Sandra Bullock names her favourite movie: “I like dark comedies”
While Sandra Bullock has taken on dramas, sci-fi, and even horror, it is the genres of comedy, rom-coms, and action that have become her speciality. After early roles in The Vanishing, Demolition Man, and eventually Speed, which proved to be her breakthrough, Bullock became one of the most successful actors of her generation.
The star soon appeared in the successful rom-com While You Were Sleeping, although Two If by Sea proved to be a critical failure. Still, she continued to find acclaim with A Time to Kill, and within a few years, she led the classic Miss Congeniality, which blended her love of rom-coms and action into one neat package.
While Bullock has gone on to explore other genres, she continuously comes back to comedy, with roles in popular movies like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Proposal, Minions, Ocean’s 8, and Bullet Train proving her attachment to humorous roles. In fact, after appearing in the intense drama The Unforgivable in 2021, Bullock revealed to Q’s Tom Power that “I just want to do my comedy. I’m going back to comedy. And I’m going to fight for it and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Bullock loves the power of comedy to explore difficult topics, to satirise various issues, and to allow people to take a break and just laugh. That’s why, then, she cites a classic comedy as one of her favourite movies of all time. Talking to The Free Library, Bullock revealed that her favourite film is “Being There with Peter Sellers,” adding, “I like dark comedies.”
The film, released in 1979, was directed by Hal Ashby, who is also known for helming the likes of Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, and Shampoo. Acting as a satire of politicians, the movie follows Sellers’ Chance, a gardener who has lived in the care of an old man for most of his life, only gaining information about the rest of the world through television. He is soon exposed to the wider world when the old man dies, resulting in his meeting with Shirley MacLaine’s Eve, the wife of a businessman, who is riding in a car that hits the not-yet street-smart Chance.
The importance of perception and appearance in our modern world comes into play, with Eve mistaking Chance for being a well-to-do man due to his outfit. Thus, he becomes immersed in their world, misunderstood as a businessman, subsequently learning about a society he has only ever seen on TV.
Sellers gives a great performance, unsurprisingly, but it was Melvyn Douglas who won the Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for playing Ben Rand, the businessman married to MacLaine’s character. The movie remains one of Ashby’s best, and it’s no surprise that Bullock loves the movie so much. The actor has appeared in her own share of comedies that exist on the darker side of the spectrum, such as playing an alcoholic in rehabilitation in 28 Days, while 2015’s Our Brand Is Crisis saw Bullock involve herself in the world of cinematic political satire.
