The last time I saw Adam Sandler in a movie — forgive me, I missed “Hubie Halloween” — he was sweating, cursing and agitating up a storm in “Uncut Gems.” It wasn’t his first great performance (or his last), but it revealed something about his particular gifts that few of his die-hard fans and equally die-hard detractors had ever fully appreciated.
There’s something great about watching a Sandler character straining to win at all costs, going to extreme lengths and pushing himself and everyone in his orbit to their limits. The critically derided lowbrow comedies with which he’s been too long associated tend to fail not due to offensiveness but laziness; it’s refreshing when a new project genuinely seizes his attention and, by extension, ours.
It also helps when the movie in question has been sculpted with some care, as is the case with the affecting, aptly titled Netflix basketball drama “Hustle.” Directed by Jeremiah Zagar (“We the Animals”) from a script by Taylor Materne and Will Fetters, it’s a formulaic but finely textured underdog story set amid the hyper-competitive bustle of the NBA pre-draft circuit.
