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After a friend described Spaceman as Adam Sandler’s best film I had to have a look, especially given that nobody I know takes Sandler seriously, and quite a few grimace at the mention of his name.

I recently quoted CS Lewis on the topic of criticism. He said
“Let bad tragedies be censured by those who love tragedy, and bad detective stories by those who love the detective story. “

If someone who hates Adam Sandler says they’ve seen his best film, what does that mean? In Spaceman Sandler is almost silent, meaning no mugging no shenanigans no songs. Perhaps they like it because 99% of the things offensive in most of Sandler’s movies have been purged.

Sandler is Jakub Prochazka, a solitary voyager sadly taking us on a psychological journey to remind you of the isolation of the Jupiter mission in Kubrick’s 2001, a combination of the psychological sci-fi of Contact (recalling Jodie Foster’s performance as Ellie Arroway, in an encounter that may be all in her head) and the existential questions of Kafka’s Metamorphosis (because there’s a creepy crawly creature in the spaceship).

That opinion that Spaceman is Sandler’s best reminds me of (if you’ll excuse a strange segue) Pelleas et Melisande, the opera that was the focus of my dissertation. It’s the least operatic opera as the singers avoid the usual sorts of operatic singing. If you hate opera for the loud extroverted performances, maybe Pelleas will please you, in much the same way that a hater of Adam Sandler might like his work in Spaceman.

Meanwhile just as I’m an opera fan I came to Spaceman as a fan of Sandler.

Let me come clean. I have loved Sandler’s work since he and Chris Farley were regulars on Saturday Night Live. In the 1990s as the designated ticket buyer at the University of Toronto’s Drama Centre who would make arrangements for tickets to the Canadian Opera Company’s dress rehearsals for classmates & colleagues, I used the alias “Operaman”, aping Sandler’s character from SNL. My emails made reference to the guy in this video from SNL.

While Sandler’s Operaman was created during his tenure on SNL between 1990 and 1995, he recently came back to advise Joe Biden how to win the presidency. In his usual rhyming couplets, Operaman said

“Joe for this
you won’t go far-o
To win white house
You need to bang porn star-o.”

Sandler’s career reminds me a bit of Eddie Murphy, another comedian whose huge output includes both great work and outings of lesser quality. It’s hard to reconcile the brilliance of Murphy’s Oscar nominated work in Dream Girls or his voiceovers in the Shrek series, with his silliness as The Nutty Professor.

Adam Sandler is just the latest in a long series of comic actors migrating into more serious roles. I offered an opinion about this recently on Facebook, in reply to a post about Hollywood hiring English actors. I said (in response to disrespectful comments about Kenan Thompson):
“Kenan was especially brilliant this past week (the Ryan Gosling episode). Perhaps instead of saying that what he does isn’t acting it might be more accurate to observe how influential improv has been upon cinematic acting over the past half century:
1- changes to how films are written since the time of Robert Altman incorporating improvisation into the performance
2-comedians standing tall as actors (Robin Williams , Tom Hanks & many more I could name)
3-de-emphasis of stage acting chops except in period films where it lends a lustre to the project
Scripts ain’t what they used to be, meaning that the writing process has been transformed and as a result, the way actors work is now different. Critics and pedagogy (acting teachers, film teachers & writing teachers) tend to take ages to catch up to the reality in the field.“

The last half-century of film-making includes so much improvisational performance that comedians had a natural advantage. The shift has been so profound that when I name performers from comic TV & film who seemed adept at improv work, we may question whether they’re really comedians.

I first saw Jonah Hill and Emma Stone in the comedy Superbad (2007), along with Bill Hader and Seth Rogen. Does anyone think of Stone as a comedian? Probably not.

Comedy continues to be disrespected as a lower form, echoing a centuries old class distinction elevating tragedy above comedy. Academy Awards are merely the most recent instance. Was Oppenheimer really a better film than Barbie, or is it simply this ongoing assumption that serious topics are somehow better, that comedy is less important..?

Sometimes the actors came from standup (Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg) sometimes situation comedy (Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Steve Carell, Woody Harrelson) sometimes sketch comedy (Peter Sellars, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Murray, Michael Keaton, Lily Tomlin, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers). I’m only scratching the surface.

Speaking as a critic I’m aware that in taking Adam Sandler seriously as an actor I may be out of step with other critics, but it wouldn’t be the first time. In 2020 when I was in NY, Zoe and I went to see Uncut Gems, I remember there was a bit of surprise at how well Sandler did in a film also starring Judd Hirsch (speaking of actors coming from comedy).

Film, opera, theatre and concerts entail two parallel interlocking tracks, each hugely important in the outcome. On the one side there’s the purely artistic conversation, the directors and writers and designers working with actors and cinematographers. But before any of that happens there’s another stream, the curatorial stream where producers and programmers decide what pieces to put into the concert program, what operas to put into a season, what artists to hire for roles in the opera or play or film. First someone has to decide the shape of the project, by hiring writers, seeking out directors and actors. It’s hard to know which is the chicken and which is the egg, given that a Judd Hirsch or a Carrie Mulligan or an Adam Sandler may be brought into a project before or after the concept takes shape. The flexibility of performers who can improvise surely makes them attractive for producers.

I don’t hate Spaceman but (surprise surprise) I don’t think Spaceman is Adam Operaman’s best film. You can decode / evaluate this opinion via my Sandler touchstones, the films I’d consider his best. While I mentioned Uncut Gems (2019) back in 2020, it’s a bit like Spaceman in its departure from the usual Sandler toolkit, although yes Sandler is very good. But –sentimental beast that I am– I was far happier with Deeds (2002), an update of the Frank Capra classic, or 50 First Dates (2004). The question is messed up by the fact that Sandler is not just an actor but sometimes a writer as well, as in Waterboy (1998), and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008). Also fun (acting without writing) are the remake of The Longest Yard (2005) and Spanglish (2004).

Yes I often like Sandler’s work although there are several films I can’t stand such as Little Nicky or Big Daddy.

If I have to pick a favorite it must be Anger Management (2003) featuring superb work from Marisa Tomei and Jack Nicholson, including some of the best versions of Leonard Bernstein’s music that I have ever heard.