Seriously Funny: Finding New Labels for Dark Films that make us Laugh
Appeared in Sundance Daily Insider, 2008On a recent episode of the Sundance Channel’s series Iconoclasts, comedian Mike Myers told the audience, “Nothing is so bad if it can be laughed at.” If that sentiment is to be believed, then it might explain why so many films at this year’s Festival take a comedic approach to some very dark themes. Loneliness, addiction, breakups, sexual abuse, and suicide all take turns at being fertile soil for humor. But just because these movies manage to turn your frown upside down doesn’t mean they’re intended to be comedies. The question of where comedy ends and drama begins looms over many of these films and leaves the filmmakers searching for labels that go beyond standard Hollywood genres.
“I always cringe when somebody labels my film a comedy,” said director Geoff Paley about The Last Word, in which a young man makes his living by writing other people’s suicide notes and inadvertently meets a girl at the funeral of one of his clients. “I cringe even more when someone labels it a romantic comedy,” he added. “I can’t blame people because I think in this country we don’t really have a label for this type of film. Films generally get classified into dramas or comedies or thrillers … I would say this is more of a quirky drama.”
Paley comes by his pedigree for “quirky drama” honestly. He was working on HBO’s Six Feet Under, another show that defies traditional classification, while developing the script for The Last Word. “I don’t think anyone who’s seen Six Feet Under would call it a comedy,” he said. “But it’s certainly quirky, and it certainly has some very funny, if not morbid, moments. So that was the environment I was in when I was fleshing out the specific ideas for the screenplay.”
“A story about suicide is always a very touchy, delicate, often ill-advised place to go – because it’s such an incredibly taboo and dark topic, especially in this culture,” he added. “You really have to approach it from a more morbidly funny aspect.” Paley said he referred to films like Harold and Maude, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Luc Besson’s The Professional to help lock down what he calls the “very precarious line” between comedy and drama. “These are all films that deal with issues that could be very unpalatable and extraordinarily challenging to the psyche in somebody who has firsthand experience of these types of things.”
In the case of filmmaker Anna Negri, she herself had experienced firsthand the subject of her film. “It’s true, the film has an autobiographical origin,” she admitted. Good Morning Heartache centers on a young woman whose actor boyfriend leaves her and their small baby to go “find himself.” She suffers terribly, particularly when her ex quickly falls in love with another woman, leaving her and her baby to fend for themselves. “I think you could call my film tragicomic,” said Negri. “It’s kind of a roller coaster. We were not afraid of moving from one tone to another. … In Italian we call [humor] a “safety valve,” she adds. “You know what I mean? Like in a really sad situation, suddenly for me I have a kind of ironic detachment. And I just watch it from outside and it seems very comical.”
Blue Eyelids also centers around a problematic relationship, one in which two desperately lonely people come together, not necessarily because they want to, but because they have no one else. When faced with the consequences of winning an all-expenses-paid trip for two, Marina – single since high school – begins a desperate search for a friend to join her. After coming up with nothing, she runs into a former classmate (whom she doesn’t even remember) and asks him to go. He agrees, and what follows is what director Ernesto Contreras contends is the “antithesis of the traditional romantic comedy.”
“I’d call it a dry comedy,” said the filmmaker, “I wanted to convey universal human feelings in an intimate, bittersweet yet merciless way… I believe that this equation results, on the one hand, the characters being very likeable, and on the other hand, it results in a smile that is the consequence of a subtle humor that makes us laugh but at the same time hurts.”
Clark Gregg’s film Choke depicts the challenges of relationships too, but against the backdrop of far more raw subject matter than any of the aforementioned films. Based on the book by Fight Club writer Chuck Palaniuk (who is no stranger to dark themes), the main character Victor (Sam Rockwell) is a sex addict struggling to come to terms with the difficult life he led under the influence of his unstable mother (Angelica Huston) and the complete absence of a father. While the plotline may sound like a drama – or even a tragedy – the film is undeniably funny. “Oh yeah, it’s definitely a comedy,” agreed Gregg. “That’s what we were going for.”
In fact, humor was one of the things that drew Gregg to the book. “It takes some very difficult, painful stuff – especially with regard to the protagonist’s sexual compulsion – and manages to explore it in a way that is both emotionally truthful and really funny,” he explained.
One very important element for Gregg was casting the right actors – the wrong people could have conveyed a very different mood. “I believe that there are some actors that are more comfortable with heavy, dramatic moments, and there are some that are more comfortable with comedy,” he commented. “And then there are some – a very, very small group of them who can do both. We got really lucky when we got Sam Rockwell because he’s the king of that. He’s one of the few people with that kind of dexterity. And I think Angelica Huston is too.”
Mariana Palka’s film Good Dick also deals with the main character’s sexual issues – but unlike Choke, the tone is serious. In fact, despite the humorous title and the audience’s inevitable laughter, this film isn’t going for the funny bone. “I wouldn’t consider my film to be a comedy at all,” said the filmmaker. “But that’s not to say I don’t think it’s funny in some instances.”
Good Dick revolves around a disgruntled young woman who regularly visits a video store to rent porn movies, and the store clerk who falls in love with her. She rebukes his advances time and time again, yet for some reason does allow him into her life, albeit in the most dysfunctional way possible. The film doesn’t reveal her dark secret until the end, creating a nervous tension throughout the film that often leaves the viewer laughing. “I do think sometimes the most dramatic things in life are really, really funny,” Palka said. “I’ll go see a tragic play and laugh at the most inappropriate things, things that aren’t necessarily funny. … In that respect, I don’t think it’s bad if people are laughing at the film in moments that aren’t meant to be humorous,” she added. “It’s true that good drama is comic and good comedy is tragic.”
Festival programmer Trevor Groth agrees. “The root of comedy, and its purpose, is to create moments in life where you forget about all your troubles,” he said. “I don’t think it’s intended to sweep them under the carpet, but it’s to provide a moment of levity at very serious times.”
“It’s a curious phenomenon that probably is reflective of the state of the world right now,” he observed. “Instead of creating more darkness by dealing with these subjects in heavy, dramatic ways, there’s sort of a reaction from artists to help us laugh to keep from crying.”