The Safdies’ characters are often more vivid with their vocal tone than with their words. Sandler injects his familiar meandering whir of a voice into a more hostile context: How he bends it is as important as what he says. Late in the film, when he reunites with his mistress (Julia Fox), they cuddle up and lick their wounds — they sound like mewling kittens. The jaggedness of Idina Menzel’s laugh (she plays Howard’s wife) is a nervous thrill, and Mike Francesa, a professional shouter on WFAN for three decades, plays an aggrieved bookie, convincingly deadpan and casually loud. The doctor conversation is drowned out by the frictive banter between the two men, which is drowned out by the rustle of stuff being hastily shoved around.

Source: New York Times December 15, 2019 20:48 UTC