Fargo
In Bruges
Natural Born Killers (not sure if it’s comedy or just satire)
Mrs. Squid and I went out last night to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri. Hot damn, was it good. And dark. Super dark.
I don’t know if it quite compares to Fargo or Dr. Strangelove, but it’s not firmly in my top five black comedies ever.
…*now firmly in my top five…
Critics universally hated it. They were all wrong.
I thought it was it fucking hilarious. The Nazi scene alone is worth it.
Yeah I really liked it a lot, it left a lasting impression. I thought it was more dark and more drama than comedy, but it had all 3.
I wouldn’t classify any of these as dark comedy.
Also, to contribute to the thread:
Heathers
A Blackadder Christmas Carol
So Baldrick, how was the workhouse Christmas pagent?
Well, it was fine until the baby playing Jesus up and died.
My word, this high infant mortality rate certainly makes it difficult to put on a decent Christmas pageant.
Heh.
A casual joke on Victorian era infant mortality. Only the British would do that. British comedy is awesome.
Idle Hands
Dead/Alive
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Freddy Got Fingered - bizarre, surreal movie they somehow got Rip Torn to costar in, and reportedly Tom Green’s only real goal was to get the “jerking off a horse” scene past the MPAA. In that sense, it was a complete success!
Written/Directed by Martin McDonagh. He has exactly 3 feature length films under his belt, all three are amazeballs, and all three are in this thread.
Catch-22, the novel. The film, not so much.
Shameless, the TV show, is too dark for me to even watch. A man can only cringe so much.
I dunno…I thought they were all pretty gory, nasty, profane and vaguely terrorizing.
They made me wanna rip my eyes out.
That might have had something to do with what you were smoking at the time, sir.
My all-time favorite movie is the original (1942) To Be or Not to Be, with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. The idea of a comedy about the Nazis was too soon in 1942, and the film got panned, but not it’s regarded as one of the best films of all time. Mel Brooks did a terrible remake of it in 1983. The remake isn’t dark as much as slapstick-- typical Mel Brooks. It never should have been made. The '42 version is one of the closest-to-perfect films ever made.
+1
Kubrick’s adaptation of **A Clockwork Orange **is even darker (which is saying something since Dr. Strangelove ends with the nuclear annihilation of the planet).
Very Bad Things: Vegas stag do’s accidental killing of a prostitute leads to a lot more. Surprisingly star studded,
Worlds Greatest Dad: Robin Williams greatest role. After his idiot asshole teenage son accidentally commits suicide, his Dad, an aspiring writer makes up a selection of heartfelt notes to make him feel better and it gets complicated from that.
The Contenders: Season 7. A surprisingly still effective mock reality TV show where they manipulate people into murdering each other. Starting with last years winner: a pregnant woman, returning to her hometown, with a competitor being an gay ex boyfriend dying of cancer.
Shakes the Clown: “The citizen kaine of alcoholic clown movies”. Also of note is “God Bless America”, also directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.
I have just remembered the 2015 film Nina Forever. A very dry, very British, black horror comedy. Worth a watch in my opinion.
The older Rob tried to commit suicide after his girlfriend Nina died in a car crash. This makes him seem romantic to Holly who is still resentful after having been dumped for being too boring. Holly sets out to seduce Rob, is successful but when they consummate the relationship Nina returns as a revenent: A corporeal entity in the form she was in at the moment of death: A bloody, mangled corpse.
The humour derives from the film de-sensationalising the gore and resolutely treating the situation as a mundane love triangle.
TCMF-2L
The Magic Christian…wealthy Dad Peter Sellars and son Ringo go around getting folks to do crazy insane things for money. Bonus points for pre Python Chapmen and Cleese cameos.
The British TV mini series The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.