Couch

I saw this when it was "Premiered" on Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars". Sure, I laughed, but it wasn't anything special. The screaming and moaning that Sandler did kind of reminded me of Fatty McGee on Adam's album "They're All Gonna Laugh At You". So if you liked that track, you'll like this very, very short film (less than 3 minutes long).

well i was excited when i heard that p.t.anderson had made a short with adam sandler. i saw it on tv. i never thought pta would make anything like that put i wasn't disappointed. it was quite silly and pointless but funny. it made me laugh.

This film is only 2 minutes long. Unfortunately, it's not even worth those two minutes. Adam Sandler sees a couch in a store. He walks in and sits on it. It falls over. He gets up and sits on a reclining. It folds up on him. Amazingly, that's the whole movie. Nothing really funny about it at all.

The two minute "Couch" (2003) starring Adam Sandler is perfect in it's simplicity in the same way that the Lumiere Brother's twenty second "A Sprinkler Sprinkled" (1895) is. Basically, a man (Sandler) searches a furniture store for the perfect couch. The search ends with a presumably perfect couch, a Lay-Z-Boy, which the man seems very comfortable in...until the films punchline.

You can see this pleasant little short at adamsandler.com, so I won't spoil the punchline. But it's short and sweet and free, so why wouldn't you check it out? Adam Sandler plays the part of "the man" very much like Chaplin's Tramp--with just a bit of Waterboy thrown in. And in a way, that's what this little film is: a throwback to those perfect little silent comedy shorts of the first twenty years of cinema.

Paul Thomas Anderson's "Couch" is a fairly good example of how a dolly and a film camera don't always make a good film. However, it is an interesting short to watch, just in terms of where it fits in his filmography, especially so soon after "Punch-Drunk Love".

If people found it harder to pinpoint the sources of Anderson's inspiration in "Punch-Drunk Love", "Couch" provides an answer of sorts.

It's funny, and I laughed, but only the first time.

But you also have to remember that this film isn't meant to be reviewed, nor even taken seriously. It's a dumb short, and shame on me for treating it otherwise. See it, enjoy it, don't expect much more from it.

Done and done.