In Claw, Adam Sandler celebrates the passion for basketball

Claw (United States, 2022). Address: Jeremiah Zagar. Script: Will Fetters, Taylor Materne. Cast: Adam Sandler, Queen Latifha, Juancho Hernangomez, Maria Botto, Ben Foster. Duration: 117 minutes. Available in: Netflix. Our opinion: very good

“Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the good of the team. You travel again, Manu came off the substitute bench…”, says Vince Merrick (Ben Foster) to Stanley Sugerman (Adam Sandler)her star recruiter in one of the most tense scenes of Clawa film that is an ode to basketball, to the passion for sports and the good intentions that survive in the competitive world of the NBA. To represent the purity of the sport is the character of Sandlera former college player who loves every aspect of what happens on the court but is already a little tired of traveling the world in search of hidden talent that he delivers to the team’s machinery.

Produced by LeBron James and featuring a parade of NBA stars past and present, Claw exists in the same emotional universe as Rocky original and not only because most of the action takes place, as in Sylvester Stallone’s film, in the city of Philadelphia, but because like that film, this one tells a story of apparent losers in search of the last chance that will change their lives, of rough diamonds with everything against them that they manage to overcome despite the obstacles that the world puts in their way.

The director Jeremiah Zagar, an experienced documentary filmmaker, manages to give rhythm to the game scenes and knows how to stop the ball in the passages between game and game. As well as taking full advantage of Sandler’s interpretive range. Far from the broad-faced comedian who usually appears in his films and closer to the nuanced actor who worked in the films of Paul Thomas Anderson (intoxicated with love), Noah Baumbach (The Meyerowitz: the family is not chosen) and the Safdie brothers (Rough diamonds), Sandler’s composition in Claw He brings humanity, emotion and meaning to the whole story.

Adam Sandler shines in ClawScott Yamano/Netflix

When Stanley, forced by his arrogant boss played without too much subtlety by Foster, must return to travel the world in search of potential players and put aside his dream of being a coach and the desire to spend more time with his wife Teresa (Queen Latifah) and Alex (Jordan Hull), his teenage daughter, luck finally smiles on him in Spain. There, he runs into Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangómez), a talented basketball player who could be exactly what Stanley was looking for. Employed as a laborer to support his mother Paola (María Botto) and her little daughter Lucía (Ainhoa ​​Pillet) and already resigned to not being able to be a basketball professional, Bo accepts Stanley’s proposal to travel to the United States to try to be part of the 76ers, the Philadelphia team he represents.

Adam Sandler in a scene from Claw
Adam Sandler in a scene from ClawNetflix

Convinced of his hunch about the player, Stanley will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals, and that includes taking charge of his stay and training him on the same streets where Rocky’s fitness scenes were filmed. Any lover of sports movies will appreciate the funny sequences in which Stanley drags Bo at dawn to gain speed and agility or the training matches in which Sandler appears surrounded by giant players. A physical contrast that accentuates with his great tempo for comedy. A few physical gestures, slumped shoulders, the twitch of a scarred hand, and one of his legendary cries of frustration and rage are enough for the actor to create a character that generates immediate empathy. From the first minutes of the film, the public fan by Stanley’s team. Although he knows that, due to the tradition of the subgenre, achieving victory will not be easy.

With a script that does not deviate from the conventional but nevertheless succeeds in each narrative turn Claw puts in the dramatic horizon of its characters the possibility of participating in the game in which the entire NBA goes in search of its next stars and makes the journey to reach that goal an entertaining and exciting journey for basketball lovers. But only for them. Beyond the appearances of the idols of the sport and the many dialogues in which technical aspects are discussed and behind the scenes of the NBA business are shown, the truth is that Claw manages to capture and excite the general public with its story about the pursuit of dreams, the celebration of sport and the good intentions of those who love it with a little madness.

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In Claw, Adam Sandler celebrates the passion for basketball