Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009)

funny_peopleHis third film finds Apatow stretching for maturity, and to his credit he has made a complex tragic-comic-dramedy that makes excellent use of Adam Sandler’s aggressively infantile screen presence, in this case rewriting it as truly depressing arrested development. The problem is that the movie goes on way too long and features a disastrous third act that works thematically, but not narratively. The cavalcade of jokey mega-star cameos doesn’t help either.  (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)