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Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the best comedies

Frances Ha, Oh Boy and Old Stock among our top picks for comedy at EIFF 2013
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Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the best comedies

Frances Ha, Oh Boy and Old Stock among our top picks for comedy at EIFF 2013

Frances Ha

This being a film by Noah Baumbach (Greenberg, The Squid and the Whale), you'd probably expect this to be a comedy of the 'bittersweet and poignant' vein rather than, say, all-out slapstick. And you'd probably be right to a certain extent, although leading lady Greta Gerwig certain shows off her physical comedy chops as the titular dancer who is struggling to grow up.
Filmhouse, Fri 21 Jun and Dominion, Sat 22 Jun.

Oh Boy

'You know when you get the feeling that the people all around you are kinda strange somehow? But when you think about it a little longer, you realise it's not the others but you who's the problem?' So speaks misfit slacker Niko (Tom Schilling) in this Berlin-set comedy about a young man trying to break out of his student lifestyle but failing to connect with the off-kilter adults around him.
Filmhouse, Sun 23 Jun and Cineworld, Sat 29 Jun.

Old Stock

This Canadian comedy follows Stock Burton (Noah Reid), a young man who, after spending two years in a retirement home to avoid coping with his quarter-life crisis, is being forced back out into the world to confront the problems that made him retreat from his life in the first place.
Filmhouse, Sun 23 Jun and Cineworld, Sat 29 Jun.

Not Another Happy Ending

Yes, we all know romcoms can be a bit naff, but we're unwilling to let our cynical nature take hold on this one. Maybe it's because we sympathise with the main plot point (an authorly type struggling with writer's block); maybe it's because it was shot in Glasgow, and we enjoy recognising streets we know on the big screen; maybe it's down to Karen Gillan's idiosyncratic wardrobe, possibly the most eye-catching since Diane Keaton's in Annie Hall. In any case, we can't wait.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sun 30 Jun.

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