10 Modern Comedy Movies That Will Someday Be Cult Classics
What are the ingredients for a film to become a cult classic? There’s not a clear formula. What’s for sure, is that it has to be a fun comedy with a great rewatchability factor that becomes better and better the more times you see it. Here are 10 modern comedies that we believe will be cult classics someday.
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
Paramount Pictures
Everybody Wants Some!! is Richard Linklater’s spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused. This time, the story is in the 1980s, about Jake (Blake Jenner), a baseball player arriving at college and spending his first weekend there with his new teammates.
As with any Linklater film, the vibe and the “I would hang out with these people” lovability is what makes the movie great, becoming a very fun way to spend a couple of hours. The movie also has a fantastic cast (that are also believable baseball players), from Jenner to Zoey Deutch, as the love interest, TV’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, Ryan Guzman, and Glen Powell in his breakout role.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Universal Pictures
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a uniquely strange movie where Scott must fight his new romantic interest's seven ex-boyfriends, who have even formed a league of evil exes to fight him. The film has a fun, weird sense of humor, and it’s a great way to show how talented Edgar Wright is.
Michael Cera is a great lead, and this was one of the first times audiences noticed Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but what’s surprising is how well cast the film is, as most of its roles, even the smaller ones, are performed with actors who have become household names. The cast includes Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Alison Pill, Brie Larsen, Brandon Routh, Ellen Wong, and Mark Webber, making for a who-is-who of today’s industry, including Oscar winners, superheroes, and Roman Roy. Not bad, not bad at all.
Palm Springs (2020)
Hulu
Palm Springs is one of the best movies about being stuck on the same day. It all starts when Nyles (Andy Samberg) is at a wedding trying to seduce bridesmaid Sarah (Cristin Milioti). It’s all going great until he’s attacked by Roy (J.K. Simmons), and he tries to escape by entering a cave. From then on, every day he wakes up on the same day, the day of his sister’s wedding.
This film is an R-rated version of Groundhog Day, but the fact that she’s also repeating her day makes for a much better rom-com (let’s face it, Rita didn’t have that much personality and agency in that film), and it’s as funny as they come. The chemistry between Samberg and Milioti is off the charts, and the script capitalizes greatly on the same-day-repeating scenario. It also has a beautiful climax, where Nyles’ speech, full of grammatical errors, is as cute and endearing as in any romantic comedy ever.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Columbia Pictures
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was such a good parody of the music biopic that the genre hasn’t recovered since. This mockumentary tells the story of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly proving he's one of the greatest comedians, and one of the most underrated of his generation), a musician who has all the topics of the genre (drug problems, a deceased brother, playing with some of the most famous musicians ever), while playing every style of rock music imaginable.
The film has a sharp script that parodies every one of the music biopic topics, but what’s even greater, is its soundtrack, as it’s not easy to parody songs (with great lyrics) of styles as different as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, or Jerry Lee Lewis. About the music in the film, actor John C. Reilly told The Ringer: “There was a lot of heart put into it by a lot of people. Some musicians don’t write 35 original songs in their entire career. And we wrote 35 in six months.”
Frances Ha (2013)
RT Features
Frances Ha tells the story of Frances (Greta Gerwig), a woman in her quarter-life crisis. While everyone around her starts getting paired and knowing what they want from their lives, Frances is still a confused mess, making worse and worse decisions.
This film was the breakout role for Gerwig, one she co-wrote with director Noah Baumbach, and it works because of her performance. Her Frances is all joy and enthusiasm for life, whatever the circumstances, making audiences root for her from start to finish, while also showing how hard life can be in New York when you’re not rich and are a bit lost. This might not be a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it has as much soul, and heartfelt moments, that when it makes you smile, you do it with all your heart.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Universal Pictures
Andy Samberg, Akiva Shaffer, and Jorma Taccone are The Lonely Island comedy group, and they started to get noticed doing digital shorts on Saturday Night Live. After that, they had great success with parody songs and movies. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping might be the best of them all. This comedy makes fun of the egotistical, dumb pop stars and the world of yes-men that surround them.
Andy Samberg gives a great performance as Conner, being the butt of the joke, but the film also has some heart, as it becomes a story about friendship.
There are a thousand jokes per minute, and most of them are hilarious, but what makes the film even better is the dumb songs Conner sings; from “I’m So Humble”, to “Bin Laden” and, especially “Incredible Thoughts”, proving that all the fun ideas they had in their SNL days, are still there, and making for one of the funniest movies (and kind of musicals) in the last decade.
Related: These Are 10 of the Best Mockumentaries
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Mirror Releasing/Focus Features
A surrealist comedy making fun of capitalism and how the game is rigged for Black people? In this world? It makes perfect sense that Sorry to Bother You will become a cult classic, as it’s criticizing some of the things that have become even worse since the movie came out five years ago.
This capitalist satire movie is a must-watch, not only for its great story, where a Black man (LaKeith Stanfield) becomes a success story in telemarketing when he starts using his “white voice”, but also for the twist the film has at the end, and a more than stacked cast. Stanfield is the lead as Cassius Green (sounds like "cash is green"), but he’s supported by Tessa Thompson, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hummer, Terry Crews, and Omari Hardwick. This was Boots Riley’s first film, and we can’t recommend enough his next project, the TV series I’m a Virgo.
Good Boys (2019)
Universal Pictures
Good Boys is what happens when you use the Apatow formula with a bunch of tweens. This might be thought of a gross comedy for middle schoolers, but it’s also a film about growing up and friendship. The young cast is great, especially Jacob Tremblay, who went from the dark drama The Room to this R-rated comedy in less than four years, and it’s still adorable, while saying some of the dirtiest things ever.
About his favorite scene, actor Jacob Tremblay told Vulture: “My favorite scene would be the paintball scene because we kind of did it in one shot, almost. Everyone was dodging, running under the tables, and the pots and plates were smashing everywhere! And I remember when I was preparing for that, I watched that one scene from the first Matrix, when Neo is shooting the guns and doing the slow-motion flips. You can tell I’m harnessing Keanu Reeves in that one scene.”
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
StudioCanal
Shaun of the Dead is the first film of the Cornetto Trilogy, and as such, it already has cult status for many, but what makes it a future cult classic is the brilliant mix of genres that only Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost are able to navigate, creating a zombie movie that’s also much more.
The movie is all about Sean (Pegg), a sad sack slacker who, surprisingly, is much better at living in a zombie apocalypse than in early 2000s Britain. This might be the first zom-com (zombie romantic movie), as the film has as many crazy zombie killings as moments where Sean tries to spend time with the girl he likes.
Related: Why the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy is One of the Best of All Time
Booksmart (2019)
Annapurna Pictures
Booksmart tells the story of Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), two model students who, the day before graduation, discover that all their schoolmates are also going to great colleges while also having had great social lives full of fun experiences in the last four years. This discovery makes Molly and Amy have one last crazy night as students, where they’ll try to have as many high school experiences as possible.
The script that became this film had already garnered some attention on the Black List, and the direction of first-time director Olivia Wilde made it even better. The chemistry between the two leads is unbelievably good, and it’s one of the best movies that pass the Bechdel Test.
Feldstein and Dever go all in on making their quirky characters be as real as possible, and the ensemble is full of actors who have done great things since; from Mason Gooding to Skyler Gisondo, Diana Silvers, (just appeared on The Bear) Molly Gordon, and Billie Lourd in a scene-stealing performance. All these ingredients together, make for a future cult classic, one of the best.
Source: MovieWeb
