10 'Comedies' That Were Secretly Really Depressing

9. Inherent Vice

In the run-up to the release of his seventh film, Inherent Vice, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson was talking up what he said were some pretty whacky influences. Classic TV spoof Police Squad!, cult oddity Repo Man and ridiculous (also, ridiculously fun) Hitchcock thriller North By Northwest all came up, adding up to make what would surely be one of the best good times of 2014. Set in a late-1960s California where the hippie dream is coming to an end via neo-Nazism, shady conspiracies and murder, Anderson's film is actually about the tragic obliteration of the free-loving '60s, rather than a light celebration of the period. Promotional material for the film played up its comedic aspects - look, there's bonkers old Joaquin Phoenix getting clubbed over the head by a baseball bat! - but the final product is about as cynical as a film about afro-haired stoners can get. The death of the counterculture has never seemed so melancholic and tragic before. What comedy there actually is in this 'comedy crime drama' is overshadowed by the implication that all the good times ended around 45 years ago.