50 best comedy films of all time, according to critics

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 92 minutes

This French-Polish comedy-drama is the second in the "Three Colors" series. The story follows a man whose wife (Julie Delpy) leaves him when he can't consummate the marriage. After losing his money, home, and friends, he must regain his livelihood while learning to let his wife go.

- Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 135 minutes

Adam Sandler is a fast-talking, manic, and deeply-in-debt gem dealer who thinks he has found a solution to his problems by selling a huge uncut opal. However, when he allows a customer, an NBA star, to borrow the gem, he sets off a string of calamities. Inspiration for the movie came in part from directors Ben and Joshua Safdie's father, who worked for a time in midtown Manhattan's Diamond District.

- Director: Spike Jonze
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 126 minutes

Director Spike Jonze shows viewers a future in which artificial intelligence can help with loneliness. The film tells the story of a quiet, solitary Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falling in love with his operating system Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). New York Times critic Manohla Dargis says the film is a touching and remarkably believable love story between man and machine.

- Director: Jafar Panahi
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 82 minutes

After the Iranian government banned Jafar Panahi from making films and traveling in 2010, the director side-stepped the censorship by making this funny and captivating movie addressing social issues in Iran while posing as a taxi driver. This was Panahi's third feature he filmed after the ban.

- Director: Alexander Mackendrick
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 91 minutes

Starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, this black comedy tells the story of a group of five men who plan a bank robbery while renting rooms from an elderly widow who believes the men are classical musicians. While Alexander Mackendrick directed this original feature, Joel and Ethan Coen remade the film in 2004 with a cast that included Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, and Irma P. Hall.

- Director: Yasujirô Ozu
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Initially released in 1932, Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu's silent film was digitally restored with retranslated subtitles in 2010. The film tells the story of a family through the perspective of two young brothers who are disappointed with their father's submissive behavior at work. After viewing their father in a different light, the boys shed some of their innocent views of the world.

- Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 91 minutes

Filled with Monty Python's signature British humor, this feature film was a "marvelously particular kind of lunatic endeavor," according to a New York Times review. As the name suggests, the comedy follows King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they search for the Holy Grail.

- Director: Sylvain Chomet
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet, this animated feature tells the story of Madame Souza, a grandmother who must rescue her kidnapped son from a group of gangsters who want to use his bicycling prowess in a gambling scheme. Along the way, Souza and her friend meet a 1930s jazz group called The Triplets of Belleville. The film features Oscar-nominated music by Benoit Charest.

- Director: Leo McCarey
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 88 minutes

A dashing French painter (Charles Boyer) and an American singer (Irene Dunne) meet and fall in love on an ocean cruise, only to learn that the other is engaged to marry someone else. The movie was remade in 1957 as "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr and again in 1994 as "Love Affair" with Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katharine Hepburn.

- Director: Peter Yates
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 101 minutes

A group of young men adjust to life after high school. Dennis Christopher plays Dave, a cycling enthusiast who wants to become a world champion. After meeting the Italian racing team, he and his friends (Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley) decide to challenge some college boys in the town's annual bike race. The film won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

- Director: George Stevens
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 103 minutes

The fifth movie pairing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is a comedy based on mistaken identity, with its high points including dance numbers, especially the "Never Gonna Dance" routine. Due to Astaire dancing a solo in blackface ("Bojangles of Harlem"), the movie is not broadcast on television as much as other Astaire-Rogers collaborations.

- Director: Éric Rohmer
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 113 minutes

A man who has recently graduated from university heads to the beaches in Bretagne for a three-week vacation. After his girlfriend declines his invitation, he meets another woman who sparks his interest. He must decide between his new love interest and his former flame. Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan said the movie was "unhurried and gently amusing." Originally released in the U.S. in 1996, the newly restored film made its American debut in the summer of 2014.

- Director: Rob Reiner
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 82 minutes

This mockumentary focuses on a once-famous (now aging) British heavy metal group as they plan a concert tour after 17 years out of the spotlight. Director Rob Reiner co-wrote the script for this cult classic along with the film's stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.

- Director: Lee Unkrich
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Pixar knocked it out of the park again with the third installment of the "Toy Story" series. This time, Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the gang find themselves in daycare as Andy heads off to college. The film won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.

- Director: Woody Allen
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 93 minutes

This film follows neurotic New Yorker Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) as he falls in love and navigates a relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Written and directed by Allen, the film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor.

- Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 102 minutes

One of Hollywood's all-time classics won an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song, and Best Music, Original Score. The Munchkins were played by a troupe of European actors, many of whom were Jewish and remained in the United States to escape Nazi persecution. Star Judy Garland grew close to the dog who played Toto and wanted to adopt her, but her owner did not want to give her up.

Lines from the movie are among cinema's most iconic: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain;" "There's no place like home," and "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

- Director: Vincente Minnelli
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Headed by stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, this film's cast includes Ava Gardner and Julie Newmar, who appear uncredited. Newmar played Catwoman in television's "Batman" series in the 1960s. Vincente Minnelli directed two movies that won Oscars for Best Picture—"An American in Paris" in 1951 and "Gigi" in 1958. Minnelli also invented the crab camera dolly that can move in any direction for shooting.

- Director: Mark Sandrich
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 101 minutes

In this film, stars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers perform the classic dance routines "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" and "Cheek to Cheek." Astaire reportedly disliked the gown Rogers wore in "Cheek to Cheek'' which was made mostly of ostrich feathers, complaining that it detracted from the dancing's clean lines. Lucille Ball has a small uncredited role.

- Director: Nina Paley
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 82 minutes

This ambitious and visually loaded animated film tells the Hindu story of the Ramayana interspersed with musical numbers featuring the vocals of 1920s star Annette Hanshaw. The feature placed first at several international film festivals around the world.

- Director: Spike Lee
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 120 minutes

Director Spike Lee details events that led to a race riot between residents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year. The events center around an Italian American pizza parlor owner named Sal (Danny Aiello), his employee Mookie (Spike Lee), and Mookie's friend Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito). Some see this groundbreaking movie as a Black nationalist manifesto, as well as one of the most important films of its time.

- Director: Maren Ade
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 162 minutes

A professional woman's estranged father likes to play jokes and dress in disguises. He poses as a life coach for her CEO to get close to her. Father and daughter attempt to repair their relationship when his identity is finally revealed. Maren Ade wrote and directed the German-Austrian film, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

- Director: Leo McCarey
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 69 minutes

Groucho Marx is Rufus T Firefly, head of the country of Fredonia, which badly needs a financial boost from Mrs. Gloria Teasdale, played by Margaret Dumont. Harpo and Chico Marx play spies from a neighboring country hoping to overthrow Freedonia. In Italy, Benito Mussolini saw the movie as an affront and banned it. It was the last Marx Brothers' movie with Zeppo Marx, who quit the family troupe.

- Director: Greta Gerwig
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 94 minutes

Writer Greta Gerwig makes her directorial debut with a film dubbed exquisite by New Yorker critic Richard Brody. "Lady Bird," a script loosely based on Gerwig's own life, tells the story of an angsty teenager (Saoirse Ronan) at a California Catholic school and explores her relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf). The feature was nominated for five Academy Awards and won Golden Globes for Best Actress and Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).

- Director: Luis Buñuel
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 102 minutes

Six people at a dinner party try to finish a meal together but are interrupted by a series of dreams. Directed by Luis Buñuel and written in collaboration with Jean-Claude Carriere, the surrealist comedy won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

- Director: Damien Chazelle
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 128 minutes

Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) keep ending up together as they both pursue their dreams—with plenty of singing and dancing along the way—in this romantic feature. The musical comedy-drama took home six Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Director. While many critics praised the film, some weren't as enamored with the feature.

- Director: Orson Welles
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 115 minutes

Director Orson Wells stars as Sir John Falstaff in this compilation drawn from Shakespeare's "Henry IV," "Richard II," "Henry V," and "The Merry Wives of Windsor." The top-notch cast includes Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, and Sir John Gielgud. Many critics consider it to be Wells' best work. The filmmaker directed and starred in "Citizen Kane" in 1941.

- Director: Billy Wilder
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 125 minutes

Jack Lemmon is an insurance company employee who lends his Manhattan apartment to company bigwigs for trysts in the hopes of getting a promotion. Billy Wilder became the first person to win Oscars all in the same year for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The movie also won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, and Best Film Editing.

- Director: Vincente Minnelli
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 113 minutes

This Christmas musical stars Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien, the latter of whom was awarded a special Juvenile Oscar for her performance. Garland and Vincente Minnelli met in the making of the film and soon were married. He was nearly 20 years older than she was, and by 1949, the pair had separated.

- Director: Alexander Payne
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 127 minutes

Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) embark on a road trip through California wine country in advance of Jack's marriage. Miles meets another wine buff (Virginia Madsen), while Jack spends the weekend with winemaker Stephanie (Sandra Oh). The film increased the popularity of pinot noir by 170% after its release.

- Directors: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 95 minutes

Emotions come to life in this innovative animated film. After a young girl moves from the Midwest to San Francisco, viewers get a look inside her head as her feelings try to navigate this new life. The cast includes Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, and Lewis Black. The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

- Director: Federico Fellini
- Metascore: 95
- Runtime: 174 minutes

This 1960 classic shows viewers a week in the life of a playboy journalist in Rome. The feature won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and Fellini took home the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

- Director: David Fincher
- Metascore: 95
- Runtime: 120 minutes

Based on a book by Ben Mezrich, writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher tell the story of the creation of Facebook. Jesse Eisenberg portrays founder Mark Zuckerberg as he gets caught up in a lawsuit after two Harvard students sued him, claiming Facebook was their idea. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.

- Director: Mel Brooks
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 88 minutes

Before it became a Broadway hit, "The Producers" starred an over-the-top Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel on the silver screen in 1968. Mel Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, while Wilder received a Best Supporting Actor nod.

- Director: Charles Chaplin
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 87 minutes

Originally released in 1936, Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and starred in this film. "Modern Times" tells the story of Chaplin's iconic character, Little Tramp, as he struggles to adapt to the modern, industrialized world. This was the last film featuring Chaplin's Tramp character.

- Director: Preston Sturges
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 94 minutes

Barbara Stanwyck stars as a con artist who sets her sights on a bumbling but wealthy cruise ship passenger, played by Henry Fonda. The movie is considered one of the best by writer and director Preston Sturges, known for fast-paced dialogue and zany physical comedy in the 1940s.

- Director: Richard Lester
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 87 minutes

The Beatles made their film debut in this 1964 musical comedy. The audience gets a feel for Beatle-mania as we follow the band through a fictional day in the life of the musicians.

- Directors: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 111 minutes

In this 2007 animated film, a rat who loves to cook teams up with a young chef at a popular restaurant. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

- Director: George Cukor
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart all grace the screen in this romantic comedy. Hepburn plays the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia family who is on the way to her second marriage. Grant stars as the ex-husband who wants to foil the wedding while Stewart plays a tabloid journalist who falls for Hepburn. The American Film Institute considers it one of the top 100 American films of all time.

- Director: Robert Altman
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 160 minutes

This film's massive ensemble cast includes the likes of Ned Beatty, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Henry Gibson, Karen Black, Geraldine Chaplin, Michael Murphy, Elliott Gould, and Julie Christie. Most of the movie was improvised, with the actors writing and performing their own songs. The movie was nominated for a record 11 Golden Globes.

- Director: Ernst Lubitsch
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Two shop employees, played by Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart, dislike each other and are unaware that they are anonymous pen pals. The movie was made in 28 days for less than $500,000. It was the basis for the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail," with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, in which Ryan's bookstore is called The Shop Around The Corner.

- Director: John Lasseter
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 81 minutes

The Pixar computer-animated film that spurred three sequels, "Toy Story" introduced audiences to the cowboy doll Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), who struggles to accept his owner's latest birthday present: a spaceman toy named Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). The film helped launch Pixar—then a young company headed by Steve Jobs—and changed the animation industry forever.

- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 132 minutes

The story of two interconnected families, one rich and one poor, won four Oscars—Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film—as well as a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It also was the first Korean-language film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

- Director: George Lucas
- Metascore: 97
- Runtime: 110 minutes

Set during the summer in the early '60s, four teenagers experience their last night before heading to college. The film features a young Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, and Suzanne Somers. Directed and co-written by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, this 1973 classic was voted one of the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time.

- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Metascore: 97
- Runtime: 95 minutes

Peter Sellers plays three roles in this Stanley Kubrick-directed film about a mentally unhinged American general who triggers a nuclear holocaust. The black comedy, which satirizes the Cold War, was based on a novel called "Red Alert" and is widely considered to be not just one of the best comedies of all time but one of the best films of all time.

- Director: Billy Wilder
- Metascore: 98
- Runtime: 121 minutes

Set in 1929, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star as two musicians who flee a police raid of their speakeasy and accidentally witness a mob hit. They disguise themselves as women band members to avoid detection, and during their travels, they meet Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe). BBC Culture considers it one of the greatest comedies of all time.

- Director: Jean Renoir
- Metascore: 99
- Runtime: 110 minutes

A comedy of manners, "The Rules of the Game" follows a group of rich French socialites and their servants as they gather at a chateau on the eve of WWII. Described by The Criterion Collection as "a scathing critique of French society," the film was initially despised by audiences and critics alike, who perhaps didn't appreciate the worst parts of their natures being shown on the big screen. It was so despised that the original negatives were destroyed during the war, and the film was only restored to its original cut in the late 1950s.

- Director: Charles Chaplin
- Metascore: 99
- Runtime: 87 minutes

Charlie Chaplin stars as the Little Tramp, a scoundrel who falls in love with a beautiful woman who is blind, played by Virginia Cherrill. While other movies at the time already had sound, Chaplin made the movie silent. At $1.5 million, it was an expensive production, in no small part because Chaplin held the cast and crew on standby for nearly two years but only shot for six months.

- Director: Jacques Tati
- Metascore: 99
- Runtime: 155 minutes

It took nearly three years to film "Playtime," director Jaques Tati's magnum opus. An almost wordless comedy about struggling to exist in a high-tech world, the film features Monsieur Hulot (Tati's recurring character) and some of cinematic history's most jaw-dropping camera shots.

- Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
- Metascore: 99
- Runtime: 103 minutes

This 1950s classic starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds received universal acclaim. The musical comedy was directed and choreographed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, and follows a group of performers transitioning from silent films to "talkies." The movie, which features an iconic scene where Kelly sings and dances while twirling an umbrella in the rain (some say with a fever), has since been preserved in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.

- Director: Jacques Rivette
- Metascore: 100
- Runtime: 193 minutes

"Celine and Julie Go Boating," tells the magical, mind-bending story of two young French women who find themselves unwittingly thrust into an alternate reality. Dubbed "one of the all-time great hangout comedies" by The Criterion Collection, the topsy-turvy film is a perfect example of French New Wave cinema.

Additional writing by Keri Wiginton. Data reporting by Lucas Hicks. Story editing by Cynthia Rebolledo. Copy editing by Meg Shields.