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What Comedy Movies to watch on Criterion Channel

Find what to watch on Criterion Channel including the latest releases. Filter by movies, TV shows, release years, genres and more.

391 results

Red-Headed Woman

1 hr 19 mins

Lil works for the Legendre Company and causes Bill to divorce Irene and marry her. She has an affair with businessman Gaerste and uses him to force society to pay attention to her. She has another affair with the chauffeur Albert.

Red-Headed Woman
  • 1932

Artists and Models

1 hr 49 mins

Rick Todd uses the dreams of his roommate Eugene as the basis for a successful comic book.

Artists and Models
  • 1955

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

1 hr 59 mins

Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means of getting what they want.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
  • 1963

The Ladykillers

1 hr 31 mins

A gang planning a 'job' find themselves living with a little old lady, who thinks they are musicians. When the gang set out to kill Mrs Wilberforce, they run into one problem after another, and they get what they deserve.

The Ladykillers

The Love Witch

2 hrs 0 mins

Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, and she ends up with a string of hapless victims. When she at last meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder.

The Love Witch

Election

1 hr 43 mins

The high school Class President election is approaching and it looks like Tracy Flick is going to win, unopposed. However, teacher Jim McAllister has other plans. He convinces jock Paul Metzler to run, sparking off an interesting chain of events.

Election

Kill!

1 hr 55 mins

Two ronin - an ex-samurai and an ex-farmer - get caught up in a local official's complex game of murder and betrayal.

Kill!
  • 1968

This Happy Breed

1 hr 55 mins

Episodic telling of 20 years of the working-class Gibbons family in their South London rental house from 1919 to 1939--from just after the conclusion of WWI to just before the start of WWII. Beyond the profound effect of such world events on their lives, and the ebbs and flows of general western society in all aspects, husband and wife Frank and Ethel Gibbons must hold their family together through other, more personal events. Besides their immediate family, their household consists of her mother, Mrs. Flint, who is always feigning that she is on her deathbed; and his spinster sister Sylvia Gibbons, who clings to odd notions of life as her only sense of independence; these two don't get along, each seeing the other as an intrusion on the household. The three Gibbons offspring are a disparate group but generally get along. Only son Reg is easily swayed, especially by his best friend Sam Leadbitter, who wants to see social justice at all cost. While she secretly loves Sam, level-headed older daughter Vi doesn't like Sam's influence on Reg and his life choices. Younger daughter Queenie hates their "common life" and will do almost anything to escape it, meaning that she will not marry Billy Mitchell, who has always loved her, and she has always loved him in her own way although he isn't her idea of husband material. Billy, a career sailor in the British Navy, is the son of their next-door neighbor, Frank's best friend and "Johnnie Walker and soda"-drinking buddy Bob Mitchell; they originally met on the battlefield in 1915, fighting for the British in different regiments.

This Happy Breed
  • 1944

Annie Hall

1 hr 33 mins

Alvy Singer, a forty year old twice divorced, neurotic, intellectual Jewish New York City stand-up comic, reflects on the demise of his latest relationship, to Annie Hall, an insecure, flighty, Midwestern WASP aspiring nightclub singer. Unlike his previous relationships, Alvy believed he may have worked out all the issues in his life through fifteen years of therapy to make this relationship with Annie last, among those issues being not wanting to date any woman that would want to date him, and thus subconsciously pushing those women away. Alvy not only reviews the many ups and many downs of their relationship, but also reviews the many facets of his makeup that led to him starting to date Annie. Those facets include growing up next to Coney Island in Brooklyn, being attracted to the opposite sex for as long as he can remember, and enduring years of Jewish guilt with his constantly arguing parents.

Annie Hall

You Never Can Tell

1 hr 18 mins

An ex-police/army dog (German Shepherd), named King inherits a fortune from an eccentric millionaire. But someone poisons him for his fortune, and he gets to go back to earth as a human detective to bring his killer to justice, and protect the girl who used to look after him.

You Never Can Tell
  • 1951

Abigail's Party

0 hrs 33 mins

Two couples and their neighbor's mother have a gathering and get to know each other.

  • 2006

The Silent Partner

1 hr 46 mins

A bank teller (Elliott Gould) skims $50,000 for himself during a robbery, and a Santa Claus crook (Christopher Plummer) wants it back.

The Silent Partner

Mallrats

1 hr 34 mins

Brodie Bruce, a Sega and comic book obsessed college student, and his best friend, TS Quint, are both dumped by their girlfriends on the same day, and to deal with their loss, they both go to the local mall. Along the way, they meet up with some friends, including Willam, a guy who stares at Magic Eye pictures, desprately trying to see the hidden image; Gwen, one of TS's ex-girlfriends; and Jay & Silent Bob, of Clerks fame. Eventually, they decide to try and win back their significant others, and take care of their respective nemesises (TS's girlfriend's father, and a store clerk who hates the two for not having any shopping agenda).

Mallrats

Party Girl

1 hr 34 mins

Mary is a free-spirited young woman with a run-down New York apartment and a high-fashion wardrobe. She calls her godmother, a librarian, for bail money after being arrested for throwing an illegal party. To repay the loan, she begins working as a library clerk. At first she hates it, but when challenged she decides to master the Dewey Decimal System and become a great library clerk, while romancing a falafel vendor and helping her roommate become a professional DJ.

Party Girl

Pump Up the Volume

1 hr 42 mins

Mark Hunter is an intelligent but shy teenager who has just moved to Phoenix, Arizona from the East Coast. His parents give him a short-wave radio so he can talk to his friends, but instead he sets up shop as pirate deejay Hard Harry, who becomes a hero to his peers while inspiring the wrath of the high school principal. When one of Harry's listeners commits suicide, inspired chaos breaks out at the school and the authorities are called into put a stop to Harry's broadcasts. Meanwhile, the corrupt school principal weeds out underachieving students to keep the school's SAT scores high as false testimony to her competence.

Pump Up the Volume

State and Main

1 hr 45 mins

Having left New Hampshire over excessive demands by the locals, the cast and crew of "The Old Mill" moves their movie shoot to a small town in Vermont. However, they soon discover that The Old Mill burned down in 1960, the star can't keep his pants zipped, the starlet won't take her top off, and the locals aren't quite as easily conned as they appear.

State and Main

My Life as a Dog

1 hr 41 mins

Small town Sweden, in the 1950s. This slice-of-life story is also a coming-of-age tale narrated by a young boy with an almost unconscious sense of irony. His single mother is terminally ill, his older brother isn't the warmest person in his life, and twice he is sent to relatives in a supportive, loving village with interesting characters and adventures.

My Life as a Dog

Son of Godzilla

1 hr 24 mins

A plane spots Godzilla heading off to an island in the South Seas named Sollgel, with the monster seemingly being called there. Reporter Goro Maki soon stumbles on Sollgel and finds scientists conducting weather experiments to feed a growing global population. He soon discovers that the experiments have mutated mantises in giants named Kamacuras. As Maki explores the island, he finds a cast away woman named Saeko as the weather experiments inadvertently cause the mantises to grow even bigger. The mantises soon uncover a giant egg which contains a defenseless infant that is rescued by Godzilla. Maki and Saeko soon observe Godzilla adopt the infant as the monster learns to care for the child and raise it as one of his own.

Son of Godzilla
  • 1967

Shampoo

1 hr 50 mins

Thirty-something George Roundy is a Beverly Hills hairdresser, who spends as much time sleeping with his female clients as he does doing their hair. Whether they want to admit it, all the women in his life are for the most part aware that they are are not the only one with whom he is sleeping. And some, such as the wealthy and married Felicia Karpf, have a stronger emotional dependence on George than they would like to admit. George's current girlfriend is Jill, an up and coming actress. Jill's best friend is Jackie Shawn, one of George's old girlfriends who left him because he couldn't make a true commitment to her. In turn, Jackie is currently having an affair with Lester Karpf, Felicia's wealthy businessman husband. George is unhappy working at a salon owned by Norman, with whom he is constantly butting heads. In his first act of wanting finally to be a grown up, George wants to open his own salon, but doesn't have the financial resources to do it, and no bank will lend him money for the venture. Felicia at least convinces Lester to consider investing in George. On Monday, November 4, 1968, the eve of the presidential election, this group spends the evening together, first at a dinner party hosted by Lester, and then another private party. Lester asks his potential new business partner, George, to accompany his mistress Jackie, not knowing that George and Jackie know each other. Jill, who is invited to the party by Jackie, invites director Johnny Pope as her date, he who is considering her for a role in his next movie filming in Egypt and perhaps more. Over the course of the evening, George may come to the realization of what he wants in life both professionally and personally, but achieving happiness will depend upon others in his life, they who have known George up to this time only as an uncommitted narcissist.

Shampoo

Cotton Comes to Harlem

1 hr 37 mins

Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are two black cops with a reputation for breaking the odd head. Both are annoyed at the success of the Reverend Deke O'Mailey who is selling trips back to Africa to the poor on the installment plan. When his truck is hijacked and a bale of cotton stuffed with money is lost in the chase, Harlem is turned upside down by Gravedigger and Coffin Ed, the Reverend, and the hijackers. Much of the humor is urban black, which was unusual in 1970.

Cotton Comes to Harlem
  • 1970

All About My Mother

1 hr 41 mins

Argentine Manuela Echevarria, an organ transplant coordinator at a Madrid hospital, ran off from her husband in Barcelona eighteen years ago upon learning that she was pregnant. She has never told her son Esteban, an aspiring writer, about his father despite his curiosity. An event coinciding with Esteban turning seventeen leads to Manuela feeling the need to return to Barcelona to look for her husband. She ends up further acting as a maternal figure for people in need. One is a young nun named Sister Rosa, who she meets through her old friend, a transvestite prostitute who has assumed the name Agrado in her agreeable nature. Rosa has a strained relationship with her own conservative mother as she is consumed with caring for her ill husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's. The other is actress Huma Rojo, currently appearing as Blanche Dubois in a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which has long been a touchstone for Manuela, productions of it coinciding with milestone moments in her life. Huma is in a troubled codependent relationship with her younger costar Nina Cruz, a closet junkie, hence Huma's need for emotional support. By the end of her stay in Barcelona, Manuela will have another non-relative for whom she will feel the need to act as a mother figure.

All About My Mother

Punch-Drunk Love

1 hr 35 mins

Barry Egan hates himself and hates his life. The only male among eight siblings, Barry is treated poorly by his overbearing sisters. Despite owning his own business, he has gotten nowhere in life largely because of his insecurities. He leads a solitary life, which allows him to hide his violent outbursts that occur when he's frustrated. His solitude however allows him to think, he stumbling upon a scheme to travel the world on a pittance, travel which he has never done. Concurrently, he meets two people who pull him in two different directions. The first is Lena Leonard, a friend of his sister Elizabeth. Barry is slow to realize that Lena is attracted to him, he making her make all the first moves. Lena is eventually able to get Barry out of his shell, she who sticks around despite his obvious problems. His burgeoning relationship and thus new life with Lena is threatened by the second, "Georgia", who he contacted in an effort to alleviate his loneliness. Georgia and her "band of brothers" do whatever they can get get out of Barry what they want, no matter the price to Barry.

Punch-Drunk Love

Losing Ground

1 hr 26 mins

The first feature film directed by an African American woman, LOSING GROUND follows a black professor of philosophy as she embarks on an intellectual quest just as her painter husband, sets off on an exploration of joy. Victor decides to rent a country house away from the city, but the couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated by their extramarital explorations.

Losing Ground
  • 1982

Night on Earth

2 hrs 9 mins

A collection of five stories involving cab drivers in five different cities. Los Angeles - A talent agent for the movies discovers her cab driver would be perfect to cast, but the cabbie is reluctant to give up her solid cab driver's career. New York - An immigrant cab driver is continually lost in a city and culture he doesn't understand. Paris - A blind girl takes a ride with a cab driver from the Ivory Coast and they talk about life and blindness. Rome - A gregarious cabbie picks up an ailing man and virtually talks him to death. Helsinki - an industrial worker gets laid off and he and his compatriots discuss the bleakness and unfairness of love and life and death.

Night on Earth
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