It’s well shot and that’s something. I like a movie that has thought behind where the camera is.
And I liked it. It’s an effective mood piece that has a bit of Terrence Malick about it.
And Adam Sandler shares a platonic hug with a talking three-foot spider voiced by Paul Dano.
Which is what you need in a film.
Formulaic but brilliant, this demonstrates Adam Sandler’s considerable acting chops even better than Punch Drunk Love (2002) or Uncut Gems (2019), because this character is more complex, and dare I say it, multi-layered.
I know fuck all about basketball. I don’t get it. I find it dull. This made the sport interesting.
It’s the central relationship which is the heart, an initial association of convenience which ultimately goes beyond the professional. It wasn’t Mickey and Rocky but it aped that well.
Nothing special here but good enough, a proper movie with no pretensions; it knows what it is.
And it comes with obligatory mental training montage.
This was gripping, an Adam Sandler movie that isn’t nails-down-a-blackboard godawful. He has been in some of the most appalling films, yet also the intermittent cracker – Punch Drunk Love (2002), for example. Here he is unrecognisable from his usual goofball act, literally sweating his pores through the travails of a gambling junkie juggling debt, addiction, and avoiding some rather dodgy small-time hoodlums/loan sharks. It’s an accurate portrait of the lives many folk live and quite the captivating one.
It has the Ben SEAL OF APPROVAL.
Further reading/viewing:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-mesmerizing-chaos-of-uncut-gems
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/uncut-gems-movie-review-2019
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 