DOUBLE FEATURES
Julian Schnabel + Uncut Gems with Punch-Drunk Love
ADAM SANDLER
It came as a surprise to both Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler fans when the director cast the funnyman in his 2002 film, Punch-Drunk Love. Anderson had three features under his belt, Magnolia, Boogie Nights and Hard Eight, all of which were arty, edgy dramas. After leaving Saturday Night Live in 1995, Sandler appeared in a slate of broad comedies, among them The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy, featuring the sort of character that defined his early film-work — the simpleton who’s smarter than he appears and prone to violent outbursts.
In Punch-Drunk Love, Anderson ingeniously blends the ingredients of the typical Sandler character but puts them in a darker, dramatic setting and genre. This is Sandler’s man-child as a grown-up. He is a psychologically and emotionally damaged man who falls in love (with the glorious Emma Watson) that is forced to reckon with his troubled self when faced with the prospect of driving away from the only woman that has ever taken an interest in him. Quirky as the world of Punch-Drunk Love may be, the stakes are exponentially higher, the world considerably darker and the antagonist more dangerous (played by the brilliant, immensely missed Philip Seymour Hoffman) the likes of which a Sandler goofball has ever seen. Sandler adapts beautifully and the result is the best performance he’s ever delivered, not to mention proof that Sandler’s talents extend well beyond comedy.
Except for 2009’s Funny People, Sandler wouldn’t appear in another drama until his recent turn in Uncut Gems, a gritty, violent crime-drama directed by the Safdie brothers. It received critical praise and it was shocking to many when Gems was snubbed by the Oscars, receiving not a single nomination. Sandler convincingly plays a jeweler with a gambling problem who gets in way over his head in a seed world. By comparison, a film that comes to mind is John Cassavetes’s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, starring the late, great Ben Gazzara as a strip-club owner whose gambling addiction puts him on the wrong side of the mob. These films would make for an exciting double feature, although it will all but guarantee a rather grim weekend so, maybe not.
JULIAN SCHNABEL
Along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Salle, Julian Schnabel is one of the most influential American artists emerging from the 1980s New York art scene. Schnabel reached prominence at the tail-end of the ‘70s. He moved back to the city (he was born in Brooklyn) from Brownsville, Texas, where he grew up. Schnabel became an art-star overnight when iconic gallery owner Mary Boone gave him his first solo show in 1979.
Often in the spotlight throughout the ‘80s, partly due to his larger-than-life persona and seemingly irrepressible creative drive, in the 1990s, he took up another artistic medium — filmmaking. He’d always considered himself an artist of moving pictures, a detail frequently reiterated throughout the highly engaging documentary, Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait. Like his paintings, his films are full of motion, with frequently recurring water imagery (he is obsessed with surfing, a hobby since childhood and one he shares with his children, one of the many poignant details in the doc). His first film, Basquiat, was made as a tribute to his fellow artist and late friend. Far from being a straight biopic, Basquiat displays characteristics — abstract, impressionistic imagery and internal monologues of his singular protagonists — that appear in all of Schnabel’s films, including the poignant Before Night Falls and the devastating and beautiful Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Schnabel readily admits that he imposes his visions of the world on his characters — they see things the way he does — which is a rather bold and challenging admission, particularly considering all of his characters were actual people. These aren’t arty films made by a film director, they are artistic films made by an uncompromising idiosyncratic artist. After watching the doc with extensive footage of Schnabel at work and interviews with family and friends (Willem Dafoe! Lou Reed!), check out one of his features and you will understand the distinction.
