Hustlers starts off in 2007, when a young stripper named Dorothy, played by Constance Wu, begins working at a new strip club and meets Ramona, played by Jennifer Lopez, who takes her under her wing when she learns Dorothy has trouble attracting paying clients. Things are going well for the two until 2008, when the stock market crashes, and the strip club loses a lot of prominent clients, those being CEOs and other executives who paid thousands of dollars every night. Having issues finding employment elsewhere, the two lead a group of other former strippers to start scamming rich men and stealing their money, which becomes a widely successful venture for the two.
While Constance Wu is the film’s central protagonist - and she is very good here - the film’s standout performance is from Jennifer Lopez, who gives what might just be the best performance of her career. She is the de facto leader of this group of women, and her presence can be immediately felt each time she’s on screen. She is the dominant force driving much of this forward, and what’s just so fascinating to watch is the fact that she's always calm, cool, and collected as nearly all the events unfold. While there's one or two instances where she slightly loses her reserved demeanor, she otherwise always appears in control, and it’s very believable.
Wu is very good too, and is really the only other actor in this film to have a consistently major presence. She's given some substantial character development that isn't revisited as much as one would hope, but when she’s given some meatier subject matter, she handles it with grace. The film has a solid supporting cast, though nearly everyone else is played for comedic relief, especially Cardi B, who plays essentially a version of herself. However, she is fun, even though she has a much more limited presence than the film advertises, as does Lizzo. Keke Palmer and Lili Reinhart are the main two associates of Lopez and Wu, both of whom play up the “silly sidekick” roles, with positive results, as they were quite funny.
The chemistry among all four of these actresses is for the most part solid, and it’s clear they’re having a lot of fun with this material, as does the movie. There is an overall great energy about this film, especially in many of the scenes either taking place in the strip club, or just when everyone is together. The music is blasting with party tracks, and for the most part, it moves really quickly. There are a few scenes that drag, as they are just scenes of characters hanging out and not really doing anything substantial, but otherwise, this movie moves at a fairly quick pace.
Though an issue this movie does have is the fact that there isn’t much character development to nearly most of these people, outside of Wu and Lopez, and even then, they could have been expanded on more. This film isn’t really interested in expanding on how these characters feel, and what they have to say about what they’re doing. There are hints of it, especially in a few scenes of great social commentary where they discuss their targets. The film does not offer any sympathy to the people who these women steal from, as they are mostly rich brokers who in some way contributed to the stock market crash that led to this entire situation to begin with, and they are criminals as well.
And the movie does a commendable job making that point clear, which gives this a very layered aspect. It would have just been great though to get even deeper into a lot of these great observations, and what the characters had to say about it. The movie is instead content with strictly focusing on the hustle itself, and portraying it in a very comical fashion, and while it is funny, there was room for so much more.
The movie could have easily cut some of the “hang-out” moments scattered throughout, as well as all the narration scenes, in which Dorothy is being interviewed by a journalist named Elizabeth, played by Julia Stiles. Much of the film is narrated by Wu speaking to Stiles, and not only is the audience given information that plays out on screen anyway, there’s really nothing compelling about any of these sequences, nor do they really contribute much to the story, other than one moment at the end that could have easily been reworked. Stiles is a great actress in general, and she handles the material just fine, but she’s limited to just being a stock character, and the film wastes time on so many scenes of her and Wu when they could have explored other more interesting topics.
Hustlers is overall a fun, enjoyable watch that proved to be a nice surprise this year. While the film only offers so much in terms of solid character development, it still has some fun with its material, and is driven by a commanding performance by Jennifer Lopez, who shines above everyone else. The film also offers some great social commentary that still rings true to this day, even though it’s only touched upon in so many sequences. The movie has some issues in narrative structure that prevent it from being a great movie, but despite its flaws, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Recommendation: Watch It
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