Review: Hustlers

Hustlers, directed by Lorene Scafaria, tells the tale of a young stripper named Destiny (Constance Wu) who struggles to make ends meat in trying to support herself and her family. Everything changes though when she runs across an experienced stripper named Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) who takes Destiny under her wing and shows her how to own the business like a true pro. But once the economy crashes and the girls come across hard times, they take matters into their own hands against the rich Wall Street clients who screwed them over in the first place.

So I was originally going to skip this film after I saw the first trailer for it. Based on what I saw it didn’t look like something I would feel strongly about. I just assumed it would be another film I would probably forget about once I saw it, but then Toronto International Film Fest happened, and this film got a surprising amount of praise and Oscar buzz. So I guess I had to check it out, and honestly I’m kinda glad I did. Hustlers was a pleasant surprise filled with great performances and a lot of energy to keep anyone entertained.

A lot of what’s causing this film to be recognized by awards pundits is the performances and I can definitely see why. JLo gives a fantastic career performance in this film. She commands every scene she’s in and leaves a large presence over the film. I would be surprised if she goes unnoticed this awards season. But while everyone adores JLo’s performance I actually preferred Constance Wu’s performance overall. She gives one of the best performances of the year for a female lead and I feel she’s very underrated here. Both Wu and JLo work off each other incredibly well and are what makes this film really stand out for me.

Everything else about the film was relatively good. The direction was solid, the editing was really clever at points, the music choices are very fitting, the writing’s solid, and the cinematography showed more depth than expected. The only real issue I took from this film is the story and pacing. The first half of the film was really uninteresting. It takes a while for the film to really kick off for me. The lack of a real threat in this film also really downplays the urgency this film’s characters feel. I know this is inspired by a true story but the real story itself doesn’t give me much of a reason as to why I should care about these people, especially when the film decide to reveal crucial backstory info near the very end.

Overall I actually had fun watching this film. It’s a very entertaining film that’s made memorable by the two very strong performances that lead it. If this sounds like a movie you might like then I recommend you check it out. I.m glad to have watched it and I’ll be willing to give it another watch again sometime in the future.

Final Verdict: 7/10