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The 20 Best Comedies of 2020

In a year when we really needed a laugh, these movies granted us that, albeit mostly amidst dark and bittersweet themes.
Best Comedy Movies
By  · Published on December 29th, 2020

10. The Personal History of David Copperfield

Personal History Of David Copperfield

While some may see The Personal History of David Copperfield as lesser Iannucci, I’d settle only for maybe lighter Iannucci or merely less-satirical, more jubilant. Following his dark comedy feature sending up The Death of Stalin, the Veep and The Thick of It creator goes further into period piece territory for an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ autobiographical novel. Dev Patel (as well as child actor Jairaj Varsani) stars in the titular role as an Englishman whose life has its ups and downs as it fills with an assortment of colorful characters played as broadly as possible by the likes of Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Benedict Wong, Peter Capaldi, and Ben Whishaw. The story plays out like a series of whimsical sketches but they flow swiftly as Iannucci shows his talent for visual and situational comedy, reminding us he’s not just a source for political wit. – Christopher Campbell


9. Black Bear

Black Bear Plaza best comedy movies 2020

Black Bear is many things: a relationship drama, a film about filmmaking, a mind-bending meta-narrative, a solipsistic thriller, one of the hottest ensembles of the year, and, of course, a comedy. Like several films on this list, Black Bear toggles between darkness and lightness with poise, making the funny parts all the funnier when they serve as a respite from infidelity, self-obsession, and drunken rage. Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Gadon, and Christopher Abbott are terrific, each embodying a peculiar mode of jealousy or a ramshackle demeanor that contributes to the film’s abrasive comedic approach. Lawrence Michael Levine’s third feature is a fresh take on a complex form of comedy that doesn’t have a spiritual sibling in any film in recent memory.


8. Spontaneous

Spontaneous best comedy movies 2020

One of the funniest films of this year, objectively speaking, is a documentary called Class Action Park, which for most of its runtime consists of talking heads amusingly recalling an absurdly dangerous amusement park in New Jersey. A place so notorious for death and injury that you can’t help but laugh at its unbelievably bold business dealings and attractions. But about two-thirds into the film, the tone shifts for a specific focus on one tragic story involving Action Park, making you feel bad for a moment before returning to the more jocular angle. It wants to have its cake and eat it, too, which doesn’t always work with nonfiction. And doesn’t always work with fiction, either, but Brian Duffield‘s Spontaneous passes the test.

This YA novel adaptation begins as a dark high-school rom-com, not unlike Heathers but with a supernatural rather than satirical bent. Teens at the suburban Covington High are exploding for no good reason. Like blood-splattering all over the classroom level exploding. It’s immediately disturbing but also too ridiculous and inexplicable not to also be funny. It’s not like it’s about school shootings (though it definitely makes us think of school shootings in its opening). And in the midst of the gory scenario comes a little love story as sweet as any recent Netflix teenage romantic comedy. Then, two-thirds in, Spontaneous stops playing either element of its plot for laughs and becomes more grimly philosophical, and the shift is effective and feels earned through the grounded narration and genuine performance from Katherine Langford.

That Spontaneous was released at a time when real people were dying from a less-mysterious yet still uncontained virus only makes the somber side of the story more deeply felt as we all relate to the idea of trying to continue with our lives as normal despite ongoing trauma and uncertainty. But as we also need to be able to laugh at such an extreme epidemic scenario and drastic quarantine scenes, Duffield gives us that without pulling the rug out from beneath us. Instead, Spontaneous understands both levels, that tears of laughter and tears of grief can go together, and ultimately we can laugh and live through the pain while also remaining conscious of the pain. It ought to go down as one of the movies of 2020. – Christopher Campbell


7. Kajillionaire

Kajillionaire best comedy movies 2020

Miranda July has a unique sense of humor that ranges from bubbly to dark, the full spectrum on display here in her third feature. The scenario itself is both laugh-out-funny and genuinely unnerving: an adult woman (Evan Rachel Wood) still lives with her parents (Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins), and together they all more or less thieve for a living to barely make rent in their abandoned office space that oozes pink foam. July is a savant when it comes to eliciting comedy through characterization; for example, a man who feels so strongly that he can’t keep from crying over a mundane issue in a casual conversation with a man who feels so little that he can’t figure out how to adequately respond. Likewise, Wood is an entirely different person than any we’ve seen on screen, her mumblecore attitude and strange way of doing things acting as constant sources of comedic relief. Even the costumes will garner a laugh, eccentric enough to be noticed and remembered long after viewing.


6. Dick Johnson is Dead

Dick Johnson Is Dead best comedy movies 2020

Longtime documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson broke out as a director in 2016 with the cinematic memoir masterpiece Cameraperson. For her follow-up, she remains intimately first-person but takes a somewhat sillier approach. Dick Johnson is Dead is a love letter to her titular father, whose health is deteriorating but isn’t dead… yet. Much of the film involves the telling of his life before and showing his life now, but the filmmaker also incorporates a darkly comical gimmick where she stages various ways the elder Johnson could die, including random accidents like being struck by a falling air conditioner.

It’s another film where the black comedy became even darker in the midst of COVID-19, especially since the virus has predominantly been associated with the deaths of older people. With humor and heart and a bit of the fantastical, this doc reminds us that it’s always a good time to remember your loved ones and create new memories with them while you still can. – Christopher Campbell

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Luke Hicks is a New York City film journalist by way of Austin, TX, and an arts enthusiast who earned his master's studying film philosophy and ethics at Duke. He thinks every occasion should include one of the following: whiskey, coffee, gin, tea, beer, or olives. Love or lambast him @lou_kicks.