The most exciting movies of 2020 – comedy

The French Dispatch

We’re getting big Grand Budapest Hotel vibes from Wes Anderson’s latest, which is “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city” and focuses on three stories published in the paper of the title. There is a reassuring deja vu about the cast, which includes Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban. Newcomers to the Anderson rep include Timothée Chalamet, Benicio del Toro, Kate Winslet, Elisabeth Moss, Griffin Dunne and, er, Henry Winkler.

The Jesus Rolls

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A belated Big Lebowski spin-off for John Turturro’s Puerto Rican sex-pest bowling nut character Jesus Quintana, which also happens to be a loose remake of bawdy 1974 French comedy Going Places. Bobby Cannavale and Audrey Tautou play Jesus’s depraved pals. Turturro directs as well as stars and the results are apparently slightly patchy, but this is still weird enough to pique our interest.

King of Staten Island

Judd Apatow directs and co-scripts this loosely autobiographical movie starring Pete Davidson. Davidson lost his firefighter father on 9/11 and was badly affected by his death, ripping out all his own hair, struggling with thoughts of suicide and becoming addicted to marijuana before beginning his standup career aged 16. Marisa Tomei plays his mother, Bel Powley his girlfriend.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Nearly 30 years after their Bogus Journey, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter’s partying doofuses find themselves as middle-aged fathers, still attempting to write a hit song and fulfil their destiny – as well as save the world, as the fabric of time is breaking apart again. William Sadler returns as Death.

Blithe Spirit

Judi Dench follows Cats by giving us her best Madame Arcati in this adaptation of the Noël Coward play directed by Edward Hall, 75 years after the Margaret Rutherford vehicle. Dan Stevens steps into Rex Harrison’s brogues as the chap who hires a batty medium for material for his new book but finds himself haunted by the persistent ghost of his first wife (Leslie Mann), who also torments new squeeze Ruth (Isla Fisher).

Coming 2 America

The Eddie Murphy comeback gathers pace with this sequel to 1988’s Coming to America, directed by Dolemite Is My Name’s Craig Brewer. In this, Murphy’s Prince Akeem Joffer heads back to the US from Zamunda after learning he has a son (Jermaine Fowler) who he’s never met. Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman and KiKi Layne are also in the cast.

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

A sequel to the 2017 Ryan Reynolds / Samuel L Jackson comedy, this Taken-ish instalment sees Reynolds’ minder help assassin Jackson protect his wife (Salma Hayek) from fresh threats.

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The Prom

Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix venture is this spin-off from the Broadway hit of the same name, about down-on-their-luck stage stars in search of a good cause to raise their profile. They find it in the shape of a teenage girl in Indiana prevented from taking her girlfriend to the prom. Meryl Streep and James Cordon play thesps whose musical about Eleanor Roosevelt has earned career-ending reviews, Nicole Kidman is an ageing chorus girl.

On the Rocks

Seventeen years after Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray reunite for this platonic Lost in Translation-ish comedy-drama about a mother (Rashida Jones) who reconnects with her playboy father (Murray) on a New York adventure. Jenny Slate and Marlon Wayans co-star.

Legally Blonde 3

This year is officially one of belated sequels: here is a third film featuring Reese Witherspoon’s perky attorney, nearly two decades after the first followup. Little is known of the plot, but Luke Wilson and Jennifer Coolidge are returning.

Misbehaviour

Keira Knightley plays a women’s libber mounting a gentle but powerful flour bomb protest at the 1970 Miss World competition at the Albert Hall. Greg Kinnear plays nonplussed but slightly frightened host Bob Hope (whose icky quips send Knightley’s character over the edge). Gugu Mbatha Raw and Rhys Ifans co-star.

Let Them All Talk

Shot on the Queen Mary 2 when Steven Soderbergh and Meryl Streep were floating over to Venice to premiere The Laundromat, this is about an author on a trip with her friends (Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen) and nephew (Lucas Hedges) in search of fun and closure.

Happiest Season

Kirsten Stewart prepares to propose to girlfriend Mackenzie Davis at the latter’s annual family holiday party, when she finds Davis hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents. This one is written by actor/director Clea DuVall (who’s also behind the camera) and actor Mary Holland. In a year of multiple same-sex dramas and weepies, this looks like a cheery antidote.

First Ladies

Ditto this. Tig Notaro and her wife, Stephanie Allynne, script this Will Ferrell-produced comedy about a first female president (Jennifer Aniston) and her wife (Notaro).