I put Catherine Called Birdy on one Saturday afternoon, expecting it to be enjoyable background fare while I played some games and did some work around the house. The movie excels through its layered portrayals of Birdy and her father - neither is pure hero or pure villain, and Dunham complicates the book’s portrayal of the two to much success. A strong-willed girl with a penchant for playfulness and mischief, Birdy is intent on disrupting her father’s plans for her. Ramsey plays a young girl named Birdy, whose father (Scott) is attempting to arrange a marriage for her in order to save the family’s finances. It’s a warm story about the difficulties of teenage girlhood and all the expectations that come with it in any era (but especially medieval times), anchored by excellent central performances from Bella Ramsey ( Game of Thrones) and Andrew Scott ( Fleabag). Lena Dunham’s adaptation of the beloved children’s novel is an outstanding coming-of-age story that is the rare book-to-movie adaptation done right. Book ClubĬast: Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott, Billie Piper The Birdcage is available to stream on Prime Video, with a library card on Hoopla, for free with ads on Pluto TV and Tubi, or for digital rental or purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu. To quote a bird (albeit one typically not found in a cage): It’s an absolute hoot. They’re normal, and at the time, that felt radical. The best part of The Birdcage isn’t the drag performances, although those remain a delight - instead it’s the movie’s portrayal of the middle-aged mundanities of two gay dads existing in the ’90s. The Birdcage shows all the ways that gender is a performance through its rapid-fire wit and absurd situations, shying away from the preachiness you might expect of a comedy about conservatives forced to face their fears of all things queer. It’s all the more impressive that the central joke of the 1996 movie is that Albert can’t manage to pass as straight, not even for the benefit of his son’s fiancée’s extremely conservative family. It’s hard to even imagine Nathan Lane as unconfident about anything in his life, especially when it comes to his melodramatic, hilarious portrayal of drag queen Starina (and her alter-ego, the not-so-mild-mannered Albert) in The Birdcage - but Lane was still in the closet at the time. Nathan Lane, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest are all hilarious in this sendup of culture clashes and the moral panic of American conservativism.Īs Polygon’s Maddy Myers put it in our list of the best LGBTQ comedies you can watch at home: Mike Nichols’ classic adaptation of La Cage aux Folles is a hilarious subversion of your typical “two wildly different families have to get along when their children fall in love” romantic comedy. Spy is available to stream on Max, or for digital rental or purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.Ĭast: Nathan Lane, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman Add in scene-stealing turns from Jason Statham as an overconfident Bond parody, Allison Janney as McCarthy’s skeptical boss, and appearances by Bobby Cannavale, Peter Serafinowicz, and Miranda Hart, and you’ve got a rollicking good time (with terrific action shot by Day Shift director J.J. Spy is the rare exception, and it’s finally more broadly available to watch at home after its addition to the Max catalog.Ī sendup of espionage movies from director Paul Feig ( Bridesmaids, Freaks and Geeks), it stars a pitch-perfect Melissa McCarthy as a desk worker for the CIA who is forced into active duty when her partner (Jude Law) is killed by the daughter of an arms dealer (Rose Byrne, who is positively delightful in this). Our latest update to this list added Spy as an editor’s pick.Ĭast: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason StathamĪs the biggest blockbusters in the world have become more and more comedy-oriented, there’s been less space for true comedies in theaters. If you’re only looking for the best comedy movies on Netflix, we’ve got you covered there, too. Here are our picks for the best comedy movies you can watch at home right now. Whether it’s a romantic comedy that makes your heart sing while bringing out a smile or a gut-busting laugh-out-loud comedy, we have a variety of options sure to bring you laughter and brighten up your night. We’ve compiled a list of the best comedy movies you can watch at home, scraping streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max, as well as free services, to find the best of the best. But Hollywood has been in a comedic rut in recent years, with fewer and fewer notable releases from big studios.īut fear not, dear reader - we know how to find some good laughs. Even action movies have had some stellar recent releases. Comedy can feel like an ignored genre in modern moviemaking.
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