Reviving A Career With Adam Sandler and The Meyerowitz Stories

Taylor Hawkins
Aug 28, 2017 · 8 min read

In 1989, Going Overboard, a small comedy with a limited release, hit just a few theaters and received virtually no fanfare whatsoever. It came and went without so much as a whimper, and if the IMdB user ratings and criticism are any indication (1.9/10 from 11,009 ratings), it was an amateurish wreck with very little value, nuance, or humor — which isn’t great considering it was a comedy.

The only positive takeaway from most was brief flashes of brilliance from a young, energetic leading man.

Going Overboard was Adam Sandler’s first feature film, and it jumpstarted a career that would be praised, criticized, loved, and hated, all in equal measures.

After his performance in Going Overboard helped him earn his way onto Saturday Night Live, Sandler’s stock exploded. The combination of his interactions with co-workers — particularly the late Chris Farley — and wacky characters he created — Opera Man, Cajun Man, and Canteen Boy — helped Sandler rise to prominence on the legendary show.

Then came the opportunities.

After a few cameos and sidekick characters, Sandler got the biggest break of his career.

In 1995, Sandler was given the opportunity to lead a creation of his own and used it — and the subsequent film — as the catalyst for his empire.

Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore — each a comedic tale of an underdog trying to do right by his family against all odds — became instant classics in the pantheon of great comedies. To this day, quotes from both pop up in the daily lives of twenty-somethings. Although the critics weren’t as sold on it — 46% and 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively — the people loved it — 79% and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively — and they helped him form the Happy Madison Production Company.

Sandler became full-fledged star, and he went on to make lesser, yet still beloved, comedies in the few years that followed. The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy were all good comedies with nice stories and at least a little bit of heart. If any of those came on my television, I wouldn’t rush to change the channel without watching a few minutes.

From that point on, things got a bit dicey, to say the least. His films became wacky and disjointed with seemingly no rhyme or reason for decisions. Though you could see shades of it in earlier films, the zany nature truly took over in Little Nicky and never turned back after Mr. Deeds — which conceivably could have been lumped in with his earlier work.

Nothing seemed to work after that.

He tried to make films that featured earnest love between both lovers and friends — 50 First Dates and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry — but they didn’t move anyone and featured humor that wasn’t funny, which is the worst kind of humor.

There were films in which he tried to blend serious themes with comedy — Anger Management and Click — to middling results.

And then there was the worst of the worst, films that just shouldn’t exist. Jack and Jill, Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and That’s My Boy all upset me in a way they shouldn’t. These flicks are an open-handed slap in the face to everyone who believed in him, a triumphant middle finger, a spit in the eye. It put me, along with many others, in a bad place, particularly the first of the three listed, which was idiotic, and offensive to all of the senses.

Mary Pol’s review in Time Magazine had a line which perfectly sums up how I felt upon viewing it.

More than 24 hours has passed since I watched the new Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill and I am still dead inside.

In the midst of the piles of shit, and there were many, Sandler was tracked down by a budding star of a director in P.T. Anderson, who, coming off of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, wanted to make a 90 minute movie, which would be his idea of a romantic comedy.

In an interview with the late Roger Ebert, the young auteur, who would become one of the finest living directors, felt he had something to learn from a man the world wanted to dismiss.

“I love him,” Anderson said, “and he’s always made me laugh. l like just about all of his movies and have always felt comfort in watching them. It’s Saturday night and if I wanna watch something fun, I’m gonna watch an Adam Sandler movie. Or if I’m sad, I’m popping in an Adam Sandler movie. The last thing I would wanna do is watch ‘Magnolia,’ you know, or ‘Breaking the Waves.’ So I’m looking at Sandler and thinking God, I wanna get a piece of that. I wanna learn from that dude. What is it that’s so appealing about him to so many people? I think he’s this great communicator, you know.”

Whether it be as a grown man being forced to go through the entirety of his schooling once more to take over the family business or as a mentally-handicapped water boy taking college football by storm as a ferocious linebacker, Sandler always thrived in absurdity.

So it makes sense that he would continue to be placed in situations where his reactions were paramount to the tone of the film. His constant outbursts of anger and depression in the face of being blackmailed by a phone sex operator, her henchmen, and their boss.

Punch-Drunk Love gave a whole different look at what Sandler could be, a brooding, angry man who wants to simply escape the life he’s trapped in, only to be sucked in by those he wants and those he loves. He sees the world around him and chooses to try to be a viewer instead of a participant, and you feel sorry for what he has to endure. Sandler did a mesmerizing job at creating that empathy.

What Sandler has done over the course of the past 17 years or so is noble in a way. He’s worked with his frequent collaborators and best friends, both as an actor and a producer, through Happy Madison Productions to create the type of films they want to make, what they tough was funny. Sandler has traveled all across the world with his friends —like Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, David Spade, etc…, basically the crew from Grown Ups — to create cheaply-made, critically-panned, money makers.

In a way, it’s noble, yes. I mean who among us wouldn’t want to go do whatever the hell we wanted with our friends and make a ton of money in the process. It takes balls to make movies that bad and put them out there for people to see.

But it’s terrible for everyone who has seen the best of what he’s done, knowing there has to be better in there.

Kids seem to love his newer stuff, and parents seemingly view them as safe-ish, mindless humor from a man they felt they once knew, once laughed with, once enjoyed, and they flock to the theaters in droves.

Sandler’s ability to make tons of money and get people into theaters convinced Netflix to give him a ground-breaking four-film deal. He has the creative freedom that nearly every other filmmaker could only dream of obtaining. He could literally make anything.

What did he make, you may ask? The Ridiculous 6, a western comedy so bad that it earned an impressive 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ve yet to hear of anyone in this world who enjoyed it. He followed it up with The Do-Over, a buddy action comedy with David Spade that was nearly equally as awful as his first effort, leaving doubt in the mind of everyone praying and hoping he would return to the form we once knew.

Sandy Wexler, the third of the films, is admittedly better than the first two, but the bar was so low that it’s sort of a given. You’ll get a couple of chuckles in it, but it’s still incredibly meh.

But someone is watching all of these movies. Actually, it’s apparently more than one person. People have spent half a billion hours watching Sandler flicks on Netflix. The returns have been so goon on their investment that Netflix has decided to extend his contract to four more movies, giving him four more opportunities to create something meaningful. Before that, however, there is one more movie to go in the current deal.

Whispers followed that Sandler’s final film of the deal would be something different, yet familiar. He would be returning to drama, something he hadn’t altogether left but hadn’t nailed in recent years, either.

The two highest-rated films of the whole set of Happy Madison flicks? Reign Over Me and Funny People, dramas starring Sandler.

The fact that those two are the highest rated shouldn’t be a total surprise since dramas are generally better received than comedies, but while they aren’t great films, they stand out among the rest. Sandler has a way of naturally bringing levity to real situations and has a presence for dramatic acting. At his best, he’s been able to blur the lines between the two is a seamless manner.

Now, 15 years after Punch-Drunk Love’s release, Sandler has the opportunity to top his apex performance.

Something is happening right now that would have seemed as absurd as one his movie’s storylines a few years ago. There’s actually Oscar buzz for Sandler’s performance in the upcoming Netflix Original The Meyerowitz Stories.

Much like with Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler has come together with a director in Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha) who can reel him in slightly and allow him to be humorous yet understated, reactionary without being melodramatic, quirky yet avoiding the pitfalls of zaniness. In a sense, he can be real.

With Ben Stiller, who has faced some similar criticisms throughout his career, though to a far lesser degree, the legendary Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson alongside him instead of his usual cast of friends, we’ll assuredly get something original and, hopefully, better.

The early reviews are saying The Meyerowitz Stories (88% on Rotten Tomatoes) is a revelation and arguably Sandler’s greatest job yet, and for those of us who never truly gave up on him, that’s beautiful music.

Is Adam Sandler our greatest actor? I’d easily say no to that.

But I would argue that he’s one of our greatest talents, an entirely lovable, albeit frustrating, reactionary with a penchant for timing.

It’s about time he began to act like it once again.


The Meyerowitz Stories was an official selection at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, one of only four United States pictures to earn that distinction this year. As it stands now, it will be released this fall — October 13th — on Netflix and in select theaters.

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Taylor Hawkins

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Freelance writer and blogger for hire traveling all over the grand ole US of A. DM for contact information. List enthusiast.

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