Adam Sandler, who is a prolific film producer, is at his best as an actor when he plays a businessman, as he does in “Hustle” (on Netflix), a light basketball drama but serious about the internal politics of the NBA Because he is neither an outstanding physical nor technically theatrical actor but rather an extremely talented verbal one, Sandler is most interesting when his performances approximate his own experience – or, at least, when they have a psychologically revealing relationship with her. That’s what he does in Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” as a famous comedian, and in the Safdie Brothers’ “Uncut Gems” as a bling jeweler with a sports gambling problem. . In “Hustle” – which isn’t as morally harsh as “Funny People”, as tragically free as “Uncut Gems”, or as aesthetically distinctive as either – Sandler can indulge in sport as he loves and merges it with garlic, a worn-out insider from his entertainment career.

“Hustle” is in the genre of amateur cinema, in which the star combines his passion for basketball with his understanding that it is also a business and with his experience in the entertainment industry at large. Sandler didn’t write or direct it, but he dominates it. Though with little directorial originality, character development, or social perspective to recommend it, “Hustle” manages to turn loud plot and mellow sentimentality into a refracted self-portrait, a work of personal cinema. The screenplay, by Will Fetters and Taylor Materne, delves into the details of the transformation from athlete to professional, both physically and mentally, and the demanding work of sports leaders to effect that transformation. It’s essentially a movie story, with Sandler playing a member of the production team, whose contributions are pivotal, misunderstood, and nearly anonymous except to other insiders in the know. He waits for his chance to evolve and, when he realizes that he cannot do it, he takes an entrepreneurial and independent risk. Adam Sandler, producer and star, plays the role of producer.

He plays Stanley Sugerman, a former Temple University basketball star who spent thirty years behind the scenes. He’s an international scout for the Philadelphia 76ers, and his many years on the road have worn him down and abraded his family life with his wife, Teresa (Queen Latifah), also a former Temple star athlete, and their teenage daughter, Alex (Jordan Hull). The team’s elderly owner, Rex Merrick (Robert Duvall), a supposedly old-fashioned autodidact from a modest background, has great respect for Stanley’s acumen and ability, and grants him a promotion long awaited among the coaching staff. But Rex suddenly dies, and his arrogant, bratty, self-righteous son, Vince (Ben Foster), kicks Stanley out of his new job and orders him to hit the road again to find a potential star to recruit for the team. (As Stanley tells his wife, “There was only one guy who knew what I was capable of, and he died.”)

On a trip to Spain, Stanley goes in search of a pick-up game to play; he finds an extremely gifted raw talent named Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangómez, who plays for the Utah Jazz in real life) and brings him to Philadelphia, where things quickly fall apart. Vince orders Stanley to cut ties with Bo, but Stanley is sure of the young man’s ability and character and is already committed to him and his mother (María Botto). Stanley takes matters into his own hands: he resigns to develop Bo’s talent independently for the NBA draft. To do this, however, he spends his own money, without telling Teresa. He also lies to Bo about the Sixers’ involvement.

The French say: “Love does not exist, there is only the proof of love”, and this is the central idea that Stanley transmits to Bo: the lesson of effort and self-discipline. necessary to reach the pros. Bo, while clearly a star in the making (Stanley says, “The kid, it’s like Scottie Pippen and a wolf had a baby”), doesn’t have the physical conditioning yet, the mental vision or skills of players who can become professional players who, in colleges in the United States or in international teams, have benefited from infrastructure and coaching. Stanley is to become Bo’s trainer, trainer, psychologist and surrogate father. Whether it’s getting up and out early enough to wake Bo from his hotel bed at four in the morning for daily uphill runs or subjecting Bo to a battery of highly concentrated field exercises (involving details as pungent as dribbling two balls at once or throwing one through a rolling truck tire), Stanley puts as much care and effort into training as he demands of the athlete himself. same.

Another potential young star, Kermit Wilts (played by real-life Minnesota Timberwolves member Anthony Edwards), enters Bo’s head with increasingly scathing remarks, and Stanley struggles to help Bo stay focused. . The movie is filled with true basketball highminds, whose very presence is invigorating; other current cast members in the film include Tobias Harris and Matisse Thybulle, as well as classic stars such as Doc Rivers (the real-life Sixers coach), Julius Erving and Mark Jackson. Sandler pushes his way through the action with acerbic heat, and his dialogue is peppered with basketball wisdom. (“Obsession will beat talent every time”; “You’ve absorbed the contact. I need you to end the contact”; “It’s you against you out there, and right now you’re kicking yourself ass”; “It’s about the next shot and the next shot and the next shot”; “A good player knows where he is on the court. A great player knows where everyone else is.”)

“Hustle” is actually Sandler’s version of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1954 inside-Hollywood drama “The Barefoot Contessa,” in which a studio executive with a failing career (Humphrey Bogart) travels to Spain and meets a bar dancer. (Ava Gardner), whom he takes to Hollywood and turns into a movie star, but with tragic results. The essentially documentary element of the intricacies of basketball is the central charm of “Hustle,” which also extends to Stanley’s uncompromising outlook on professional life and the web of connections that is fundamental to his ability to drive forward the things. The direction of “Hustle”, by Jeremiah Zagar, is affectionate and efficient; he takes pleasure in filming a sport without delivering distinctive visual glimpses of its details or pleasures. The film is set primarily in Philadelphia, Zagar’s hometown, and it gives the outdoor action an appealing, albeit promotional, sense of place. With another inevitable twist of sentiment, Stanley’s endeavors are also a family affair, depending, at a key moment, on Teresa’s own connections and Alex’s untapped skills and generational knowledge. Yet the feel-good sentimentality that ultimately, of course, triumphs cannot dispel the threats of failure, even tragedy, that cloud the action. Sandler sells sentiment, but he’s fascinated by the reality of the game and the business, and it shows. ♦