Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Wow. Astonishing, extraordinary, incredible, uplifting, amazing, jaw-dropping, phenomenal, awe-inspiring, beautiful... how many superlatives can I sling at this? Hard to believe I'm saying all this about an Adam Sandler movie, but there you go. That's the kind of movie year it's been. It's also kind of interesting that, although this will probably be known for all time as "P.T.'s Sandler film", this may be Anderson's most idiosyncratic and strangely personal work yet. (Seriously.) One also imagines that it has some personal resonance for Sandler as well, seeing as how his character here is essentially the same man-child oddball persona he shows off in all his other films, except here the guard of humor has been dropped. I'm guessing that most of Sandler's fans haven't thought about how maladroit and borderline-psychotic his characters can be, but it's all in the open here. I'd say a little something about the look of the film -- the art direction, the cinematography, all that jazz -- except I'm afraid I'd devolve into incoherent jabbering. I think I may already have. That's how potent this film is. It's odd and wondrous and surprising and brilliant. A lot of people are going to hate it. It's about love. See it.

Grade: A