The 1999 Adam Sandler comedy came in the wake of The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy and really helped solidify the Sandman as one of the biggest stars in the world. The template for so many movies to come, The Apartment is a daring dissection of toxicity in the story of an insurance clerk (Jack Lemmon) who lets his coworkers use his apartment to support their infidelity. It’s hard to believe that Billy Wilder’s masterpiece is over six decades old given that it’s a film that feels as timeless as ever. It’s a template movie for hundreds of relationship comedies to come. You know how the Academy ignores comedy when they hand out Oscars? Not this time: Annie Hall won awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, and even Best Picture.
Coogan plays Tony Wilson, the head of Factory Records, and the dramedy charts the emergence of groups like Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays.
Michael Winterbottom directs his muse Steve Coogan (the two also worked together on The Trip movies, Tristram Shandy, and others) in this biopic of the vibrant Manchester music scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
