Hustle (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A basketball scout discovers a phenomenal street ball player while in Spain and sees the prospect as his opportunity to get back into the NBA.

Directed by Jeremiah Zagar. Starring Adam Sandler, Queen Latifah, and Juancho Hernangomez.

Hustle stars Adam Sandler as a basketball scout who finds himself at odds with the new owner of the team he works for. He's under a lot of pressure to find the next big star, but when he thinks he's found him, in a single father named Bo Cruz, the new owner is reluctant to take him up on it. So he gambles on the player himself, spending his own money to bring Cruz to the United States and get him noticed by the pros. The movie centers heavily around not only the logistical goal of getting Cruz into the NBA but also around the paternal relationship Sandler develops with the young man, and as a whole, that storyline works. Sandler's usual abrasiveness is channeled here into a fiercely protective attitude toward the people he cares about, and it works much better for me than most of his performances, even his serious ones. Like so many sports dramas, the beats feel familiar but that's not so much a knock on the movie because it hits those beats well and satisfyingly. A solid flick.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hustle > Hairspray (1988)

Hustle < Dark Passage

Hustle > A Scanner Darkly

Hustle < The Producers (2005)

Hustle < Spellbound (2002)

Hustle < Summer Stock

Hustle < Flight of the Navigator

Hustle > Don't Look Up

Hustle < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Hustle < The Impossible

Hustle > Kanal

Hustle > Swing Shift

Final spot: #1363 out of 3684, or 63%.