Adam Sandler is a great comedian and more importantly a good guy. Since his inception on ‘ Saturday Night Live ‘ thirty years ago, the New Yorker has proven to be an unstoppable source of absurd and well-meaning silliness.
Now, beaten by critics, revered by his colleagues and adored by the box office of his always profitable films, he premieres streaming the enjoyable ‘ Garra ‘, a new notch of his million-dollar relationship with Netflix with which both parties they seem delighted. “I love working with Netflix and collaborating with them,” he explains. “I love the passion they have for making movies and getting them out there for the world to see. They’ve made me feel like family and I can’t thank them enough for their support.”
“I was not a child who grew up thinking that one day they would give me an Oscar and I would give a speech. That was not in my mind, I just want to do the best job I can,” admits an actor who, despite everything, has been five times Emmy nominated, he has had three Grammy and one Golden Globe nominations.
Adam Richard Sandler was born in New York on September 9, 1966. The son of a kindergarten teacher and an electrical engineer, his passion for comedy came early, at just 12 years old. “I never had a speech from my father saying what I should or shouldn’t do, I just learned to lead by example,” recalls the comedian. “My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper and I took some of that. He would get nervous but as I got older he started to calm down. He learned about life but what he taught my whole family was that family was the most important and that no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them, you get there.It made us feel comfortable and respectful to other families, my mother too… part of my father having a bad temper led me to develop a sense of humor to calm the old man down. That kind of sense of humor.”
“To be honest, when I got into this I never thought about criticism,” he admits. “I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young man excited to become a comedian and an actor and he just wanted to do what he had to do.”
We take a look at the actor’s career to try and convince those who are reading this with a crooked nose that if they search their hearts, they will discover that The Sandman is one of their own.
‘Happy Gilmore (Terminagolf)’ (Dennis Dugan, 1996)
Four years after debuting on ‘ Saturday Night Live ‘, the industry began to tempt the show’s youngest talent and, although it worked as a supporting role in the funny ‘ Airheads ‘ (Michael Lehmann, 1994), the negative reviews (and insults ) began with his debut as the lead in ‘ Billy Madison ‘ (Tamra Davis, 1995), the story of a chump who wants to stop being one and which settled a large part of Sandler’s later career.
Aware that what he was doing was good, he underlined his intentions in ‘ Happy Gilmore (Terminagolf) ‘, a film in which he plays a hockey player who tries to make a career in the world of golf relying solely on his powerful swing. An absolute fun about people who understand reality differently but, aware of it or not, try to prosper without having to impose their point of view.
‘The ideal boy’ (Frank Coraci, 1998)
The J. Geils Band triumphed in the 80s with their ‘ Love Stinks ‘ and, eighteen years later, Sandler gave depth to the idea with his character as ‘ The Ideal Boy ‘, a wedding singer who will discover how far this song is the one that talks about him (and not the rest of his repertoire) when they plant him at the altar.
The actor, already establishing himself in his acting facet, began his friendship with Drew Barrymore here and took the opportunity to claim himself as a comic singer, something with which he has not stopped having fun.
‘Little Nicky’ (Steven Brill, 2000)
Satan has had enough and wants to retire, but before he rests in the flames, he must find a successor. Cassius and Adrian , his two eldest sons, are involved in a fight for the throne and evil that gets them nowhere and the little one, Nicky , is too good to be reigning in the world of the fallen.
‘Drunk with Love’ (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)
Paul Thomas Anderson ‘s fondness for ‘ Saturday Night Live ‘ has not only led the director to share his life with the sublime Maya Rudolph but, just after devoting critics with ‘ Magnolia ‘ (1999), the filmmaker decided to call Adam Sandler .
As far from comedy as it is from drama, ‘ Drunk with love ‘ fits better in the world now that we have seen Anderson play with the work of Thomas Pynchon in ‘ Pure vice ‘ (2014) but, since its premiere, it was an exercise hypnotic in which Sandler, for the first time, hinted at what, in reality, he had been telling us from the beginning.
’50 First Dates’ (Peter Segal, 2004)
And after the experiment, the actor returned to the traditional romantic comedy through the front door. ’50 First Dates ‘ is framed within the genre without blushing with a fun, tender plot and a plot excuse as simple as it is effective: a guy terrified of relationships falls madly in love with a girl who, every morning, wakes up without remembering what happened on the day. yesterday.
‘Make Me Laugh’ (Judd Apatow, 2009)
Five titles not exactly applauded in five years began to make a dent in the actor. He just wanted to have fun and make us pass the time, but grotesque like ‘ Zohan: License to Comb ‘ (Dennis Dugan, 2008), created in the shadow of ‘ Zoolander: A brainless fashion ‘ (Ben Stiller, 2001) and ‘ Borat ‘ (Larry Charles, 2006), proved that Sandler worked better by his rules and not by embracing the trends of the moment.
This is how Judd Apatow , one of his teenage friends, understood it, and decided to give him a place in his brand new renewal of the new (new [new]) North American comedy with ‘ Make me laugh ‘, a wonderful stop on the road with which to better understand the complex life within American entertainment and, incidentally, the almost impossible reconciliation between the laughter on stage and the tears behind it.
‘The Meyerowitz Stories’ (Noah Baumbach, 2017)
Sandler’s career continued with its usual ups and downs and, between sticks and sticks, he got off the hook from time to time with small gifts, such as providing a voice for the protagonist of the fun ‘ Hotel Transylvania ‘ (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2012) or becoming one of the most interesting characters in ‘ Men, Women and Children ‘ (2014), Jason Reitman ‘s premature approach to the influence of social networks on the American middle class.
‘The worst week’ (Robert Smigel, 2018)
And if the great authors were signing up for Netflix, why would Sandler resist? Actually, he has been the one who has best known how to take advantage of the opportunity thanks to an initial contract for four films (which had already been renewed for another four on the third) in which the costs are irresistibly lower than his incessant number of reproductions.
‘Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh’ (Steven Brill, 2018)
And to show that good things can also happen to good people, the current calm in Sandler’s career led him to get back on stage and, unexpectedly, he made what is probably the best stand-up special . up of 2018.
‘Diamonds in real’ (Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie, 2019)
The Safdies came into Sandler’s life and acolytes and neophytes ended up with our mouths open before this wonderful savagery in which the actor was robbed inside and outside the plot. In the film, by his evil arts and companies as a New York jeweler. In the real world, by critics and academics who left the actor out of the big dates of the awards race when he not only deserved to appear among the nominees, but to take home some of the most golden statuettes of the season.
‘Hubie Halloween ‘ (Steven Brill, 2020)
More relaxed after giving his all in his special and in the Safdie ‘s nonsense , the actor returned to his comfortable job at Netflix to make us enjoy ‘ Hubie’s Halloween ‘, a festive film that manages to become an instant classic for Halloween who, under his silly proposal, hides the iron intention of a guy obsessed with showing us that we have to be better people.
Amusing, absurd and surprisingly well shot by a Steven Brill who has made a career at the cost of adding projects, the film is the definitive success of a brilliant comedian, a good clown who yearns for the next smack, aware that it will improve the performance a bit. day of those who need to see him smeared with cream.
‘Garra’ (Jeremiah Zagar, 2022)
Sandler plays a talent scout for early basketball players who, while visiting Spain, discovers a player with enormous talent but a difficult past. Without his team’s approval, he decides to take the phenom with him, giving them both one last chance to prove themselves NBA worthy.
Halfway between a “Sandler drama” and a “feel-good movie”, the actor becomes from the beginning the pillar that makes ‘ Garra ‘ an essential for its followers.
