As long as there are buddies, there will be buddy comedies. It’s a simple enough set-up: put two distinctly different people in situations that test their limits, watch them bicker, and then watch them grow. Rinse and repeat in a new location/occupation/genre. That’s the buddy comedy in a nutshell, and the fact that Ride Along 2 is coming out this weekend means that the bar for some fans of the genre is still set pretty low.
Fortunately, great buddy comedies are just a couple of clicks away. Streaming services may still have limited catalogues, but if you know what you’re looking for you can still find a lot of hilarious and even artistic films about best friends online, right now. This week on Now Streaming we are testing the limits of one of the most popular services. We’ve scoured the list of offerings and culled together five great buddy comedies on Netflix.
Grab a buddy and start watching!
Clerks (Watch It Now)
Miramax Films
Kevin Smith’s first low-low-low budget comedy was a game changer in 1994. The simple story of two minimum wage workers, one the clerk at a convenience store and the other the clerk at the video rental establishment next door, found both drama and comedy in the blasé life behind a counter. It’s an experience that most people have at one point or another, and Smith captured it in all of its boring, fascinating, funny and depressing glory.
And at the heart of it all is those two clerks, Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), who stand diametrically opposed on all things. Dante dreams of a better life but cannot motivate himself to do anything. Randal is happy being a clerk but highly motivated to slack off. One loves The Empire Strikes Back for its doom and gloom ending, the other is happy with the Ewoks of Return of the Jedi. They drive each other nuts but they are in the trenches of customer service together. Their bickering makes us laugh but their bond is beautiful and real.
Tommy Boy (Watch It Now)
Paramount Pictures
Chris Farley was one of the greatest cast members in Saturday Night Live‘s storied history, but before his tragic death in 1997 he only made one rock solid comedy. Tommy Boy cast Farley as a well-intentioned but destructive man-child who takes over his father’s business when the old man dies of a heart attack. David Spade plays the disapproving putz who accompanies Farley on a road trip to sell their wares.
Comedy ensues, but although many of the comic set pieces are funny in their own right – the gradual destruction of Spade’s precious car, the “fat guy in a little coat” routine – it’s Spade and Farley who make Tommy Boy a low-key comedy classic. The movie works because the two leads are on even footing: Farley is loving but obnoxious, and Spade is callous but sincere. Their initial dislike for one another comes not from prejudice but from accurately observing each other’s flaws, and when they do turn around are acknowledge the depth of their friendship, it is because they’ve finally discovered what makes each other wonderful.
Tommy Boy has dumb jokes, but a wise heart. That is why it endures.
A Night at the Roxbury (Watch It Now)
Paramount Pictures
Meanwhile, A Night at the Roxbury is mostly just dumb. Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really dumb. And dumb comedies can be wonderful too if A) they’re actually funny, and B) they don’t do any harm.
Fortunately this Saturday Night Live spin-off meets that criteria, telling a simple story of two brothers who act like suave club-hoppers but are, to put it mildly, actually just dorks. Their dreams are not of personal growth but of perceived coolness, and that leads to one situation after another where Will Farrell and Chris Kattan pose as sophisticated and slick lotharios but – adorably – have no idea what that would actually entail. When a chance encounter with a C-list celebrity grants them access to the coolest club in town they finally find out what it’s like to be cool, and of course, they learn a valuable lesson or two in the end. Maybe. Kind of.
A Night at the Roxbury is NOT a classic comedy, but it’s a very entertaining one. You will laugh, and laugh a lot, and then you will move on with your life. That’s all we want from a comedy once in a while. And that’s just fine.
Hot Fuzz (Watch It Now)
Rogue Pictures
Edgar Wright took every cop movie cliché in the book and subverted them for laughs in the wonderful buddy comedy Hot Fuzz. The genius bit was that, in the end, he turned right back around and played them straight for the whiz-bang climax. Hot Fuzz has its Chunky Monkey ice cream, eats it, and saves some for you. It’s a spectacularly clever film.
And yet it still wouldn’t work if the two buddies weren’t perfect together. By the time Hot Fuzz came out Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were already used to one another. The TV series Spaced and the horror-comedy classic Shaun of the Dead had transformed them into the latest in a long line of expert comedy duos. But this time Wright added a new wrinkle: he took all of the dialogue reserved for Pegg’s female love interest and gave it to Frost, adding a level of intimacy – asexual intimacy, but intimacy nonetheless – that added depth to Hot Fuzz.
Come to think of it, THAT might be the genius bit. Or maybe Hot Fuzz is just an all around ingenious film.
In Bruges (Watch It Now)
Many people were surprised to discover that In Bruges, which was initially marketed as a wacky crime comedy, had a soul to it. What’s more it had a tortured soul, one that was reeling from unthinkable tragedy and trying to save itself through an applied force of whimsy. It’s a tricky blend that first time feature filmmaker Martin McDonagh pulls off almost poignantly, as he tells the story of two hitman – played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson – hiding out in a town that practically belongs in a fairy tale after they botched a horrific job.
Much of In Bruges consists of Gleeson, good-natured and philosophical, trying to cheer up an impossibly moody Farrell. But this isn’t a conventional tale of personal improvement, in which one dismisses depression via a series of wacky circumstances and the sudden arrival of one’s true love. This is a tale in which Farrell’s funk stems from a very rational place, and one in which Gleeson’s many failed attempts to lift his buddy’s spirits take a toll of their own. In Bruges is a bittersweet tale, but it’s still sweet enough to feel like a proper comedy, even though it will probably make you a little bit sad.
Top Photo: Rogue Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
