Topic: The Movie Thread

@Metonymy @GirlVersusGame @FuriousMachine @JohnnyShoulder

Don't forget The Banshees of Inisherin.

And you could probably throw The Guard and Calvary from his brother in the mix, too.

In an ideal world their would be a lot more, though, I agree. Maybe the world simply needs more Mcdonagh's.

This might be one to watch out for later in the year:

It is only a teaser trailer, but it sounds promising from the info available about it. Jesse Plemons really suits black comedy and he is in it, so a good sign.

I'd also put some Coen movies in there, even though they can be goofy, too.

I seem to remember one scene in (not a black comedy, just a straight drama but stay with me) Miller's Crossing also got me laughing so badly, but I can't remember exactly what it was. That was probably more a case of unexpected humour in a dark moment. Again though, it has been so many years and I can't even remember what it was that got me.

Good shout on The 'Burbs - great movie, black comedy, horror comedy/americana-satire? (I've seen Billboards at the basketball for it being adapted into a series too???) Genre's don't matter all that much but i'd put it in there as well.

@Werehog Every relationship needs at least one of the people to annoy the other with consistent musical breaks seeping into daily life! I think if your partner is anything like that... which I know I am (just ask my often annoyed roommate)... we will either get along or fight to the death with high notes, vibrato and riffs. The amount of times I'll be doing the dishes and start breaking into song with Enchanted's Happy Working Song or the like is unrivaled. Whoever performs Let It Go the best gets to leave your apartment/house alive. A real-life Saw trap for musical nerds! In more competitive words, you'll never see your partner again after I'm done with him and beat him at my own game. 😈

Not sure why this whole tangent got so evil-spirited. There's no business like showbusiness! Theatre kids are something else.

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@FuriousMachine Evil Dead is a franchise I always forget I've greatly enjoyed... though I'm a firm believer that the original remains the best one. I know there's a big camp who prefers the sequel, but it felt like nothing more than a re-do, but worse for me. Whereas I know for many of them, it was a re-do but improvement on the original execution! I think the very, very low-budget nature of the first gave it a certain charm that the second was unable to replicate. That said, the scene with the dancing skeleton does live in my mind rent-free.

Army of Darkness, like you said, is a whole different beast. That film is a straight-up acid trip I have no other words for. All the little Bruce Campbells running around creating chaos? What are we doing? I can't say I wasn't entertained by it, but it definitely ventured a bit too far into the surreal without enough substance to sustain it in my opinion. Big fan of the latest reboot entry with Evil Dead Rise though, which is probably my second favourite in the franchise overall. Alyssa Sutherland did a wonderful job in that one with her demonic performance.

All that said, if we're talking horror comedy, I have to bring up the Chucky films as my favourites of the lot. The combination of Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly as the main antagonists is just magical, and the comedy appeals to me greatly. Tiffany calling a victim's wife in Seed of Chucky in an attempt to ''better herself'' remains one of my favourite horror comedy scenes. The TV show took it so much further and more ridiculous and was a total delight because of it. The fact that we have Jennifer Tilly playing Tiffany Valentine pretending to be Jennifer Tilly while the soul of Jennifer Tilly is trapped in the doll Tiffany Valentine was previously trapped in... this sentence being able to exist and making sense to fans of the franchise is an achievement worthy of recognition.

Did any of you ever watch the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV show? I've been meaning to get around to it eventually if it's anywhere near as fun as the films. I've heard mostly good things, but I wonder if the lack of Raimi's involvement will be noticeable. I suppose it didn't bother me with Evil Dead Rise

@Ravix Yeah Mcdonagh is really good at dark comedy. I wasn't so keen on The Banshees of Inisherin, but liked his other stuff.

There is also Yorgos Lanthimos who's films can be darkly comic. Killing of a Sacred Deer springs to mind. The Favourite I foundt flat out funny and borders on being a parody at times.

@FuriousMachine Raimi is so very talented at blending horror and comedy, one of the best. It’s a shame Alison Lohman seemingly retired from acting as she was fantastic in ‘Drag Me To Hell.’

@JohnnyShoulder ‘Fargo’ is a stone cold classic at this point. The show is filmed in my neck of the woods but I’ve never actually seen it! I wonder how it stacks up to the film. I think ‘Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is the only Lanthimos film I haven’t seen. Very hit or miss for me but always interesting!

@Ravix Hard to tell exactly what it’s about but this somehow feels appropriate:

@Metonymy Yeah Lanthimos is very hit and miss for me too. Thought The Favourite was ace but hated Poor Things. Killing of a Sacred Deer is definitely worth a watch but does have this strange, uneasy tone all the way through which some people may not like. And it is best going in blind as possible!

@JohnnyShoulder ‘The Favourite’ is great, and hilarious. I also really like ‘The Lobster’. ‘Poor Things’ didn’t do it for me either despite being a stunningly beautiful film. As for going in blind, I’m covered there as I genuinely know nothing about it. It’s on the list!

Finally had Bugonia on (I guess helped by the recent Yorgos mentions @JohnnyShoulder @Metonymy 🫡 i'll have to check out more of his) I won't say anything in particular about it as it is best to go in blind to this one, too, but I definitely enjoyed it, and got some laughs from it

I'm glad out-there films like this exist, and I think it just allows for the performances to shine in a more unique way. It's a 2 hour flick but the enclosed setting and the performances made it fly by, in all honesty. Sometimes a film can span the globe and have a lot going in it and you're still bored by the hour mark, i'd much rather watch these up close character performances on a smaller scale. Plemmons is always watchable and Emma Stone got more and more intense throughout.

Perhaps after all the recent Mcdonagh chatter In F***ing Bruges will be next. Not similar in many ways, but another fairly small cast and a film mainly focused on two people, and it's been a while since i've had a miserably funny Gleeson flick on. And thinking about it, yeah it is definitely worth classing In Bruges as a Black Comedy if you analyse the two characters, what they go through, their outlook and the overall themes, even if it is disguised with some other genres thrown in there. I've probably seen it 8 times or more, just not for a very long time.

Oh, and the info about Digger and the general plot/setup was something like

So yeah, i'm thinking probably heavy, heavy satire elements and potential it being a pretty dark comedy. I'll spoiler tag it for the sake of it, but it will just be the general outline of what the movie is rather than a spoiler.

This is worth a new post as well. Speaking of Black Comedy, as we are... I can't remember if I've ever mentioned Sightseers or not. Alice Lowe and Steve Oram are awesome. I feel like it is one I would have recommend to @FuriousMachine before, but everyone here, I reckon, would like it. Especially those UK based people. It is just such a celebration of everyday British life 👀

@Ravix Don't forget The Banshees of Inisherin.

• I haven't seen it yet. I did see The Guard, though not Calvary. I liked him in The General and in I Went Down, they were earlier roles with smaller budgets. He became more well known after Mission Impossible 2 and bounced in and out of various blockbusters before settling into movies like The Guard again. That's what I admire about him, he doesn't forget his roots. He'll always be The General to me, then Kevin Spacey came along and tried to play the same role in Ordinary Decent Criminal and even Linda Fiorentino couldn't save it.

@Ravix I wasn't interested in Bugonia after not enjoying Poor Things, but after seeing a couple of trailers and that Plemons (no not Lemons predictive text) was starring in it, it piqued my interest.

I would certainly class Sightseers as a dark comedy. I did have another spring to mind, but it has gone now. 😑

@Metonymy Hope you enjoy it when you get round to it! I'm still to make my mind up on it lol. Think it deserves another watch to see what I make of it knowing what I know.

It has these interesting... well I will let you watch it to find out!

To me, dark comedy is anything that involves the screen going pitch-black, a real knee slapper.

For real though, I do agree google gives pretty bad examples. The only comedy I got out of The Boys is how laughably bad the writing wise and the only dark thing about it was how poor the lighting was. Besides that, it was basically fanfiction (which matches the original comic I suppose).

American Psycho is a masterpiece though, definitely worthy of the praise it got back then and its resurgence in popularity thanks to internet memes. Really happy with that one.

Might be worth mentioning Yakuza 3 borrows heavily from it, at least subconsciously.

(Also, funny, I thought I already typed this comment but I did not, huh)

Been meaning to talk about this movie for awhile but been distracted with RE9, The Lighthouse - staring Williem Defoe and Robert Pattinson.... wow what an abolsutely masterpiece in story telling and the camera work is truly outstand in some shots, the acting was also very captivating dare I be so bold as to say it's Pattinson's best? and Defoe's monologue scene is iconic (HARK!!!). But yeah I didn't think I would love the movie as much as I did but here we are. Have to say Robert Eggers is on a massive roll at the moment, I thought the VVitch was brilliant but apprently he wasn't happy with how it turned out (you are your biggest critique after). I haven't got around to The Northmen but I have heard that is very good too.