TMS Movie Review: Hustle
(Happy Madison / Netflix)
My choice for the most frustrating acting career in Hollywood is by far, Adam Sandler’s. The man will make five mediocre, cash-ins for every legitimate good-to-great film on his resume. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. You could argue that Sandler doesn’t see any problem phoning in slapstick schlock because at the end of the day, you need to get paid more than win awards. But the thing is, the comedian is successful enough to leave the lame comedies behind and focus on good filmmaking, especially since he’s proven himself as a great actor. But after viewing his latest movie, Jeremiah Zagar’s sports drama Hustle, and feeling shock when the Happy Madison logo—of Sandler’s own production company—appeared at the beginning; I think maybe there might be a change in the wind, so to speak.
In modern day Philadelphia, PA, Stanley Sugarman (Sandler) is an NBA scout on behalf of the 76ers, and feeling burnt out on his long term job. When the owner of the basketball team, Rex Merrick (Robert Duvall), suddenly dies right as he promotes Stanley to his dream position of assistant coach; Merrick’s son Vince (Ben Foster) demotes him back to a scout. While unenthusiastically looking for potential in Spain, Stanley sporadically comes across a young street player, Bo Cruz (real-life professional player Juancho Hernangómez). The older man instantly switches gears and makes it his goal to personally train and endorse who he thinks could be the next big thing in basketball.
(Happy Madison / Netflix)
Queen Latifah and Jordan Hull play Stanley’s wife and daughter, while Heidi Gardner appears as the daughter in the Merrick family. Like I mentioned before, the most surprising thing about Hustle is the fact that it’s produced through Happy Madison. The same film studio that only exists to fund “excuses for Adam Sandler and his friends to go on vacation,” as accused by viewers and critics in the past. But none of those flicks, like Dennis Dugan’s Jack & Jill (2011) or Chris Columbus’ Pixels (2015), have a decent script and/or good direction. Which is proved by Will Fetters & Taylor Materne and Zagar here with Hustle. There’s also a nice, genuine blend of casting film actors and professional ball players [including Kenny Smith, Anthony Edwards and Boban Marjanovic] opposite each other. Unlike say, Warner Bros’ Space Jam movies. Similar to Kevin Garnett in Sandler’s previous drama—the Safdie Bros’ Uncut Gems (2019)—Hernangómez shows he can deliver a line or two naturally in between shooting hoops in Hustle. It’s also really interesting to see a basketball movie centered on a European player rather than an American for a change.
At face value, it looks like Sandler and his team might possibly be thinking of rebranding Happy Madison into some more interesting projects. Which would be a much welcome change for fans of the actor’s more serious work. Story wise, Hustle is close to paint-by-numbers like a lot of sports pictures. But the casting and characters make for an entertaining enough night on Netflix.