Highly-rated yet little-known movies

agoodmovietowatch suggests excellent movies (and recently shows) that you might not know about.

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Looking for a funny movie to watch entails both that the film will make you laugh and that you have not yet seen it. agoodmovietowatch recommends highly-rated (good) but little-known films, by genre and year of release, etc – but also by mood. Below is a list of comedy movies, sometimes also from another genre, that our staff picked as recommendations you can discover.

You can also switch to browsing all our best comedy movies on Netflix and elsewhere by selecting “Comedy” from our “Genre” header menu.

Comedy
New This Month

Produced by Eminem, Bodied is like if the rap battles of 8 Miles lasted a whole movie, and that movie was a comedy. Adam is a white poetry major who studies battle rap and believes they represent the most modern form of poetry. His fascination leads him to participate and win in a battle and subsequently enter that world. But this is anything but an underdog story - Bodied is more of a satire of what Adam represents and how his college entourage reacts to his offensive lyrics. This is a funny movie and an interesting commentary on what it means to be offensive nowadays.

7.6

Comedy

Co-produced by the BBC and HBO, Extras is about - you guessed it - casting extras. It follows two aspiring actors as they interact with big names in the industry like Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kate Winslet.The first episode finds Ben Stiller directing a genocide movie while bragging about the success of Dodgeball. Gervais’ character tries to get a line in the movie while hilariously avoiding interactions with other extras.A funny TV show set in an original setting (film sets) and around many familiar faces, Extras is not to be missed if you’re a comedy fan.

8.2

Comedy

Thunder Road is both a single-shot 13 minute short and a 91-minute feature-film expanding the story. Both are excellent and award-winning, but I really recommend the full experience!Jim Cummings (above) is the director, writer, and main actor of this dark comedy. He plays a police officer having the worst day of his life as he tries to sing Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road at his mother’s funeral.This sight is funny, and so is most of the story. But it’s also cringe-inducing, and because the main character is so sincere in his decline, will make you feel guilty about laughing so much.

7.4

Comedy

PEN15 is a funny sitcom about two friends going through middle-school in the year 2000. The show's creator Maya Erskine plays one of the two characters, who just like most of the show is based on her own life. Erskine's genius in PEN15 is her ability to wrap her own insecurities and hardships growing up in genuinely funny comedy. You might be asking how can a 13-year-old create a TV show and star in it? They can't, Erskine is in her 30s but plays her 13-year-old-self. Her performance and that of her co-star are one more exceptional sight to behold in this hilarious and personal TV show.

8.1

Comedy

Tim Robinson, who was briefly a Saturday Night Live actor, writes and stars in this series of hilarious and absurd comedy sketches. Every episode is 20 minutes or less and has about five or six skits. Robinson is supported by an array of talented actors like Andy Samberg, Cecily Strong, Will Forte, and Steven Yeun.The show starts off strong with possibly one of its best sketches - a job candidate who snaps when confronted with the small mishap of not knowing how to open a door. Then it moves to more absurd territory, like a horrific encounter caused by a “honk if you’re horny” sticker, a baby peageant that goes wrong, and so on.The brand of comedy is unique, and you will probably know if you like it or not from the first sketch alone (if you don’t, there is probably no reason to keep watching). Fans of The Eric Andre Show and Key and Peele will love this.

7.1

Comedy
1

A razor-sharp script and beautiful scenery make this one of the best road movies in recent memory.When their cynical best friend dies, Seph and Alex embark on a journey to scatter his ashes over four spots he wants to go back to. Tupperware of ashes in the glove-box, they start their big adventure.Burn Burn Burn, an expression their friend quotes from Kerouac, is a chance for the two friends to escape their hectic city life and to discover themselves. It’s a beautiful movie.

8.0

Comedy

This is a slightly weird and not so slightly quirky movie to be avoided by anyone with a low tolerance to the weird or quirky. Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Frances Ha) and Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, also Frances Ha) write the story, while Gerwig plays a lead role. Two girls, one a New Yorker and the other having just arrived in New York for a writing program, get in touch because their parents will marry. The writer is fascinated by the personality of the New Yorker and follows her everywhere to understand her more, and eventually write about her. Mistress America is their journey through friendship and through New York. Stick around the first 40 minutes or so, because the second half of this 82-minute movie is hilarious.

7.0

Comedy

This is an HBO dark comedy that was intensely loved by anyone who knew about it before it was inexplicably canceled.Laura Dern plays a corporate executive who has a full-blown meltdown. I’m talking mascara streaming down her cheeks and screaming “I’m going to destroy you” to a coworker.When she comes back from a retreat in Hawaii she is forced to take, Den’s character is no longer filled with corporate rage but with inexplicable and almost obnoxious positivity. She tries to spread her new outlook around by giving people books like “Flow Through Your Rage” and telling them about sea turtles. Things get more real when she decides to take on her old company’s abuses.I think the reason this show has such hard-core fans is that they fell in love with Laura Dern’s character. Watching this show is like letting in a flawed, dependent, but extremely determined and well-meaning person into your life.Enlightened is funny, engaging, and all-around near-perfect TV.

8.0

Comedy

This is a hilarious political comedy starring the ever-great Steve Buscemi. Set in the last days before Stalin's death and the chaos that followed, it portrays the lack of trust and the random assassinations that characterized the Stalinist Soviet Union. Think of it as Veep meets Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator. Although to be fair, its dark comedy props are very different from the comedy that comes out today: where there are jokes they're really smart, but what's actually funny is the atmosphere and absurd situations that end up developing.

8.1

Comedy
4

If you liked Superbad, you will love Booksmart. It's a funny coming-of-age movie about two best friends who embark on one last crazy night before their high-school ends. Sounds like something you've seen before? Don't worry, it's not. This movie might be for fans of smart coming-of-age comedies, but it's very different from them. It's current, creating situations and premises for jokes that haven't been explored before, ranging from taking a Lyft and finding out the driver is their school principal; to mistakenly connecting to his car's sound system while trying to get educated on how two women have sex. The girls in Booksmart are overachieving, fiercely supportive of each other, and yet in the right context, ready to let go and have fun. In short, their endearing attitude makes this movie not only funny but extremely likely to charm your socks off.

9.0
BF

Comedy
1

In After Life, Ricky Gervais plays a kind-hearted journalist who turns dark after his wife passes away.Her parting gift to him is a video manual on how to deal with life. But his pessimism and annoyance with people keep delaying him from watching it. Worst of all, a new recruit at the newspaper is assigned to work with him. Her determined personality not only further delays him from dealing with his sadness, but gives him the platform to be even darker and more pessimistic.After Life is a mix of dark humor, straightforward drama, and tragedy. It’s a difficult story packaged in the easiest and most digestible TV form. The episodes are quick, have clear arcs and plot; and yet, you won’t be able to shake the feeling that you’re watching something much deeper than a Ricky Gervais comedy.

7.6
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