This 25-Year-Old Star-Studded (Yet Underrated) Movie Is the Best Black Comedy Ever Made
Not the first movie that comes to mind when you hear the name of Danny DeVito, and probably not the ultimate comedy choice, but definitely a must-see.
There are a lot of movies that get terrible reviews, but only a few of them are real gems that surprisingly ended up on the wrong side of services like IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. And this 2000s black comedy with an exceptional cast is one of those few, that's for sure.
Drowning Mona has only a 29% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, and the audience rating is higher, 47%, but not high enough to say that people love it. However, it seems like there's some kind of mistake, because people on Reddit, for example, say they just love it. For many reasons.
Directed by Nick Gomez, Drowning Mona is a twisted, star-studded dark comedy that is as hilarious as it is morbid. The movie revolves around Mona Dearly, a foul-mouthed woman who seems to make the lives of everyone around her absolutely miserable. The role is played by Bette Midler, who is absolutely stunning in her portrayal of this notorious small-town woman.
And when her car drives off a bridge and leaves her dead in a shallow river, the town is left to figure out whether her death was an accident or murder. And the ones who have to find that out are not the people you would ever trust a murder investigation…
So the local authorities, led by the always disgruntled and sarcastic Detective Wyatt Rash, brilliantly played by Danny DeVito (it's actually impossible to imagine anyone else in the role), soon find themselves thrown into a series of bizarre events as they try to solve the case.
“It’s a well balanced blend of dark & wacky humor, the entire cast is hilarious and it’s endlessly quotable! It presents itself as a “whodunnit?” and unravels itself as a “who wouldn’t?”, largely thanks to Bette Midler’s unhinged performance as the title character. If anything I think this movie has aged wonderfully and I personally believe if this movie had been released much later it would’ve had a more welcoming reception,” Redditor Im-Mr-Bulldopz said.
The beauty of Drowning Mona lies in its eccentric and utterly dysfunctional characters. The ensemble cast is filled with comedic heavyweights including Will Ferrell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Melissa McCarthy and more, who literally turned the most mundane scenes of the movie into comedic gold.
Drowning Mona is available to stream on AppleTV+, and you can also stream the movie on Prime video until the end of April.
