I have to admit that Adam Sandler is a guilty pleasure. Some of his films like the Grown Ups ones are hard to watch because they are so awful, but when Adam decides to mix a bit of drama with his usual silly slapstick humor I think it really works. I quite enjoy Click exactly for this reason and have even enjoyed his full dramas such as Punch Drunk Love.
Funny People on the other hand seems to be a fantastic hybrid of his usual overly crazy comedy with some pretty intense drama mixed in. Who would have thought that Sandler would be so great at this?
George Simmons (Sandler) is a world-famous comedian and actor, who is ironically famous for pretty much the exact same reasons that Sandler himself is famous - silly movies that even Simmons is not terribly proud of but realizes that it makes him a tremendous amount of money and therefore he keeps making them.
He enjoys a life of opulence and for the most part, mistreating others until one day he gets a diagnosis from a doctor that he has terminal cancer and has less than a 10% of survival using a new, experimental treatment. Feeling as though he is about to die he chooses to return to stand-up comedy, which is where his career began (again, just like the actual Adam Sandler.)
He turns up at a small comedy club and of course is allowed to do a set because of who he is, despite the fact that he didn't arrange to be on stage. This is how he ends up meeting Ira Wright (Seth Rogan.) George Simmons enjoys Ira's stand-up and after the show invites him to become his assistant. In the process they become great friends and Ira is one of the few people that is allowed to know about George's impending death.
The reason why I found this film special is because while there are elements of Sandler's usual rather kiddish humor in it, it has an overall serious mood to it despite being literally about stand-up comedy. Instead, the film focuses more on human connection and real relationships instead of Adam simply getting punched in the nuts and shouting.
[src[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_1jjqKFYaY)Despite all these great things that I am saying this movie failed to make back it's rather hefty production cost. I think that the irony in all of this is exactly what the movie kind of states at multiple points. Aside from the cancer, George Simmons actually IS Adam Sandler and any attempts he makes at leaving his normal path of "foolish" films results in financial failure.
PS: This movie is not new, nor did it just appear on Netflix. However, I randomly encountered it just a few days ago. It's still in the library and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
