NBA scout Stanley Sugarman (Adam Sandler) is as road weary as they come. Physically exhausted and professionally frustrated, he hopes that one more great find might finally allow him to get off the road and into the coaching game.
Pro โ Surprise MVP
“Hustle” is the story of Stanley Sugarman. Sandler is fantastic in the role. His everyman charm works beautifully, and it doesn’t take long for the audience to start rooting for Stanley. Early success catapulted Sandler into superstardom, but the reality is his body of work since those early days has been a roller coaster of hits and misses, with a vast majority of his films skewing to the latter category. In fact, in 2022, many might suggest that Sandler being attached to a project would seem like a first strike against a film rather than an initial cause for interest. Here though, Sandler is perfect. He’s at his best when playing the guy down the street and using his humor in a subtle way. His take on Stanley is pitch perfect, with his ability to communicate the hellishness of road life and at the same time the joy of basketball in his life. His chemistry with Queen Latifah, who plays his wife, Teresa, adds a great dimension to the film as well.
Pro โ Hops
In an age where every movie seems to have anti-heroes and/or thinly veiled political commentary, it’s nice to just go to the movies sometimes and be uplifted. It’s good for the soul just to see good people persist while rooting for them to find success. “Hustle” tells such a story. The are certainly stakes involved in the film, and that creates buy-in, but not every movie has to have the fate of the universe, or even an NBA championship, on the line. “Hustle” realizes this. The stakes are modest, but enough to invest in.
“Hustle” is a great basketball movie. It’s no easy feat to translate sports, especially high skill sports like basketball, believably to the screen. The scenes with basketball are excellent, in no small part because so much of the cast is current and former NBA players. That said, perhaps the highest praise that could be heaped up “Hustle” is that a person need not like basketball at all to still enjoy this film.
Con โ 1 v 5
“Hustle” is a fantastic feel-good movie with an exceptional performance by Adam Sandler. That said, a minor quibble would be that everything except Sandler’s character feels very one dimensional. There is a lot of gold to mine in the film, but it’s left untouched. It’s probably the safe call to keep the focus on Sandler and keep the runtime under two hours, but the lack of depth and story given to the supporting cast means that while Sandler’s performance should be in the discussion come awards time, this film will not be.
“Hustle” is so much better than the average viewer will expect it to be. It has a basketball veneer, but Its not a basketball movie. Sandler is the most likeable and engaging he has been since the “Wedding Singer.” This film is easily worth finding a couple hours to stream on Netflix. After that though, dribble your way down to the Fridley Palms Theatre to beat the heat and check out a film on the big screen.
