directed by Charles Chaplin Perfectionism rarely felt so loose. Charles Chaplin, who came up in a rigorous production system, churning out a two-reel film every four weeks, spent nearly a year writing – and more than a year filming –...
directed by Charles Crichton It’s rare when comedies win Academy Awards, but nobody deserved it more than Kevin Kline when he won Best Supporting Actor in 1988 for playing Otto West in A Fish Called Wanda. Even more impressive is...
directed by Terry Jones Monty Python’s Life of Brian (officially helmed by Terry Jones) is an ambitious, problematic, and hilarious deconstruction of the Christian creation myth. The high-wire act is staggering: here’s a film that goes out of its way to...
directed by Adam McKay If any movie could qualify as the post-modern Airplane! (which would be a great name for a third album), it’s Anchorman. It unequivocally solidified Will Ferrell’s brand of comedy and character-type – seismically self-involved celebrity. It...
directed by Armando Iannucci In the Loop is a spin off of the BBC comedy The Thick Of It. Government, whether American or British, is an ideal setting to emphasize absurd. What In the Loop does so cleverly is it focuses in...
directed by Carl Reiner Steve Martin’s first film as star and writer remains one his most enduring accomplishments, combining the sort of absurd, slightly knowing innocence that defined his stand-up act with a loose, familiar tale of a man who...
directed by Howard Hawks The bantering romantic comedy that all subsequent bantering romantic comedies aspire to be. Based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s play The Front Page, Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday is a paragon of most of the...
