Highly Enjoyable Crime Comedies You Should Stream
For your lighter quarantine watching
Everyone hanging in there so far? Good. Do You Like Apples is back to drop some movie recommendations so you can broaden your cinematic horizons… or just kill some time while you self-quarantine. Either way.
After giving you a couple frenetic zombie movies last week, we went a little lighter on this one. Below we wrote about three crime comedies that are all incredibly watchable, but not too heavy. It’s good a thing to invite a little silliness into your life in times like these. We’ve also included a few links at the bottom to get you through those long hours at home.
We’d love to hear what you’ve been watching over the last couple weeks. Anything worth checking out? Reply to this email or hit us up on Twitter (@youlike_apples).
Billy recommends…
A Fish Called Wanda (streaming on HBO Now)
This is one of the few comedies that has broken through for the Academy. Kevin Kline gives one of the all time best comedy performances and for his efforts he received a golden statue. It helps that this is a British comedy and a heist movie. Both genres that are considered niche, but every once in a while it seems that one can sneak through to critical acclaim. A Fish Called Wanda feels like it all came together at the right time.
A Fish Called Wanda was one of the first times that a film led by two Americans got the humor of Monty Python correct. Monty Python found the perfect tone for mean humor by making that humor poignant, but accessible. Important for a whole film that is filled with mean-spiritedness. This is not a heist movie like Ocean’s Eleven where there are friendly jabs back and forth between characters. These characters are ruthless because of how selfish they are and it is funnier for it.
Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Michael Palin are the four leads and they are all at the height of their careers at this point. Curtis has just turned 30 and is transitioning from young scream queen into a lead actress that can sell any movie. Kline is the consistent Hollywood presence who got to shock the world by delving into a purely comedic role. Palin was one of the Monty Python members who was in the background for a lot of Monty Python skits and movies. He plays that type of role again by being an almost voiceless character who is the lead person for most of the hilarious physical gags. Then there is John Cleese who is the driving force behind all of this. He wrote and co-starred in this movie. His influence sends this movie into the conscience of the commoner and film nerd alike.
Total agreement on the quality of a movie is hard to come by, especially with comedies. Comedy is the most subjective form of film. All time classic comedies can be lost on anyone and for the most part I would understand that feeling. Give this one a watch as soon as possible because they don’t make comedies this good very often. If you don’t like A Fish Called Wanda, then calling you stupid would be an insult to stupid people.
Drew recommends…
Bernie (streaming on Amazon Prime)
One of the underseen delights of last decade, Bernie is a true crime dark comedy that effortlessly folds documentary elements into a Jack Black movie. The story is a spellbinding real-life Texas tale. Bernie Tiede was an assistant funeral director in Carthage, Texas and one of the town’s most beloved citizens. He was deeply embedded in the community, singing in the church choir and teaching Sunday school. Strangely, he got close with Marjorie Nugent, an 80-year-old affluent widow known for her irritable and crotchety personality. Marjorie eventually became totally dependent on Bernie’s generosity. After no one had seen her for months, her corpse was discovered in a freezer in her garage.
Bernie unfolds with occasional talking-head interviews with real Carthage townspeople gossiping about Bernie and Marjorie, like you might see in a documentary about the case. This grounds what might otherwise be a too-crazy-to-be-true story. Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused) strikes a nice balance between the nonfiction and the dramatic. He’s able to tell this true crime story accurately, while also entertaining us at every turn.
Part of the credit for this must go to Jack Black, who might be giving a career-best performance here. This isn’t the Jack Black you’re used to. Bernie is genteel, mild-mannered, and prim, as opposed to Black’s usual manic high-energy on-screen persona. Still, you can’t take your eyes off his Bernie character. He adds in just the right amount of creepy to this eternally polite and well-liked Texan. It’s the inverse of my other favorite Jack Black performance: Dewey Finn in School of Rock (also directed by none other than Richard Linklater).
Other than Black, there’s two supporting performances that deserve a call-out. Shirley MacLaine is quite believable as the surly Marjorie, and Matthew McConaughey delivers that classic McConaughey flair as the local district attorney that’s suspicious of Bernie. It’s an early performance from the McConaissance, the period from 2011 to 2014 when the actor was firing on all cylinders.
While it didn’t win any big awards or make much money in theaters, Bernie is the kind of small-town crime comedy that we don’t see much of -- outside of the Coen brothers’ work, at least. It’s got a light humorous touch with enough of a bite to keep you engaged to the end.
The Other Guys (streaming on Netflix)
The Other Guys is not quite a top-tier Will Ferrell movie, but it’s not too far off either. Fresh off the titanic comedy movie run of Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers, Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay reloaded with an action-comedy that almost reaches the heights of what came before. The Other Guys lampoons the buddy-cop movie… while also being a very good buddy-cop movie.
Ferrell is playing against type as a soft-spoken NYPD detective that’s fine with working from a desk all day. His partner, played by Mark Wahlberg, is an impulsive hothead that longs to see action in the field. It’s the classic buddy-cop setup that you’ve seen so many times in movies and shows. The difference here is that Ferrell and Wahlberg make for an unlikely hilarious duo. Wahlberg has never been funnier than he is in this role, bouncing off Ferrell’s improv genius.
It helps that the supporting cast is totally game to have fun. Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock appear as brash superstar detectives that may be a little too cocky for their own good. Michael Keaton puts in an amusing performance as a police captain that unintentionally quotes the 90s R&B group TLC. And Eva Mendes briefly turns up as Ferrell’s implausibly attractive “ol’ ball and chain,” to Wahlberg’s disbelief.
The jokes and gags work like gangbusters throughout, but the action scenes are shot by Adam McKay with surprising professionalism and verve. It’s part of what makes this movie work so well. Before McKay moved onto slightly more serious fare with The Big Short and Vice, he tried to shoehorn some anti-capitalist themes into The Other Guys. It’s not all that successful of a choice, but you don’t need to watch this movie for broad social critique. This is a frequently uproarious action-comedy that has flown under the radar since its 2010 release. It’s due for a cultural reappraisal soon.
Links to get you through your quarantine
Just in time for your umpteenth rewatch, The Ringer ranked the top 50 episodes of The Office.
If you’ve already seen the same John Mulaney or Dave Chapelle stand-up set a dozen times, Vulture has a handy guide to help you find new comedians based on the ones you already like.
Is your space feeling a little cramped after two weeks of social distancing? Then watch this Architectural Digest video of Aaron Paul showing off his massive Idaho home, and let the jealousy flow through you.