{"id":569990,"date":"2026-05-06T22:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:15:19","slug":"in-a-low-period-for-comedy-films-these-were-the-best-of-the-last-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569990\/","title":{"rendered":"In a low period for comedy films, these were the best of the last decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p> The last decade has not been good for big-screen comedies. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/hollywood\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hollywood<\/a> studios nearly stopped making them. Horror became the in vogue genre. Laughs were out. Good comedies have kept being made, of course \u2014 it&#8217;s just taken a little more effort to find them. <\/p>\n<p>This month marks the 10th anniversary of \u201cThe Nice Guys,\u201d Shane Black&#8217;s 2016 crime caper with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ryan-gosling\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Gosling<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/russell-crowe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russell Crowe<\/a>. No, it&#8217;s not exactly the 50th anniversary of \u201cJaws.\u201d But for a movie era where comedies went out of style, it&#8217;s a moment worth marking. <\/p>\n<p>In the past decade, comedies have largely become the stuff of cult: little seen at release but rediscovered on streaming or elsewhere. \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d flopped at the box office, but its afterlife is long. <\/p>\n<p>So here are our picks for the best of the last 10 years, post-&#8220;Nice Guys.\u201d We&#8217;re leaving out the darker satires (\u201cParasite\u201d), the acerbic dramas (\u201cThe Holdovers\u201d) and the sequels that exist in their own glorious category entirely (\u201cPaddington 2&#8221;). <\/p>\n<p> 10. \u201cPalm Springs\u201d (2020) <\/p>\n<p>As much as \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d codified the time-loop comedy, Max Barbakow&#8217;s clever riff on a familiar concept found new comic life in a single day endlessly relived. You want Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti to stay stuck in Palm Springs forever. Having J.K. Simmons, who so drolly put the final touches on \u201cBurn After Reading,\u201d around in any comedy helps, too.<\/p>\n<p> 9. \u201cOne of Them Days\u201d (2025) <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of Them Days\u201d also lives in the shadow of an earlier comedy: \u201cFriday.\u201d It similarly has a hangout, day-in-the-life-of-Los-Angeles feel, albeit amped up a bit. Keke Palmer carries it. <\/p>\n<p> 8. \u201cGame Night\u201d (2018) <\/p>\n<p>Few movies of the last decade have been stolen by a performer more outright than \u201cGame Night.\u201d Jesse Plemons and the debatable profitability for FritoLay was enough to turn \u201cGame Night\u201d into a modern classic. But there are funny people up and down this justifiably adored comedy, with Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Sharon Horgan. <\/p>\n<p> 7. \u201cThe Edge of Seventeen\u201d (2016) <\/p>\n<p>It was a brilliant stroke of writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig and producer James L. Brooks to cast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/hailee-steinfeld\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hailee Steinfeld<\/a> in this terrific coming-of-age comedy. As acclaimed as Steinfeld has been more recently, in \u201cSinners\u201d and more, her performance as a teenager in \u201cThe Edge of Seventeen\u201d is still her at her best \u2014 especially when paired with Woody Harrelson, as an unorthodox teacher. <\/p>\n<p> 6. \u201cConfess, Fletch\u201d (2022) <\/p>\n<p>Greg Mottola&#8217;s revival of Fletch, with Jon Hamm, was criminally underseen. It fell victim to the pandemic and a few other factors. But \u201cConfess, Fletch\u201d might have been the most perfectly suited vehicle for Hamm. Maybe the original \u201cFletch\u201d films with Chevy Chase were too iconic to mess with. But \u201cConfess, Fletch\u201d is worth catching up to. <\/p>\n<p> 5. \u201cThe Death of Stalin\u201d (2017) <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/armando-iannucci\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Armando Iannucci<\/a> is better known for his Washington, D.C. farce \u201cVeep\u201d and his British government comedy \u201cThe Thick of It.\u201d But he&#8217;s just as sharp in Stalinist Russia. It&#8217;s almost hard to believe he managed to get made a satire about political struggle in the wake of Josef Stalin&#8217;s death in 1953. I guess either the prospect of Steve Buscemi playing Nikita Khrushchev is enticing to you, or nyet. <\/p>\n<p> 4. \u201cLady Bird\u201d (2017) <\/p>\n<p>High school has always been among the most fertile grounds for movie comedies, and I&#8217;d say Greta Gerwig&#8217;s semi-autobiographical, Sacramento-set comedy has been the best and most perceptive of the last decade. Even though Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Lucas Hedges are good in this, the best moments for Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) come with her parents (Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts). <\/p>\n<p> 3. \u201cGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery\u201d (2022) <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHalle Berry!\u201d All of the \u201cKnives Out\u201d movies are funny but the second of Rian Johnson&#8217;s whodunit series is the most hysterical of the bunch. Daniel Craig pushes Benoit Blanc to more cartoonish heights here, and Edward Norton&#8217;s word-salad tech bro is the detective&#8217;s most comic foil. <\/p>\n<p> 2. \u201cBarb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar\u201d (2021) <\/p>\n<p>Anyone who thought Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo&#8217;s follow-up to \u201cBridesmaids\u201d was a disappointment was sorely mistaken. This is less a movie about two Midwestern women traveling to Florida than a delirious fever dream about two Midwestern women traveling to Florida. <\/p>\n<p> 1. \u201cBarbie\u201d (2023) <\/p>\n<p>More than $1 billion in box office and a boatload of Oscar nominations and I still kind of think \u201cBarbie\u201d is underrated. I mean, I can no longer talk to my daughters straight-faced about \u201cThe Godfather.\u201d But that&#8217;s a small price to pay for one of the giddiest comedies of the century. I only wish Hollywood saw it less as a success of IP usage than the possibilities of a poignant and imaginative laugh fest. <\/p>\n<p>Honorable mentions: \u201cFall Guy,\u201d \u201cLogan Lucky,\u201d \u201cLicorice Pizza,\u201d \u201cBooksmart,\u201d \u201cBorat Subsequent Movie Film,\u201d \u201cPopstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,\u201d \u201cHail, Caesar,\u201d \u201cDolemite Is My Name,\u201d \u201cBottoms,\u201d \u201cBlockers\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-569990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}