What happened to the modern comedy film? They still arrive in cinemas, but few stick around as they used to. The romcom is no longer a staple. The teen romp is nowhere near as bankable as the big dumb family flick.
With that in mind we have, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, gathered the 25 best from that period for you to stream, rent or (you never know) take down from the shelf.
The usual compromises apply. No more than one film per director. The century begins in 2000. We are leaving animation for another day. And, yes, all these films are comedies. That genre can deal with the grimmest of issues.
All titles listed as streaming are also available to rent from services such as Apple, Sky and Google.
25. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Michael Morris, 2025
By far the best in the Bridget Jones series. Far better than it needed to be. Jonsey slips into middle age with enormous dignity. Hugh Grant softens his definitive cad. Available to rent. Read our full review here
24. Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Larry Charles, 2006
One sensed a certain cooling, over time, on the borderline racism in this first Borat film’s treatment of its title character, but the sequel was a smash – and picked up an Oscar nomination – during the Covid years. Still funny. Streaming on Prime Video
23. Force Majeure
Ruben Östlund, 2014
Ruben Östlund has since won the Palme d’Or twice, but he has yet to surpass this excruciating comedy about a dad abandoning his family to an avalanche. Yes, it’s a variation on George Costanza fleeing the fire in Seinfeld, but so what? Available to rent. Read our full review here
22. The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh, 2022
Not every Irish person was on board with the heightened version of island life, but Martin McDonagh’s taste for the mordant humour remains as pungent as ever. “How’s the despair?” Streaming on Disney+. Read our full review here
21. Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley, 2018
Boots Riley’s satirical swipe at corporate insensitivity came out of nowhere to carve out its own space. LaKeith Stanfield plays a black man who adopts a white persona to succeed at work – with predictably compromising results. Available to rent. Read our full review here
20. The Death of Stalin
Armando Iannucci, 2017
Armando Iannucci assembled an incomparable cast – Simon Russell Beale, Steve Buscemi, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Palin and more – to make a grimly hilarious study of what happened after Stalin left the planet. Jason Isaacs stands out for his bluff Yorkshire take on Field Marshal Zhuko. Streaming on Netflix. Read our full review here
19. Love & Friendship
Whit Stillman, 2016
It may be a stretch to call this the best Jane Austen adaptation – Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility probably retains that title – but Whit Stillman’s take on the author’s obscure Lady Susan is surely the funniest. Shot in Ireland. Streaming on Disney+ and Mubi. Read our full review here
18. 24 Hour Party People
Michael Winterbottom, 2002
Steve Coogan stars as Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records, in the definitive take on Manchester’s postpunk scene. “It’s a pity you didn’t sign the Smiths,” God tells him. “But you were right about Mick Hucknell. His music’s rubbish.” Streaming on Plex
17. The Lobster
Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015
Yorgos Lanthimos’s transition from Greek weird wave to the quasi-mainstream of Poor Things and The Favourite began with this pitch-black Irish production set in a world where the single life is not tolerated. Colin Farrell is heartbreakingly pathetic. Rachel Weisz is equally strong. Available to rent. Read our full review here
16. Shaun of the Dead
Edgar Wright, 2004
Pretty much nobody saw it coming when Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, colleagues from the TV show Spaced, moved into cinema with an endlessly inventive pastiche of the zombie film. Pegg is now in Mission: Impossible. Wright is all over Hollywood. Available to rent
15. Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2003
Paul Thomas Anderson essentially asks what life would be like with an Adam Sandler character in the real world. The answer is: pretty darn terrifying. Emily Watson is equally strong as a variation on the demure heroines who fall for Sandler in his mainstream comedies. Streaming on Prime Video
14. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, 2014
Opinions vary on what has become of Wes Anderson. Some think he has gone from strength to strength. Others feel he has slipped into self-parody. But all agree he was at the top of his game with this period comedy inspired by the work of Stefan Zweig. Ralph Fiennes confirms his comic chops. Streaming on Disney+. Read our full review here
13. May December
Todd Haynes, 2023
A masterpiece of unsettling tone from Todd Haynes. Natalie Portman catches up with Julianne Moore some years after the latter’s character got in hot water for an affair with a teenager. Pitched at the level of comic melodrama throughout. Streaming on Sky Cinema. Read our full review here
12. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Jake Kasdan, 2007
Twenty years after This Is Spinal Tap finished off the rockumentary, Jake Kasdan’s comedy did the same for the music biopic. John C Reilly’s Dewey Cox is Jim Morrison. He’s Johnny Cash. He’s Brian Wilson. “I want an army of didgeridoos!” Available to rent
11. Sexy Beast
Jonathan Glazer, 2000
Yes, the director of Zone of Interest does make this list. Jonathan Glazer’s debut feature is one of a kind: a geezer gangster film that features an unclassifiable comic performance from Ben Kingsley. His Don Logan is simultaneously terrifying and hilarious. Available to rent
10. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Radu Jude, 2023
Entirely original satire from the Romanian oddball Radu Jude about a young woman seeking cast members for a corporate video in contemporary Bucharest. Makes swift turns at every juncture. Ruthlessly funny throughout. Available to rent. Read our full review here
9. Adaptation
Spike Jonze, 2002
Spike Jonze and the writer Charlie Kaufman followed up Being John Malkovich with an alleged adaptation of Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief that largely abandoned the text for an investigation of the screenwriting process. Nicolas Cage, as Charlie and his fictional brother Donald, has never been better. Streaming on Mubi and Plex
8. Get Out
Jordan Peele, 2017
Few films listed under “comedy” at the Golden Globes generated more disagreement than Jordan Peele’s rattling horror about a young black man embarrassed by the patronising – but initially benign – attentions of white liberals. The film is, however, plainly a descendant of Peele’s satirical TV sketches on race. Available to rent. Read our full review here
7. Songs from the Second Floor
Roy Andersson, 2000
Roy Andersson’s 21st-century films are always the same yet always surprising. As was the case with later projects, this sombre, wry collection of sketches finds various Swedes trapped in comic despair. “What can I say? It’s not easy being human,” one character says. True enough. Available to rent
6. Step Brothers
Adam McKay, 2008
Like Walk Hard – another John C Reilly flick on our list – Adam McKay’s comedy landed softly with audiences and critics before going on to become an endlessly quoted classic. “You and your mom are hillbillies,” he tells his new stepbrother, Will Ferrell. “This is a house of learned doctors!” Streaming on Prime Video
5. Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach, 2012
Noah Baumbach looked to have lost his way with missteps such as Greenberg before teaming up with Greta Gerwig and finding a lighter touch with this tale of a young woman contemplating her own lack of direction in a monochrome New York City. Streaming on Prime Video. Read our full review here
4. A Serious Man
Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009
So many options this century from Joel and Ethan Coen. This intricate tale of an academic in 1960s Minnesota losing his cool as his wife falls for another man and his son takes up marijuana just steals it from O Brother Where Art Thou? and Inside Llewyn Davis. Available to rent
3. Team America: World Police
Trey Parker, 2004
The US didn’t really get it at the time, but the South Park team’s puppet-led examination of the war on terror has given the world endless memes. In truth it’s as much about Hollywood’s self-indulgence as it is about global politics. “You are worthress, Arec Barrwin!” Streaming on Paramount+
2. Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
The most satisfactory retooling of screwball comedy since the 1950s. There is real poignancy to Mikey Madison’s performance, but the picture is most memorable for the clattering pace of its pursuits through New York City. Antic madness combined with emotional depth. Winner of the Palme d’Or and best-picture Oscar. Available to rent. Read our full review here
1. Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig, 2017
Greta Gerwig looks back to her own upbringing in Sacramento, in California, and discovers a wealth of teenage traumas for Saoirse Ronan’s plucky title character to process. The tense relationship between Lady Bird and her mother – a brittle Laurie Metcalf – is particularly well handled. A contemporary classic. Available to rent. Read our full review here
