Hustlers: Raising the bar for female lead crime films

Jennifer Lopez is a star. That’s it, that’s the review.

Hustlers follows Destiny (Constance Wu) as she befriends the enigmatic Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) The head bitch at Moves, a strip club in New York City in the mid-2000s. We follow their friendship through their daring mission to steal money from the CEOs and highflyers of Wall Street during the stock market crash of 2008. What is first taking money from cheaters and scammers to provide for their children and better housing becomes stealing from men via drugging them and taking their money to pay for materialistic items like red bottoms and fur coats.

The very first reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival where just buzzing with praise for Jennifer Lopez, some even calling for her to be recognised when awards season rolls around. Was she really that good? Turns out: yes. The critics were spot on. Lopez has a magnetic force that draws the audience in and stays with them long after the credits have rolled. She is both maternal and Juvenile, Naïve and self-aware. She is a firecracker when she dances. Plus, she spent months training and researching to play this role! I truly respect her method.

I really believe this film captures the complexity of female friendships very well, there are moments of bliss within the film such as when Usher (played by Usher!) comes into the club and all the women swarm the stage to dance for him. Or the Christmas scene where all the women exchange not only expensive gifts for each other and their children, but also tell stories and share their love for one another.

Also, the mid 2000s music in this film *chefs kiss* hearing Britney Spears on cinema speakers was a spiritual awakening in and of itself.

The girls are all believable. Lizzo is a delight, playing her flute and living her best life. Go stream her excellent album Cus I Love You right now! Cardi B is also an utter joy, a lot (A L O T) of angry internet people where upset with her casting before there had even been a trailer out. But guess what internet? Cardi was actually stripping in New York during this time period, a secret she has never shied away from. She knows this world perfectly, let her do the damn role!

Hustlers was already causing a stir before it was even out. From what I’ve seen a lot of Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB users where trashing this film, was it because this film was written and directed by a woman? Lorene Scafaria. Based off an article written by a woman? Jessica Pressler. Produced and Executive produced by women? Jessica Elbaum and Megan Ellison. Was It because it paints strippers as people with intelligence, athleticism and emotions? You know because they are humans and all…Or was it the ‘stunt casting’ of Lopez, Lizzo and Cardi B that made fanboys across the world shiver? Come in close and I’ll tell you a secret- It’s because this film is scaring them. It’s because they are not used to firstly seeing women have power over men, secondly seeing women own their sexuality and make a profit out of it and thirdly seeing women abuse the power they have over men, drugging them and taking their money. The most accurate comparisons to the characters in Hustlers are the characters from any good gangster film by Martin Scorsese. These characters are not good people they lie, cheat and steal, sometimes they kill. But we like them, we relate to their struggles. And when they get their comeuppance, we almost feel bad. We wanted them to get away with it dammit!

Hustlers rocks, period.