ACE Presents Billy Madison

Director: Tamra Davis

1995 / 89min / 35mm

Not technically Adam Sandler’s debut as a leading man—that would, of course, be 1989’s Going Overboard—but the film in which the Sandman’s manchild screen persona emerged fully formed, Davis’s nonpareil masterpiece follows beer-swilling layabout scion of obscene wealth Billy Madison (Sandler) as he endeavors to prove himself capable of running the Madison Hotel chain by graduating grades 1 through 12 in a marathon sprint. Joining us for the screening will be editor Jeffrey Wolf, ACE, whose deft handling of the academic decathlon sequence would, in a just world, be as closely studied as Battleship Potemkin’s “Odessa Steps.”

Distributor: Universal

Q&A with editor Jeffrey Wolf, ACE, moderated by editor Meg Reticker, ACE, on Friday, April 17th

Part of Filmcraft: American Cinema Editors