Cast: Constance Wu, Jenifer Lopez and Keke Palmer
Director: Lorene Scafaria
Plot summary: based on and inspired by the viral New York article “The Hustlers at Scores” written by Jessica Pressler. This movie brings to life the ups and downs, triumphs and mistakes made by strippers in wall street and the beauty of a genuine camaraderie between a group of women who realise that combining their talents makes them that much more powerful.
Review:
This R18 movie is interesting and captivating from the onset with good music from the setting of the movie (2007 – 2013). Not long into the movie, scenes of nudity and seduction were introduced as it stars Jenifer Lopez (Ramona) as a pro stripper who has mastered and perfected the art of seduction and how to use this skill efficiently with ease and Constance Wu (Destiny) a “rookie” stripper who is eager to learn the ropes.
This movie takes a fresh, slick and seductively entertaining angle on the world of strippers, showing how they play the cards they have to get what they want amidst all the politics and hierarchy. This movie takes a female angle on the world of strippers having a female director as opposed to other movies about strippers.
However, a third into the movie, the movie got more interesting as it showed the ‘hustle’ of these ladies to survive the financial crisis that ensued in 2008. The seductive and entertaining nature of their manipulation and schemes is indeed one of the captivating aspects of the movie along with the gradual onset of the criminality and the elegance accompanied with the execution, this movie is a modern spice that Hollywood needs.
Jenifer Lopez though have featured in many mediocre movies played an exceptional role as Ramona in this movie, embodying the character like she was made for it, her presence in the movie was both magnetic and powerful. Constance well known as the sweet girl from ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ showed she has more fire in her in this movie and so did other actresses with Cardi B easily falling into her default mode perfectly.
With a length of 1hour 50minutes, the movie is relatively long and went a bit slow towards the last quarter but that was just a brief snag as it rejuvenated to end well. It raised many questions though such as: Was it acceptable for the women to steal this money because it was arguably stolen in the first place? Did society owe them something that they were merely taking from elsewhere? What chances did these men have that these women didn’t?
In summary, Hustlers is a fresh crime-comedy drama that is catchy and entertaining.
Sources
(“Hustlers review – J-Lo’s stealing strippers saga is a vicarious thrill | Film | The Guardian”, n.d.)
https://g.co/kgs/Ce5Kew