SeriouslyGoodFilms

Stan & Ollie (December 28)

The greatest comedians are funny in ways no one has been funny before. That was certainly true of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who elevated the finds the boys past their prime and reduced to rehashing their classic bits in decrepit British music halls. But while they’ve lost their adoring public, they still have each other, and they cling to that bond like castaways on a floating plank. Steve Coogan was born to play Laurel, and John C. Reilly, wearing a fat suit and laboring under a quivering mass of makeup, is Ollie. It’s the toughest kind of screen acting, but Reilly succeeds handsomely.