This post is updated frequently as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Everyone needs a good laugh every now and then, probably more than ever in the 2020s. Hulu’s catalog is packed with television and arthouse critical darlings, so it can be hard to leaf through it when you just want something to take the edge off the day. That’s why we’re here. This regularly updated blend of comedy classics, indie films you may not have seen, and newer laugh generators is all you need when it’s time to escape.
Another Round
Year: 2020
Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
The Oscar winner for Best International Film in 2021 features one of the best performances ever from the great Mads Mikkelsen. The Hannibal star plays a teacher who decides, with a group of three friends, to be a little drunk all the time. Bored and unmotivated by life, they try an experiment wherein they have a small blood alcohol content at all times. At first, it goes well. It doesn’t end well. Not everything here works but it’s a likable film that features a killer ending.
Babes
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 44m
Director: Pamela Adlon
Ilana Glazer of Broad City is hysterical in this pregnancy comedy about a single woman who gets knocked up on a one-night stand, only for her baby daddy to drop dead. After deciding to have the baby, she turns to a best friend, played by Michelle Buteau, for comfort, but she’s busy with her own family and work. The great Pam Adlon directs this fearless examination of friendship and fertility.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Martin McDonagh
One of the best films of 2022 and a multiple Oscar nominee last year, this dark comedy is already on streaming services, less than a year after its release. Colin Farrell does career-best work as a hapless Irishman who discovers that his best friend, played by Brendan Gleeson, doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. A film about how neighbors become enemies feels particularly timely in the currently fractured world, and this one is brilliant, funny, and moving.
*Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Originally scheduled for a 2020 release, this Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig comedy was delayed due to the pandemic, dropping on VOD in February 2021. It’s a comedy that’s high on the quirkiness but will absolutely work for viewers on its loony wavelength. Give it five minutes and you’ll know if it’s for you. And it feels like it’s for more people every year.
*Empire Records
Year: 1995
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Allan Moyle
Remember record stores? This movie may not be classically great, but it’s a wonderful time capsule of mid-‘90s culture, a time when it was cool to hang out in CD stories all day and most people had a job at one at some point in their teenage lives. It’s also got a great ensemble, including Liv Tyler, Robin Tunny, Renee Zellweger, Ethan Embry, and Rory Cochrane. It’s fun and will play differently for those of you who grew up with music stores as a part of their lives than it will for the iGeneration.
*The Full Monty
Year: 1997
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Peter Cattaneo
There are indie comedy hits and then there are movies like The Full Monty, which was made for just over $3 million and grossed just over $250 million and was nominated for Best Picture. People fell in love with the story of six unemployed average guys who started their own striptease act to make some money. It is often listed as one of the best British films of all time and was spun off to a 2000 musical and 2013 play.
Kinds of Kindness
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 44m
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
The fact that Searchlight is now a part of Disney, who also owns Hulu, has been paying off for subscribers. Just take the fact that one of the most acclaimed films of Cannes 2024 hit the streaming services less than four months after its premiere. A trilogy of stories that all star Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe (among others), this is Yorgos back in dark comedy mode. In other words, for fans of The Lobster.
*The King of Comedy
Year: 1983
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese is often more recognized for his gangster movies, classics like GoodFellas and Casino, but he’s really a filmmaker who can do absolutely everything. One of his most underrated genre experiments is this black comedy that really now looks prescient about how much everyone would want their 15 minutes of fame almost four decades later. Robert De Niro gives one of his best performances as Rupert Pupkin, an unhinged stand-up comedian who becomes obsessed with a talk show host, unforgettably played by Jerry Lewis.
*Little Miss Sunshine
Year: 2006
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s Sundance comedy is one of the most notable breakthroughs in the history of the Park City event. It went all the way from its premiere in Utah to a multiple Oscar nominee and brought in over $100 million along the way. People were drawn to a story that encourages them to just be who they want to be, along with an incredibly likable supporting cast that includes Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, who won the Oscar.
Long Shot
Year: 2019
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Jonathan Levine
Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron have great comedic chemistry in this rom-com about a journalist who ends up working for the Secretary of State, who happens to be his former babysitter. Theron can quite simply do anything, and she works well with Rogen and a smart script by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah.
*Nightbitch
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Marielle Heller
Amy Adams gives one of her best performances as the unnamed protagonist of this dark comedy about a stay-at-home mom who may actually be turning into a dog. Heller adapts the novel by Rachel Yoder into a surreal commentary on the pressure on mothers in American society, and Adams is ably supported by a great turn from Scoot McNairy too.
Palm Springs
Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Max Barbakow
Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are wonderful in this charming sci-fi rom-com about a pair of people caught up in a time loop and forced to live the same wedding day they’re attending over and over again. This is the kind of comedy gem that got a little screwed by the pandemic, forced to premiere on Hulu when it should have played to packed, laughing crowds in theaters first.
Poor Things
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone took home a second Oscar for her fearless portrayal of Bella Baxter in the latest mind-bender from the director of The Lobster and The Favourite. Bella is the Frankenstein-esque creation of a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe), who teaches her the way of the world, until she discovers sex and her own identity. Visually stunning, it’s like nothing else on Hulu. Or anywhere really.
Rye Lane
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 22m
Director: Raine Allen Miller
The best romantic comedy in years premiered at Sundance in January 2023 and is already on Hulu. David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah star in a film that’s reminiscent of Before Sunrise in the way it captures two people meeting and walking through a city as they slowly fall in love. Heartbroken, creative people, these characters are so incredibly likable in a film that has a sharp, brilliant screenplay, and stunning use of setting. The world around these people comes so vibrantly to life that it almost feels like a character.
Sanctuary
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Zachary Wigon
Some would call this a thriller instead but it’s really close to being a romantic comedy at the same time. Whatever you call it, just watch it. It’s one of the best films of 2023, a two-hander between a future CEO (Christopher Abbott) and the longtime dominatrix (Margaret Qualley) that he’s trying to fire. Abbott and Qualley do some of the best work of their already notable careers in a film that’s unpredictable, twisted, and, yes, funny.
*Sorry to Bother You
Year: 2018
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Boots Riley
Lakeith Stanfield stars in the directorial debut of the leader of The Coup, a film that shook audiences at Sundance but still feels a bit underrated. With a style that blends hip-hop culture with the surrealism of satirists like Terry Gilliam and Michel Gondry, this comedy takes no prisoners. Stanfield plays a telemarketer who works his way up the corporate ladder to discover the truly dark secrets that live on the higher rungs. It feels like a movie that more people will find on services like Hulu and could shape future comedies to come.
Super Troopers
Year: 2002
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
A lot of the other Broken Lizard movies push their way through the revolving door of streaming services, but the cult comedy classic that really broke the troupe is actually kind of rare. So take the opportunity to watch a stoner comedy that has held up remarkably well in the two-decades-plus since its release.
Theater Camp
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Something like a modern Waiting for Guffman, this Sundance hit lovingly parodies life at theater camps with a bunch of cast members who know a few things about how to stage a musical performance. Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Jimmy Tatro, Ayo Edebiri, and more star in one of those comedies that feels destined to produce future stars. In particular, Galvin and Tatro are hysterical here in a movie that will work better for anyone who used to be a theater kid.
Thelma
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: Josh Margolin
A wonderful homage to the filmmaker’s actual grandmother, this Independent Spirit nominee stars the irreplaceable June Squibb as the title character, a woman who gets conned by a phone scam. Rather than just letting the situation go away, Thelma gathers her best friend (the excellent Richard Roundtree, in his final role) and seeks vengeance. It’s funny and surprisingly moving. It will make you want to call your grandma.
The Worst Person in the World
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director: Joachim Trier
The partnership between Neon and Hulu continues to pay off for subscribers as the streamer is the exclusive home of one of the most acclaimed films of 2021 in this Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee. Renate Reinsve is stunning as a young woman named Julie who navigates career, love, and life in a film that’s funny, moving, and true.
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