![]() ![]() The set and character design imbues a palpable adoration for the decade of acid wash jeans, glossy underground magazines and VHS tape fuzz, which conveys a genuine appreciation for the cult classics churned out during the ‘80s-even if it sometimes trips into the very tropes it wishes to unpack. The gritty, glowing neon textures of the ‘80s cover practically every frame of director Cody Calahan’s Vicious Fun, a horror-comedy caper that lovingly sends up the era’s genre tropes while never breaching egregious self-indulgence. Happily is a hoot-sharply made, wonderfully acted, and clear proof of Grabinski’s present skill and future potential.- Andy Crump But that speaks to the specificity of Grabinski’s vision, and to the familiar, acrid social dynamic Tom and Janet share with their horrible friends. “Horror-romantic-thriller-comedy-party movie” does Happily little justice. Grabinski isn’t the first filmmaker to blend genres, but it’s not every day genres are blended so well that basic qualifiers for describing them all feel ill-suited for the picture they’re being applied to. First-time feature helmer Grabinski firmly steers his script away from sticking in one mode or another: It’s neither purely scary, nor purely tense, nor purely hilarious, but instead most or all of these at once, producing a uniquely unnerving tone where shortness of breath in one moment instantaneously gives way to cackles in the next. Happily lives in the porous space between genres, where horror, thriller and several stripes of comedy-notably dark and romantic-commingle with one another. Still, they’re seen as weird, which means their pals are jealous, which is why they’re disinvited from a weekend getaway. Sure, there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed regarding public displays of affection, but Tom and Janet have the good decency to play (most) of their grab-ass games just out of view. They’re desperately in love and their friends can’t stand it. The subjects of their animus are Tom (Joel McHale) and Janet (Kerry Bishé), married for 14 years and incapable of not sneaking off to the bathroom at someone else’s house party for a quickie. In writer/director BenDavid Grabinski’s Happily, the pricks are Karen (Natalie Zea), Val (Paul Scheer), Patricia (Natalie Morales), Donald (Jon Daly), Maude (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Carla (Shannon Woodward), Richard (Breckin Meyer) and Gretel (Charlene Yi). Here are our picks for the 20 best comedy movies of the year: 2021, perhaps expectedly, wasn’t too forthcoming with its humorous movies, but if you know where to look, there are plenty of gems. Slacker anime, werewolf horror-comedy, and Jewish socio-sexual terror are all represented. It gave us dog-sized flies, human-sized weasels, and a prank film that’ll make your heart grow ten sizes. It gave us new Wes Anderson and Quentin Dupieux films. It allowed rising stars like Jim Cummings, Patti Harrison, Natalie Morales, Janicza Bravo and Rachel Sennott to ascend while reaching a hand down to fallen himbo angel Simon Rex. ![]() But that left plenty of room for sneaky hybrids, unexpected indies and, yes, even a few big-budget studio films to claim a monopoly on the year’s laughs. The comedies of 2021 truly hit some all-time lows, with big franchises, reboots, remakes and pretty much everything given to our young cinemagoers seemingly vying for the top spot in a soullessness competition. ![]()
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