COMEDY DRAMA. “The Phoenician Scheme.” / “Murder at Hollow Creek.” / “Holmes & Watson.” / “Ingrid Goes West.” / “Black Dynamite.” / “Shaolin Soccer.” / “Room for Rent.”

“The Phoenician Scheme” (2025, Amazon Prime) black comedy espionage thriller, written and directed by Wes Anderson. A ruthless businessman seeks to reconcile with his estranged daughter and complete an ambitious infrastructure project in Phoenicia. 

       This movie's feast of stars is nothing but tantalizingly delicious: Benicio del Toro, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, F. Murray Abraham, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, and Bill Murray. (Forget Michael Cera, I never liked him.)

       Wes Anderson's gaudy, pastel-hued sets are, of course, the centerpiece of this film. Benicio del Toro's Zsa-Zsa Korda is vintage Benicio but that is expected of him. The real enchantment here is Mia Threapleton as Sister Liesl. Alluringly focused, she renders the wit and charm to a movie that is interestingly oblique as it is mystifyingly nonsensical. 🎥💻📽

“Murder at Hollow Creek” (2024, Fawesome) action-comedy thriller. A disbarred lawyer and his eccentric brother attempt a massive robbery to pay off medical bills for their dying sister. The plan goes wrong, trapping them in a dangerous game with a Serbian mobster. 

       In most cases, these veterans are fine performers: Mickey Rourke, Jason Patric, and Penelope Ann Miller. Mr Rourke as the crime boss Terry Petrovic also wears eyeliner, I think. Day job? And Mickey needed rent money. And these supposedly two leads, Keli Price and Jack Kesy, as brothers Gavin and Nick, where did they come from? 🎥💻📽

“Holmes & Watson” (2018, Amazon Prime) mystery comedy, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. The famed detective duo set out to find the culprit behind a threat at Buckingham Palace. 

       I am not saying Will Ferrell (with or without John C. Reilly) isn't funny. But this is not “Anchorman” (2004) or “Talladega Nights” (2006). This could be the worst take on the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson that I've seen, in any cinematic genre. To think that this farce also features a superb support cast: Kelly Macdonald, Steve Coogan and Ralph Fiennes. 🎥💻📽

“Ingrid Goes West” (2017, Tubi) black comedy drama. A young woman who moves to Los Angeles in an effort to befriend her Instagram idol. Stars Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. 

       I have been enjoying Aubrey Plaza lately. Dark comedy, drama thrillers, or any genre that she brings her deadpan humor and alluring theatrics into. I indulge! 

       As Ingrid Thorburn, a mentally unstable woman with attachment issues and obsessed with social media, Ms Plaza injects life and smarts into this otherwise pandering absurdity. 🎥💻📽

“Black Dynamite” (2009, Tubi) blaxploitation action comedy. A former CIA agent Black Dynamite must avenge his brother's death while cleaning the streets of a new drug that is ravaging the community. Stars Michael Jai White. 

       This is a fun movie, a hilarious but faithful send-up of 1970s blaxploitation movies, anchored by a game Michael Jai White. Director Scott Sanders delivered the texture, language, and slapstick action of those years, without sidesweeping into race politics, as some may have expected. 🎥💻📽

“Shaolin Soccer” (2001, Tubi) Hong Kong sports comedy about a former Shaolin monk who reunites his five brothers, years after their master's death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play soccer and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses.

       Highly-recommended, wildly hilarious companions are “The God of Cookery” (1996) and “Kung Fu Hustle” (2004). That is, if you'd like an escape in riotous slapstick cinema. Laugh all weekend. But no green jokes, brown jokes or “political humor” crap. Just deft, effects-pumped silliness. 

       A masterful filmmaking handiwork of Stephen Chow (who is also the star), “Shaolin Soccer” is a  laugh-till-you-drop ridiculousness that is Looney Tunes and The Three Stooges combo, but deliciously cooked up as a Hong Kong soccer/martial arts chopsuey. 

       So exercise those Social Media snackered jaws, and laugh!!! 🎥👍📽

“Room for Rent” (2017, Amazon Prime) Canadian comedy/mystery. About an unmotivated 32-year-old former lottery winner living with his parents. To avoid selling the family home after his father is forced to retire, he convinces his parents to rent out a spare room. However, their new tenant has a hidden and sinister agenda. 

       The story is not the dark sitcom bluster that Brett Gelman's wry humor frolics in. But still, this movie offers him some elbow room to indulge his brand of comedy. Not so bad. This is tolerable. 🎥💻📽