It’s easy to forget that Adam Sandler is a pretty good—even pretty great—actor. It’s true that Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish, Reign Over Me, Funny People, and Men, Women, and Children all have their problems as films (especially the latter), but Sandler gives charismatic, convincing performances in each of them. Now with Noah Baumbach’s Cannes darling The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), the trailer for which Netflix has just released, we may finally be getting arguably the first movie that is as good as Sandler is in it.
The Meyerowitz Stories explores the intergenerational struggles between a dysfunctional New York family who reunite to celebrate the work of their domineering sculptor father. Even in just the short teaser, Meyerowitz looks like it is quintessentially a Baumbach film. The trailer doesn’t give away much in terms of plot, but it does showcase the film’s talented ensemble which includes Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, and the always delightful Emma Thompson.
The film stages the reunion for a number of members of its ensemble. Prior to The Meyerowitz Stories, Baumbach and Stiller had worked on three films together, while the pair of Hoffman and Thompson have previously worked on two films together. It also marks the on-screen reunion between Stiller and Sandler, who appeared together very briefly in Happy Gilmore more than 20 years ago.
The Meyerowitz Stories was acquired by Netflix earlier this summer and premiered (despite some controversy) at Cannes back in May to very positive reviews, many of which pointed out Sandler’s performance as the film’s highlight. “We rarely get to see Sandler do this kind of straight-faced comedy, and he’s so good in The Meyerowitz Stories that he deserves the chance to do more,” Alissa Wilkinson wrote in Vox. Deadline’s Pete Hammond went as far as to float Sandler as a potential Oscar contender.
The Meyerowitz Stories—Baumbach’s first Netflix film—will release on the streaming site on Oct. 13.
