Adam Sandler's Top 5 Dramatic Roles!

Another year, another new Adam Sandler movie. Hustle, the latest offering of Sandler’s, came out last month on Netflix. The basketball drama lets the comedian’s dramatic chops fly, as he plays a struggling NBA scout who has discovered someone who has potential to become a great player. It’s has earned pretty positive reviews, with Sandler’s performance in particular being singled out.

While his sense of humor made him famous, he’s done quite a few dramatic roles at this point in his career. Here are the Top 5 best dramatic roles he’s ever played!

1. Uncut Gems (2019)

Howard Ratner is a jeweler that has to sell an incredibly pricey jewel to repay some debts he owes to his brother-in-law. Sandler’s portrayal of a man desperate to break free from debt is top-notch, maybe the best and most versatile in his career. Through Howard, he explores all different levels of anxiety, despair, and frustration at being in a horrible situation that he has only himself to blame for.

2. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

After falling in love, entrepreneur Barry Egan gets wrapped up in a bizarre underground scheme involving a phone call that leads to his credit card information being stolen. This leads Barry to have short bursts of intense rage, something that’s jarring to watch from Sandler. However, he pulls it off effectively, making us believe that the mostly mild-mannered character has a simmering dark side underneath.

3. The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)

The character Sandler plays in this movie is an unemployed musician who is both spoiled and irritable. Like most of the character's siblings, he is deeply immature and childish towards others (something Sandler has experience playing). He gets easily annoyed by even the smallest things his siblings do (especially his brother Matthew, played by Ben Stiller), which is yet another trait that most of Sandler’s comedic characters and performances have. Sandler leverages this already perfected talent and gives it a more grounded, realistic sensibility that fits a drama.

4. Hustle (2022)

Stanley Sugarman is an NBA scout looking for the next big talent of the league. While this character is a bit more one-dimensional in personality than some of the other characters on this list, Sandler imbues him with an unusual amount of depth that makes him sympathetic and sweet.

5. Click (2006)

Okay, so bringing this film into the list is kind of cheating. It’s pretty comedic in places, and not all of those moments have aged well. But Adam Sandler pulls off a surprisingly poignant performance in some darker and heavier material near the end than what he had usually done at the time.

It seems that Adam Sandler has a deeper desire to explore his dramatic side, and based on the high quality of most of the above films and his performances, this can only be a good thing!