A Serious Man (2009)
If Donald Duck were a Midwestern physics professor in 1967, he would be Larry Gopnik. In this darkly comic masterpiece from the Coen Brothers, Larry’s life unravels for no discernible reason. His wife is leaving him, a student is trying to bribe him, and
his unemployed brother has taken up residence on his couch. Like Donald, Larry is a fundamentally decent person who suffers a series of escalating indignities, leaving him to stare at the heavens and ask, "Why me?" It’s the cinematic equivalent of Donald getting repeatedly hit by a falling anvil, each time with more existential weight.
After Hours (1985)
Martin Scorsese’s frenetic black comedy is basically a feature-length Donald Duck short for adults. Griffin Dunne plays a mild-mannered word processor who, after a promising date, finds himself trapped in a surreal, nightmarish version of New York City where every attempt to get home is met with bizarre and hostile obstacles. From losing his money out the window of a speeding cab to being mistaken for a neighborhood burglar, his journey is a masterclass in mounting frustration. It perfectly captures that classic Donald narrative: a simple plan gone horribly, hilariously wrong.
Withnail & I (1987)
This British cult classic features one of cinema’s greatest complainers. Richard E. Grant's Withnail is an out-of-work, melodramatic actor whose roaring frustration with the world is pure, unfiltered Donald. Convinced of his own genius but ignored by society, he and his friend escape their squalid London flat for a holiday in the countryside, which they discover is even more miserable. Withnail's theatrical monologues about his own suffering and his outrage at every minor inconvenience are a perfect echo of Donald’s own self-pitying and explosive tantrums.
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Imagine Donald and his nephews trying to run a totalitarian state, and you have the spirit of this brilliant political satire from Armando Iannucci. Following the demise of Joseph Stalin, his top ministers engage in a frantic, clumsy, and utterly selfish power struggle. The film finds absurd comedy in the panic and incompetence of powerful men desperately trying to stay in control while backstabbing each other. It mirrors the chaos of any cartoon where Donald hatches an ambitious scheme that immediately spirals into farcical disaster, only with much higher stakes.
Force Majeure (2014)
This Swedish dark comedy zeroes in on a very specific Donald Duck trait: blustering bravado that quickly crumbles under pressure. During a family ski trip in the Alps, a seemingly life-threatening avalanche approaches their mountainside restaurant. While the mother, Ebba, tries to protect their children, the father, Tomas, grabs his phone and runs. The avalanche turns out to be harmless, but the family is left to deal with the fallout of his split-second act of cowardice. The film brilliantly explores the slow, agonizing unraveling of a man’s ego, much like Donald’s proud facade collapsing the moment things get real.
Computer Chess (2013)
Shot on vintage video cameras to look like a lost artifact from the 1980s, this wonderfully strange film captures the niche ambition of early computer programmers at a tournament. It’s a world of quirky, awkward geniuses who believe they are on the cusp of a breakthrough, only to be foiled by bizarre technical glitches, rival personalities, and a surreal self-help group staying at the same hotel. It’s a perfect allegory for every time Donald tried to become an expert in some new-fangled gadget or hobby, only to find himself completely overwhelmed by forces he doesn’t understand.
The President's Analyst (1967)
This satirical spy comedy stars James Coburn as a psychiatrist who gets the worst job in the world: becoming the top-secret analyst for the U.S. President. He soon finds that knowing the leader's innermost secrets makes him a target for every spy agency on the planet. The mounting paranoia and sense of being a small cog in a gigantic, insane machine perfectly channels Donald’s many misadventures where he accidentally gets swept up in something far bigger than himself. It’s a hilarious take on being hopelessly, frustratingly in over your head.
