Hustlers (2019) - Movie Review

The more recent trend of female-dominated crime capers has brought some solid efforts (Ocean’s 8), some mild disappointments (Widows) and some woefully misjudged disasters (The Kitchen). While it’s certainly good to see some much-needed variety at the cinema, I wouldn’t say that there’s been a film yet in this subset that has outright demanded my attention. Maybe it’s because the crop so far has remained rather indebted to the ways of men in their narratives and even their production background, or maybe it’s just that I haven’t found one that aligns with my tastes just yet, but this is a sector of the market that’s been waiting for an outright stunner to make the point for the rest. Enter Hustlers, exactly what the doctor ordered.

For a start, the casting could not be more ideal if it tried, far as I can tell. Having the likes of Cardi B in the cast list certainly adds some authenticity, given her own rags-to-riches story, but the bulk of the cast here add a lot to the proceedings. Constance Wu, thankfully sticking around after her incredible turn in Crazy Rich Asians, works brilliantly as the heart and soul of the main group, with Jennifer Lopez at her absolute best as an almost surrogate mother role as her mentor and later accomplice.

 

Add in Keke Palmer, Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart and Lizzo (with flute in tow), and you’ve got a collective that brings an amazingly warm and inviting atmosphere to the first act. I mean, beyond just the fact that there’s a lot of eye candy going around, and Lopez actually doing her own dancing helps to highlight that, yes, pole-dancing is actually pretty damn strenuous.

From there, the film takes a Goodfellas-by-way-of-Magic-Mike approach to its depiction of not only their criminal hustle, but of the stripping trade as a whole. Aided by the fact that this is one of those rare films about strippers nowadays where they actually strip on-camera, the overt lack of male gaze in its framing is quite refreshing. It’s a business same as any other, with its socioeconomics and methodology, all of which are shown without dipping too far into the exploitative (unless there’s good reason to do so) or even into the vulgar. It’s quite… rousing, at least to begin with, and it certainly shows the allure of the business.

And then we get to 2008, one of the worst years for American business and one that hits the strip club harder than most, given their mostly Wall Street clientele. What starts out as a rather inviting vibe turns dark really damn quick, highlighting how badly the working conditions tanked along with the rest of the economy and that their one main goal, to make it on their own, became more and more of a stretch to accomplish. It’s this that ultimately gives way to the crime aspect of the story, with the girls deciding to fleece their marks through a combination of good scheduling and an understanding of chemistry (i.e. the ratio of ketamine/MDMA they spike their marks’ drinks with).

While it follows a certain pattern akin to a lot of crime dramas, from the euphoria of success to the inner workings of the hustle to the eventual collapse and law involvement, it stands out in a pretty major way. Or, at the very least, it stands out against what this film so easily could have settled for. With the majority of the people getting swindled being shown as Wall Street residents, the kind of people who bleed others for their wallets, in addition to the backdrop of the Global Financial Crisis, the argument could be made that they’re taking out worthy victims. They even make it a point to show Wu’s Destiny taking a bizarrely Temple Grendin approach to the hustle, in that she tries to do a rather inhumane thing in the most humane way possible re: the drug doses.

But that would be too easy. Simply making out the girls to be the good guys because they’re squeezing stock traders and CEOs of their ill-gotten gains would arguably have been apt for the current social climate, but that’s not what we get. Instead, through the eyes of Destiny, we get something far more explicitly amoral, encapsulated by her describing what they did as “hurt people hurt people”. Rather than going for easy points, it instead goes for something a bit more grounded, a bit more realistic and, quite frankly, a lot more engaging in the process.

That’s why I consider this to be the best production within this trend so far. Aside from managing to deliver solid drama within the traditional framework, aided by some fantastic performances and music selections, it actively subverts that same framework in a number of ways, not the least of which being that it doesn’t shy away from the ambiguity of the characters’ actions. It so easily could have taken the anti-hero route with this, and I might have even agreed with the sentiment, but by treating the subject matter with more care and honesty than that, I actually respect this film a whole lot more than I already would have.