Every once in a while, a respected director gets his or her hands around Adam Sandler and figures out how to properly use the comedian's unique abilities. The latest candidate appears to be Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, The Squid and the Whale), whose latest movie The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected), has screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where it's generating raves -- particularly for Sandler's performance:
"Cannes' best performance is given by Adam Sandler"?! Tell me you expected to read that this weekend. That's high praise from The Telegraph's film critic Robbie Collin, though he's not alone in singling out Adam Sandler's work in The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected). IndieWire's David Ehrlich shares:
Playing a guy who, like his father, 'must have a real tolerance for discomfort,' the Artist Formerly Known as Sandy Wexler is exceptional in a low-key turn as a person who can't tell the difference between the pain he has to live with and the hurt he can actually help. Watching him work out the difference is the film's greatest pleasure.
While Variety, in its full review, states:
Perhaps that's why Netflix, which is in the Adam Sandler business, scooped up this relatively high-brow Scott Rudin production just weeks before its Cannes film festival premiere. Still, it's odd to think that the company responsible for Sandy Wexler and The Ridiculous Six could conceivably earn Sandler his first Oscar nomination --- and his best role since Punch-Drunk Love played Cannes in 2002.
WOW. An Adam Sandler Oscar nomination? On the surface, its sort of believable. Directed by Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) is a very New York comedy that's structured into bite-sized chapters, and the cast that Baumbach has assembled is to die for. Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler are joined by Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Elizabeth Marvel, Grace Van Patten, Judd Hirsch, Rebecca Miller, Adam Driver, Matthew Shear and Candice Bergen. It's the type of movie that tends to generate festival praise, though if Netflix is able to slowly string out support for the film the way Amazon Studios did for Manchester By The Sea -- earning Casey Affleck a Best Actor trophy -- then this could be an exciting year for Sandler.
We don't have a release date on The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) yet, but we'll continue to track this film's progress with interest. For more on Netflix's television and film debuts, head over here.
