Four dark comedies to stream on Netflix this weekend
The funniest thing about a good dark comedy is that nobody inside it has the faintest idea they are in one. Just thinking about one gives you the chuckles. These characters carry on with dead seriousness, and in their mind they are absolutely convinced they are making sensible choices.
And that gap is where the fun really lives. Take Glass Onion. Everyone is rich and pretty self-important. Meanwhile, the rest of us can see the whole thing for what it is: ego and money.
The Menu is another hilarious example, and yes, we know it’s a bit horrifying for a dark comedy, but how can we ignore people trying to maintain their manners while death is serving them food? That is dark comedy at its best. No one announces the joke or winks. They just keep going with their ridiculous choices.
We’re assuming you are in the mood for some of that fun where people make an absolute shambles of things, and we, rather shamelessly, have a wonderful time watching it.
Four dark comedies to stream on Netflix this weekend
I Used to Be Funny (Ally Pankiw, 2023)
It starts with Rachel Sennott, who comes charging in with a role that is miles away from her usual territory, and frankly, it catches you off guard. She plays Sam, a Toronto stand-up comic trying to live with PTSD after a traumatic experience, which is already enough emotional baggage for one person to be lugging about. Then Brooke, the teenager she once nannied, disappears. Oh, marvellous. Because apparently, life had not complicated things quite enough.
Sam is pulled straight back towards the part of her past she has been avoiding, and this is where the film gets its sharp turn. Sennott is funny, but all her laughs seem to arrive with a bruise underneath them. That’s what they say where the fun comes from. Writer-director Ally Pankiw even brought real comics into the production, and thank heavens she did, because the stand-up is not just for decoration.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2018)
Oh, this one is a bit odd. Have you ever watched a Western and thought that it needed pzazz? Because apparently the Coen brothers did. They split The Ballad of Buster Scruggs into six separate stories, all about people trying their luck in a world that has no interest in playing fair whatsoever. Tim Blake Nelson gets things going as Buster himself, a singing gunslinger with lovely manners and someone who has no problem shooting people.
Some of these stories had been knocking around with Joel and Ethan Coen for decades, which feels completely appropriate. It was also their first feature shot digitally, despite looking very old-fashioned. And yes, one of its songs earned an Oscar nomination. Of course it did. Only the Coens could make death this catchy.
The Blackening (Tim Story, 2022)
Here, the premise is already doing half the work for us. The Blackening starts when a group of Black friends heads to a remote cabin for Juneteenth, only to get dragged into a deadly game built around that ancient horror cliché that the Black character dies first in. Small problem: everyone here is Black.
So what now, then? That joke actually existed before the film did. Co-writer and star Dewayne Perkins first used the idea in a Comedy Central short, and it later grew into Tim Story’s feature. And don’t worry, the film does not treat the horror like some flimsy excuse for jokes. The danger still feels very real, which makes the comedy hit harder because these people are not standing around waiting for a punchline. They are, quite literally, trying not to die. Much more efficient.
Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021)
Saving the best for last, Don’t Look Up does not give a crap about subtlety. A comet is heading straight for Earth, and Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio are trying desperately to warn everyone. But people being their hilarious selves react as though they’ve been told there might be a bit of rain later. For heaven’s sake, what more do you need?
Adam McKay wrote the film as an allegory for the climate crisis, and NASA scientist Amy Mainzer advised on the science, so know that there is real substance underneath all the lunacy. Then Meryl Streep, as a president, treats catastrophe like another item on the agenda, and there is Jonah Hill throwing in improvised nonsense. The planet is doomed, and everyone knows it; still, people are faffing about. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.