What Comedy Movies to watch on Criterion Channel

Young drifter Tom Skelton returns to his home in Key West, Florida and attempts to open a fishing charter business, provoking a dangerous feud with rival fishing sea captain Nichol Dance.

Actress Judy Carroll, from the gas-house district has been trained, educated and developed so well by her manager, that not even the publicity-seeking world of the theater has guessed her antecedents. But she has not loved well or wisely as she learns when she tries to adopt a baby.

Sir Guy Grand adopts homeless bum Youngman to be heir to his obscene wealth, and immediately begins bringing him into the intricacies of the family business, which is to prey upon people's greed by use of the vast holdings of the Grand empire. They leave no stone unturned as sporting events, restaurants, art galleries, and traditional pheasant hunts turn into lurid displays of bad manners and profiteering. Things climax at the social event of the season, the inaugural voyage of the new pleasure cruiser, "The Magic Christian".

Hoping to improve his life, the temperamental Rodolfo Cano enlists in the Army. But when another Rodolfo Cano receives his sign-up orders, the two Rodolfos' lives collide - with the first Rodolfo's girlfriend adding to the confusion.

Henri Danglard, proprietor of the fashionable (but bankrupt) cafe 'Le Paravent Chinois' featuring his mistress, belly-dancer Lola, goes slumming in Montmarte, circa 1890, where the then-old-fashioned cancan is still danced. There he conceives the idea of reviving the cancan as the feature of a new, more popular establishment...and meets Nini, a laundress and natural dancer whom he hopes will be the star of his new show. But a tangled maze of jealousies intervenes.

Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. He relates to Shawn his tales of dropping out, traveling around the world, and experiencing the variety of ways people live, such as a monk who could balance his entire weight on his fingertips. Shawn listens avidly, but questions the value of Gregory's seeming abandonment of the pragmatic aspects of life.

In a mythical Japan, Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor, has been appointed Lord High Executioner and must find someone to execute before the arrival of the ruling Mikado. He lights upon Nanki-Poo, a strolling minstrel who loves the beautiful Yum-Yum. But Yum-Yum is also loved by Ko-Ko, and Nanki-Poo, seeing no hope for his love, considers suicide. Ko-Ko offers to solve both their problems by executing Nanki-Poo, and an agreement is reached whereby Ko-Ko will allow Nanki-Poo to marry Yum-Yum for one month, at the end of which Nanki-Poo will be executed, in time for the arrival of the Mikado. But what Ko-Ko doesn't know is that Nanki-Poo is the son of the Mikado and has run away to avoid a betrothal to an old harridan named Katisha. The arrival of the Mikado brings all the threads of the tale together.

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise. Rodolfo falls in love with Mimi, a barmaid. The day he asks her to move in with him, he is deported. Six months later, he sneaks back to Paris, and Mimi leaves her new boyfriend to be with him. Conflicts arise, especially around their poverty, and soon Mimi and Rodolfo separate, as do Marcel and his Musette. The three men scrape together a meal to celebrate All Saints' Day, and Mimi arrives, ill. Can her friends bring her back to health? Can love rekindle?

A professor of Egyptology seeks a mummy for experimentation. A young man devises a scheme to give the professor his desire in hopes of winning the hand in marriage of the teacher's daughter.

Animated film satire of self-indulgence in a hungry world. Rapidly dissolving, reshaping images, made with the aid of a computer, create a stark contrast between abundance and want. A man eats, at first sparingly, but his appetite grows to gluttony, greed, and gratification of every desire. The nightmare that finally haunts him is the one that hangs over our disparate world. A film without words.

After realizing that all world is spoiled, blond Marie and brunette Marie are committed to be spoiled themselves. Their life motto is: Nothing is bad as long as you are having fun. They rip off older men, feast in lavish meals and do all kinds of mischief. But what is all this leading to?

An odd film that primarily looks at how the dole affects the underclass in Britain. Tim Roth stars as Colin, a slow and possibly intellectually-disabled man living with his parents and brother in a housing project. He and his sarcastic manipulative brother still behave like teenagers--living with their parents, harassing each other. The problem is that they are in their late teens or twenties. Neighborhood characters include Hayley, a young woman with a crush on Colin, and Coxy (Gary Oldman), a violent local skinhead who befriends Colin. Trouble ensues when their wealthy aunt gives Colin a job and his brother becomes jealous.

Waterfront couple raise their son to be a sea captain. He grows up to be rather snotty and rebels against drunken Beery. Valiant Dressler keeps things moving even as hubby ruins their tugboat business. Dressler dotes on his son and his snooty girlfriend.

Kresten learns of his father's death and travels to the ruined family farm. With a highly suspicious wife, a nutty brother in his garden, old enemies in the farmyard, and a gorgeous woman in his bedroom, Kresten's problems begin for real...

Enlisted during the First World War, Charlie discovers the hard life of the trenches and the dangers of combat. Synopsis courtesy of MK2 and Warner Bros.

Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss, Mr. Asai, so she can pay her father's debt, and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement. She also sends money for her brother, Hiroshi, to pay his university tuition, but asks her father not to tell him that it is from her. She tricks Mr. Fujino into giving her money so that she can marry her boyfriend Nishimura, but Fujino calls in the police.

A carefree young man who just "spent" the last dime in his pocket comes across a young woman just hired to clean the front steps of a house. They meet when the young man first meets her bar of soap. While they are attracted to each other, she is already going on a date with Simplex Joe. The carefree young man decides to follow the pair on their date to a park where they will be picnicking. What happens with this love triangle is affected by other picnickers at the park, including an amorous woman unlucky in love, and the police chasing after a pair of escaped convicts from a local prison.

Incompetent car salesman Perry is desperate to get the money to release the car he hopes to sell to young Gary from the garage but his wife, fitness instructor Debbie, is fed up with constantly bank-rolling him and he eventually has to sell Gary an inferior model to stump up the cash to pay the garage man. Just how inferior it is Gary discovers when the engine starts smoking and the car breaks down on the way home.

Pierre is a shy man whose sole focus in life is studying astrology in solitude, which is often difficult since he still lives at and studies in his parents' house. His parent's would rather he date and get married. He takes on this task with verve. Not knowing how to approach women in a romantic way, he watches how other men operate and tries to emulate them, most often without success. He ends up attracting the one woman he doesn't really want, a fun loving woman named Laurence who lives next door, but he becomes obsessed with Stella, a singer he sees on television. He believes her love song is being sung directly to him. As Pierre tries to get away from Laurence while pursuing Stella, he may miss the perfect match who may be right under his nose.

While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly by seducing the daughter of one of them, secondly by ruining them...

Filmmaker Guy Maddin was born, raised and has always lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a town where he says everyone sleepwalks through life. He is trying to escape Winnipeg, but isn't sure how as he isn't sure what's kept him there in the first place. Perhaps his parent's month long 65th wedding anniversary celebration (despite his father being dead for some years) where he will reenact his childhood (with actors playing his family, except his mother who plays herself) in the old family home at 800 Ellis Avenue, which was above the family's hair salon business, will provide some answers. He recounts some civic events which have affected him and the life of Winnipegers: the 1919 general strike, the destruction of the Wolseley Elm in 1957, and the replacement of the iconic Eaton's building for the new hockey arena in favor of the old Winnipeg Arena. The latter has an especially close connection to him because of a family tie and the rich history of hockey in the city (discounting what he considers the failure of the NHL experiment). As he is on the train leaving the city, he hopes that the page 3 "Citizen Girl" will be the panacea for all Winnipeg's issues.

A homeless youth begins working for an experienced paparazzo, but personal and professional boundaries break down when he strikes up a relationship with a young starlet.

Filmmaker Leo is searching for the wolf in the south of France. During a scouting excursion he is seduced by Marie, a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess. Nine months later she gives birth to their child. Suffering from post-natal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them. Leo finds himself alone, with a baby to care for.

Front Cover is about a gay New York City fashion stylist, Ryan, who detests and rejects his Asian upbringing. He is given an assignment to style Ning, a foreign actor, for an important photo shoot. After a rocky start, an unlikely friendship develops between them leading Ryan to examine his identity and make a major decision about an enticing new path for his life and career.