If I break things down very broadly, I have two major interests: tv/movies and basketball. I’ll try some others out like music or soccer, but when it comes to time spent and depth of knowledge, those are the big 2. When you start to break those down into sub interests, things like the NBA draft, Adam Sandler comebacks, and inspirational sport movies bubble to the top. In other words, Hustle is ridiculously on brand for me. It overlaps my interests so much that it almost felt wrong. I shouldn’t get the thrill seeing Jay Wright in the middle of a movie. It’s like when the serious drama movie In the Bedroom talks about Disney World Fastpasses. I’m not ready for those two worlds to collide.
So, Hustle was an absolute blast. Everything about it worked for me. All the basketball throughout the movie made me wonder if this is how someone who speaks two languages feels when both are used on a movie. There’s just so much in this movie that I know non-basketball fans missed, but it works regardless. A lot of that is Adam Sandler. I think we’ve finally found Adam Sandler’s next populist form. He spent way too long holding onto the man-child thing. He’ll occasionally pop up in a prestige movie with some side we’ve never seen before. I think he’s ready to just be a mentor. That’s been a skill of his for a while. Most of Big Daddy over two decades ago was the same basic character type as Hustle. Hell, that’s even a lot of Billy Madison. Basically, it’s the simple shift from the character who should know better to the character who does know better, and a lot of the anger and surliness can stay. I think it helps a lot that Sandler really loves basketball and wanted to take this seriously. I’m not holding out hope that this is a permanent transition for him, but it’s at least an option now, moving forward.
I’m also so impressed by Juancho Hernangomez in this. Apparently a lot of non-basketball fans are surprised to realize he’s actually an NBA player, and I get it. He’s really polished in this movie. I’ll credit a lot of that too to Sandler, since many scenes are basically Hernangomez trying not to laugh at a comment Sandler made. And of course Hernangomez pulls off the physical stuff. The basketball fan in me thinks it’s really cool to be reminded how good even an average NBA player is. Hernangomez looks great doing all the drills and plays in this movie, yet I know that he’s never sniffing an All-Star team in real life.
It’s impossible for me to say how much I enjoyed this movie because it’s fun to see Moe Wagner play an NBA Draft flop as opposed to because it’s just a good sports movie. I get the sense that it’s an effective crowd pleaser all around only made even better if you know the game within the game.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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