Credit: Carlos Tischler/EyePix
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Thomas Butt
Published 20 minutes ago
Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.
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One Battle After Another has been all the rage this award season, and the relatively lackluster commercial and critical response to the autumn lineup has made Paul Thomas Anderson's latest masterwork stand as the defining film of 2025. However, during the build-up to this highly anticipated action-adventure/thriller/black comedy extravaganza, the director let the movie itself do the talking. As of late, Anderson has been press-shy, but that doesn't mean he lives a hermetic life, as the One Battle After Another press tour has underlined all the charitable work he's done for his friends and colleagues.
One thing to know about Anderson: he is an intensely collaborative filmmaker, evident by his confirmation that he gave uncredited script notes to Martin Scorsese and his OBAA star Leonardo DiCaprio for Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as revisions to Ridley Scott's Napoleon, starring his previous collaborator Joaquin Phoenix. If Anderson is around film equipment, he's going to leave his creative mark. Judd Apatow learned this when he edited his own version of the ending to Funny People, a cut we're still waiting to see.
Paul Thomas Anderson Helped Edit the Final Scene in 'Funny People'
Judd Apatow, a luminary in the comedy world who spawned countless stars and big-screen classics, likes to let his movies run a little long in the tooth. Apatow is the first one to acknowledge this, as he joked about on the We Might Be Drunk podcast with Sam Morril and Mark Normand. Funny People, his 2009 serio-comic exploration of the misery of stand-up comedians and celebrities starring Adam Sandler as a comic/actor diagnosed with a terminal illness, is both the apex and nadir of Apatow as a director. On one hand, the film is a witty, deeply soulful take on redemption and aging, but on the flip side, it is egregiously meandering and borderline self-indulgent at times, and has a whopping runtime of 146 minutes, unheard of for a studio comedy.
Before Funny People, the first director to allow Sandler to unveil his untapped dramatic chops was Paul Thomas Anderson in Punch-Drunk Love, a movie that Apatow adores and was responsible for them becoming friends. Upon seeing a preview screening of Funny People, Anderson gave Apatow some harsh but self-deprecating feedback, as recounted by the latter on Morril and Normand's podcast while promoting his new book, Comedy Nerd. "The movie's too long, and when you hear that from me, you should take it seriously!" Anderson quipped, whose most recent film, One Battle After Another, runs just under three hours. Looking for help, Apatow invited Anderson into the editing bay to look for the right cuts to satisfy a cleaner narrative flow.
The Paul Thomas Anderson Touch in 'Funny People'
Apatow was particularly stuck on how to end the film, which, in the final product, depicts George Simmons (Sandler), now more optimistic and appreciative of life, reconnecting with his protégé and friend, Ira (Seth Rogen), at his day job and giving him notes on potential jokes for his next stand-up set. Struggling to find the right song and edit to close out the story, Apatow took a recess from work and left Anderson to his own devices to make any changes that he deemed suitable. When he returned to the editing bay, he discovered that the ending "looked exactly like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie," due to unconventional creative flourishes like editing the music and cutting to black on an off-kilter note. Apatow learned how much a director can imbue their own voice in post-production alone, especially a true genius like PTA.
It's unclear what contributions by Anderson were left on the cutting room floor, as Apatow later mentions that several additional cuts were made to the already long film. However, Funny People ends with the camera zooming away from George and Ira as the music transitions from a typical score to the John Lennon song "Watching the Wheels." The sudden transition and tender note to end this comedy featuring Apatow's signature raunchy humor is very much out of the Anderson playbook. In general, Funny People is equivalent to an "arthouse" take on an Apatow comedy. A film with as many philosophical ruminations about morality and deep personal reflections as there are jokes about genitalia, this was certainly Apatow's most mature and assured effort as director, as he combined the plight and angst of two separate generations, represented by Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen.
From serving as backup director to Robert Altman on A Prairie Home Companion to punching up the script for Killers of the Flower Moon, Anderson's repeated acts of Yeoman's work without needing credit or recognition are a testament to his love of the art and the communal nature of cinema. As an avid fan of comedy movies, Anderson unsurprisingly helped a comedy master, Judd Apatow, with his own magnum opus in Funny People.
Funny People is available to rent or buy on VOD services.
Funny People
Like Follow Followed R Comedy Drama Release Date July 31, 2009 Runtime 146 minutes Director Judd Apatow Writers Judd Apatow Producers Barry Mendel, Clayton TownsendCast
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Adam Sandler
George Simmons
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Seth Rogen
Ira Wright
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Funny People
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