Keanu Reeves Says That No Movie Made Him Laugh Harder Than This 86% RT American Classic

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Keanu Reeves in front of a white background on the red carpet

Published Apr 7, 2026, 5:42 PM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

The unanimously loved Keanu Reeves has our hearts. An established star for over 30 years, Reeves' accomplishments on screen are matched only by his generosity and overall benevolence as a person. Throughout every press tour, he's bound to give an inspiring quote or amusing anecdote. Most of all, his passion for cinema is infectious.

During promotion for his 2025 comedy, Good Fortune, Reeves faced the inevitable for all actors these days: sharing your Letterboxd Four. The social media platform is always curious about a star's four favorite films. For the John Wick star, a spot on his Mount Rushmore undoubtedly belonged to Harold and Maude, a quirky but profound dramedy with 86% on Rotten Tomatoes that inspired his most uproarious laugh in a movie theater.

'Harold and Maude' Made Keanu Reeves Laugh Harder Than Any Other Movie

Good Fortune, starring, written, and directed by Aziz Ansari, shrewdly casts Keanu Reeves as a well-meaning but lackluster angel named Gabriel, who swaps the lives of downtrodden gig worker Arj (Ansari) with a wealthy venture capitalist, Jeff (Seth Rogen). After all, many audiences view Reeves as an angelic figure of decency in an industry defined by egoism and politicking. The film ultimately disappointed at the box office and was met with lukewarm praise at best, but Good Fortune had all the right intentions and ingredients of a classic studio comedy.

One of the most formative cinematic moments of his life came when he was a teenager during a repertoire screening of Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby's 1971 film about a young man obsessed with mortality and an elderly woman with a jovial free spirit. In one scene, when Harold (Bud Cort) is on a date and bashes his arm with a hatchet out of frustration, Reeves says he "had never laughed like that in a movie [theater], ever."

Reeves describes the movie, also starring Ruth Gordon as Maude, as "sublime," an apt praise for a remarkable film made during a transcendent era of American filmmaking. Overshadowed by legendary household names like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby is one of the signature voices of the New Hollywood movement, an era celebrated for breaking all the cinematic conventions and underlining the dark core of contemporary life. Ashby's loose, shaggy, and meditative style reflected the "hippy," marijuana-induced vibe of the countercultural movement. Movies like The Last Detail and Being There had the hard edge of a paranoid thriller with the amusing heart of a hangout comedy.

'Harold and Maude' Blends High Farce and Sincere Drama Perfectly

Harold and Maude represents New Hollywood in a nutshell by giving a 20-year-old the cynicism of a person on the brink of death and an 80-year-old the innocence and vigor of a person coming into adulthood. Twentysomethings at this time, due to the weaponization of the youth in Vietnam and disillusionment of the central government, were perpetually downbeat and filled with angst, and Ashby uses the tortured 20-year-old in Harold to create a pitch-black comedy about overbearing neurosis. On the flip side, Maude opens the door to a life that everyone could abide by if they set their minds to it. Still, Ashby allows the righteous Maude to appear delusional and ripe with flaws.

Holland March hugging a vinyl CD while a cigarrette hangs from his lips in The Nice Guys

Keanu isn't exaggerating the comedic brilliance of Harold and Maude, and there are plenty of other scenes and line-readings that will leave you laughing with sheer delight. As a broad comedy, Ashby leans into the absurdity of the dynamic between the titular characters, and his pitch-black register prevents the tender bond between them from falling into syrupy tendencies. Best of all, the film is a master class in tonal modulation, blending moments of harsh slapstick and austere meditations on life and death with touching romantic flourishes between Harold and Maude. The film embraces the mercurial nature of life and the beauty of quirky people.

A rare film that makes you laugh and cry simultaneously, Harold and Maude shows that, even at your most pessimistic, nothing prepares you for death. This is a realization that punishes Harold, who thinks he's become an expert at dealing with mortality. Maude, on the other hand, reveals that her blissful energy is used to shield her tragic background as a Holocaust survivor, portrayed in the film's most stirring scene. Only in the 1970s could you craft a sincere romantic dramedy about a young man and an old woman that plays as farce and a life-affirming statement.