Comedy

Writer-director Judd Apatow's new film Funny People is a vaguely autobiographical comedy starring Apatow's former roommate Adam Sandler as a comic mentoring a younger colleague (Seth Rogen).

David Edelstein reviews the quirky new comedy from Jared Hess, who co-wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite.

The star of Noah Baumbach's new film, Greenberg, initially wanted to be a serious actor -- and he's still got a thing for Vietnam War movies. Stiller talks to Terry Gross about how he got from that initial ambition to films like Meet the Parents and Zoolander.

Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte are back for a Middle Eastern adventure in Sex and the City 2. Critic David Edelstein says the film is an "all-out drag school with arch one-liners and product placements -- and almost no emotional heft."

Lisa Cholodenko's film about two teenagers trying to track down their moms' anonymous sperm donor is a "stupendous" situational comedy, says critic David Edelstein, who praises the film for shaking up our way of looking at the mainstream family.

Actor Steve Carell stars as an amateur taxidermist who enjoys creating elaborate dioramas with his stuffed rodents in the new Jay Roach film, Dinner for Schmucks. The two comedy vets talk improv, pathos and more.

Will Ferrell plays a cop who prefers pushing paper to chasing criminals in the new comedy from his frequent collaborator Adam McKay. Actor and director join Fresh Air to discuss how they prepared for the buddy-cop film.

The Adam McKay comedy stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as mismatched cops who are suddenly thrust from inside the police precinct out onto the streets. And critic David Edelstein says some scenes had him doubled over with laughter.

Edgar Wright's adaptation of a cult-favorite comic centers on a regular schmo who fights like a superhero when his new girlfriend's Seven Evil Exes come calling. Critic David Edelstein says the movie has a vintage look all its own -- "part comic-book panel and part arcade video-game screen."

David Edelstein reviews two movies, Tamara Drewe and It's Kind of a Funny Story, that are both funny and discomfiting. Tamara a Thomas Hardy-inspired romantic comedy, "has the fullness of an 18th century novel," says Edelstein, who also applauds Zach Galifianakis' performance in Funny Story.

Two gross-out movies open this weekend. Todd Phillips' buddy comedy Due Date and Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, about a hiker, played by James Franco, who has to chop off his own arm after he's pinned under a boulder. David Edelstein says the two films are "relentlessly in your face."

Both The Green Hornet and The Dilemma open this weekend. The two big-budget male buddy pictures -- one starring Seth Rogen; the other Kevin James and Vince Vaughn -- illustrate that the juvenile "bromance" genre is just getting old.

The Farrelly brothers' latest comedy stars Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis as sexually frustrated men given a week off from marriage by their spouses. Movie critic David Edelstein says the movie's premise — while creepy — leaves viewers "with a sad and wise view of adulthood."

The director's new sci-fi comedy stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two guys who hit the highway after Comic-Con -- and pick up an ET on the side of the road. The character-driven laughs depend on your buying into a main character who's entirely computer-generated.

James Franco and Danny McBride set off on a quest in David Gordon Green's action comedy Your Highness — a sword-and-sorcery spoof that David Edelstein says is fantastic if you're in the right gross-minded juvenile mood.

David Edelstein's friends all say they just won't see a Mel Gibson movie. But Edelstein says the actor's new film The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster, might be worth a look -- if only for a certain cameo appearance.

The film critic reports his impressions of this year's Cannes Film Festival. On Powers' list of notable films: Terrance Malick's Tree of Life, about a young boy growing up in 1950s Texas, and an Iranian film by a director who was explicitly told by the Iranian government not to make films.

Ewan McGregor stars in Mike Mills' film about a young man who learns that his 75-year-old father (Christopher Plummer) is gay. Critic David Edelstein says the movie, based on Mills' own life puts the filmmaker in a category alongside Woody Allen and Charlie Kaufman.

How bad is this teacher? Director Jake Kasdan stuffs ineptness and inappropriateness into the lesson plan in equal measure. But critic David Edelstein says that the film's moral turpitude is also the source of its charm.

In the new comedy Wanderlust, an unemployed Manhattan couple (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) stumble into a hippie farming commune. David Edelstein says the movie features a "tribe of marvelously inventive comic actors doing a fair amount of inspired improvisation."