“Being rich and powerful isn’t a bad thing. The problem is what can happen when you decide that you would do absolutely anything to become rich and powerful”

Adam Sandler in Mr. Deeds (2002)

When I was fourteen and my parents weren’t looking, I submitted an article to an entertainment news website announcing my ‘100 Favourite Films’ (it’s still available to read) and those naive chumps actually published it. I was decimated in the comments section by adult cinephiles, justifiably unaware that a literal child made the list, horrified that I had ranked Grown Ups, Mr. Deeds and Just Go With It higher than The Godfather or Pulp Fiction. My defence was simple: I liked Adam Sandler’s comedies. I had seen most of them only once, laughed a lot, and moved on. Equating this experience of simpleton pleasure with actual cinematic greatness is a flaw of judgement I would grow out of of, but it remains undeniable that Sandler’s lazily produced but affectionately conceived broad comedies hit a certain sweet-spot with global audiences that, in a deeply depressing moment like the current pandemic, have served at least for myself as an easily-digestible dose of the silly and the simple.

Where I start to appreciate Sandler’s “bad” films (we’re talking about the projects critics will reference disparagingly when heaping praise onto…