The Comedy
Tribeca Film | Release Date: November 9, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
5
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistChristopher BellNov 8, 2012
It's a meaty film, filled with ideas unobscured by any generic narrative string, a move that shows not only the confidence of the director but his respect of the audience. This is one that'll have people talking. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 7, 2012
There's genuine pain at the core of Heidecker's character - or at least a numbness where the pain used to reside - but the film is keen on obscuring it. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierNov 4, 2012
Tim Heidecker's Swanson does not amuse us in spite of the pity he inspires but because of it. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangNov 4, 2012
For a catalog of aggressively stupid, socially deviant male behavior, Rick Alverson's cheekily titled The Comedy is not without a certain subversive intelligence. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 6, 2012
At some point, he finds himself drifting around a swimming pool, and it's tempting to think of Dustin Hoffman sinking to the bottom of the deep end in "The Graduate." But there's a difference. Swanson's pool is empty. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithNov 16, 2012
Picture "Raging Bull" with a sleazy prep from the Brooklyn hipsteropolis of Williamsburg, and you'll get the idea of The Comedy, a character study that tries to make the revolting compelling. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanNov 14, 2012
The Comedy pretends to be a satire of entitlement, but it's made in a style so indulgent that the whole film feels entitled in the extreme. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 7, 2012
The anomie of entitlement pushed to poisonous extremes is the basis of this provocation, which is as frustrating as it is intriguing. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthNov 7, 2012
There's not a false note in the film, but maybe there's a difference between accuracy and truth. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleLeah ChurnerNov 28, 2012
The film retreads much of the anti-comedic territory already bulldozed in Heidecker and Wareheim's own "Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie," retaining the scatological flavor but none of the surrealism. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 15, 2012
The movie may critique its antihero, but it also offers just one more venue in which he's allowed to wallow - while we pay his way. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 26, 2012
If it weren't for Kate Lyn Sheil, who has a couple of scenes as a blase Brooklyn waitress inexplicably ending up in the protagonist's bed, 'The Comedy' might well have qualified as the worst film of 2012. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 16, 2012
If you can discern any critical distance or interesting perspective here, or even a good reason to spend 90 minutes in such company, I'm afraid the joke is on you. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 13, 2012
Unlike a truly daring movie like Lars von Trier's "The Idiots" - about a gang of clever jerks who pretend to be mentally retarded - The Comedy never musters an articulate indictment, nor does it have much to say on the subject of free-floating fatigue. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisNov 23, 2012
The Comedy, one of the most self-indulgent, pretentious and unfunny movies of the year, is a mean-spirited piece of mumblecore that tries to provoke you, but only succeeds in boring you. Read full review
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