Want something funny to watch on Netflix? ‘Course you do. Critic Luke Buckmaster has combed its archives and picked its greatest rib-ticklers.
Asteroid City (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIXVisually Asteroid City is bold and fastidious, in that quintessentially Wes Anderson way. It looks great—like pastel coloured ice cream—and again shows the auteur in complete control of the frame. Set in a small desert town in America, where people congregate for a stargazing event, it’s more funny odd than funny ha-ha. The actors play deadpan; the film is delightfully wonky.
Barbie (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIXA life-sized Barbie box is a symbol of oppression in Greta Gerwig’s wild and weird feministic statement. Margot Robbie’s protagonist embarks on a reverse Wizard of Oz trajectory, exiting a bizarro world to leave the matriarchy for the patriarchy. Barbie‘s massive success should remind Hollywood that contemporary blockbusters can still be political and provocative—not that studio bigwigs will want to put that to the test.
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Watch on NetflixArmando Iannucci’s ferociously sharp tragicomedy explores, with bone-dry wit, power-grabbing among top-level Russian ministers in the aftermath of the titular event. The drama is farcical; the comedy hurts. Like the British auteur’s also terrific In the Loop, The Death of Stalin has an addictive quality: the more you watch it the better it gets.
Dick Johnson is Dead (2020)
Watch on NetflixRefusing to accept that her elderly father is on the way out, director Kirsten Johnson decides to celebrate his life by killing him off in various ways—from crushing him with a falling air conditioner to making him bleed out on the street. Working on the premise that part of the lovable 84-year-old has already left the building, Johnson uses the personal documentary genre (i.e. Shirkers, Stories We Tell) to construct a Buñuelian outlook, the real world forming a kind of purgatory, or waiting room before the inevitable. It’s weirdly tender and sweet.
Dream Scenario (2023)
Watch on NetflixSporting a Costanza-esque receding hairline, Nicolas Cage brings an exasperated and whiny demeanour to biology professor Paul Matthews, who inexplicably begins appearing in the dreams of people he’s never met. This strange, sad, happy and surreal film starts to get very funny when Matthews realises he’s never doing much in these dreams; he’s just…there. It’s idiosyncratically plotted and original.
Eighth Grade (2018)
Watch on NetflixElsie Fisher’s leading performance in this very smart and tender film—as its 13-year-old protagonist Kayla—is so good she feels like a co-author of it. Following Kayla through her final days in middle school, writer/director Bo Burnham vividly captures the turbulence and angstiness of adolescence, focusing on Kayla’s twin existences: one in the physical world, the other online. The drama feels organic and pockets of humour take you by surprise.
The Half of It (2020)
Watch on NetflixYet another contemporary take on Cyrano de Bergerac, writer/director Alice Wu finds a fresh queer perspective in the story of a brainiac student (Leah Lewis) who writes beautiful love letters for a jock (Daniel Diemer). Amiable and well paced, it’s the sort of comedy that comes across as effortless—because the filmmaker made so many good decisions in their writing and direction.
Happy Gilmore (1996)
WATCH ON NETFLIXThe pretentiousness of golf collides with the dunderheadedness of Adam Sandler, in a comedy about the pain of watching somebody being naturally very good at something others have to work hard for. Happy Gilmore is smarter than its given credit—with a few things to say about snobbery and class divide.
Hit Man (2024)
WATCH ON NETFLIXRichard Linklater’s breezily enjoyable romantic comedy subverts the well-flogged assassin movie genre, revolving around a philosophy professor (Glen Powell) who pretends to be hit man for the police, then falls in love with one of his faux clients. It unfolds in a playfully low key, with a weirdly dichotomous tone: this film is almost sweetly sadistic.
The Holdovers (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIXIn Alexander Payne’s festive season dramedy Paul Giamatti delivers a vintage performance as a pompous, thoroughly slappable boarding school teacher who says things like “such as vicissitudes of life.” He condescends to the students but slowly warms to one of them, Dominic Sess’s Angus, when he’s forced to share the holidays with him. The film’s hard-earned emotions are heartwarming and the writing and direction top-notch.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
WATCH ON NETFLIXSet in Greenwich Village circa thed following a skinflint musician who dreams of making it, the Coen brothers tenderly salute the never-has-beens. There’s often a hip-hip-hooraying attached to stories of bygone movements, but this bittersweet film is better than that. I don’t consider it a comedy per se—but Netflix disagrees, and it’s too good not to include.
Kicking and Screaming (1995)
WATCH ON NETFLIXThere’s lot of gasbagging in Noah Baumbach’s feature debut, which like much of his work feels at times like a filmed play. The dialogue is very good and naturalistic, delivered by college student characters who seem to think that continuously talking replaces the need for, or is a form of, life progress. It’s well made and enjoyably wordy rather than funny ha-ha.
The Mask (1994)
Watch on NetflixProduced in the giddy era of 90s Jim Carrey comedies, the star’s rubber-faced antics inform the tone and even the aesthetic of this stupidly enjoyable film about a mild-mannered bank clerk who dons a magical mask and becomes a kind of live action cartoon—as Carrey always was. It’s a Jekyll and Hyde story and, in today’s context, a kind of anti-superhero movie, the protagonist transforming into a human pogo stick wreaking Looney Tunes style carnage.
Matilda (1996)
WATCH ON NETFLIXHere’s a kids movie that feels genuinely like it’s told from the perspective of children, depicting adults as cartoonish monsters. Adapted from Roald Dahl’s story of a precocious young girl—played by Mara Wilson—who excels despite her skid row upbringing, Danny DeVito brings a bubbly charm from the get-go.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Watch on NetflixBritish troupe Monty Python had a great knack for merging realities, crafting jokes sort of from this world and sort of not. Instead of riding a horse, for instance, Arthur (Graham Chapman) mimes riding one while a man behind him simulates the noise of horse hooves. The joke makes no sense but it doesn’t have to. This film’s structure is patchy and sketch-like, though, with the gags flowing thick and fast, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
Watch on NetflixHe’s not a messiah, he’s a very naughty boy! Monty Python’s beloved satire on western religion observes history and legend from a just-to-the-side perspective, with a protagonist (Graham Chapman) who was born in the stable next to Jesus. What could’ve been an exhausting single joke fest is padded out into a riotously entertaining film full of mirth—all the way till the final rib-tickling musical number.
Okja (2017)
WATCH ON NETFLIXTilda Swinton plays the Willy Wonka-esque CEO of a company that produces a not-so-sweet product: giant genetically engineered pigs to carve up and sell worldwide. Chaos ensues when a young girl (Seo-Hyun Ahn) puts up a fight to save the titular character’s bacon. There’s Spielbergian largesse in Bong Joon Ho’s brisk direction, but he goes places Spielberg wouldn’t—with pointy messages about anti-meat consumption and corporate malfeasance.
Orion and the Dark (2024)
Watch on NetflixThe target audience of Orion and the Dark, adapted by Charlie Kaufman from a 40-page children’s book, is viewers whose shoe size exceeds their age—but adults will have a blast with it too. The story, involving a neurotic little pipsqueak taken on big adventure to overcome his fears, doesn’t condescend to kids, and the writing and direction feels zany and fresh.
She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
Watch on NetflixShot on a shoestring budget over a couple of weeks, Spike Lee’s film about a polyamorous woman with three lovers is regarded as a breakthrough in depictions of African Americans (focusing on urbanites, intellectuals and deep thinkers) as well as in the American indie movement more broadly. Lee dabbles with different styles, including documentary techniques, in an affecting early work that has the decorum-breaking chutzpah of a young iconoclast.
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
WATCH ON NETFLIXJeff Daniels is brilliant in Noah Baumbach’s prickly comedy-drama centered around the collapse of a marriage and family unit. Which doesn’t sound like a hoot and a half, but Daniels is acidicly amusing from the first scene, bringing ruthless competitiveness to a family tennis match. The film is far from belly-up material, but it’s funny in a bitter and tangy way.
Superbad (2007)
WATCH ON NETFLIXThere’s a dangerous energy in Greg Mottola’s potty-mouthed coming-of-age flick, which gets away with a lot in the name of characterization. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) talk trash, going to the parties and getting wasted, in a film that balances earnestness and obscenity in surprisingly effective ways. Plus there’s McLovin; long live McLovin!
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Watch on NetflixMartin Scorsese dines on tales of personal and corporate excess, not to mention outright misogyny, drawing on the debaucherous memoir of former stockbroker (and convicted criminal) Jordan Belfort. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort and Jonah Hill as his right-hand man, hubris and hedonism is the name of the game—in a loud, fast, incongruous film that runs for three frantically paced hours.
Zoolander (2001)
WATCH ON NETFLIXBen Stiller’s goofy classic isn’t much of a satire despite obvious targets, i.e. fast fashion and vapid celebrities. And yet it’s stupidly entertaining even though it pelts audiences with variations of the same joke, revolving around the sheer dunderheadedness of Bruce Stiller’s “ridiculously good looking” male model, who’s brainwashed to murder the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
This guide is regularly updated to reflect changes in Netflix‘s catalogue. For a list of capsule reviews that have been removed from this page because they are no longer available on the platform, visit here.
