What Comedy Movies to watch on Criterion Channel

Ricky is released from a mental hospital, and knows exactly what he wants to do. He hunts down Marina, a porn film star he once had sex with, and tries to convince her to be his wife. She is a bit reluctant, so he ties her up. Will this approach endear him to her?

A tipsy doctor encounters his patient sleepwalking on a building ledge, high above the street.

The lives and tribulations of staff of an independent newspaper in Boston who're struggling financially. Unbeknownst to them, they are about to be taken over by a big publisher; an idea they despise.

"Speedy" loses his job as a soda-jerk, then spends the day with his girl at Coney Island. He then becomes a cab driver and delivers Babe Ruth to Yankee Stadium, where he stays to see the game. When the railroad tries to run the last horse-drawn trolley (operated by his girl's grandfather) out of business, "Speedy" organizes the neighborhood oldtimers to thwart their scheme.

Linda and George live in a small town where he is the school principal and they are about to celebrate their 16th anniversary. When she catches him with her daughter's young teacher, she must deal with the kids, the town, and her love for him.

Barbara Undershaft is a woman from an absurdly wealthy family who has found love in Adophus Cusins, an impoverished man of books and ideas. While living in luxury, Barbara is focused on a separate life that is devoid of wealth and centered on the salvation of souls. Meanwhile, Adolphus is doing his best live up to his high ideals and his love for Barbara in the face of the magnificence of the Undershaft family. When the necessities of the working class meet head on with the privileges of aristocracy, the conflict arises: Is salvation better achieved through a charitable organization, or is humankind better served and salvation achieved through the work of industry?

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

Lisette and husband Chino face marital difficulties. She is fed up with the kids, while he has job troubles. His mother Rosaria hates Lisette and the neighborhood tramp has designs on Chino. Things get even worse when Chino goes to jail and Lisette gets a good job uptown. Can this marriage be saved?

A documentary horror film about the environmental devastation left in the wake of the giant toads' unstoppable march across Australia.

3 AM, New Jersey, 1991. In the wake of an epic summer reunion party at Art's parents' house, a group of former high school friends reminisce about their years in school. As the inebriated pals drink the last remnants of beer, they talk about women, sex, obsessions, virginity, and college experiences. But can the old gang figure out the meaning of life during an eventful night? However, the question remains: what does the future have in store for them?

Poor Charlie lives in a vacant lot. He tries to get a job but when he gets to the head of the employment line the jobs are gone. Back "home" he rescues Scraps, a bitch being attacked by other strays. Together they manage to steal some sausages from a lunch wagon. They enter a dance hall where Edna is a singer and unwilling companion to the clientele. He is thrown out when he can't pay. Back "home" Scraps digs up a money-filled wallet buried by crooks. They return to the dance hall to find Edna fired. The wallet goes back and forth between Charlie and the crooks. Charlie, Edna and Scraps end up very happily.

Involuntarily-retired Lieutenant Colonel Hyde recruits seven other dissatisfied ex-servicemen for a special project. Each of the men has a skeleton in the cupboard, is short of money, and is a service-trained expert in his field. The job is a bank robbery, and military discipline and planning are imposed by Hyde and second-in-command Race on the team, although civilian irritations do start getting in the way.

Bloomington, Minnesota, 1967: Jewish physics lecturer Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a serious and a very put-upon man. His daughter is stealing from him to save up for a nose job; his pot-head son, who gets stoned at his own bar-mitzvah, only wants him round to fix the TV aerial and his useless brother Arthur is an unwelcome house-guest. But both Arthur and Larry get turfed out to a motel when Larry's wife Judy, who wants a divorce, moves her lover Sy into the house and even after Sy's death in a car crash they are still there. With lawyers' bills mounting for his divorce, Arthur's criminal court appearances, and a land feud with a neighbor, Larry is tempted to take the bribe offered by a student to give him an illegal exam pass mark. And the rabbis he visits for advice only dole out platitudes. Still God moves in mysterious---and not always pleasant---ways, as Larry and his family will find out.

Marty "Alfred Molina" is a jazz musician, always a precarious source of livelihood even for the best-known performers. In this film, he is just barely getting by, living on the outskirts of a run-down town populated by Irish immigrants. Though this might be called a highly successful life for a jazz musician, it is hardly satisfying. He hangs out a bar called The Rose of Sharon and is friends with its irrepressible barmaid, Sheila "Maggie O'Neill". When Sheila introduces Marty to the ghostly inhabitants of a rocking chair, they embark on a series of adventures that result in satisfaction for all concerned - except for the bar's owner, who killed one of the ghosts "Marianne Faithfull" when she was among the living.

One of the most acclaimed films of this year's Sundance Film Festival, Azazel Jacobs' third feature is both a tribute to his parents (and to the lost New York of his childhood) and an acutely perceptive, deeply personal take on a universal experience: the fear of growing up.

The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.

Eleven separate vignettes are presented. In each, celebrities, playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves (with the exception of the characters of various wait staff, and one actor playing a lookalike cousin of herself), meet in a food service establishment with coffee/tea and cigarettes involved. Beyond the topic of discussion that brought them together, they often talk directly about coffee and cigarettes, more often that coffee and cigarettes, and by association caffeine and nicotine, are not healthy, especially if they are the only things constituting lunch. Other recurring themes include the Lee family, cousinhood, celebrity worship, the connection between the medical and musical careers, and Nikola Tesla's belief that the Earth is a conductor of acoustic resonance. In all cases, the coming together for coffee/tea and smokes acts as a bridge to overcome disagreements, and/or makes uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.

Basically a retread of the first movie, in which the evil Tree Spirit is back with yet another ghost played by Joey Wong. The Swordsman Yen and Leslie Cheung characters are replaced by a Buddhist Abbot and disciple (Tony Leung). Jacky Cheung also pops up again, this time as a money-grabbing swordsman with a neat bag of tricks.

The lives of an ex-con, a coffee-shop owner, and a young couple looking to make it rich intersect in the fictional and hypnotic Rain City.

Monsieur Hulot's brother-in-law is the manager of a factory where plastics are manufactured. His nephew grows up in a house where everything is fully automated and the boy is raised in a similar fashion. To take away the influence of the uncle on his son, his brother-in-law gets Hulot a job in his factory.

Charlie is a farm laborer who’ll try anything to win over his pretty neighbor, but ends up spending a lot of time in dreamland.

Having escaped from prison, Charlie disguises himself as a pastor. In a village, he’s mistaken for the new curate. Synopsis courtesy of MK2 and Warner Bros.

It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.

In downtown Manhattan, a twenty-something boy ('Chris Parker')whose Father is not around and whose Mother is institutionalized, is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for more meaning in his life and meets a few characters along the way.