Hustle (2022)

Hustle (2022)

 

7/10

 

Starring

Adam Sandler

Queen Latifah

Ben Foster

Juancho Hernangomez

 

Directed by Jeremiah Zagar

 

Here’s a good movie that makes me believe Adam Sandler seems to be amazing at doing drama nowadays rather than when he attempts comedy. The days when his comedies used to hit home runs are gone.

The odd combination of production companies, known for dishing out bad, mediocre movies, brings us this one. We have Netflix, which we’ve complained about time and time again for not producing good original content. Then we have Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, whose idea of a good movie is a goofball running loose with bad lines and a lackluster script. Both have had better movie production days in the past, and it seemed like that’s how best they would be remembered. But this movie is amazing. Hustle is a sports drama that doesn’t try to do anything new. Its setup is something you’ll be familiar with, and the whole “two people down on their luck meeting by chance and going out there to prove the world wrong” is a story we’ve seen before. But what this movie lacks in originality, it makes up for in performance. Sandler’s cool, level-headed character (Stanley Sugerman) paired with Bo (Juancho Hernangomez), who has a passionate need to succeed and a lack of control, is one matchup that makes this movie amazing.

I loved the back-and-forth of trying so hard to get Bo noticed as a great basketball player. I also loved the idea of Stanley taking a chance on his life with someone who seems to always lose it at the last minute.

The movie is about a former basketball player who is now an international scout. Stanley just wants to transition from traveling around the world to becoming a coach. He saw his dream flash before his eyes when he finally got his dream job, but a death pulled the rug from under him. On another scouting gig, he saw Bo hustling some guys for money on the basketball court in Spain. He saw something great in Bo and recruited him. The problem is, the club he works for doesn’t want to sign an unknown. Stanley decided to take a chance on himself; he put his whole career and money on the line to make sure Bo gets a shot.

In the end, the movie ends the way sports movies always end. But it was a fun ride, and I believe everyone should go see it. With all the junk on Netflix, which somehow gets massive viewership that blows my mind, good movies like this go under the radar.