We look at The Adam Sandler Paradox and why Little Nicky himself could (and should) win an Oscar soon…
Adam Sandler is a fans favourite. A purveyor of ‘low brow’ comedy where he has perfected the role of the laid-back underdog who is slightly shlubby. Among an array of legitimate comedy gems (which you might call guilty pleasures) like Billy Maddison, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, he’s also starred in a selection of not-quite-so-stellar works, which for a time, turned him into critic-repellent.
Okay, repelling critics could be a good thing in some cases (I jest), but Sandler is the man who made Little Nicky, The Waterboy, Grown Ups and The Ridiculous 6. You wouldn’t watch the Sandman’s exploits in any of these and consider him an actor that screams Oscar potential.
There’s often been criticism levelled at Sandler’s comedy, particularly in the latter end of his theatrical run of hits and his switch to being a Netflix poster boy. His comedy could be deemed outdated and lazy, and some of the films are little more than excuses to gather up mates and have an all-expenses paid holiday somewhere nice.
It certainly doesn’t seem like Grown Ups was a film requiring him to dig deep. It looked like the easiest gig possible and the film itself was an afterthought. Likewise, some of his yesteryear films haven’t stood up well under the PC microscope. However, here is where the mystery of The Sandler Paradox comes in.
You could argue there’s not much range required for some of those comedies. That Sandler merely has to pick one of his staple voices and facial gurns from his box of tricks and run with it through a stream of puerile jokes and farcical plotlines. Even in 2002 people were wondering just whether there were any more strings to Little Nicky’s bow.
As it happened, Paul Thomas Anderson thought so. Punch Drunk Love was a surprise. It did nothing like the kind of box office numbers his mainstream works were capable of. The lithe, dark comedy, slightly farcical and quirky little romance showed a different side to Sandler and wowed critics.
Punch Drunk Love was a layered and interesting performance that has requisite laughs that didn’t need to be forced. It was also wonderfully tragicomic. You’d expect nothing less from P.T.A after all. Sandler was immense…in fact…he should have been nominated for an Oscar. It was so beyond what he had suggested he was capable of before. It’s a film that has held up beautifully too.
Had Sandler’s prior success curtailed any such Oscar hopes? Much as Hollywood likes a comeback or reinvention or an underdog, it’s not yet been quite able to welcome Sandler into the swankier world of Oscar-dom. He wouldn’t have been too far off however, having received a Golden Globe nod for the performance.
Could it have been a fluke? Well no. Sandler had all too rare diversions away from fart based low brow comedy and face pulling. Funny People gave him a little more to do whilst his role in The Meyerowitz Stories was also a reminder that Sandler could do more layered cinema. Then came The Safdie Brothers.
Stacked alongside P.T.A and Noah Baumbach, it seems clear that there are auteurs who have sought out the talents of Sandler. Not so obvious to some critics, but certainly a quality which these directors have spotted within his better mainstream works. With Uncut Gems, the Safdies cemented themselves as modern-era visionaries capable of great cinema. More remarkable was the performance they inspired from Adam Sandler, who gave one of the best and most compelling and surprising leading performances of the year.
Sandler didn’t just do something that could have gathered him an Oscar nomination. He did something fully warranting it and his omission from nomination felt like a huge oversight. The constant tension and knife-edge thrills of Uncut Gems was powered by Sandler’s energy and frenetic neurotic charisma. Yes, at Oscar season, the Sandman was robbed!
The interesting dichotomy of his career is this constant bounce from doing something like Uncut Gems to then doing Hubie Halloween. Even for an actor well into his 50s now, there’s no sign that Sandler might consider making layered roles his raison d’etre and puerile comedy the exception. Is this contrast going to continue to hold him back?
Sandler delivered another gem on Netflix this year with Hustle. It’s a by-the-numbers sports drama that is expertly delivered. Sandler also delivers a performance close to his default persona but with the kind of nuance, his regular comedy versions of his everyman underdog wouldn’t normally have. It’s an impressive performance in the type of film that’s perhaps a little too well-worn for the big boy awards, yet it serves to remind us once again, what Sandler has in his locker as an actor.
It won’t happen in the 2023 ceremony but the question still remains… Can Sandler ever win an Oscar? Can he compel so thoroughly that he can blind the Academy to his past as a toilet (humour) trader? This is where team Safdies come in, with the brothers once again looking to pair up with Adam Sandler in an upcoming project. No word on the title or content just yet, but the Netflix production will hopefully not be discounted on the basis of being one of the streamer’s originals.
The Safdies will surely do something compelling and Sandler will most likely deliver the goods too. Here’s hoping that the film has enough of an original spin and enough surprises that it could pick up notice from the major award ceremonies, and particularly those Oscars. In the end though, the Academy needs a lifeline and an injection of interestingly diverse selections.
Prior to a slap you might have heard of, the Oscar ceremony was losing a lot of its lustre and interest. Choices have often felt predictable and tiresome. A push for more diversity and variation in the nods hasn’t always been followed through, nor with the more genuinely interesting selections, they could have picked. There’s almost no excuse in a year with Everything Everywhere All at Once, or with a performance as dazzling as Mia Goth’s (even in the maligned horror genre) in Pearl not to address this. So who knows, come the 2024 Oscars, maybe it’ll be the Sandman’s year…
Tom Jolliffe is an award-winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has a number of films out on DVD/VOD around the world and several releases due out in 2022/2023, including, Renegades (Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Michael Pare, Tiny Lister, Nick Moran, Patsy Kensit, Ian Ogilvy, and Billy Murray), Crackdown, When Darkness Falls and War of The Worlds: The Attack (Vincent Regan). Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see here.
Originally published December 31, 2022. Updated February 12, 2023.
