Adam Sandler: Love You

There’s something brain-tickling and even a bit unsettling (in a good way) about this consistently funny but sometimes melancholy work. Sandler reteams with “Uncut Gems” co-director Josh Safdie for a special that exists in the real world, with the real Adam Sandler putting on a brilliant show, yet also veers into a kind of surreal, alternate-universe setting.

In this tight, still-fresh, 70-minute special, Sandler takes on a reflective mode, not merely musing on his own aging as a performer and person, but, by the special’s end, his place in—and appreciation for—the history of comedy. It is, truly, among Sandler’s finest, most moving works to date.

Unconcerned with outrage, Love You is precisely the sort of comedy 2024 could do with more of.

This is a fun show to watch, and all of the roughness Safdie throws at Sandler only just helps to show that what makes a comedy special special isn’t the big stage or production value, but the intimacy between the performer and their audience. And Sandler has that in spades.

At every moment, the whole thing feels like it could come apart, and the combination of stress, sincerity, and inanity is what makes Love You so delightful. It’s like a train full of clowns and fake plastic poop, perpetually flirting with derailment, that ultimately pulls into a destination of love and sentimentality.

With "Love You," Sandler again proves that he can continue to be one of those people that brings joy to audiences through silly songs and nonsensical riffs about the most ridiculous things.

It mixes more odd penis and sex jokes than you would expect with a bit of melancholy and softness, plus some unreality pretending to be real. Altogether, it's a little jarring, sometimes off-putting but also kind of sweet. It's complicated and contradictory, much like Sandler himself.