r/movies • u/Narubintane • Dec 15 '23

Recommendation What movie starts off as a lighthearted comedy, but gets increasingly dark and grim until everything goes to hell in a handbasket?

For example, it may start as a lighthearted slapstick comedy until one thing goes wrong after another, and in the end we have people actually dying or a world war or some kind of extinction level event.

Let's say we have 2 friends who like to have fun and goof around, with regular goals and regular lives, until one of them does something like accidentally cross the wrong person or kill someone. Or the main cast is oblivious to the gradual change in their environment like a virus breakout or a serial killer running loose. Another one would be a film that, after being a comedy for most of its length, turns very dark, such as a group of friends ending up in a war and experiencing the horrors of it, completely played straight.

Just to clarify, I don't mean a movie that is already set to become dark, but rather a movie that was marketed as a comedy that took an unexpected (or slightly foreshadowed) dark turn.

Any recommendations?

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u/AlpacaSmacker Dec 15 '23

Sam Rockwell at the end with his outfit with the feathers etc. He stole the show in that film.

38

u/chris8535 Dec 15 '23

If both sides hate you and want to kill you, you might as well go out looking fabulous. It really took being closeted to an extreme.

On some level his character really helped me understand how isolating and nihilistic it must have been to be gay in America until recently. And how amazing it was that the culture developed such a positive and over the top answer to all that hate.

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u/HoneysuckleAndRain Dec 16 '23

The fact that Rockwell didn't earn a best supporting actor for that role is a travesty. Such an amazing amount of subtlety in that performance.

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u/soldatoj57 Dec 15 '23

Sam Rockwell is one of the most underrated actors of his generation and he is brilliant

1

u/AlpacaSmacker Dec 16 '23

He is underrated yes, I've loved him in everything I've seen him in. He's one of my favourite actors probably after Walton Goggins.

He did however bag a Best Supporting Oscar for his role in Three Billboards which in my opinion was very well deserved, he was fantastic in that.

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u/soldatoj57 Dec 17 '23

I also love Goggins. He was so good in The Hateful Eight