(LR) Juancho Hernangomez as Bo Cruz and Adam Sandler as Stanley Sugerman in HustlePhoto: Netflix
Sports-themed films are best when they focus on the history of human interest at its core. Director Jeremiah Zagar’s Hustle earns points for this efficiently and effortlessly, providing an agile, fast-paced feature for a basketball scout whose quest for the perfect player brings personal dividends that surpass professional ones. Although he follows the plot of the issue, borrowing pages from the playbooks The Air Up There and My Giant, his captivating character and exciting technical prowess more than make up for his knowledge of the story.
Philadelphia Sixers talent scout Stanley Sugerman (Adam Sandler) has exhausted himself from the demands of his job, jumping around the world from plane to plane, hotel to hotel and court to basketball court. This not only distanced him from his loving wife Teresa (Queen Latifah) and their ambitious daughter Alex (Jordan Hull), but also drastically dulled his career ambitions to one day coach the team he loves. However, his self-sacrifice and determination did not go unnoticed by the owner / longtime friend of Sixers Rex (Robert Duvall) – who promoted him to assistant coach, but died soon after.
The tragedy puts Stan’s position in jeopardy with the new owner, the smug, controversial son of Rex Vince (Ben Foster). In desperate need of a winning move, Stan travels to Spain, where he happens to witness streetball player Bo Cruz (NBA player Juancho Hernangomez) put the “wow” sound into a “crowd”. He is tall, talented and tender-hearted, appreciating his close relationship with his mother (Maria Boto) and prematurely developed daughter (Einhoa Pilet). He is also a virtual stranger with a troubled past. The two outsiders begin to strive to connect and prove themselves to their peers. But just as the couple begins to reach high altitudes, seemingly insurmountable challenges threaten to bring them back.
B
Pushing
In the role
Adam Sandler, Juancho Hernangomez, Quinn Latifah, Kenny Smith, Ben Foster, Robert Duvall, Heidi Gardner
Availability
On Netflix on June 8
Between the stereotyped and familiar beats of the story, screenwriters Taylor Matern and Will Fetters delve into the unspoken subtext that gives the characters their dynamic engines. Stan and Bo’s internal and external bets are clearly defined and tangible, as is Vince’s approach to Stan, his father’s favorite surrogate son. Women in their world, who have traditionally excelled in films like this, are blessedly important: Teresa, Alex and Catherine (Heidi Gardner), Vince’s sister who owns shares, are an inseparable force that changes her own agency while increasing male rainbows.
While the script fulfills the expected, the stylistic flourishing of Zagar and his creative collaborators provides the unexpected. The picture contains an incredibly influential use of editing, musicality and composition. This is best demonstrated in the electrifying training sequence of the second act – mandatory inclusion in any good sports film, but ingeniously improved by the propulsive sound and vision of this team. This segment is visually and sonically symphonic, combining arousing hip-hop roar with Dan Deacon’s score, Zach Mulligan’s cast lighting and sharp cuts from editors Tom Costein, Brian M. Robinson and Keiko Deguchi. It mimics the intense focus and spinning engine in the athlete’s psyche, aided by Sandler’s motivational shouting.
Sandler presents an open, humanistic performance as dejected by his luck, a discouraged soul, eager for challenge and change, staying within well-guided boundaries of sympathy. He is a confident actor, as skilled with frivolity as he is with the more dramatic challenges of the role. Newcomer Hernangomez is a great screen partner for Sandler, providing vulnerability and nuanced grace. It is also worth noting that the many cameos of basketball stars do not sink with any inertia; adding them – which in any other function would be considered a cheap trick – gives the picture a look of authenticity.
However, sometimes the cumbersome aspects cause a few minor distractions. The impending changes in the acts feel distracting and portend conflicts filled with less subtlety than is beneficial to the film. The script also describes everything, instead of trusting his audience. And although it is sewn into a great development of the characters, the key moment in which something goes viral feels fictional – like everything else, because most of the rest of the film does not rely on this kind of convenience.
Although not a complete hit, Hustle plays admirably with a lot of passion, artistry and intelligence. The predictable struggles surprisingly lead to resonant depths, demonstrated both in their technical competence and in some exciting feelings of rising above adversity. And while directing the audience to look in one direction, the filmmakers brilliantly zigzagged in another, providing additional depth and dimension to the mysteries of these characters. In an orderly book of familiar plays, this is perhaps the most cunning maneuver of this film.
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