People are up in arms about Oliver Stone doing a 9/11 movie. They’re afraid that he’ll insert some conspiracy theory. There’s also the usual nonsense of “too soon!,” which is just so meaningless. Thoughtful art cannot come too soon. I guess people think banal songs and murals are cool after a tragedy, but not movies.
I’m up in arms about Adam Sandler doing a 9/11 movie. That’s actually two things I am up in arms about – Adam Sandler still making movies, and there being a 9/11 movie featuring Sandler. Worst of all, the movie doesn’t feature Sandler dying in the disaster, which could have been an important part of helping me overcome my own lingering post-traumatic stress about that day.
Instead Sandler will be playing a man who lost his family on 9/11. Don Cheadle will star as his friend (playing a man who likes Sandler? Truly, Don Cheadle is among the great actors of our time if he can convince us of that), a doctor who is helping his friend overcome his loss.
Sandler has made one movie that I like, and that’s Punch Drunk Love, a film that was tailored for and completely acknowledges his fucked up style and attitude. I doubt that this film, Reign O’Er Me, which is being written and directed by The Upside of Anger’s Mike Binder, will have Sandler playing an insufferable, violent and sociopathic manchild, but hey, maybe that’s what Cheadle is helping him through.