10 Best Dark Comedies Of The 1990s

Summary

• 1990s saw the rise of dark comedies from great filmmakers like Coen brothers & Tarantino, touching on death & crime themes.
• From existential humor in “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” to social satire in “Death Becomes Her,” dark comedies found success in the 90s.
• Movies like “Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels” & “Trainspotting” showcased the era’s unique blend of humor and dark themes.

The 1990s produced some of the best dark comedies of all time, with a mix of award-winners and cult classics. The Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino and Terry Gilliam all did some of their best work in the 1990s, resulting in some beloved comedy classics which have stood the test of time. The best dark comedies of the decade touch on timeless themes like death and crime, as well as more pressing social issues.

Dark comedy movies in the 1990s took many different forms. The decade’s best range from campy horror comedies to bizarre crime capers. The thing which they all share is a dark sense of humor. Dark comedy is often a difficult genre to classify, and movies in all genres can use bleak humor in different ways. In the 1990s, psychological thrillers and crime dramas all drifted into the territory of dark comedies.

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Related 10 Best R-Rated Comedies Of The 1990s

The 1990s were a great time for adult-oriented comedy movies, with studios taking big gambles on creative premises that have stood the test of time.

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10 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

Tom Stoppard’s Existentialist Satire Focuses On Two Minor Characters Who Think They’re The Protagonists

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Tom Stoppard first wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as a stage play in 1966. 24 years later, he directed the movie adaptation of his work. He has written other movies, including Shakespeare in Love and Brazil but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the only movie that he has directed. The plot follows two peripheral characters from Hamlet as they try to figure out where they are in the play.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must come to terms with the fact that they aren’t the main characters in the drama, and there’s nothing they can do to avoid their fates.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead blurs the lines between fiction and reality for its two characters, as if they are two actors in need of some more rehearsals. They must come to terms with the fact that they aren’t the main characters in the drama, and there’s nothing they can do to avoid their fates. The movie’s absurd existentialist humor pokes at the boundaries of storytelling, and it also provides a sideways look at one of the most famous works of fiction ever produced.

9 Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)

A Drug-Fueled Odyssey To The Heart Of America

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Director Terry Gilliam Release Date May 22, 1998 Cast Tobey Maguire , Gary Busey , Mark Harmon , Christina Ricci , Johhny Depp , Cameron Diaz , Benicio Del Toro , Ellen Barkin

Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s novel of the same name, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas follows two friends in a drug-induced haze as they arrive in Las Vegas to write an article about a local sporting event. Rather than sticking to their initial plan, the duo relinquish all control to the drugs, getting into increasingly bizarre and dangerous situations as they try to outrun the police.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
takes a nihilistic view of America’s consumer culture, and the satire makes it far more interesting than an average stoner comedy.

Several directors tried to adapt Thompson’s novel over the years. Eventually, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam took over, and he injected his surreal sense of humor into the story. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas takes a nihilistic view of America’s consumer culture, and the satire makes it far more interesting than an average stoner comedy. Johnny Depp is at his best and most outlandish, grunting most of his lines with a cigarette holder clenched between his teeth.

8 Death Becomes Her (1992)

Death Becomes Her Has Gotten More Popular Over The Years

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Director Robert Zemeckis Release Date July 31, 1992 Cast Meryl Streep , Bruce Willis , Goldie Hawn , Isabella Rossellini , Ian Ogilvy , Adam Storke , Michelle Johnson , Mary Ellen Trainor

Death Becomes Her received mixed reviews when it was first released, but it has since grown a cult following. Robert Zemeckis’ dark comedy is particularly popular among the queer community, with many famous drag queens citing it as an inspiration. Death Becomes Her skewers the absurd beauty standards thrust upon women, especially in Hollywood, and the way that society treats women as they grow older.

Death Becomes Her
received mixed reviews when it was first released, but it has since grown a cult following.

Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn are two perfect choices for Death Becomes Her, as actresses who have had their looks scrutinized in Hollywood for decades. Death Becomes Her shows that the only alternative to aging is gruesome sci-fi experimentation. Madeline and Helen trade their lives for eternal youth, and they end up as grotesque undead monsters, slowly falling to pieces without any connection to the world around them.

7 Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Bullets Over Broadway Brings Murder And Extortion To The Theater

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In Bullets Over Broadway, John Cusack is perfectly cast as a depressive sad sack who finally gets a taste of something better, although it costs him everything. Cusack plays a struggling playwright in New York City in the 1920s. His production can only go ahead if he casts the girlfriend of a dangerous mob boss, but this trade-off also gives him access to Cheech, a mob enforcer sent to keep an eye on things who ends up being a naturally gifted dramaturg.

Bullets Over Broadway
is a brilliant satire about the intersection between art and commerce, with the idea that the mob’s rackets could extend to pensive modern American dramas rather than just drugs and gambling.

Bullets Over Broadway is a brilliant satire about the intersection between art and commerce, with the idea that the mob’s rackets could extend to pensive modern American dramas rather than just drugs and gambling. The key to the movie’s humor is that the mob are just as naturally gifted as pompous, overly-analytical writers. The playwright initially looks down on his new associates, but his assumptions are blown apart.

6 Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Guy Ritchie’s Gangster Classic Features A Cast Of Desperate Thugs And Villains

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Director Guy Ritchie Release Date August 28, 1998 Cast Jason Flemyng , Dexter Fletcher , Nick Moran , Jason Statham , Steven Mackintosh , Vinnie Jones , sting , Peter McNicholl

Guy Ritchie established his style early on with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. His directorial debut is a dark crime caper brimming with surprisingly erudite thugs all vying for the spoils of a heist. The cast of colorful characters are always finding new combinations, as allegiances shift between the various self-serving thugs. Throughout the endless schemes and battles, Ritchie’s dialogue produces plenty of laughs.

Throughout the endless schemes and battles, Ritchie’s dialogue produces plenty of laughs.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels remains one of Guy Ritchie’s best movies. He returned to similarly complex gangster narratives with Snatch, The Gentlemen and RocknRolla, but it’s remarkable to see how assured his debut is. Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham are both on fire as comedic hard men, trying to get their business done while surrounded by much less competent characters. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ends on a hilarious cliffhanger which underlines the chaos that permeates the story.

5 Trainspotting (1996)

Danny Boyle’s Pitch-Black Comedy Follows Drug Addicts Living In Poverty

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Director Danny Boyle Release Date August 9, 1996 Cast Ewen Bremner , Ewan McGregor , Jonny Lee Miller , Kevin McKidd , Robert Carlyle , Kelly Macdonald

Trainspotting is one of the best British dark comedies ever made, showcasing the country’s morbid sense of humor. The story follows a group of Scottish heroin addicts, with some struggling to get clean while others are content to waste their time in a drugged-up state. Ewan McGregor’s leading performance embodies the movie’s rapidly shifting tone, as he can make the audience laugh or recoil in horror with ease.

Ewan McGregor’s leading performance embodies the movie’s rapidly shifting tone, as he can make the audience laugh or recoil in horror with ease.

Trainspotting was criticized in some circles for apparently glorifying drug use, but there is nothing aspirational about the characters. Trainspotting only appears upbeat at times to provide a full picture of the effects of heroin. Any short-term fun, boosted by an upbeat pop soundtrack, is soon crushed by the dire circumstances that the characters have to face when they sober up.

4 Being John Malkovich (1999)

Spike Jonze’s Surreal Comedy Asks Questions About Identity And Fulfillment

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Being John Malkovich

Director Spike Jonze Release Date October 29, 1999 Cast John Cusack , John Malkovich , Cameron Diaz , Catherine Keener

Being John Malkovich is a fantastically strange dark comedy about a puppeteer who finds a portal into the mind of famous actor John Malkovich. He fights for control of the portal with the two women in his life, who turn against him and complete the third side of a love triangle, via John Malkovich’s body. Although it starts with a quirky premise, Being John Malkovich saves plenty of surprises for its second half.

The tiny office building and the unusual romantic entanglements are already funny, but the movie hits peak strangeness when John Malkovich finds the portal into his own mind.

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The tussle over control of John Malkovich’s body produces some unexpectedly hilarious jokes. The tiny office building and the unusual romantic entanglements are already funny, but the movie hits peak strangeness when John Malkovich finds the portal into his own mind. He soon stumbles into a world filled with John Malkoviches, each gazing back at him and repeating his own name ad nauseam.

3 Fight Club (1999)

David Fincher’s Masterpiece Has Defied Classification For Decades

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Director David Fincher Release Date October 15, 1999 Cast Brad Pitt , Meat Loaf , Edward Norton , Jared Leto , Helena Bonham Carter

Some critics didn’t know what to make of Fight Club when it first hit theaters in 1999. 20th Century Fox may not have known what they had on their hands either, as they marketed it as an action movie. Fight Club‘s reputation soon rebounded from its poor box office results, but people have still been torn between classifying it as a psychological thriller or a dark satire of corporate America. Fight Club is both, and its original streak is still garnering new fans. \

Fight Club
‘s twist ending urges the audience to go back and watch it all over again, and some of David Fincher’s hidden jokes start to reveal themselves.

At the heart of Fight Club‘s dark comedy is the dynamic between the nameless narrator, a dead-eyed corporate stooge with insomnia, and Tyler Durden, the zany nihilist who makes a living by stealing human fat from liposuction clinics and turning it into soap. Fight Club‘s twist ending urges the audience to go back and watch it all over again, and some of David Fincher’s hidden jokes start to reveal themselves.

2 Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pulp Fiction’s Tangled Narrative Adds To The Comedy

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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date October 14, 1994 Cast John Travolta , Bruce Willis , Ving Rhames , Samuel L. Jackson , Uma Thurman , Christopher Walken , Tim Roth , Harvey Keitel , Eric Stoltz , Rosanna Arquette

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is one of the most influential movies of the 1990s. It served as a tribute to the classics of the crime genre, but it also opened the door for an entirely new style to sweep Hollywood. Pulp Fiction‘s memorable quotes and its complex non-linear narrative showed that crime dramas could be both compelling and funny at the same time, without having the comedy cheapen the drama.

Pulp Fiction
‘s memorable quotes and its complex non-linear narrative showed that crime dramas could be both compelling and funny at the same time, without having the comedy cheapen the drama.

Some of the scenes in Pulp Fiction scan like darkly comic sketches. For example, when Butch Coolidge and Marsellus Wallace must pause their feud as they are taken hostage by a demented pawnshop owner, or when Mia Wallace springs up from the floor after a near-death drug overdose. Pulp Fiction also has one of the funniest movie deaths ever put to screen, as Vincent Vega accidentally splatters Marvin’s brains all over the inside of the car.

1 Fargo (1996)

The Coen Brothers Examine Good And Evil In The Frigid Midwest

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Director Joel Coen , Ethan Coen Release Date April 5, 1996 Cast William H. Macy , Frances McDormand , Steve Buscemi , Peter Stormare , Kristin Rudrüd , Harve Presnell , Tony Denman , Melissa Peterman

The Coen brothers had already established themselves as masters of dark comedy with movies like Raising Arizona and Barton Fink, but Fargo was the best crystallization yet of their inimitable style. The crime comedy follows a hapless car salesman who hires two thugs to kidnap his own wife so that he can cash in on the ransom money from his wealthy father-in-law. Frances McDormand shines as the honest detective tasked with untangling the conspiracy.

The Coen brothers had already established themselves as masters of dark comedy with movies like
Raising Arizona
and
Barton Fink,
but
Fargo
was the best crystallization yet of their inimitable style.

Fargo is one of the best Coen brothers movies, and a perfect example of a dark crime comedy. Marge Gunderson is a slice of normalcy and moral purity in a plot teeming with slimy thugs and self-serving men. Her cozy home life contrasts with the depravity of the criminals. One of the kidnappers murders his victim and feeds his partner into a wood chipper, and the wealthy father-in-law seems content to treat the whole episode as just another business deal. Marge’s tender relationship with her husband Norm shows how simple life could be without so much greed.

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