★★★★
A crew of savvy former strip club employees band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.
Classification: 15
A triumph from director Lorene Scafaria as she leads this flawless all-star cast to glory in a film about strippers surviving financial ruin through a riveting tale revolving around fraud, family, and fantastic lead performances from Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez. There is a dichotomy of glamour and sleaze to the direction of Hustlers, Scafaria through the neon-soaked cinematography and alluring choreography creates an environment where the characters are both victim and conqueror in a world where their worth has been defined by how many dollar bills are in their G-string. The film doesn't shun or shame these characters for their choices, it is clear that Destiny, Ramona and the rest are survivors, weaponising their sexuality to build a better life for themselves and their families. Scafaria's direction is the female gaze scrutinising the male gaze, being aware of how men will view these characters and playing it to the women's advantage, portraying them as the pathetic disgusting ones.
Made clear through the sequences of Lopez's Ramona training Wu's Destiny, every dance and decision made is deliberate to extract as much money from the client as possible, it shows how the fantasy of the strip club is nothing but hollow exploitation of both parties. While other crime dramas would use the strip club to glamorize the lifestyle, to accentuate the female form, Hustlers treats its strippers as characters rather than props.
The glamour of the lifestyle is through the kinship the characters have for one another, Hustlers delivers many iconic shots but Jennifer Lopez smoking a cigarette on a Manhattan rooftop clad in nothing but a bikini and lavish fur coat and it's that magnetism that draws Constance Wu into her web. The two of them wrapped in the beautiful fur, smoking and talking about their lives is the beginning foundation that makes the film more about crime and strippers, but about a deep and loving friendship between two women. While circumstance and story will tear them apart, the chemistry between the two is sisterly and makes the inevitable more tragic for the audience. You want these characters to succeed, their goals may not be heroic but are understandable and their targets are rarely sympathetic so to see them flourish as a result of men's depravity is just another away for these characters to use what the have for their benefit. The film doesn't start with the characters committing fraud it comes as a result of the 2008 crisis that wiped out their client base and crippled the club's earnings. The decision to begin scamming their former clients doesn't come from a place of revenge or abandonment, the strip club is almost like an unspoken addition to the Wall Street firm but Hustlers doesn't make this about jilted women. The decision comes from social stature, to support their families Destiny and Ramona both attempt to go "straight" taking retail jobs and part-time work to make ends meet but because of their histories, they are met with stigma and discrimination essentially forcing them back to stripping to survive.
Scafaria has the hypocritical cycle of society present throughout Hustlers, this idea that we are "better" than strippers, allowing for judgement, to label them thieves and whores. It becomes more prevalent in the third act when the house of cards comes tumbling down and the authorities become aware of Ramona's activities. As mentioned before the film doesn't shun these characters but society does, little scenes always reminding the characters and the audience that there is a belief that strippers are less than people, from Julia Stiles interviewer character believing to have moral superiority over Destiny to Ramona's protege Annabelle being ostracised from her family for stripping to make money. This collective shunning from society forces these women to band together, to form their own "family" and to enjoy their lives with their own rules. They don't desire to live a normal life but they want to enjoy the same perks that any affluent Wall Street banker has conned themselves into, penthouse apartments, fine goods, they see it as the compensation that is owed to them.
This sense of self-righteousness and confidence translates into the God tier performances from the cast. Constance Wu is fierce as Destiny, a hesitant young dancer transformed into a bold entrepreneur of fraud, it's the simple struggle of wanting to support her family that makes her such a compelling character. She sees the dangers that lie ahead, feels sympathy for those that are robbed too far and tries to maintain the delicate balance of power despite Ramona's growing greed. Lopez as Ramona is a force to be reckoned with; confident, sexy, loving, energetic and beautiful in body and soul, even though the story wants her to function in the antagonist role it is impossible not to be enamoured by Lopez's mere existence. She's an antagonist in name only, a foil for Destiny and its the love and friendship between the two characters that heighten the drama of the story. It's genuine love between them which what makes the tragedy more palpable when Hustlers sees their makeshift empire begin to crumble. Wu and Lopez are supported by a fun group of women, Keke Palmer and Lili Reinhart get their comic relief moments, with Reinhart's Annabelle having a fun recurring gag of vomiting in stressful situations. The group of women are never threatening or malicious in the beginning but the desire for more always corrupts and it becomes bittersweet to see their moments as a family knowing that it will all come tumbling down.
It's a sharp script filled with amazing moments of comedy and drama, Lorene Scafaria dual roles of writer and director allows her to deliver some creative and invigorating filmmaking. Not just having Jennifer Lopez dance to Fiona Apple's "Criminal" in a sequence that will leave most audience members hot under the collar but through long camera takes, audio editing, and sequences that highlight the fantasy and reality of a stripper's life. Just like its main characters, this is a film confident in its excellence, exemplified by Kayla Emter's editing as it portrays this story with grace and allows the audience to view these people as people rather than sex objects. You sympathise when they are judged, knowing that you are likely to be the one judging them in reality and Hustlers succeeds in creating a new angle for a clichéd form of thinking.
It's brilliant on so many levels and has plenty to enjoy for all audiences; funny, sexy, and glamorous from beginning to end. The costume design and cinematography all serve the fantasy and lifestyle that Destiny and Ramona build for themselves but its Lorene Scafaria's strong direction that keeps reality in check. Never losing sight of the friendship and the events that slowly rip them apart, Hustlers delivers its dramatic storytelling in spades. Much like the characters, you don't want the story to end but when it does it is nothing short of a spectacular ride filled with amazing characters, iconic moments, and righteous attitude that will bring audiences back to it time after time.
Director: #LoreneScafaria
Release Date: September 13th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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