Stanley is just a decent guy who’s struggling to outrun his demons - “Guys in their fifties don’t have dreams,” he cracks, “they have nightmares and eczema” - and not let other people beat him in the one-on-one game he’s been playing against himself since his own days as a potential basketball star (that Sandler never steps onto the court is a missed opportunity in a movie that only seems to be heading towards its own Yoda whips out a lightsaber at the end of “Attack of the Clones” moment). Much of that stems from Sandler’s inherent likability, which has seldom been as pronounced as it is here, where it isn’t diluted by angry man-child affectations or any of the other scrims the actor often hides behind. Cue the “Creed”-worthy training montage, the slow-building sense of shared baggage and mutual trust, and the shit-eating haters who force Stanley and Bo to become a two-man team unto themselves.Īs you might imagine by this point, “Hustle” doesn’t serve up anything you haven’t seen before, but it sticks to the game plan with confidence and makes you root for Stanley and Bo - together and separately - every step of the way. The first task proves hilariously easy, as Stanley happens across a penniless 6’9″ construction worker named Bo Cruz at a streetball game in Spain (he’s played by Utah Jazz power forward Juancho Hernangómez, who has the face of a fashion model, the wingspan of a small Pterodactyl, and the natural screen presence of someone who’s never acted before, which suits the naiveté of his character just fine). Stanley’s only ticket home? Unearthing a potential NBA star who nobody else knows about, bringing him back to the States for the draft combine, and flattering the weasely new owner into thinking it was his achievement. “That’s the idea,” he deadpans in response (Will Fetters and Taylor Materne’s script is often raw to the bone despite the story’s increasingly formulaic construction).Īnd just when it seems like Stanley might be absolved of his mysterious past mistakes - just when the beloved owner of the 76ers (Robert Duvall, casting a long shadow with a short cameo) gives our guy the assistant coaching job he’s always wanted and makes all of his hoop dreams come true - everything goes sideways and Stanley is left at the mercy of his old boss’ large adult son (a good and loathsome Ben Foster) who sends him right back out on the road. “You’re killing yourself,” a friend says at the sight of Stanley’s latest meal. But there’s a vague element of masochism to Stanley’s work - he’s clouded by the self-loathing air of someone who believes he deserves to suffer for his sins and eat KFC out of his carry-on even though the 76ers fly him business class. In Stanley’s case, “somewhere else” has always been at home with the wife and teenage daughter he never gets to see ( Queen Latifah plays Teresa Sugerman with enough warmth and gravitas to compensate for the character’s “stoic wife” clichés and make you glad that Jennifer Aniston was a healthy scratch for once). One look at Sandler’s rumpled Stanley Sugerman as he sags through through the bowels of a Serbian basketball arena - the latest stop on the Philadelphia 76ers scout’s never-ending quest to scour the world in search of tall new talent - is all we need to know that he’d rather be somewhere else. That courage traces back to the decision to hire “We the Animals” director Jeremiah Zagar rather than subbing in some generic studio hack off the bench, and it pays off from the very first shot (a cold and shadowy dolly push that screams, with all due respect: “We’re a long way from ‘Hubie Halloween’”). ‘Divinity’ Review: Eddie Alcazar’s Black-and-White Retro Nightmare Is One of the Year’s Freshest Films
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