Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller were both massively popular, hugely influential comic talents who emerged in the early-90s before exploring in the latter half of the decade, but other than Stiller’s grade-A cameo in HAPPY GILMORE, the two have never appeared in anything together.
Who knew that Noah Baumbach, of all people, would be the one to bring them together?
The SQUID AND THE WHALE/WHILE WE’RE YOUNG director has started shooting YEN DIN KA KISSA (“Story of the day” in Hindi) in downtown Manhattan, which “tells the story of an estranged New York family coming together in preparation of artist & patriarch Harold’s career retrospective.” Dustin Hoffman is set to play Harold, and Emma Thompson will play a “dreadful, passive-aggressive alcoholic,” perhaps Harold’s wife?
I suppose that means Stiller and Sandler will be playing brothers (or relatives of some sort), and that sounds mighty interesting to say the least. The two have existed in parallel for so long that it’s easy to get some of their movies mixed up (did Sandler remake THE HEARTBREAK KID? Was that Stiller perusing hookers online in MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN?), and their comedies have been trend-setting gamechangers, even if they’re not at the peak of their powers (both of their last films, PIXELS and ZOOLANDER 2, underperformed and weren’t nearly funny enough). They became quite wealthy doing both live-action and animated work playing off of their similar, but distinctively different forms of schtick, without ever interacting in any form other than their brief scenes in GILMORE. Now, in their late-40s/early-50s, they'll be headlining this film together, which likely won't be much like the comedies that made them megamillionaires, but rather something more intimate and human.
Baumbach has a very specific, low-key style, and watching Stiller and Sandler navigate around each other in that environment is pretty appealing even without the legendary, amazingly talented co-stars of LAST CHANCE HARVEY backing them up. The director’s good at getting funny performances out of his actors that still manage to seem real and dramatic, and with a cast this strong and interesting, he shouldn’t have to work too hard to get something interesting on the screen.
Who else is excited to see more of these guys together?
