EDITED BY alexis wilson
By Joshua Rothkopf
With The Bubble now on Netflix, it’s time for a crash course in some cringe-comedy classics.
A bit overshadowed by its dawn-of-the-pandemic release, The King of Staten Island is an outer-borough comedy that keeps on giving.
Like The King of Staten Island, this one also has autobiographical roots in star-writer Amy Schumer. Working with Apatow (a keen script developer), Trainwreck blooms into something universally relatable.
Bad blood between star Katherine Heigl and Apatow eclipsed this pregnancy comedy's merits when everyone should have benefitted from what works. Apatow's script is a critique of undeveloped boy-men, not a celebration of them.
An essential early aughts comedy. Steve Carell and Catherine Keener have an awkward yet believable rapport that would shame most "serious" dramas, and once again, Apatow fills the margins with rich details.