The 8 best dark comedies of the 21st century
From Santa Claus to suicide terrorism, these movies skewered big, taboo subjects
The essence of dark comedy is sending up the sacred or the unthinkable, often mocking or challenging social expectations. It’s the same kind of maneuver that the recent movie release “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” does with motherhood and director Stanley Kubrick’s classic “Dr. Strangelove” did for nuclear war. Filmmakers in the 21st century have gamely carried on Kubrick’s efforts to shine a light on society’s contradictions, none better than these eight dark comedies.
‘Bad Santa’ (2003)
Billy Bob Thornton is Willie, a miserable, drunk, wise-cracking conman who poses as Santa with his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox), to execute a series of Christmas heists at department stores. After conning his way into the house of a gullible young boy (Brett Kelly), Willie tries to keep his scheme afloat by evading the head of mall security, Gin (Bernie Mac), at one of he and Marcus’ targets.
While “Bad Santa” doesn’t completely escape the pull of Hollywood holiday sentimentality, director Terry Zwigoff is uncompromising in his depiction of Willie’s degeneracy while making audiences laugh harder than they may have thought possible. The movie is a “demented, twisted, unreasonably funny work of comic kamikaze style” that takes the “unwritten parameters governing mainstream American movies” and “violates all of them,” said Roger Ebert. (HBO Max)
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‘In the Loop’ (2009)
Director Armando Iannucci’s Iraq War satire sees a trigger-happy American administration trying to persuade reluctant Brits to come along for a war in the Middle East. When U.K. minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) calls war “unforeseeable,” he sets off a press feeding frenzy, with the Prime Minister’s foul-mouthed fixer, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), dispatched to fix the mess.
Simon is sent to D.C., where he teams with dovish Lt. Gen. George Miller (James Gandolfini) and Undersecretary for Diplomacy Karen Clark (Mimi Kennedy) to talk the Americans out of it. The film excels at “exposing the ugly truths lurking behind the satire,” said Graham Fuller at Film Comment. Chock-full of quotable lines like “To walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict,” the film stands as perhaps the ultimate takedown of America’s bumbling post-9/11 policymaking. (AMC+)
‘Four Lions’ (2010)
Taking on a subject that is seemingly satire-proof — suicide bombing — director Christopher Morris boldly goes where few filmmakers have dared. Four British Muslims in Sheffield decide to enlist in the global jihad and become suicide terrorists. Omar (Riz Ahmed) is the intellectual leader, who brings along his cousin Waj (Kayvan Novak) and friends Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) and Hassan (Arsher Ali), as well as a white convert named Barry (Nigel Lindsay).
After Omar and Waj are thrown out of a Pakistani training camp for incompetence, the group cycles hilariously through potential targets before settling on the London Marathon. They dress in novelty attire not unlike the inflatable animals currently being used by anti-ICE protestors in the U.S. The “murderous schemes of laughably fallible humans” are “no less tragic for being absurd,” said Ben Walters at Sight & Sound. (Tubi)
‘The Death of Stalin’ (2017)
Another dark comedic instant classic from director Armando Iannucci, “The Death of Stalin” looks at the jockeying to become the successor to the notorious Soviet dictator and génocidaire Josef Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin). Among the contenders are Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale) and eventual winner Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) — after much intrigue, backstabbing and murder. “I can’t remember who’s alive and who isn’t,” quips Malenkov at one point, highlighting one of the many absurdities of the Soviet system of tyranny and paranoia. While the film “never asks us to laugh at cruelty,” it does “make us laugh at the absurd pettiness and ultimate small-mindedness of the men perpetrating that cruelty” while also offering a “moderately sympathetic portrait of Khrushchev,” said Glenn Kenny at Roger Ebert. (AMC+)
‘The Favourite’ (2018)
Arguably the best and most accessible of director Yorgos Lanthimos’ (“The Lobster”) output, “The Favourite” is a classic love triangle set in early 1700s England. Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) lives an eccentric life with her lover, Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), and their stable of rabbits. The Queen is disinterested in governance, even during a war with the French, and Sarah seems to direct the affairs of state behind the scenes.
But their life is upended with the arrival of the fallen aristocrat Abigail Masham (Emma Stone), Sarah’s cousin, who sees her new, menial posting as a way to return to her former status. The escalating war between Sarah and Abigail is wonderfully fun, biting satire. The “visceral appeal of this movie” is in “watching three formidable women treat each other and everyone around them with brazenly shameless awfulness,” said Dana Stevens at Slate. (Prime)
‘Parasite’ (2019)
The first foreign language film ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, director Bong Joon-ho’s riveting tale spares no one in its indictment of class privilege. Ki Taek (Song Kang-ho) and Chung Sook (Jang Hye-jin) are a struggling couple who live in a ramshackle Seoul basement apartment with their two kids and make a living running small-time scams. Hiding their true identities, they secure employment with the wealthy Park family — and all hell breaks loose. The film shows that “each family has been shaped by oppressive capitalist forces that rob them of their humanity, that push them into constant competition” and ultimately a “need to dominate,” said Roxana Hadadi at Pajiba. (HBO Max)
‘Triangle of Sadness’ (2022)
A relentless takedown of the tastes, hierarchies and mores of the ultra-rich, Ruben Östlund’s epic three-act film takes place partly on a yacht helmed by a hard-drinking, sardonic captain (Woody Harrelson) and populated by Russian oligarchs, influencers, models and a fertilizer baron (Zlatko Buric). Below decks, Paula (Vicki Berlin) and Abigail (Dolly De Leon) try to keep up with the demands of their wealthy paymasters before disaster strikes and a third act twist gives Abigail the opportunity to be top dog. An “immersive, volatile and innately entertaining” film, it is memorable most of all for its “stubborn refusal to be didactic, making sure that our sympathies continually shift throughout the narrative as its power structures evolve,” said Tomris Laffly at The AV Club. (Disney+)
‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ (2022)
On a bucolic Irish island during the civil war, Colm (Brendan Gleeson) decides to suddenly cut off his erstwhile, chatty best friend, simple-minded dairy farmer Pádraic (Colin Farrell). Deprived of his daily banter at the pub with Colm, Pádraic sinks into despair and desperation. Colm, whose heart has inexplicably hardened at his old friend, threatens to cut off one of his fingers for each time Pádraic comes around to try to win him back. If you don’t think he’ll actually go through with it, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. Director Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” blends “odd-couple comedy with toxic bromantic satire” in a film that “swings between the hilarious, the horrifying and the heartbreaking in magnificent fashion,” said Mark Kermode at The Guardian. (Prime)
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