Hustling is a pretty popular topic in movies. There’s the classic The Hustler of course, but also The Hustle, Hustlers, and now Hustle, none of which seem to much care how plainly derivative their titles are. This latest variation might honestly have the least to do with actual hustling of the bunch, a sports drama about a very straight-laced professional basketball talent scout and his relationship with an amateur player he attempts to get signed to the big leagues. Even accounting for its’ alternative definition of labourious -“the hustle” as in “the grind”- it’s still not terribly fitting. But then Netflix as a movie studio is not much known for putting effort in where it’s not deemed essential, especially so now that they’ve all but given up on quality filmmaking. Why should they care to for Adam Sandler’s latest production?
Sandler’s relationship with Netflix is in its’ seventh year now and it’s been a lucrative one for him. His Happy Madison company has produced ten films for the streaming service, seven of which Sandler has fronted himself. It’s also been his home for a couple of stand-up specials and the two movies most credited with his recent career renaissance: The Meyerowitz Stories and Uncut Gems. Of course this output is extremely lopsided -the aforementioned pair are rightly acclaimed, while those others are generally considered among his worst movies. It’s not saying much that Hustle is the best of the bunch -but it also is notably different in ways that factor into his renewed reputation as an actor capable of unexpected dramatic strength.
For one thing it is the first drama produced by Happy Madison since Reign Over Me in 2007. For another, it factors in Sandlers’ assets as an actor –something that earlier film didn’t. And to oversee it, Sandler brought in Jeremiah Zagar as director –having apparently been quite a fan of his debut film We the Animals. I too, was a fan of We the Animals and so his name attached to this is what drew me in. And he does carry over some of that moody documentary-like magical realism that made that film stand out. There’s a grace to the editing, smooth montage and transitory devices –it feels unusually chill for a movie about basketball. And yet at the same time, it comes rife with the momentum and sense of conflict that drives any sports movie –albeit in this case that’s mostly on the margins of the sport itself.
Because Bo Cruz (played by real life basketball player Juancho Hernangómez) is an extremely talented player and that is never in question. It’s whether he can overcome the biases and politics of the NBA system to be drafted –whether he can perform the part of a professional basketball star- that is the challenge. And it’s what makes this a fascinating, less-than-conventional underdog narrative, less about playing the sport than what the sport expects of you. Much is made of the mental fortitude Bo needs to build; the state of mind he has to assume for this career that is completely foreign to him. Most notably, it’s illustrated through how he handles trash talk, which has either the effect of throwing him off his game or pushing him to violence. Sandler’s Stan Sugarman, who takes it upon himself to both train and promote Bo as his greatest discovery, encourages a thicker skin when it comes to attacks by other players or the media. To this particular point the movies’ intentions are a bit muddied, critiquing Bo’s response to a toxic sports culture and the acts of petty individuals within it rather than that culture itself. Essentially he is supposed to just take the verbal abuse spouted by a cartoonishly mean-spirited rival player (Anthony Edwards), and dish it out a bit in return if he can, because that’s just the way things are. At the same time, the film is clearly reluctant to dip its toes into such hefty conversations about the institution of professional basketball, and would rather this circumstance and the advice relate to building up Bo’s own mental health. It doesn’t walk the line tightly in any case, and would be better off examining a different avenue of the NBA’s effect on players -such as the class, nationality, or language barriers that are hinted at from time to time as effecting Bo’s ability to be signed.
On that end the movie doesn’t do a particularly good job developing its’ villain: Philadelphia 76ers owner Vince Merrick (Ben Foster), and his animosity towards Stan, outside of the fact that his father and precursor (Robert Duvall) seemed to like Stan and was aiming to promote him before dying. His vindictiveness is almost personal, without the movie ever backing that up, and he seems to come from a different brand of Adam Sandler movie -one of several aspects to Hustle that emphasize Sandler’s continued level of creative control, much as it is in a different vein than his typical projects.
Sandler really loves basketball for example, and between this and Uncut Gems he’s now made two serious movies where he plays someone heavily invested in the sport and featuring major acting turns by professional players. That affection for the game really translates and Sandler knows it. He feels right at home, is totally invested and energized, grounded and natural in a way that still feels astonishing from the Happy Gillmore guy. And he can keep your attention in smarter, subtler ways now –he’s capable of underplaying a moment or emotional theme, recognizing where the script calls for a different approach. He makes for a good centrepiece of the film –Stan is archetypal no doubt, but Sandler brings his own sense of weight to the part, his own finely-tuned charisma. It is evidence of his maturity as a performer.
His conviction allows the movie to believably play the typical coach beats –even while Stan is not a coach proper: learning as much from Bo, opening himself up, coming to terms with his past and his vulnerabilities. But the effect is not so contrived. Zagar casts a modest grounded atmosphere through single takes, natural lighting, subjective cinematography that is objective in scope. Even in a montage that easily mimics Rocky it comes across as authentic –I’m sure real athletes in Philadelphia have done it. At times the movie bears a closer resemblance to Hoop Dreams than Hoosiers.
And for the flimsy way it goes about characterizing Bo’s personal deficiencies in the American basketball culture, how his assimilation is the happy end, Hustle does acknowledge the fault lines and biases that Bo is forced to contend with, and plays adequately his journey through them. His relationship with Stan makes for a solid glue as well. Hustle is not a movie with any real surprises, curious though aspects of its’ approach are. But it is a testament to Sandler’s commitment to reinvention, and how when clearly focused, it manifests a better movie.
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