Adam Sandler

Before the films there was stand up, and the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is the official acknowledgement of where Adam Sandler began. His first run of leading roles built a template so specific it became a subgenre: a placid, mumbling man child who is fine, completely fine, right up until he is screaming.

The screaming is the point, and it is why the serious work lands. His comic engine is a switch between total calm and sudden rage, and once you notice that, Punch-Drunk Love reads as the Sandler character with the jokes surgically removed, all the anxiety and violence left in place. Uncut Gems is the same principle at maximum stress, a man who cannot stop talking because stopping would mean thinking. The Independent Spirit Award came from that side of the ledger.

The rest of the filmography is a genuine two track career, and he is unusually open about it. One track is the studio comedy machine: Grown Ups, Jack and Jill, The Ridiculous 6, films that are palpably a holiday with friends where a camera happened to be present. The other track surfaces every few years and is often extraordinary: Reign Over Me, Funny People, The Meyerowitz Stories, Hustle, Spaceman.

He also runs a substantial family franchise as Dracula in the Hotel Transylvania films, and his early comedies, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer chief among them, have aged into genuine affection.