Hustlers-2019
Director Lorene Scafaria
Starring Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez
Scott’s Review #942
Reviewed October 3, 2019
Grade: B+
Hustlers (2019) is a film that I had no intention of seeing. It was not on my radar, and I did not know much about the movie except that it was promoted as a story about a group of strippers who bamboozle Wall Street men.
Yawn!
The experience was better than expected, thanks to the critically lauded performance by Jennifer Lopez. She astounds in a role perfectly written for her as the true story champions female empowerment, and why shouldn’t it?
The result is a feminist film with humor.
Constance Wu, famous for putting Asian actors on the map with Crazy Rich Asians (2018), does a complete one-eighty as the lead character in Hustlers.
Unrecognizable, she plays a New York City stripper named Destiny, who works at a trendy Wall Street club named Moves, in 2007. She supports her grandmother and barely gets by on meager tips, possessing the looks but not quite the style.
When she witnesses fellow dancer Ramona Vega (Lopez) perform a simmering routine, the women bond and become fast friends.
Destiny enjoys newfound wealth and a close friendship with Ramona. A year later, the financial crisis strikes, and both women find themselves struggling for cash, having squandered their fortunes.
Destiny becomes pregnant.
Her boyfriend leaves her shortly after their daughter’s birth, and she is unable to find a new job. Destiny and Ramona, along with other girls, hatch a plot to manipulate the business people they have grown to know out of desperation.
The story is based on actual events.
Had the elements not wholly come together in this film, the result would have been dreary or at best mediocre.
A current trend in modern cinema is to have a group of female characters team up in some form of heist or crime-fighting adventure- think Ocean’s Eight (2018), the Ghostbusters (2016) remake, or Widows (2018).
Some results are better than others, but hardly memorable, as the girl-buddy genre hardly has any depth.
Two critical factors stand out to me as rising Hustlers way above a mediocre or standard fare film experience. Jennifer Lopez deserves all the praise she has been showered with for her role as Ramona.
From the moment Lopez, who is listed as Executive Producer, appears on screen, she is electrifying and impossible not to be mesmerized by.
As she shakes her booty (and many other parts of her anatomy) and writhes on stage to Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” the men in the club throw money at her.
The scene oozes sexuality, and from this moment on, Lopez owns the film.
Lopez, besides Selena (1997), has primarily chosen mainstream and fluff material like The Wedding Planner (2001) and Maid in Manhattan (2002) over the years.
She may not be the Meryl Streep of her time, but it is always nice when an actor charts challenging and dangerous waters. May she continue to choose wisely. She powers through Hustlers with gusto and is the central draw.
Not to limit Hustlers to a conventional woman using sex appeal to lure men, the film is sure to get its message across to viewers in a more sobering way.
By 2008, the United States was in a financial landslide, with Wall Street being hit particularly hard. The point is made that not a single person went to jail for causing the collapse or for causing tens of thousands of people to lose their homes, jobs, or life savings.
This makes the audience realize that what the women did pales in comparison to Wall Street types (their victims), and many of their lures got what they deserved.
The subject matter at hand, being one of the worlds of strippers, may turn off some of the prudish, but delving into the emotions and aspirations of those who exist in the industry is eye-opening and quite enjoyable.
Hustlers (2019) successfully garnered empathy from its audience and champions a female empowerment movement, resulting in the surprise hit of the season.
Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Director-Lorene Scafaria, Best Supporting Female-Jennifer Lopez, Best Cinematography
