Comedy Movies

1996 · Joel Coen · 98 min · Crime / Dark Comedy

Fargo is a film that shouldn't work on paper. A pregnant police chief investigating a kidnapping-gone-wrong in snowy Minnesota, populated by characters who say 'oh yah' and 'you betcha' without a trace of irony. Joel and Ethan Coen turned that premise into one of the sharpest crime films of the 1990s, anchored by Frances McDormand's Oscar-winning performance and William H. Macy's portrait of a man drowning in his own bad decisions. The accents will bother some people, and the Coens' detachment from their characters reads as cruelty to a certain audience. But the moral clarity at the film's center, delivered through a character who actually believes in basic human decency, gives Fargo a warmth that most dark comedies never find.

1952 · Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen · 103 min · Musical / Comedy

Singin' in the Rain is the rare film that earns every bit of its towering reputation. Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds are magnetic together, the musical numbers hit with a joy that feels unstoppable, and the Hollywood satire gives it a brain to match its boundless energy. One extended ballet sequence tests the pacing, and the plot won't win any awards for complexity. None of that matters much when a film is this relentlessly entertaining. It set the standard for what a movie musical could be, and nothing has knocked it from that spot since.

1959 · Billy Wilder · 121 min · Comedy / Crime

Billy Wilder made a film about two musicians hiding from the mob in drag, cast it with three of the most charismatic performers of the era, and let the comedy build until its perfect final line. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis commit fully to the absurdity, Marilyn Monroe brings a warmth and comic instinct that elevates every scene she's in, and the screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond fires on all cylinders from the opening massacre to that legendary closing exchange. It runs a touch long and the premise stretches thin in spots, but those are small marks against a comedy that's been making audiences laugh for more than six decades without losing a step.

1985 · Robert Zemeckis · 116 min · Sci-Fi / Comedy

Forty years on, Back to the Future remains one of the most purely entertaining movies ever made. Its screenplay is a masterclass in setup and payoff, its cast is perfectly chosen, and its blend of comedy, sci-fi, and family stakes hits every note it aims for. A handful of dated moments and a few logical gaps in the time travel mechanics are the only real marks against it, and neither one has slowed its momentum. This is the kind of movie that turns casual viewers into lifelong fans the first time through and somehow gets better on every rewatch.

2022 · Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert · 139 min · Sci-Fi / Comedy

Everything Everywhere All at Once shouldn't work. A multiverse action comedy about a laundromat owner doing her taxes has no business being one of the most emotionally devastating films in recent memory, but the Daniels pulled it off with a tiny budget, a fearless cast, and more creative ambition than most studios pack into an entire slate. The pacing stumbles in the final stretch and the sensory overload will lose some viewers along the way. Those are real flaws. They just happen to exist inside a film that found something true about families, about the weight of unlived lives, and about choosing kindness when the universe gives you every reason not to. Seven Academy Awards later, the consensus is pretty clear on where this one landed.

2015 · Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen · 95 min · Animation / Comedy

Inside Out is Pixar firing on all cylinders, taking a high-concept premise about the emotions inside a child's head and turning it into something that hits harder than most live-action dramas. The world-building is endlessly inventive, the voice cast is perfectly matched to their roles, and the central message about the necessity of sadness lands with a force that catches most viewers off guard. A few criticisms stick, mainly that Riley herself feels underwritten and that the adventure plot follows a familiar path, but those feel like small complaints against a film that won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and left entire theater audiences in tears. It's one of those rare animated films that earns its emotional payoff honestly.

1995 · John Lasseter · 81 min · Animation / Comedy

Toy Story took a massive creative gamble and won so completely that it reshaped an entire industry overnight. The first fully computer-animated feature film still works thirty years later because Pixar built it on a foundation of sharp writing, perfect voice casting, and a story about friendship and jealousy that connects on a gut level. The animation has aged and the plot is simpler than what the studio would go on to produce, but 81 minutes of this much charm, humor, and heart is hard to argue with. It launched a franchise, launched a studio, and proved that animated films could be just as smart and emotionally honest as anything made for adults.

1987 · Rob Reiner · 98 min · Fantasy / Adventure / Comedy

The Princess Bride is that rare film where the satire and the sincerity coexist without canceling each other out. It mocks fairy tale conventions while delivering a fairy tale that actually works, carried by a cast firing on every cylinder and a script that never wastes a line. The framing device occasionally interrupts momentum, and the production values show their age, but nothing about this movie has lost a step in nearly four decades. It was made for everyone, and it still plays that way.

1939 · Victor Fleming · 102 min · Fantasy / Musical

Eighty-five years later, The Wizard of Oz still works. The transition from sepia Kansas to Technicolor Oz remains one of cinema's great visual moments, the songs have never left the cultural vocabulary, and the story's emotional logic holds up even when the special effects show their age. Judy Garland's performance anchors the entire production with a sincerity that cuts through the spectacle, making Dorothy's journey feel personal rather than fantastical. The pacing sags in places, the Scarecrow's logic is sometimes questionable, and younger viewers raised on modern effects may find Oz less wondrous than their grandparents did. None of that has dimmed its power as a piece of pure, earnest storytelling about finding that what you need was with you all along.

1993 · Harold Ramis · 101 min · Comedy / Fantasy / Drama

Groundhog Day uses the simplest possible premise to explore the biggest possible questions, and it does it while being consistently, effortlessly funny. Bill Murray's transformation from smug weatherman to genuine human being is one of the great character arcs in American comedy, and the film's refusal to explain its own mechanics turns out to be one of its smartest decisions. The romance is underwritten and some of the small-town humor leans on easy stereotypes, but the core idea is so perfectly executed that it has become a permanent part of how people think about repetition, change, and what it means to live a day well.

1964 · Stanley Kubrick · 94 min · Political Satire / Black Comedy

Dr. Strangelove remains one of the sharpest satires ever put on screen. Stanley Kubrick took the most terrifying scenario imaginable and turned it into a comedy that somehow makes the danger feel more real, not less. Peter Sellers doing three distinct roles without a single weak link is a performance feat that still hasn't been matched. The humor won't connect for everyone, and younger audiences may need to meet the film's bone-dry tone on its own terms. But for those who click with it, this is 94 minutes of controlled absurdity that has only become more relevant with time.

2017 · Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina · 105 min · Animation / Fantasy / Comedy-Drama

Coco is Pixar operating at something close to full power, using the studio's technical brilliance and emotional precision to tell a story about family, memory, and what it means to truly disappear. The cultural authenticity gives it a specificity that most animated films lack, and the final act delivers the kind of gut-punch that Pixar has built its reputation on. A somewhat predictable villain reveal and a few too many familiar story beats keep it just short of the studio's absolute peak. But when Miguel sings to his great-grandmother in that final scene, none of that matters. You'll be too busy trying to hold it together.

2003 · Andrew Stanton · 100 min · Animation / Adventure / Comedy-Drama

Finding Nemo remains one of Pixar's finest achievements, a film that works as a colorful underwater adventure for kids and a surprisingly affecting meditation on parenthood and letting go for everyone else. Dory alone is worth the price of admission. The episodic structure keeps it from building the kind of sustained momentum that Pixar's very best films manage, and a few of the supporting characters fade into the background. But the emotional core, a terrified father learning that love means giving his kid room to fail, hits just as hard on the twentieth viewing as it did on the first.

1960 · Billy Wilder · 125 min · Comedy, Drama, Romance

The Apartment is Billy Wilder's sharpest balancing act, a film that manages to be wickedly funny about corporate sleaze while also being deeply moving about loneliness and self-respect. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine give two of the finest performances of their careers, and Wilder's screenplay with I.A.L. Diamond remains one of Hollywood's best. The tonal shifts will challenge some viewers, but the film's willingness to take its characters seriously, even when the material is comic, is exactly what elevates it above standard romantic comedy.

2007 · Brad Bird · 111 min · Animation / Comedy

Ratatouille is Pixar operating at peak confidence, telling a story about a rat who wants to cook and somehow making it one of the most thoughtful animated films about creativity ever produced. The animation is stunning, Paris has never looked this good in any medium, and Anton Ego's climactic scene remains one of the most powerful moments in Pixar's entire catalog. Linguini is a bit of a blank slate and the romance never fully lands, but everything surrounding those weak spots is so assured and so smart that they barely register. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and earned over $620 million worldwide, and close to two decades later, it still holds up beautifully.

2014 · Wes Anderson · 99 min · Comedy / Drama

The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson with every tool in his kit working in perfect sync, delivering a film that looks like nothing else and somehow manages to be both his funniest and most emotionally resonant work. Ralph Fiennes turns in a performance so precisely calibrated between comedy and pathos that it redefines what you thought he was capable of. The visual craft alone earned four Academy Awards, but what sticks with you is the melancholy underneath all that color and symmetry. Some viewers will find Anderson's aesthetic too controlled, too precious, too much of a dollhouse to feel lived in. They're not entirely wrong, but they're missing the point. This is a film about how beautiful things disappear, and it proves that argument by being one.

1998 · Peter Weir · 103 min · Drama / Comedy

The Truman Show took a high-concept premise that could have collapsed into gimmickry and turned it into something that still sparks conversation nearly three decades later. Jim Carrey found the performance of his career, Peter Weir found exactly the right tone, and Andrew Niccol's screenplay asked questions about privacy, authenticity, and manufactured reality that the world wasn't even ready to fully appreciate yet. The plot follows a predictable arc and the premise asks you to suspend some disbelief, but neither of those things stops the film from landing with real emotional force. It got better with age, which is about the highest compliment you can pay a movie built on ideas.

1996 · Danny Boyle · 93 min · Drama / Dark Comedy

Trainspotting took a subject that should have been unwatchable and made it impossible to look away. Danny Boyle's kinetic direction and Ewan McGregor's breakout performance turned a story about heroin addiction in Edinburgh into something vibrant, funny, and devastating in equal measure. The Scottish dialect is a barrier for some, and the film's refusal to moralize leaves it open to accusations of glamorizing the thing it's depicting. But Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge trusted their audience to see past the energy and recognize the destruction underneath, and three decades later, that trust has been rewarded. It remains one of the most important British films ever made.

1985 · Terry Gilliam · 132 min · Sci-Fi / Comedy

Terry Gilliam built a nightmare out of paperwork and plumbing, and the result is one of the most ferociously imaginative satires ever committed to film. The production design alone would justify its reputation, but the film goes further, using its labyrinthine world to ask real questions about conformity, escape, and what happens to dreamers caught inside systems designed to crush them. The pacing stumbles, the tone will alienate viewers who need a story to hold their hand, and the ending refuses to offer comfort. Those are features, not bugs. Four decades later, the bureaucratic absurdity on display hasn't aged a day, which says more about the world than it does about the movie.

2014 · James Gunn · 121 min · Action / Sci-Fi / Comedy

Guardians of the Galaxy proved that the MCU could succeed with characters nobody outside comics had heard of, through James Gunn's singular blend of 70s pop music, irreverent humor, and genuine emotional sincerity. The ensemble of a thief, an assassin, a maniac, a tree, and a raccoon shouldn't work, and the fact that it works this well is Gunn's defining achievement. The Awesome Mix soundtrack became a cultural phenomenon, the humor lands without undermining the stakes, and the found-family theme gives the spectacle emotional weight that pure action couldn't achieve.

2013 · Martin Scorsese · 180 min · Biographical Dark Comedy Crime

The Wolf of Wall Street is three hours of controlled chaos that somehow never loses momentum, anchored by one of DiCaprio's most committed performances and a supporting cast that matches him beat for beat. Whether it glorifies or condemns Jordan Belfort's world is a question the film deliberately refuses to answer for you, which is either its greatest strength or most frustrating quality depending on what you bring to it. Scorsese is making a film about seduction, and he's very good at it.

2001 · Jean-Pierre Jeunet · 122 min · Romantic Comedy

Amelie is pure cinematic joy wrapped in accordion music and golden-green light. Audrey Tautou's performance anchors a film that could easily float away on its own whimsy, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's visual imagination produces something that looks and feels like nothing else. The love story is thin and the version of Paris on display is more fairy tale than reality, but neither of those things stops the film from working its charm. Two decades later, people still fall in love with this movie, and it's easy to understand why.

1998 · Joel Coen · 117 min · Comedy / Crime

The Big Lebowski is a film that failed at the box office and then spent the next three decades proving everyone wrong. Jeff Bridges created a character so perfectly realized that an entire subculture formed around him, and John Goodman delivered a comedic performance that deserves to be mentioned alongside the best in the genre. The plot is a mess by design, and not everyone will find that charming. But the dialogue is endlessly quotable, the performances are calibrated to a frequency that only gets funnier on repeat viewings, and the whole thing carries an oddly comforting philosophy about rolling with whatever life throws at you. It's the rare comedy that actually improves every time you see it.

1999 · Dean Parisot · 102 min · Comedy / Sci-Fi

Galaxy Quest pulled off something that should have been impossible: a parody that loves its target so much it became one of the best entries in the genre it's spoofing. Tim Allen and Alan Rickman anchor an ensemble that finds comedy in every corner of fandom culture while simultaneously building a story with real stakes and genuine emotional payoffs. The second half can't match the brilliance of the setup, some effects have aged past their expiration date, and the PG rating occasionally handcuffs the comedy. None of that matters much when the film's heart is this big and this sincere. Twenty-five years later, the fact that actual fans of the franchise being parodied consider this one of the best films in their canon tells you everything.

1981 · John Landis · 97 min · Horror / Comedy

An American Werewolf in London rewrote the rules for werewolf movies and then dared you to laugh while it did it. Rick Baker's transformation sequence remains the gold standard for practical effects work in the genre, and the film's willingness to shift between genuine terror and dark comedy gives it a personality that decades of imitators have failed to replicate. The tonal juggling act doesn't always land cleanly, and the third act rushes toward its conclusion faster than the story earns. Those are real weaknesses. But the highs here, the transformation, the decaying Jack, the moors sequence, are so inventive and so committed that they've kept this film in the conversation for over forty years.

2017 · Taika Waititi · 130 min · Action, Adventure, Comedy

Thor: Ragnarok is a wildly entertaining comedy that completely reinvented a struggling franchise, with Chris Hemsworth finally unleashing his comedic potential under Taika Waititi's direction, though the relentless humor sometimes prevents the film's most dramatic moments from landing with the weight they deserve.

2019 · Quentin Tarantino · 161 min · Comedy / Drama

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino's most relaxed and personal film, a sun-soaked love letter to 1969 Los Angeles that spends two and a half hours hanging out with its characters before unleashing a violent, cathartic finale that rewrites history. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have electric chemistry as a fading TV star and his stuntman, and the recreation of late-1960s Hollywood is meticulous to the point of obsession. The pacing is deliberately languid, with long stretches that prioritize atmosphere over plot, and viewers who need a story to drive forward will find the first two hours aimless. Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate deserved more to do. But as an exercise in mood, nostalgia, and the bittersweet feeling of watching an era end, it's one of Tarantino's richest achievements.

2002 · Steven Spielberg · 141 min · Crime Comedy-Drama

Catch Me If You Can is Spielberg working in pure entertainment mode, and it delivers on every level. DiCaprio is magnetic as a real-life con artist whose charm is as dangerous as it is delightful, and Tom Hanks grounds the whole thing with his quietly affecting FBI pursuer. It's breezy without being shallow, funny without being silly, and surprisingly touching once you realize this is a film about two lonely men orbiting each other across a decade. Not Spielberg's most ambitious work, but few films of its era are this effortlessly enjoyable.

2021 · Steven Spielberg · 156 min · Musical / Drama / Crime

West Side Story is Spielberg proving that the musical, as a cinematic form, still has the power to overwhelm. The dance sequences are some of the finest ever filmed, Ariana DeBose owns the screen as Anita, and the technical filmmaking is breathtaking from first frame to last. The central romance remains the weakest structural element, inherited from the source material rather than introduced by this version. But as a piece of pure cinema, choreographed and shot with a passion that borders on obsessive, it's a stunning achievement.

2017 · Martin McDonagh · 115 min · Dark Comedy Crime Drama

Three Billboards is a film powered entirely by its performances and a script that refuses to offer easy comfort about grief, justice, or who deserves redemption. McDormand delivers one of the great performances of the decade, and Rockwell matches her in a role that demands more than it appears to. The ending won't satisfy everyone, and the film's handling of race remains a legitimate point of criticism. But as an exercise in dark, funny, morally complicated filmmaking, it delivers far more than most.

2019 · Rian Johnson · 130 min · Mystery / Comedy / Crime

Knives Out is the most fun anyone has had with a murder mystery in years. Rian Johnson takes a genre that can feel dusty and museum-piece and turns it into something that crackles with energy and genuine surprise. Daniel Craig is having the time of his life, Ana de Armas gives the film its heart, and the ensemble cast chews the scenery in all the right ways. The social commentary doesn't always land with the precision of the mystery plotting, and some viewers will find the political thread heavy-handed. But as a piece of entertainment that respects its audience's intelligence while never forgetting to be a good time, it's very close to perfect. This is a crowd-pleaser that actually earns the crowd.

1990 · Ron Underwood · 96 min · Horror / Comedy

Tremors is a film that has no business being as good as it is. A B-movie creature feature about underground worms attacking a desert town should be disposable entertainment at best, but smart writing, practical effects that still hold up, and a cast with genuine chemistry turned it into something that people have been rewatching for over three decades. The first act takes its time getting started, the premise is inherently ridiculous, and it wears its low budget in spots. None of that diminishes the fact that this is one of the most purely entertaining monster movies ever made, a film that respects its audience enough to let its characters think their way out of problems instead of just running and screaming.

1997 · Luc Besson · 126 min · Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy

The Fifth Element is a film that runs entirely on confidence and style, and it has enough of both to power a small city. Besson's vision of the future is colorful, chaotic, and bursting with personality, delivered at a pace that refuses to let you get bored. It's uneven in places, the plot is pure pulp, and the humor won't land for everyone. But there's nothing else quite like it, and that kind of singular creative vision ages better than most blockbusters from 1997.

2016 · Tim Miller · 108 min · Action / Comedy

Deadpool proved that a superhero film could be profane, self-aware, and R-rated while still connecting with a massive audience. Ryan Reynolds owns every frame, the fourth-wall humor lands more often than it misses, and the romance at the center gives the whole thing an emotional anchor that most films in the genre lack. A forgettable villain and a plot that never rises above its formula keep it from greatness, but the sheer force of personality carries it further than a $58 million budget had any right to go. It blew open the door for R-rated superhero films and remains one of the most entertaining entries the genre has produced.

1958 · Akira Kurosawa · 139 min · Adventure / Comedy

Akira Kurosawa's 1958 adventure comedy is his most purely entertaining film, a rousing tale of two bickering peasants, a fierce general, and a disguised princess trying to smuggle gold through enemy territory. It's the film that directly inspired Star Wars, and watching it, you can see exactly where George Lucas found his template. The humor lands, the action thrills, and Mifune commands every scene he's in. It lacks the depth of Kurosawa's masterworks, but as sheer crowd-pleasing cinema, it delivers.

2018 · Bradley Cooper · 136 min · Musical Romance

A Star Is Born is a deeply felt, impeccably performed musical drama that earns its emotional impact the hard way. Bradley Cooper's directorial debut is confident and raw, Lady Gaga is a revelation, and Shallow became one of the decade's defining movie songs for good reason. The familiar story structure is a real limitation and some viewers will find the relationship dynamics frustrating, but the film's best moments hit in ways that are hard to shake.

1977 · Woody Allen · 93 min · Comedy, Romance

Annie Hall changed what a romantic comedy could be, and its influence on the genre is hard to overstate. Diane Keaton's performance remains a high point of American screen comedy, and the film's structural inventiveness still feels fresh decades later. Alvy Singer's self-absorption limits the emotional range, and some of the cultural references have faded. But as a portrait of how relationships fall apart despite the best intentions of the people in them, it still finds the nerve.

2014 · Alejandro González Iñárritu · 119 min · Comedy / Drama

Birdman is a film that refuses to sit still, both literally and figuratively. The continuous-shot illusion is a technical marvel that serves the story rather than overshadowing it, and Michael Keaton delivers the kind of career performance that reminds you why he was a star in the first place. It's smart, funny, and surprisingly moving when it wants to be. The pretension accusations aren't entirely unfounded, but the film earns most of its ambition through sheer execution and a cast that commits fully to the chaos.

2016 · Damien Chazelle · 128 min · Musical / Romance / Drama

La La Land is a gorgeous, emotionally ambitious musical that swings big and mostly connects. Damien Chazelle built something that feels like a love letter to old Hollywood while telling a story about the cost of chasing your dreams in the modern world. The music is excellent, Stone earned her Oscar, and the final sequence hits like a freight train. It doesn't need perfect singing or dancing to work, because the film's real power comes from the tension between what these characters want and what they're willing to sacrifice to get it.

1994 · Robert Zemeckis · 142 min · Drama / Comedy

Forrest Gump is a crowd-pleaser built on one of the best lead performances of the 1990s. Tom Hanks disappears into the role, and the film's emotional beats still land hard three decades later. Its treatment of history and ideology won't satisfy everyone, and the Best Picture debate will never truly end. But as a piece of popular filmmaking designed to make you feel something, it does exactly what it sets out to do, and very few films have done it better.

1994 · James Cameron · 141 min · Action / Comedy

True Lies is James Cameron proving he could direct comedy with the same command he brought to action, and Arnold Schwarzenegger proving he could be funny and formidable in the same scene. Jamie Lee Curtis steals the second half of the film entirely, Tom Arnold provides surprisingly effective comic relief, and the action sequences deliver on a scale that 1994 audiences had rarely seen. The runtime bloats past what the story can sustain, the villain characterization is the thinnest element by far, and some of the humor has aged unevenly. But as a big, loud, entertaining marriage of action spectacle and domestic comedy, it still works.

2018 · David Leitch · 119 min · Action / Comedy

Deadpool 2 goes bigger than its predecessor in nearly every way, and that cuts both ways. The addition of Cable, Domino, and a full ensemble gives the film more to play with, and David Leitch's action pedigree produces set pieces that are a clear step up from the original. Ryan Reynolds remains the engine that makes everything run, and enough of the humor connects to keep the ride entertaining. But a controversial story choice that sidelines Vanessa, pacing that sags when the jokes thin out, and a sense that the formula is running closer to empty keep it from matching the original's spark. It's a good time that occasionally settles for being a loud one.

2024 · Shawn Levy · 127 min · Action / Comedy

Deadpool & Wolverine runs almost entirely on the combustible chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and that fuel turns out to be enough to power a wildly entertaining ride. The action is brutal and inventive, the soundtrack choices are inspired, and the self-aware humor lands more often than it misses. A weak villain, an overreliance on cameos, and a story that sometimes feels like a delivery mechanism for references rather than a narrative keep it from the upper tier of the genre. But as a send-off for Fox's Marvel era and a showcase for two actors who clearly love working together, it does exactly what it sets out to do.

2017 · James Gunn · 136 min · Action / Comedy

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 bet everything on emotional depth and the gamble mostly paid off. Yondu's arc is the best character work in the entire MCU up to that point, Baby Groot is a merchandising phenomenon who also happens to be charming on screen, and the father-son story at the center carries real weight. The humor hits harder when it lands, but it misses more often than the first film, and some jokes undercut dramatic moments that deserved room to breathe. The pacing stalls on Ego's planet, and the Sovereign subplot never earns its screen time. It is a messier film than its predecessor, but the emotional peaks are higher, and that final sequence still hits.

2015 · Peyton Reed · 117 min · Action / Comedy

Ant-Man arrived as a palate cleanser in a franchise that was starting to take itself very seriously, and it works precisely because it keeps the scope small. Paul Rudd's charm carries the film through its weaker stretches, Michael Pena steals every scene he appears in, and the shrinking sequences deliver some of the most inventive action in the MCU. The villain is underwritten in ways the film never overcomes, and the origin story structure follows a template audiences had seen several times by 2015. Those are legitimate knocks. But the heist framework gives the film a shape that most superhero origin stories lack, and the sense of fun is infectious enough to forgive the places where the formula shows through.

2004 · Steven Spielberg · 128 min · Comedy

The Terminal is minor Spielberg, and it knows it. Tom Hanks brings warmth and specificity to a character who could easily have been a caricature, and the airport as a self-contained world is more charming than it has any right to be. The plot is too thin for its runtime, the romance doesn't convince, and the sentimentality runs unchecked in the final act. But as a gentle, good-natured film about kindness and patience in a system designed for neither, it has a modest appeal that's hard to dislike even when it's impossible to love.

2018 · Bryan Singer · 134 min · Musical Biography

Bohemian Rhapsody is a crowd-pleasing music biopic that works far better as a celebration of Queen than as a faithful portrait of Freddie Mercury. Rami Malek's performance is extraordinary and the Live Aid sequence is among the most thrilling concert recreations ever put on screen. The film plays loose with history and sidesteps the complexities of its subject's life in ways that will frustrate anyone looking for depth. But if you're there for the music and the spectacle, it delivers on both counts.