STX Films has a hit on their hands with their new film Hustlers, a story about a group of strippers that start a scam to steal money from wealthy Wall Street men that frequent their strip club.
Hustlers had a strong box office weekend making $33.2M, debuting in the No. 2 spot behind Warner Bros. It: Chapter Two. Production costs amount to $20M to make the film.
Over 65% of the audience members that went out to see the movie this past weekend consisted of females over the age of 25. Audiences gave the movie a 67% Rotten Tomatoes (RT) score, with critics rating the film as “Fresh” with a 87% RT score.
The film is based on a New York Magazine article called The Hustlers At Scores, written by Jessica Pressler.
Pressler delved into the relationship between two strippers, Roselyn Keo and Samantha Barbash, in what she deemed was a modern-day Robin Hood story perched on the lustful desires of rich men.
The film adaptation, featuring Jennifer Lopez as Romana is a quite tamed depiction of a stripper’s life and actually shows the human side of these women that are often judged by society.
From the beginning, the film is action-packed, leading the audience on with the endearing presence of Destiny (Or Dorothy depending on the day), played by Constance Wu.
After moving around to different strip clubs, she lands at the club Moves where she meets veteran stripper Romana. Jennifer Lopez shines in her role as Romana. The first time the audience is introduced to Romana, she gives the most convincing stripper dance routine ever made on film. Even better than Lisa Raye’s dance in The Players Club and Demi Moore’s Striptease. Sexy, seductive and confident, Romana commands the room. She leads a team of women into a winding adventure.
From the beginning to the middle of the film, Hustlers dazzles the audience with exciting visuals. However, by the middle of the film, it starts to slow down with redundant clips of the women making memories together and using the same methods to scam men over and over. Simply put, some of this could have been left out. It would’ve made the pacing of the film continue to be balanced with the beginning action.
Some highlights of the film include Cardi B’s cameo in the beginning. She lightens up the mood with hilarious and candid jokes. Unfortunately, her presence is brief. The same could apply to “Truth Hurts” singer Lizzo, where there were only a few moments of her dancing on stage and then running backstage to alert the crowd that a celebrity was in the building. That celebrity was Usher to the delight of a cheering audience.
The theme of women empowerment and sisterhood runs rampant throughout the film. There’s no real backroom cat fights or signs of bitchiness, except for the scene with Cardi B. All the strippers are supportive and fun-loving. Not the most realistic storyline.
Overall, the film is good. Jennifer Lopez is the subject of Oscar talk for her performance, which is well-deserving. She put a lot of work into learning how to pole-dance. Just check out her YouTube channel. The MouthSoap would give this film a 8 out of 10, only because the pacing slowed down and some clips were redundant.
