Bad Boy: Adam Sandler Vehicle Is Named to Misogyny ‘Hall of Shame’

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced the winners of their annual awards, but not every prize is something to be proud of

  • Share
  • Read Later
Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Todd Peterson (Andy Samberg) and Donny Berger (Adam Sandler) in That's My Boy.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ), an organization that has brought together female movie critics and reporters since 2006, yesterday announced the winners of the annual EDA Awards, named after actress Eda Reiss Marin, which go to forward-thinking female filmmakers, female-centric films…and to some people who exemplify just the opposite.

(MORE20 Movies We’re Looking Forward to in 2013 (and 5 We’re Definitely Not))

This year’s winners in the achievement categories were not surprising (even though those categories are not limited to women in the industry; last year The Artist took top honors): Zero Dark Thirty, directed by and starring women, won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. Anne Hathaway was awarded the Best Supporting Actress prize for her role in Les Misérables.

In the “Female Focus” categories, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Kathryn Bigelow won again in the Best Woman Director category and the movie’s star, Jessica Chastain, was commended for her portrayal of a positive female role model. Jennifer Lawrence’s role in The Hunger Games was named best female action star, Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Quvenzhané Wallis was named best breakthrough performer and Judi Dench’s portrayal of M in Skyfall was noted for defying ageism. A group of five female documentarians were also noted for their outstanding achievement.

(MOREThat’s My Boy: Is Adam Sandler the Man?)

Special mentions were given to the sex scenes in The Sessions, Anne Hathaway’s rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” and a show-stopping line of dialogue in Zero Dark Thirty (“I’m the mother—— that found this place”). But, while those filmmakers and actresses have reason to be proud, not every “Special Mention” award given by the AWFJ is something the winners will necessarily want to brag about, including:

  • Katherine Heigl and Reese Witherspoon, tying for “Actress Most in Need of a New Agent”
  • Anna Karenina, for “Movie You Wanted to Love But Just Couldn’t”
  • Red Dawn and Total Recall, tying for “Sequel or Remake That Shouldn’t Have Been Made”
  • Flight‘s Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly and Nadine Velazguez, for “Most Egregious Age Difference Between the Leading Man and the Love Interest.”

But perhaps the unfortunate awardee is director Sean Anders, whose Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg comedy That’s My Boy was deemed misogynistic enough to be inducted into the organization’s Hall of Shame. Between the movie’s set-up—a 13-year-old boy knocks up his sexy teacher and then grows up to be Sandler—the son’s uptight fiancée and the requisite extreme stripper characters, it’s not difficult to see why the AWFJ went with the choice. Revisit the trailer below at your own risk.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPV2L2CGWdQ]