Laugh

From laugh-out-loud through romantic comedy to dry and understated – humour in all its forms.

‘Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,’ goes the old stand-up adage, yet the filmmakers represented here seem intent on disproving this thesis, boldly tackling humour in all its guises: wry appraisals on how technology can distort modern relationships (Don Jon, Chinese Puzzle, The Bounceback); and sly approaches, both cheerfully upbeat and blackly subversive, to subjects as ostensibly serious as murder (Borgman), racism (Gone Too Far!), unconventional sex (Afternoon Delight) or even Computer Chess. As for death itself, that the late, much-lamented James Gandolfini appears twice (Enough Said, the Elaine Stritch documentary) provides an effortlessly joyful valedictory for this brilliant actor.

Leigh Singer