Sometimes it takes a clown to make you cry
September 23, 2022 11:14 AM Subscribe
Why does Adam Sandler's 'Click' make men cry? Despite being widely recognized as a bad movie, Adam Sandler's Click apparently makes a lot of men cry. Even men who acknowledge the movie's many failings still admit to weeping at the end. Some go so far as to mention crying at the end of Click on their dating profiles.
While you won't find Click on many lists of movies that make men cry (or those for movies men are "allowed" to cry at), it does show up on at least one list about movies that unexpectedly made viewers cry.
Film critic Jessie David Fox, who ranked Click as the best Adam Sandler movie, thinks it probably has to do with dad stuff -- both their relationships with their own fathers and concerns about what kind of father they'll become. Fox also says it could be because men do not get exposed to much “cry-inducing art.”
While you won't find Click on many lists of movies that make men cry (or those for movies men are "allowed" to cry at), it does show up on at least one list about movies that unexpectedly made viewers cry.
Film critic Jessie David Fox, who ranked Click as the best Adam Sandler movie, thinks it probably has to do with dad stuff -- both their relationships with their own fathers and concerns about what kind of father they'll become. Fox also says it could be because men do not get exposed to much “cry-inducing art.”
Another reason that the film brings men to tears? Dad stuff. “It is notable that the death of Sandler's dad is what inspired him to make the movie,” Jesse said.
Like come on! Maybe if I'd watched the movie I'd be more mystified. But people are responding to the emotional core of a "bad" movie because it has one no? Because that's what it sounds like.
posted by subdee at 11:35 AM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
Like come on! Maybe if I'd watched the movie I'd be more mystified. But people are responding to the emotional core of a "bad" movie because it has one no? Because that's what it sounds like.
posted by subdee at 11:35 AM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
I admit that Adam Sandler movies make me sad and depressed to the point of tearing up, but not for the reasons this post is about.
posted by doctornemo at 11:39 AM on September 23, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 11:39 AM on September 23, 2022 [14 favorites]
subdee, not having paid maternity leave and both of you having to work is awful. I'm sorry.
posted by doctornemo at 11:40 AM on September 23, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 11:40 AM on September 23, 2022 [11 favorites]
I've never seen Click and I don't plan to, but I think this video about it I think did a pretty good job of criticizing it — that might be some useful context for other people eho haven't watched it (although it definitely is quite openly biased against the movie).
posted by wesleyac at 11:41 AM on September 23, 2022
posted by wesleyac at 11:41 AM on September 23, 2022
I have seen Click and it did not move me to tears, although maybe that's because I saw the movie edited for content and compressed for time on FX.
posted by Servo5678 at 11:43 AM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Servo5678 at 11:43 AM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
no plans to ever watch Click, but as with comedy.. to each their own.. I can think of how I bawled watching the Midnight Gospel episode where he says goodbye to his mother and it just chokes me up thinking about it, but I know people who don't really respond to it.. not that it needs to be said, but how is a strong emotional response not bound up in incalculably complex threads of all the moments of a life, and so much of why we react to things is a mystery even unto our selves?
i'm such a judgmental arsehole and I try not to be, this is one of those times I hope people can release emotions in any way that is healthy whether it's an Adam Sandler flick or whatever
posted by elkevelvet at 11:53 AM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
i'm such a judgmental arsehole and I try not to be, this is one of those times I hope people can release emotions in any way that is healthy whether it's an Adam Sandler flick or whatever
posted by elkevelvet at 11:53 AM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Click is a really interesting movie and probably the first movie I've ever seen that had an incredible tonal shift that I loved and found deeply provoking -- I didn't like it but I did feel moved for those moments. I was young enough that I didn't really have any preconceived notions about Adam Sandler to watch it, and it still was one of my favorite movie watching experiences, especially bc I really hated most of it! Big deal if you're a kid with no access to art house theatre besides torrenting -- it would be nice if more mainstream movies took narrative risks like that.
(I think about how Everything Everywhere All At Once was so, so refreshing and spilled out from indie theatres to wide release for their emotional core, although that is a significantly better movie than Click. But Click did help prepare me for that movie)
posted by yueliang at 11:54 AM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
(I think about how Everything Everywhere All At Once was so, so refreshing and spilled out from indie theatres to wide release for their emotional core, although that is a significantly better movie than Click. But Click did help prepare me for that movie)
posted by yueliang at 11:54 AM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
I hated that movie. It made its depressing point about 1/3 of the way through AND THEN KEPT HAMMERING IT INTO THE GROUND.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:58 AM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:58 AM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
so a movie that causes many men to admit that they were emotionally vulnerable is a bad thing now?
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
I've had this conversation a few times with friends and acquaintances -- the one where folks admit to having teared up at the end of the movie. This is usually accompanied by an expression of surprise that this happened with an Adam Sandler movie (which is fair!). I hadn't noticed a gender bias in these conversations, but in retrospect I suppose it tracks. I myself saw the movie in theaters and definitely teared up as well.
I'm not really that surprised that it's so common, though? As I recall the movie was decent / mixed overall, but the performance of the climactic end scene came off as pretty committed / genuine, IIRC, and the central theme of the movie centers on a pretty universal anxiety: am I spending my time the right way; am I making time for people who are important to me. It's like asking why so many people find "Cat's in the Cradle" sad. The relatability of the situation trumps the cheesiness.
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 12:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
I'm not really that surprised that it's so common, though? As I recall the movie was decent / mixed overall, but the performance of the climactic end scene came off as pretty committed / genuine, IIRC, and the central theme of the movie centers on a pretty universal anxiety: am I spending my time the right way; am I making time for people who are important to me. It's like asking why so many people find "Cat's in the Cradle" sad. The relatability of the situation trumps the cheesiness.
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 12:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
I admit that Adam Sandler movies make me sad and depressed to the point of tearing up, but not for the reasons this post is about.
I usually start bawling just a few seconds after the opening credits and title card.
posted by loquacious at 12:04 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I usually start bawling just a few seconds after the opening credits and title card.
posted by loquacious at 12:04 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I can now confess that I cried at the emergency room scene in Pay It Forward. Gets me every damn time.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 12:06 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 12:06 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
The only funny thing about clock was when electrolemon put 57 copies of it in his parents house.
posted by lkc at 12:12 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by lkc at 12:12 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
It's no Iron Giant.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:16 PM on September 23, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 12:16 PM on September 23, 2022 [17 favorites]
tl/dr: Who'd a-thunk? Adam Sandler is now America's Dad: Deal with it.
Why I can't something-or-other.
posted by y2karl at 12:17 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Why I can't something-or-other.
posted by y2karl at 12:17 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Adam Sandler is now America's Dad: Deal with it.
This is going to make the Oedipal response both satisfying and strange. Aptly.
posted by doctornemo at 12:34 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
This is going to make the Oedipal response both satisfying and strange. Aptly.
posted by doctornemo at 12:34 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
I went to the movies with friends outside Montreal once at a Cineplex kind of place, and they all went to see a Nixon comedy, and I was the only person in the theatre playing The Iron Giant and cried so hard the projectionist came down to see if I was okay.
I don't know why people cry at movies but if I even hear somebody saying "Superman" in a creaky voice I have to excuse myself and go look at the sky for a while.
posted by Shepherd at 12:42 PM on September 23, 2022 [25 favorites]
I don't know why people cry at movies but if I even hear somebody saying "Superman" in a creaky voice I have to excuse myself and go look at the sky for a while.
posted by Shepherd at 12:42 PM on September 23, 2022 [25 favorites]
I've never seen Click and I'm not an Adam Sandler Movie Consumer, and while I find this phenomenon interesting (and enjoyed the Gawker article about it), this definitely lands upon an intersection of cultural snobbery and mild societal aversion to men having feelings, I think.
In a similar way to that old saying that patriarchy isn't all men having power, it's some men having all the power while others are considered rejects and failures and thrown into a garbage heap, I feel like there's a weird dichotomy in which Some Men have a monopoly on brooding and strong feelings and internal monologues and the right to an emotional existence—Jonathan Franzen and John Updike and all the other literary Jo(h)ns—while The Rest Of Men are dismissed en masse as not even having feelings. Not just in the sense of "wow they're insanely emotionally repressed" (which is often true): I've heard a disturbing number of people, men and women both, advocate the idea that men just fundamentally don't have complex emotions, in a biological-essentialism kind of way. That gets echoed by cultural or sociopolitical worldviews that strip away the "biological" part without veering away from the same overall conclusions.
There are a lot of different ways in which men are castigated for having deep feelings for the "wrong" reasons. Obviously, toxic masculine culture has plenty, ranging from dismissing male vulnerability as "gay" to viewing it as a sign of weakness—all of which boil down to the fundamental accusation that emotions are "unmanly"—but liberal and leftist and progressive cultures do plenty of this too. There's a tendency to dismiss a certain mind of male-concentrated culture in the same way that people dismiss "sportsball," with that same non-subtle implication that it's only of interest to lesser minds. And there's some amount of "oh, look, it thinks it's people!" that goes on too. Which I get, because I outgrew Adam Sandler after Billy Madison at age 12 or whatever and mostly haven't looked back, but... idk, it's hard for cultural outsiders to understand the insider experience, particularly if there's no genuine curiosity going on.
In this case, leaving aside the obvious Big Sads of a father missing out on his kids' lives, I think there's a real parallel to "hustle culture" and to the ways that men are pushed to become huge conspicuous success stories by their mid-20s Or Else. A lot of men really do channel 18 hours a day, 7 days a week into their career or some nebulous notion of future success; that's not a new thing, it's an extension of the same male-careerist dynamics that the defined 50s and 60s era of absent fathers and distant husbands. And as our social webs grow increasingly atomized and casual social connections just don't happen the same way they once did, it's easier than ever to throw yourself into work to ignore how lonely or disconnected you are, let alone how poorly you've been socialized (which is another ongoingly increasing phenomenon, not just with men but also very much with men).
I suspect that Click is a big deal for a lot of men now for the same reason that Ender's Game was a big deal for a lot of men a couple of decades ago. I feel self-conscious for how much Ender's Game means to me now (for a lot of the reasons I'm trying to articulate right here!), but there was something really, terrifyingly resonant about the idea of trying to address how isolated and alienated I felt by leaning into Being Smart And Successful And Elite, achieving that, and realizing that I'd accidentally destroyed everything I ever wanted. Or about the thought that "this phase" of my life was just a worthless, meaningless grind something I was only living through so I could get to the "end" and suddenly find meaning in. (I recently reread The Magicians and I think its success was in large part because it too is about precisely this.)
We talk a lot about how men are fed into various meat grinders—the military, the alt-right, corporate careerism—and how none of those systems really have their well-being at heart. There is definitely an entire cultural thread, one that spans decades at least, about what the male experience of those meat grinders is like, and about why men feel like they have no better choices than these. I guess it feels sorta unsurprising to me that Adam Sandler, arguably the most Dude filmmaker in existence, made a movie about an extremely common—borderline universal?—male experience. And his movies succeed on a wavelength that's anathema to a lot of folks here, because they are not interested in "quality" by a lot of the typical cinematic or intellectual definitions, but at the end of the day, storytelling is storytelling. If you tell a story that people relate to, they're going to relate to it.
I think the more interesting question, to me, is less "Why do men cry at Click?" and more "Why is it surprising to so many people that men would cry at Click?" This article actually feels, in a lot of ways, like a genderswapped version of all those pieces that got written about women crying at The Notebook when I was in middle school, down to the assumption they seem to make that it is fundamentally ignorant or tasteless to consume media like this, because it fails to hold worth on an objective level. (It's not an identical parallel, but the ways in which it's not seem to mirror the differences between how men and women struggle with societal expectations, which itself is somewhat interesting to me.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:51 PM on September 23, 2022 [65 favorites]
In a similar way to that old saying that patriarchy isn't all men having power, it's some men having all the power while others are considered rejects and failures and thrown into a garbage heap, I feel like there's a weird dichotomy in which Some Men have a monopoly on brooding and strong feelings and internal monologues and the right to an emotional existence—Jonathan Franzen and John Updike and all the other literary Jo(h)ns—while The Rest Of Men are dismissed en masse as not even having feelings. Not just in the sense of "wow they're insanely emotionally repressed" (which is often true): I've heard a disturbing number of people, men and women both, advocate the idea that men just fundamentally don't have complex emotions, in a biological-essentialism kind of way. That gets echoed by cultural or sociopolitical worldviews that strip away the "biological" part without veering away from the same overall conclusions.
There are a lot of different ways in which men are castigated for having deep feelings for the "wrong" reasons. Obviously, toxic masculine culture has plenty, ranging from dismissing male vulnerability as "gay" to viewing it as a sign of weakness—all of which boil down to the fundamental accusation that emotions are "unmanly"—but liberal and leftist and progressive cultures do plenty of this too. There's a tendency to dismiss a certain mind of male-concentrated culture in the same way that people dismiss "sportsball," with that same non-subtle implication that it's only of interest to lesser minds. And there's some amount of "oh, look, it thinks it's people!" that goes on too. Which I get, because I outgrew Adam Sandler after Billy Madison at age 12 or whatever and mostly haven't looked back, but... idk, it's hard for cultural outsiders to understand the insider experience, particularly if there's no genuine curiosity going on.
In this case, leaving aside the obvious Big Sads of a father missing out on his kids' lives, I think there's a real parallel to "hustle culture" and to the ways that men are pushed to become huge conspicuous success stories by their mid-20s Or Else. A lot of men really do channel 18 hours a day, 7 days a week into their career or some nebulous notion of future success; that's not a new thing, it's an extension of the same male-careerist dynamics that the defined 50s and 60s era of absent fathers and distant husbands. And as our social webs grow increasingly atomized and casual social connections just don't happen the same way they once did, it's easier than ever to throw yourself into work to ignore how lonely or disconnected you are, let alone how poorly you've been socialized (which is another ongoingly increasing phenomenon, not just with men but also very much with men).
I suspect that Click is a big deal for a lot of men now for the same reason that Ender's Game was a big deal for a lot of men a couple of decades ago. I feel self-conscious for how much Ender's Game means to me now (for a lot of the reasons I'm trying to articulate right here!), but there was something really, terrifyingly resonant about the idea of trying to address how isolated and alienated I felt by leaning into Being Smart And Successful And Elite, achieving that, and realizing that I'd accidentally destroyed everything I ever wanted. Or about the thought that "this phase" of my life was just a worthless, meaningless grind something I was only living through so I could get to the "end" and suddenly find meaning in. (I recently reread The Magicians and I think its success was in large part because it too is about precisely this.)
We talk a lot about how men are fed into various meat grinders—the military, the alt-right, corporate careerism—and how none of those systems really have their well-being at heart. There is definitely an entire cultural thread, one that spans decades at least, about what the male experience of those meat grinders is like, and about why men feel like they have no better choices than these. I guess it feels sorta unsurprising to me that Adam Sandler, arguably the most Dude filmmaker in existence, made a movie about an extremely common—borderline universal?—male experience. And his movies succeed on a wavelength that's anathema to a lot of folks here, because they are not interested in "quality" by a lot of the typical cinematic or intellectual definitions, but at the end of the day, storytelling is storytelling. If you tell a story that people relate to, they're going to relate to it.
I think the more interesting question, to me, is less "Why do men cry at Click?" and more "Why is it surprising to so many people that men would cry at Click?" This article actually feels, in a lot of ways, like a genderswapped version of all those pieces that got written about women crying at The Notebook when I was in middle school, down to the assumption they seem to make that it is fundamentally ignorant or tasteless to consume media like this, because it fails to hold worth on an objective level. (It's not an identical parallel, but the ways in which it's not seem to mirror the differences between how men and women struggle with societal expectations, which itself is somewhat interesting to me.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:51 PM on September 23, 2022 [65 favorites]
That was a bit of a jumble—sorry for the wordspew. Some of these are thoughts and feelings that I'm still struggling to piece together for myself. But this touches upon a lot of things that've been on my mind in the last few years.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:59 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:59 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
> while I find this phenomenon interesting (and enjoyed the Gawker article about it), this definitely lands upon an intersection of cultural snobbery and mild societal aversion to men having feelings, I think.
At this risk of babysitting my own post, this is part of what I found interesting about the Gawker article (which, in turn, prompted me to put this post together): on the one hand it looks at a mildly interesting cultural phenomenon, where men (really, a certain set of men, whom the author universalizes) find deep emotional resonance in a piece of media that is considered silly, low brow and generally not good even by many of those same men and then takes a huge shit on those men because, I dunno, it's "lame" to cry at a critically panned movie? The open statement of disrespect that ends the piece, even if meant as a joke, is really jarring and totally changes the tone of the article.
As you said, I think there is some universality to the story even though it's told in a somewhat unserious way (although, magic realism is totally a thing and if we wannabe snobby we can say Sandler was channeling Gabriel García Márquez here), so the fact that the men the author of the Gawker piece spoke to universally cried at the movie -- and that men posting about it on their dating profiles are "basic" (i.e., average or "typical") -- is perhaps less surprising than it initially appears to be.
posted by asnider at 1:13 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
At this risk of babysitting my own post, this is part of what I found interesting about the Gawker article (which, in turn, prompted me to put this post together): on the one hand it looks at a mildly interesting cultural phenomenon, where men (really, a certain set of men, whom the author universalizes) find deep emotional resonance in a piece of media that is considered silly, low brow and generally not good even by many of those same men and then takes a huge shit on those men because, I dunno, it's "lame" to cry at a critically panned movie? The open statement of disrespect that ends the piece, even if meant as a joke, is really jarring and totally changes the tone of the article.
As you said, I think there is some universality to the story even though it's told in a somewhat unserious way (although, magic realism is totally a thing and if we wannabe snobby we can say Sandler was channeling Gabriel García Márquez here), so the fact that the men the author of the Gawker piece spoke to universally cried at the movie -- and that men posting about it on their dating profiles are "basic" (i.e., average or "typical") -- is perhaps less surprising than it initially appears to be.
posted by asnider at 1:13 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm the weirdo who cried as a child at the end of Silent Running, and I still tear up when Hal's singing Daisy. Please remember this, future robot overlords.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 1:38 PM on September 23, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 1:38 PM on September 23, 2022 [13 favorites]
I enjoyed the article and the snark, as a man who always found Click to be tonally bizarre and cloying in a very annoying way, definitely not even close to "the best" Adam Sandler movie, definitely did not cry, and have absolutely had to sit silently when dudes and it is always dudes during the "what movie made you cry" conversation at the bar go "you know what movie was SO sad? Click - I *actually* cried at it!".
It is totally a phenomenon! I'm glad someone wrote about it. Really I just think sometimes movies or TV shows have to scream in your face THIS IS SAD RIGHT, ISN'T THIS SAD and I think for a lot of people it actually works! That said I'm weird and really only cry during happy or cathartic scenes in movies (ie end of Shawshank 100%), and not necessarily sad things, so no telling whether the movie could have "gotten" me if it took things in another direction.
posted by windbox at 1:47 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
It is totally a phenomenon! I'm glad someone wrote about it. Really I just think sometimes movies or TV shows have to scream in your face THIS IS SAD RIGHT, ISN'T THIS SAD and I think for a lot of people it actually works! That said I'm weird and really only cry during happy or cathartic scenes in movies (ie end of Shawshank 100%), and not necessarily sad things, so no telling whether the movie could have "gotten" me if it took things in another direction.
posted by windbox at 1:47 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't usually cry at stuff and my wife jokingly says I'm broken, but I bawled during the Sandman episode "The Sound of Her Wings", when she took the old violinist; I knew what was coming, I loved the comic too, but it was more than I could handle. I also can't usually handle songs about messed up relationships -- Undrunk, Beautiful Trauma -- and will find myself crying driving down the road.
Oh, and as someone mentioned upthread, The Iron Giant: Superman....
Oh, and depending on the day, "The Cat's In The Cradle".
So, maybe my wife's wrong, I just don't cry over things she thinks I should cry over.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:52 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Oh, and as someone mentioned upthread, The Iron Giant: Superman....
Oh, and depending on the day, "The Cat's In The Cradle".
So, maybe my wife's wrong, I just don't cry over things she thinks I should cry over.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:52 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
In college, i was friends with a gal who cried at the end of every episode of the wonder years, regardless. She knew it didn't make a lot of sense either, I never was into the show itself, but similar to that old site cryingwife.com where a guys wife just... cried at the end of movies.
As a counterpoint, RZA said at one point that they (wu-tang) all watched a kung fu movie together, I think 8 diagrams? And at the end they all burst into tears. Ditto when ghost first laid out "all that I got is you".
People crying / tearing up at unexpected prompts is nothing new, and Sandler movies often try to cover up their mediocrity with some cloying attempt at emotional resonance.
That this works is no secret because he's still doing it. This outcome is a feature, not a bug.
posted by lkc at 1:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
As a counterpoint, RZA said at one point that they (wu-tang) all watched a kung fu movie together, I think 8 diagrams? And at the end they all burst into tears. Ditto when ghost first laid out "all that I got is you".
People crying / tearing up at unexpected prompts is nothing new, and Sandler movies often try to cover up their mediocrity with some cloying attempt at emotional resonance.
That this works is no secret because he's still doing it. This outcome is a feature, not a bug.
posted by lkc at 1:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
Okay, so I'm watching the one hour review video of the movie. It never occurred to me re: the Christmas Carol/It's A Wonderful Life stuff, so good point.
I also like how he said something like, "I'm going to give a short version of this, and then I'm going to give a longer version of this that DRIVES IT INTO THE GROUND." Seriously, once the auto-fast-forward happens, that's when it gets really awful.
As for crying in the movie or not, that's fine? I have no strong feelings on that? Shit with parents makes me cry too, just with moms in my case.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also like how he said something like, "I'm going to give a short version of this, and then I'm going to give a longer version of this that DRIVES IT INTO THE GROUND." Seriously, once the auto-fast-forward happens, that's when it gets really awful.
As for crying in the movie or not, that's fine? I have no strong feelings on that? Shit with parents makes me cry too, just with moms in my case.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
so a movie that causes many men to admit that they were emotionally vulnerable is a bad thing now?
I think the nature of the shade is more "why is it that the movie that's having this effect is such a crap movie?" It's like if the rest of the world says that E.T. choked them up, but then there's a group of people who say that no, the thing that got to them was Mac And Me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:04 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
I think the nature of the shade is more "why is it that the movie that's having this effect is such a crap movie?" It's like if the rest of the world says that E.T. choked them up, but then there's a group of people who say that no, the thing that got to them was Mac And Me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:04 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
I cried at the end of Short Circuit 2. "Johnny Five is alive!"
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:20 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:20 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
I have polled the discord... three people have seen it, one says it was garbage and the other two cried!!
Mixed gender group of people who do watch art house movies too.
posted by subdee at 2:39 PM on September 23, 2022
Mixed gender group of people who do watch art house movies too.
posted by subdee at 2:39 PM on September 23, 2022
I cried during every single episode of The Babysitters’ Club.
posted by sixswitch at 2:56 PM on September 23, 2022
posted by sixswitch at 2:56 PM on September 23, 2022
I cry at AT&T commercials so I'm no judge, but I cried at Click. I do find Adam Sandler is perfectly capable of turning in a convincing performance when he cares to bother.
posted by joannemerriam at 3:17 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 3:17 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
‘Arrival’ is one of my favorite movies for crying but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:25 PM on September 23, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:25 PM on September 23, 2022 [8 favorites]
The only time I ever cried at a movie was at the end of Cinema Paradiso. And the most positive feeling I can muster for Adam Sandler is that of annoyance. Now I'm curious enough to want to see this movie.
Gee, thanks, Metafilter.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:32 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Gee, thanks, Metafilter.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:32 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
One thing I noticed recently, and wonder if it's a socialized-male thing, is all my favorite media sneaks up on its emotional subject. Wacky sitcoms where the characters secretly care about each other, standup comics that dip into something deep or personal before going back to wordplay, the zillion scifi stories that are full of action but secretly trauma allegories, the musicians with nonsense lyrics that occasionally turn sublime, the goofy brothers playing DnD that is secretly about their relationship with their dad, the meta video games about art and self-doubt. (All my favorite Metafilter finds!) I dunno, I grew up saying "I sure like zany mashups, I must be a real internet kid," and now I wonder if it's just that oblique and unexpectedly deep emotion is all I was raised to cope with.
posted by john hadron collider at 3:38 PM on September 23, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by john hadron collider at 3:38 PM on September 23, 2022 [8 favorites]
Every Sandler movie makes me cry.
posted by Czjewel at 3:49 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Czjewel at 3:49 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am an emotionally vulnerable man, and I’m here to tell you that it hasn’t always been a good thing for me or the people around me.
Donald Trump is an emotionally vulnerable man, and look how that’s worked out.
posted by jamjam at 4:07 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Donald Trump is an emotionally vulnerable man, and look how that’s worked out.
posted by jamjam at 4:07 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I didn't cry over Click but a lot of guys I know did and it's all about love. Loving your dad. Wanting him to be happy, but failing. Recognizing that he's weaker than you thought as a child. More fragile. Contemplating his inevitable death. It's no wonder it's a tearjerker.
That's the reason Click resonated with so many men. Hamlet (and of course The Lion King) dealt with the same issue, or at least aspects of it, and there's also The Count of Monte Cristo. But I don't think it's all that common in "low-brow" entertainment. Because there's not really a market for "tearjerkers for men."
Why did this specific critically-panned movie make so many men cry? Because it resonated with them in a way media marketed towards men rarely does. At least that's my guess.
posted by windupbird at 4:36 PM on September 23, 2022 [11 favorites]
That's the reason Click resonated with so many men. Hamlet (and of course The Lion King) dealt with the same issue, or at least aspects of it, and there's also The Count of Monte Cristo. But I don't think it's all that common in "low-brow" entertainment. Because there's not really a market for "tearjerkers for men."
Why did this specific critically-panned movie make so many men cry? Because it resonated with them in a way media marketed towards men rarely does. At least that's my guess.
posted by windupbird at 4:36 PM on September 23, 2022 [11 favorites]
I unironically enjoyed the heck out of The Wedding Singer, y’all. Adam Sandler may be whatever as an actor, and his movies might not be high art, but that film was good entertainment.
Some decent moments were in Happy Gilmore, but that was mainly for Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin, Richard Kiel as the Heckler, and a cameo by Bob Barker.
Click was an interesting concept, though the film was kinda meh, and I neither cried not felt it was hateworthy.
I mean, Sandler may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but at least he’s no Rob Schneider.
posted by darkstar at 4:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
Some decent moments were in Happy Gilmore, but that was mainly for Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin, Richard Kiel as the Heckler, and a cameo by Bob Barker.
Click was an interesting concept, though the film was kinda meh, and I neither cried not felt it was hateworthy.
I mean, Sandler may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but at least he’s no Rob Schneider.
posted by darkstar at 4:54 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
“What I like about this film is that I can always remember that wherever I am in my life, I am not watching the film Click, and that gives me comfort.”
—Richard Aoyade
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:05 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
—Richard Aoyade
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:05 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Watching My Little Pony: A New Generation, I always get misty when Sunny and the gang discover the old Wonderbolts poster in the long-abandoned train station. All of my old feelings for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic just come rushing back all at once, like seeing old friends again.
posted by SPrintF at 5:20 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 5:20 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
Is this where we talk about entertaining trash that makes us cry? Because for me it's the rebooted "Fantasy Island". Every other episode I'm a crying mess. My husband will come into the living room while I'm watching and find me surrounded by kleenex and ask "what's wrong?"
And I'll say "I'm watching Fantasy Island."
posted by fiercekitten at 5:22 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
And I'll say "I'm watching Fantasy Island."
posted by fiercekitten at 5:22 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Cloud Atlas film was a messy hot mess and some of it is SO DUMB in a way that's either hyper-pretentious or the exact opposite, I still can't decide... yet I bawl great big tears at that movie every time.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 5:32 PM on September 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
Donald Trump is an emotionally vulnerable man, and look how that’s worked out.thin-skinned =/= emotionally vulnerable (rofl)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 5:32 PM on September 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
I haven't seen the movie, but so much of the article is sneering at, like, the basic premise? It doesn't describe much if at all that's bad about the movie, it just gives you the premise and then rolls its eyes at that being emotionally affecting.
The same basic premise is in an episode of The Book of Virtues I watched as a kid. Kid gets a magic ball, and whenever he pulls the thread on it he can skip past the boring/annoying parts of life. It ends with him as an old man crying at the graves of his family members.
It's a really basic moral fable but it always stuck with me. I've probably thought about it once every few months for the past twenty years. I can absolutely see why the concept would be affecting for men particularly if it incorporates the cultural pressure for men to be providers and have successful careers at the expense of their family lives.
posted by brook horse at 5:51 PM on September 23, 2022
The same basic premise is in an episode of The Book of Virtues I watched as a kid. Kid gets a magic ball, and whenever he pulls the thread on it he can skip past the boring/annoying parts of life. It ends with him as an old man crying at the graves of his family members.
It's a really basic moral fable but it always stuck with me. I've probably thought about it once every few months for the past twenty years. I can absolutely see why the concept would be affecting for men particularly if it incorporates the cultural pressure for men to be providers and have successful careers at the expense of their family lives.
posted by brook horse at 5:51 PM on September 23, 2022
“. . . and you know who was an emotionally vulnerable man? Hitler, that’s who!”
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:01 PM on September 23, 2022 [4 favorites]
My friend (who is female FWIW) says:
think it's that it really blindsides you
like you're sitting down to watch a whatever adam sandler comedy
and it's a trojan horse for considering your mortality and finite time on this earth
and they don't tip their hand until it's already happening and then suddenly you're crying at a fucking adam sandler movie, embarassing
and then you scroll past it sometimes on streaming services and go "ahhhh there it is the crying movie i'm never watching that again too sad"
posted by subdee at 6:26 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
think it's that it really blindsides you
like you're sitting down to watch a whatever adam sandler comedy
and it's a trojan horse for considering your mortality and finite time on this earth
and they don't tip their hand until it's already happening and then suddenly you're crying at a fucking adam sandler movie, embarassing
and then you scroll past it sometimes on streaming services and go "ahhhh there it is the crying movie i'm never watching that again too sad"
posted by subdee at 6:26 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
Is this movie better or worse than Reign Over Me?
(also an Adam Sandler crying movie, or was supposed to be.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:29 PM on September 23, 2022
(also an Adam Sandler crying movie, or was supposed to be.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:29 PM on September 23, 2022
Movies that pile it on thick can still be really affecting. Just because you recognize that the movie is trying to get an emotional reaction from you doesn't mean it doesn't work.
posted by subdee at 6:30 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by subdee at 6:30 PM on September 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Terms of Endearment, for instance. Wrecks me every time. And it’s a comedy! (Sort of.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
A lot of you are about two steps behind the Adam Sandler redemptive arc here.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:51 PM on September 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 6:51 PM on September 23, 2022 [7 favorites]
The last time I cried at media was at Disneyland during fireworks. At one part they played Timothy yelling to Dumbo “You don’t need a magic feather!” and I just lost it.
posted by hwyengr at 6:53 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hwyengr at 6:53 PM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
I love you all <3
My cry movie is the end of “Contact” with Jodi Foster. When she meets (spoiler withheld) on the beach omg.
Also, The Fox and the Hound.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:19 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
My cry movie is the end of “Contact” with Jodi Foster. When she meets (spoiler withheld) on the beach omg.
Also, The Fox and the Hound.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:19 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
I know we're supposed to think of Adam Sandler as being garbage and all that, but I just want to say "Punch Drunk Love" and "Uncut Gems"... that's all.
posted by Crane Shot at 7:21 PM on September 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by Crane Shot at 7:21 PM on September 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
I cried during Philadelphia. Bawled right in the theater.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:41 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:41 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Midnight Run. When his daughter comes out to the car to offer help.
posted by straight at 8:13 PM on September 23, 2022
posted by straight at 8:13 PM on September 23, 2022
Oh, Adam Sandler's given some fantastic performances. The question seems to be whether this film was one of them.
...The time I cried most at a film, it was the second time I saw Schindler's List. The first time I was too numb and shocked. But the second time I channel-surfed into it about midway through, and decided to watch the rest because "aw, Liam Neeson was so good in this". And then at the end, when each of the actual Schindlerjuden are walking up to Schindler's grave hand-in-hand with the actors who played them, to all place stones on Schindler's headstone...y'all, I was full-on Oprah-ugly-crying, and I have never done that before or since.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:35 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
...The time I cried most at a film, it was the second time I saw Schindler's List. The first time I was too numb and shocked. But the second time I channel-surfed into it about midway through, and decided to watch the rest because "aw, Liam Neeson was so good in this". And then at the end, when each of the actual Schindlerjuden are walking up to Schindler's grave hand-in-hand with the actors who played them, to all place stones on Schindler's headstone...y'all, I was full-on Oprah-ugly-crying, and I have never done that before or since.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:35 PM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
I think I was living I. Europe when this movie came out and seriously have never heard of it. I am sure I would cry, though. I am the kinda of guy who cries at life insurance commercials.
Adam Sandler is really good in the Meyerowtiz stories if you like complicated family dynamics.
My dad was not very emotional, but I do remember the first time I saw him cry was when Gorbachev was giving his resignation speech.
posted by CostcoCultist at 8:44 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Adam Sandler is really good in the Meyerowtiz stories if you like complicated family dynamics.
My dad was not very emotional, but I do remember the first time I saw him cry was when Gorbachev was giving his resignation speech.
posted by CostcoCultist at 8:44 PM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
My partner chides me for crying about the Mars rover singing happy birthday to itself, which seems precision engineered to be the saddest thing ever.
posted by TangoCharlie at 8:57 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by TangoCharlie at 8:57 PM on September 23, 2022 [9 favorites]
which seems precision engineered to be the saddest thing ever.
Oblig. XKCD
posted by hwyengr at 9:31 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Oblig. XKCD
posted by hwyengr at 9:31 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Would definitely chalk this up to 'Dad Stuff', it's powerful. I did not cry watching this movie, but even thinking about certain parts of 'Death of a Salesman' can tear me up.
posted by kokogiak at 10:14 PM on September 23, 2022
posted by kokogiak at 10:14 PM on September 23, 2022
“I know we're supposed to think of Adam Sandler as being garbage and all that, but I just want to say ‘Punch Drunk Love’ and ‘Uncut Gems’... that's all.”
I'm 99.8% certain that those are the only two Adam Sandler movies I've ever seen. Those are very good movies and he gives a great performance in both!
You'd think as a result I'd have a good opinion of Sandler, but through cultural osmosis I've completely internalized that he makes Really Bad Movies. So I think of him as a hack who very rarely and for esoteric reasons is capable of very good work.
“I'm the weirdo who cried as a child at the end of Silent Running...”
Oh, gee. I watched that when I was eight when it was on broadcast tv and I was inconsolable. That might be my clearest, earliest memory of being devastated by a movie.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:16 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
I'm 99.8% certain that those are the only two Adam Sandler movies I've ever seen. Those are very good movies and he gives a great performance in both!
You'd think as a result I'd have a good opinion of Sandler, but through cultural osmosis I've completely internalized that he makes Really Bad Movies. So I think of him as a hack who very rarely and for esoteric reasons is capable of very good work.
“I'm the weirdo who cried as a child at the end of Silent Running...”
Oh, gee. I watched that when I was eight when it was on broadcast tv and I was inconsolable. That might be my clearest, earliest memory of being devastated by a movie.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:16 PM on September 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Movies that pile it on thick can still be really affecting. Just because you recognize that the movie is trying to get an emotional reaction from you doesn't mean it doesn't work
Sports movies for me, with few exceptions, will guarantee a tear from me. Cool Runnings? Sure. Mighty Ducks 2? Why not. All of League of Their Own's final game? Bawling. Bollywood movies though, I stand emotionally on guard, but goddamnit, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, that final act wrecks me even when I knew it at the first watch!
posted by cendawanita at 5:08 AM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sports movies for me, with few exceptions, will guarantee a tear from me. Cool Runnings? Sure. Mighty Ducks 2? Why not. All of League of Their Own's final game? Bawling. Bollywood movies though, I stand emotionally on guard, but goddamnit, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, that final act wrecks me even when I knew it at the first watch!
posted by cendawanita at 5:08 AM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
“I'm the weirdo who cried as a child at the end of Silent Running...”
Oh, gee. I watched that when I was eight when it was on broadcast tv and I was inconsolable. That might be my clearest, earliest memory of being devastated by a movie.
I saw it in the theater when I was eight. It may have been the first non-kiddie matinee I saw in a theater and I definitely teared up at he end. I had no idea film could provoke emotions like that! I also teared up some years later when HAL sang “Daisy”.
I doubt I would enjoy Click, though. I would probably fast forward through most of it.
posted by TedW at 5:42 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Oh, gee. I watched that when I was eight when it was on broadcast tv and I was inconsolable. That might be my clearest, earliest memory of being devastated by a movie.
I saw it in the theater when I was eight. It may have been the first non-kiddie matinee I saw in a theater and I definitely teared up at he end. I had no idea film could provoke emotions like that! I also teared up some years later when HAL sang “Daisy”.
I doubt I would enjoy Click, though. I would probably fast forward through most of it.
posted by TedW at 5:42 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Cendawanita: Sports movies for me
People realising their dreams is a subject of the Handbook of Toxic Masculinity. It says 'ok to feel things about sports' so sports movies are a huge thumbs-up. The literary analysis suggests a pattern also shared with romantic fiction: a core character, their desires meet obstacles, they get a happy ending.
posted by k3ninho at 8:26 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
People realising their dreams is a subject of the Handbook of Toxic Masculinity. It says 'ok to feel things about sports' so sports movies are a huge thumbs-up. The literary analysis suggests a pattern also shared with romantic fiction: a core character, their desires meet obstacles, they get a happy ending.
posted by k3ninho at 8:26 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
You'd think as a result I'd have a good opinion of Sandler, but through cultural osmosis I've completely internalized that he makes Really Bad Movies. So I think of him as a hack who very rarely and for esoteric reasons is capable of very good work.
I think the generally-accepted explanation of most Adam Sandler movies is that he makes them as an excuse to take friends on a paid-for trip to cool places where they want to hang out. He knows what pleases his crowd, he throws it in, and he doesn't put more work into it than that.
His good dramatic work feels like the equivalent of when Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk knocked out homers in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The difference is, Cranston was a beloved comic player and Odenkirk was a low-key comedy legend, whereas Sandler is more of a Comedy Product mogul whose work is usually isolated from anybody else's and is keyed into its specific crowd. So the fact that he's smart and very skilled throws everyone for a loop.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 9:48 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
I think the generally-accepted explanation of most Adam Sandler movies is that he makes them as an excuse to take friends on a paid-for trip to cool places where they want to hang out. He knows what pleases his crowd, he throws it in, and he doesn't put more work into it than that.
His good dramatic work feels like the equivalent of when Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk knocked out homers in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The difference is, Cranston was a beloved comic player and Odenkirk was a low-key comedy legend, whereas Sandler is more of a Comedy Product mogul whose work is usually isolated from anybody else's and is keyed into its specific crowd. So the fact that he's smart and very skilled throws everyone for a loop.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 9:48 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
It doesn't hurt, of course, that Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems (and The Meyerowitz Stories and even Funny People) were all written by very gifted writer/directors who more-or-less wrote his roles specifically with him in mind.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 9:50 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 9:50 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
My favorite "men experiencing emotion at movies" moment came mostly from my own preconceived notions being overturned. I went to a matinee of Brokeback Mountain and there was a group of young, Black folks (probably early 20s) in the back row, men and women, and they were sort of cutting up during the previews and I was readying myself to be annoyed at them for the duration of the movie. But, they didn't keep it up and I forgot all about them until we were walking out. One of the men said to his friend, "Wow, that was sad. I knew it was going to be sad but I didn't think it would be sad-sad." Their youth, their blackness, their male-ness made definitely had me thinking this was an unusual movie for them to be seeing and also one whose themes would almost demand that they reject it entirely. But at least for one of them, that wasn't the case. I think of it not infrequently when confronting my own preconceptions. This is what art does, though, and why movies can be so important. It allows us the time and space to access emotions and experiences that are otherwise kept from us.
posted by amanda at 10:23 AM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by amanda at 10:23 AM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
is Adam Sandler kind of a lazy filmmaker? Without a doubt. Is he a unique filmmaker? Is the kind of half-arsedness of his work some part of the mechanism that makes it function?
I mean, I just listened to Motor Away for like the 1,000,000th time - there's not a whole lot of care into the recording - but the music journo's not going to go on about the tape hiss " - what matters is it makes you want to charge around the room and flip over the table and stuff. "While I can accept that sometimes it takes a drunk 4th-grade schoolteacher with a TASCAM Porta02 to make men rock, I cannot respect it."
and look man - there's the imagined ghost of Adorno whispering in my ear about "distraction of sentimentality" or whatever, and I dig it
but
watch if you can stomach it a Citrus Sinensis rally for a sec - that's an elevated emotional experience too - I think anyone offering catharsis to a population who might not otherwise place the need in darker hands is doing the Lord's work
posted by Transylvania Metro Android Castle at 8:09 AM on September 25, 2022
I mean, I just listened to Motor Away for like the 1,000,000th time - there's not a whole lot of care into the recording - but the music journo's not going to go on about the tape hiss " - what matters is it makes you want to charge around the room and flip over the table and stuff. "While I can accept that sometimes it takes a drunk 4th-grade schoolteacher with a TASCAM Porta02 to make men rock, I cannot respect it."
and look man - there's the imagined ghost of Adorno whispering in my ear about "distraction of sentimentality" or whatever, and I dig it
but
watch if you can stomach it a Citrus Sinensis rally for a sec - that's an elevated emotional experience too - I think anyone offering catharsis to a population who might not otherwise place the need in darker hands is doing the Lord's work
posted by Transylvania Metro Android Castle at 8:09 AM on September 25, 2022
Silent Running did me in as a kid. I watched it with my dad, and while I had trouble with that bit with the cute robot, my mum was sure to let me know that my dad confessed to being saddened by that bit too.
Forty odd years later I'm much better about crying at movies, and blub at the drop of a well structured score, but there's still this cultural expectation thing hanging around at the edges.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 4:45 PM on September 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Forty odd years later I'm much better about crying at movies, and blub at the drop of a well structured score, but there's still this cultural expectation thing hanging around at the edges.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 4:45 PM on September 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
> Is this movie better or worse than Reign Over Me?
They're very different movies.
Reign Over Me, from my admittedly faint recollection, is not so much an Adam Sandler movie as it is a movie that happens to have Adam Sandler in it. It seems like one of those roles he took to prove he wasn't actually the hack everyone assumes he is -- he did the job, proved he was a passable dramatic actor and then went back to making the kind of movies he usually makes because that's what he likes to do and it pays the bills rather well.
Click is very much the an Adam Sandler movie, but with an emotional resonance that sneaks up on your a little unexpectedly (but not too unexpectedly; the plot is fairly straightforward and predictable).
It's been a long time since I've seen either movie, and obviously taste is subjective, but I would say Reign Over Me is a better movie, but if you're looking for something more typically "Adam Sandler," then Click is for you.
posted by asnider at 8:28 AM on September 26, 2022
They're very different movies.
Reign Over Me, from my admittedly faint recollection, is not so much an Adam Sandler movie as it is a movie that happens to have Adam Sandler in it. It seems like one of those roles he took to prove he wasn't actually the hack everyone assumes he is -- he did the job, proved he was a passable dramatic actor and then went back to making the kind of movies he usually makes because that's what he likes to do and it pays the bills rather well.
Click is very much the an Adam Sandler movie, but with an emotional resonance that sneaks up on your a little unexpectedly (but not too unexpectedly; the plot is fairly straightforward and predictable).
It's been a long time since I've seen either movie, and obviously taste is subjective, but I would say Reign Over Me is a better movie, but if you're looking for something more typically "Adam Sandler," then Click is for you.
posted by asnider at 8:28 AM on September 26, 2022
I would say Reign Over Me is a better movie
y i k e s
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:06 PM on September 26, 2022
y i k e s
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:06 PM on September 26, 2022
If we are submitting strong feelings at the movies this quote, from an animated rabbit, is all that I speak of and pass the rest silently:
You know how you let yourself think that everything will be alright if you can only get to a certain place or do a certain thing, but when you get there you find it’s not that simple? - Hollyposted by zenon at 8:13 AM on September 27, 2022
y i k e s
Care to elaborate? I'm going off of memory about a movie I saw once, 10 or 15 years ago. If there is some objective reason that I'm way off base, I'd love to hear it.
posted by asnider at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2022
Care to elaborate? I'm going off of memory about a movie I saw once, 10 or 15 years ago. If there is some objective reason that I'm way off base, I'd love to hear it.
posted by asnider at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2022
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Was this really necessary? I've never seen Click, but I'm about to be a mom (6 months pregnant) and just the ending of the movie as described is getting me teary-eyed. My husband and I have been discussing and discussing and discussing how we can spend enough time with the future kid when our financial situation requires us to both be working (I have no paid maternity leave, for instance, and family leave insurance is only 12 weeks each). I personally work long hours with a long commute. It's really easy to imagine doing well at work but missing out on time with family.
posted by subdee at 11:27 AM on September 23, 2022 [7 favorites]