I'm trying to think of a single "family comedy" cliche that Sandler hasn't made:
* Intellectually challenged hero (done - the overarching motif of Sandler's ouevre) * Rags to riches (done) * Reluctant parent (done) * Bromance (done) * Coming back from the afterlife (done) * Body and gender reversal(done more than once in producing capacity, this time in starring role) * Adult/child reversal (done) * Culture clash (done, including a supernatural spin and an ethnic spin) * Talking animals (done)
Adam Sandler takes the lifeless repetition at the heart of the Hollywood family comedy and pushes it to its logical, dreadful conclusion. His films revel in the fact that the family comedy is at its core truly macabre -- a simulation of human growth and relationships that uses cheerful tones to mask a creepy, hysterical nature. The Hollywood family comedy is like that unsettling relative who appears to offer sincere affection and advice, and yet whose very presence somehow feels repulsive and nauseating. It reaches for you with a goofy smile and needy eagerness to please that makes you instinctively cringe and retreat. An Adam Sandler film IS that relative, and every time I see a trailer for one of his projects I cannot help but inwardly admire his commitment to perform every family film cliche in the most grotesque way possible.
I'm trying to think of a single "family comedy" cliche that Sandler hasn't made:
ReplyDelete* Intellectually challenged hero (done - the overarching motif of Sandler's ouevre)
* Rags to riches (done)
* Reluctant parent (done)
* Bromance (done)
* Coming back from the afterlife (done)
* Body and gender reversal(done more than once in producing capacity, this time in starring role)
* Adult/child reversal (done)
* Culture clash (done, including a supernatural spin and an ethnic spin)
* Talking animals (done)
Adam Sandler takes the lifeless repetition at the heart of the Hollywood family comedy and pushes it to its logical, dreadful conclusion. His films revel in the fact that the family comedy is at its core truly macabre -- a simulation of human growth and relationships that uses cheerful tones to mask a creepy, hysterical nature. The Hollywood family comedy is like that unsettling relative who appears to offer sincere affection and advice, and yet whose very presence somehow feels repulsive and nauseating. It reaches for you with a goofy smile and needy eagerness to please that makes you instinctively cringe and retreat. An Adam Sandler film IS that relative, and every time I see a trailer for one of his projects I cannot help but inwardly admire his commitment to perform every family film cliche in the most grotesque way possible.