Hustlers Review

Hustlers is based on a true story about a group of former strippers who were able to swindle and defraud men. The film uses a typical rise-and-fall narrative to tell their story.

In 2007 Dorothy/Destiny (Constance Wu) was a high school dropout who worked as a stripper in New York City. Ramona’s (Jennifer Lopez) wing, an experienced stripper takes the young woman under her wing and teaches Dorothy about the different types of clients at the club and how to get the most money out of them.

When the financial market crashes it has a knock-on effect on the strip club. Out of desperation the women set-up a new scheme – drug men, take their credit cards and clear them out.

Hustlers was produced by Gloria Sanchez Productions, a company owned by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. The aim of the company is to make female-centric movies. The company already had success with Booksmart and Hustlers is set to be an even bigger hit. McKay has an interest in financial affairs and politics – one of his biggest films was The Big Short which looked at how and why the 2008 banking crisis happened.

The other influences for Hustlers was Goodfellas. Goodfellas basically created the template and styling that many crime films have used. Recent examples include War Dogs and American Made. Hustlers has the rise-and-fall story where the main characters find their criminal niche, get too big, and suffer a downfall. Writer/director Lone Scafaria uses voiceover from various characters to tell of their situation and how the operation works. Scafaria and her cinematographer, Todd Banhazl, uses one of Martin Scorsese’s favourite techniques – long steady-cam shots. This was done during the film’s opening when Dorothy goes from the changing rooms to walking out with onto the stage.

Another aspect that Hustlers was influenced by Goodfellas was the core relationship between the criminals. As well as being a film about their rise-and-fall of a criminal empire, it was also about the rise-and-fall of a friendship. The relationship between Dorothy and Ramona was like the main characters in War Dogs where one of them was the sensible one – while the other became arrogant due to their success.

Hustlers has been marketed as a comedy-drama but in reality it was a crime-drama that had some comic moments. The first 30-minutes played more like a gritty drama about Dorothy’s hardships. Dorothy clearly didn’t want to be at the club but needed the money, she had to pay back some of her earnings and a long bus ride to get home. And it continues from there.

The theme of the banking crisis gave the film an air of social and political commentary. When the film starts in 2007 the stripping industry was a time of plenty and the strippers made a lot of money during this time. When Dorothy has to go to stripping in 2011 the bottom has fallen out of the market: there were fewer people going to the club, most of the strippers she knew have departed. The new strippers were from Russia and they were willing to perform sexual acts for payment. It leads to Dorothy’s lowest moment.

Ramona uses the banking crisis as her moral justification for their action. Basically all of them are guilty so they are fair game. Ramona teaches Dorothy about the three different types of bankers who attend the club and it acts as an inversion to The Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort described the three types of escorts. But it was not as simple as screwing over coked-up bankers – some of the men the women identified were just lonely people looking for company.

The women were not saints – they did some hiatus acts during the film. They were drugging them and taking their money. Dorothy’s actions could be interpreted in two ways – she cares a little about the people the gang target so don’t harm them with drugs. Or it’s simply she doesn’t want to get the attention of the cops. She did have some empathy.

The women ended up being a surrogate family. They have been rejected by their families and Ramona cares and tutors them. All this was symbolised when the women celebrated Christmas together. Ramona’s own motives were dubious. She comforted Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) who had been disowned by her family and Ramona was willing to hire drug addicts and criminals when Dorothy wanted to avoid using them. Maybe she cared for them, or maybe she just wanted people to control.

Scafaria started her career in comedy. She wrote the rom-com Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and directed Seeking a Friend at the End of the World. When Hustlers did become a little more comedic in its second act there were some funny moments. My favourite was the chemistry experiments and even during serious situations – there was a joke to break the tension.

As a crime film Hustlers was a decent offering with a female twist and it does show that J-Lo still got it. But it has been overhyped and doesn’t offer anything new to the genre.