Happy Gilmore - Adam Sandler being Adam Sandler

Happy Gilmore appears to be just another run-of-the-mill comedy starring Adam Sandler, but it handles its premise with a level of sincerity that makes it quite engaging.

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Released in 1996 under the direction of Dennis Dugan, it follows the story of a former hockey player named Happy Gilmore, who is forced to play professional golf in order to raise money to cover his grandmother's debts and save his house.

Happy has the typical temperament we expect from a hockey player: he's impulsive, violent, and has little patience for provocation. The problem is that at the same time, he has an innate ability to hit long golf shots, and that's precisely where he sees an opportunity to raise money.

Structurally, it's a rather disorganized film, which is particularly surprising considering the simplicity of its premise. However, this doesn't mean it's unpleasant; on the contrary, Happy Gilmore works as a sequence of entertaining gags that start out feeling empty, but are delivered with such a high level of sincerity that they end up winning our hearts.

It's an extremely '90s film, and this undermines every one of its audiovisual elements. Many jokes are crude and could be considered "insensitive" by modern standards. Similarly, there's a certain pleasure in seeing such irreverence, and at no point is it intended to be a form of complex high art.

Sandler has many detractors, and in several of his projects, it's easy to understand why (especially when it comes to films like Grown Ups), but in the case of Happy Gilmore, we find ourselves before one of the best versions of himself, loud and histrionic, but full of charisma and sincerity.

Despite its simplicity, it's also worth noting that Happy Gilmore is a bit more dense than it appears, and its premise contains a brilliant satire on the gaps between the upper and lower social classes, and how the most privileged groups feel threatened when a sport (or any activity) they considered elitist begins to be adopted by the commoners.

I like that this message is presented organically, and that far from becoming a pedantic lesson in humility, Happy Gilmore prioritizes being funny above all else.

This isn't the movie that will make you fall in love with Adam Sandler (for that we have his more serious work in films like Uncut Gems, Hustle or Punch Drunk Love), but it is a solid entry in a great filmography.

This score was taken directly from my Letterboxd account.