Is The Next Comedy Renaissance Here?
If film is subjective then Comedy films are super subjective, and for the last ten plus years most comedies have been mean spirited, sex jokes, and just gross humor with no thought put into them. There are a few exceptions, but mostly that's what makes up the comedy genre on the big screen in the last decade, and I think we're finally seeing a shift in what constitutes a good comedy based on the few fantastic comedies of 2018 so far.
Now that it's the halfway mark in the year I thought I'd talk about three special comedies that are reviving the comedy genre. Each of these films focuses on story and character's emotional arc over the jokes, their jokes either fit the type of movie their in or are at least tasteful when it comes to the raunchy sections, and most importantly I felt that each of these movies were able to balance the fun with the emotional.
Tag is the most recent film in this year's slew of comedies. It is based on the true story of a group of friends playing the same game of tag for nearly three decades; staring Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner. The chemistry these actors have with each other are what pushes you through the movie. You can tell that they're genuinely having fun with each other.
Their jokes range from innocent, to sneak attacks, and even tagging someone at their friend's funeral. At times the comedy is smart and at other points it's breaking ridiculous. Slo-mo is used to comedic effect in action sequences, and never once had the movie lost track of it's point and diverged into meaningless joke-land.
Adding on to that, the movie never wavers in what it wants to talk about, and that's friendship. At times these friends do go too far, and to my surprise the film actually acknowledges that and someone has to remind them that it's time to act mature because they're dealing with something serious. Which, overall, was what I enjoyed about the film most. The ability of friendship to stay in touch even though their barely in each other's lives anymore, and to enjoy a simple game that brings them together.
Game Night is very similar in that respect in which it's about a bunch of friends who are a bit too into games hanging out one night, and then things hit the fan. A planned murder mystery party turns into an actual kidnapping forcing the characters, who still think it's a game, to follow the clues and absently stare at their actual abusers while commentating "This looks so real," and "You gotta try this cheese."
If Tag relied on it's emotional tether to the characters then Game Night relies on the ridiculousness of their situation and their perfect not-what-you'd-expect approach to jokes. There are so many gut busting, for me at any rate, that are so simple in execution, but I lost my mind at. For example, a bad guy gets killed by a plane when he tried to threaten Rachel McAdams to which she screams with glee until delivering a fantastic, "Oh no he died."
Like the group of friends in Tag, Game Night made sure that their characters had arcs to follow. The Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams couple are the primary characters you follow and thus you're more attached to their story. It's very relatable and their jokes are so fantastically whimsy and innocent. You could easily see their characters doing exactly everything they are doing in the film, and it's a joy. Rachel McAdams in particular. Everything out of her mouth is fantastic from her "hold-up" voice in the bar, to navigating her iPhone with her nose while stitching up a bullet wound, and even the end where she's trying her hardest and gets so elated over the smallest of victories.
This was the first comedic film that impressed me this year, and it still holds my number one spot. It's clever, has the perfect ratio of ridiculous to grounded storytelling, and the characters are memorable. None of them are doing anything mean to each other, and the only scene that would have had gross out humor is played in a way that reflects the character's marriage and roles of each other. It defies what so many comedies strive for and thought what comedy should be.
Lastly, I want to talk about how amazing it is that we got an R-rated sex comedy this year that wasn't gross; I'm of course talking about Blockers. For so many years I've stayed away from the sex comedies. They always focus on the gimmick of boobs, naked women, the possibility of sex, and the humor that usually goes along with it is generally gross and demeaning. Surprisingly, Blockers doesn't have that and instead gives audiences a window into what it's like to be a parent and a teenager and have to talk about these difficult conversations while finding humor in these situations.
Blockers stars Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholtz as the parents of three daughters who decide to make a pact that they'd lose their virginity at Prom. Cena and Mann's characters are the stereotypical parents who panic when they have to cover the subject of sex and will stop at nothing to disrupt their daughter's sex pact. Barinholtz on the other hand is in full support of their girls having a night out and subtly discusses the double standard of that issue...although the film does later on stop the plot for three solid minutes to look at the camera and basically proclaim how stupid this double standard is. Regardless, it's refreshing to see parents having different sides to this "issue."
Another aspect I loved about this film was all the little details they added to each daughter's sexual experience. Not all of them came out of it with a good experience, there were multiple times where consent was asked, you didn't see them naked, and the guys were actually worried and cared how the girls' felt in their situation (like one guy asking if they should stop), etc. These small points just made it feel more realistic while showing audiences different examples of what young sexual experiences can be.
The film isn't with it's fault and unlike the other two Blockers actually has one really gross scene involving vomit, however, the film only divulged that darker side of comedy that I don't particularly like once and that scene sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the smart and subdued comedic scenes in the rest of the movie. Thus I gave it a pass.
Overall, what I'm trying to point out is that the comedy genre is shifting this year with these three amazing films alone. The movies are focusing on characters and their relationship to the comedic scenes. Each scene tells you something about the character as I stated and explored on my podcast a week ago. Rarely at all do these movies forget about the emotional through line that pushes the plot and these characters, that make us the audience want to follow their adventures. Is this the new renaissance of comedy films? I hope so, because I believe this is only the beginning in a major shift of the comedy genre.
