Colors

Trolls is aimed as squarely at parents as it is the kids, who likely won’t be as familiar with the terrifically tressed toy trolls as they were say, Angry Birds. Probably not a problem. A comeback seems likely.

Profile: John C. Reilly
Profile: John C. Reilly

John C. Reilly has surprised me for years. His range is astounding, and watching him effortlessly go from dramatic roles to silly comedies has been a treat. Yet his talent doesn’t stop with acting.

ELLE: A Complex & Challenging Exploration Into Lurid Territory
ELLE: A Complex & Challenging Exploration Into Lurid Territory

Elle faithfully transcribes the original book “Oh…”, presenting masochistic and sadistic elements as comedy in the darkest form.

BRIDGET JONES'S BABY: Infinitely Warm & Loveable
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY: Infinitely Warm & Lovable

I’m going to be honest with you, I loathed the first two Bridget Jones films. I read the books as a teenager and I was so excited when the first film came out only a year or two later. But I didn’t like it one bit.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: Plodding & Predictable Spy Next Door Comedy
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: Plodding & Predictable Spy Next Door Comedy

The spy-next-door genre seems to be showing its age. The idea of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances fueled dozens of effective Hitchc*ck movies, several of them classics. There’s no reason, really, why it shouldn’t work as well now.

IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET?: Crude & Clichéd
IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET?: Crude & Clichéd

Every now and then there is a movie or two that’s so bad that you actually find yourself walking away from it halfway through, or having to pep talk yourself into finishing watching – that’s the category that Is That A Gun In Your Pocket? falls into. The film is an attempt at comedy written and directed by Matt Cooper, starring Andrea Anders, Matt Passmore, John Heard and Cloris Leachman.

MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE: No Going Clear, But Clearly Good Fun
MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE: No Going Clear, But Clearly Good Fun

I, like a lot of people, don’t like scientology. I think it’s nonsense – nonsense propagated by arrogant people in an effort to coerce the desperate into giving them power and money. When I heard Louis Theroux was making a documentary about it, I was very excited.

SKIPTRACE: Jackie’s Finest Hour
SKIPTRACE: Jackie Chan’s Finest Hour

Skiptrace (originally titled Jue Di Tao Wang) is a 2016 action-comedy film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Jackie Chan, Johnny Knoxville and Chinese actress Fan Bingbing. It is about a Hong Kong cop and an avid gambler that must team together, each for their own reasons, and take down the Chinese crime syndicate and its mysterious leader ‘The Matador’. It is a film that I, in all honesty, did not want to sit down and watch at first but did, due to unmentionable circumstances, and in my forced viewing of this easy-going and lighthearted film, I began to remember why Jackie Chan is one of the most beloved names in Hollywood.

ORDINARY WORLD: Gives Being Ordinary A Good Name
ORDINARY WORLD: Gives Being Ordinary A Good Name

A midlife crisis is roughly defined as a period of anxiety and disappointment reflecting on your past as you approach middle age. Those going through a midlife crisis are noted to act irrationally compared to their previous behaviour in a need to get out of a self-perceived rut. It has often been noted that no two people react to the dawning of maturity in the same manner, even if the cause of the anxiety is always the same.

Woody Allen's Form & Legacy In Contemporary Cinema With CAFÉ SOCIETY
Woody Allen’s Form & Legacy In Contemporary Cinema With CAFÉ SOCIETY

It now appears to be a given that every few years, Woody Allen produces a film hailed by critics as a “return to form”. In keeping with relatively recent late period offerings such as Blue Jasmine, Midnight in Paris and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Café Society has also been afforded that accolade. Is this lazy journalism or a concise way of communicating that he has again crafted a film that bears the hallmarks of this aging auteur’s better judgement?

KILLER FRIENDS: A Camping Trip Of Horrors
KILLER FRIENDS: A Camping Trip Of Horrors

Killer Friends is a short horror-comedy written by Zach Noe Towers and co-directed by Towers and Tina Carbone. The film stars Jenna-Lee Carreiro, Dave Racki, and Peggy Sinnott alongside Towers, who plays the indestructible jerk himself, Scott. With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?