By George Haerle
For Grays Harbor News Group
So, it’s undeniable that a movie involving strippers scamming Wall Street scumbags out of their ill-gotten gains is going to have some provocative imagery — some highly suggestive and sexual material of the somewhat naked kind.
That being said, “Hustlers” isn’t some poor, half-baked attempt at Hollywood-grade smut. Instead, it’s a tale based on a New York Magazine article of the rise and fall of several professional exotic dancers who scammed oodles of cash out of their rich clientele. It’s recounted much like “Goodfellas,” but its female characters are front and center as human beings rather than objectified pieces of meat.
Primarily following former stripper Destiny’s retelling of the heyday of her former ring of sexy scam artists to an interviewing journalist, “Hustlers” starts as provocatively as it sounds but turns into an authentically funny, engrossing and even heartfelt film at times. Along with Constance Wu as Destiny, Jennifer Lopez gives a noteworthy performance as Ramona Vega — ringleader and motherly figure to the group of women.
As any good crime movie worth its salt will, “Hustlers” succeeds in a manner Martin Scorsese would be proud of: The script depicts fully explored and dynamic characters, allowing the audience to judge them rather than the film or story itself. Destiny, Ramona, Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) and Mercedes (Keke Palmer) are individuals who have personal lives, dreams, hopes, and range in intelligence and savvy.
Watching the film will allow you to form your own depth of opinion of their actions and methods. It’s no doubt that what the characters are doing is totally wrong in terms of the drugging, robbing and scamming. But at the same time, it is impossible not to sympathize with their lives and the crushing difficulty of their jobs, financial woes, and constant sexual harassment and degradation they endure from their rich, privileged, sexist, male clientele.
What is particularly hard not to enjoy is the film’s treatment and portrayal of the dancers’ top-dollar clients, who pays hundreds to enjoy highly questionable privileges at the women’s place of employment. If the movie is to be believed in presentation and adaptation, these women were scamming primarily “Wolf of Wall Street” types who were partially to blame for the 2008 recession; and whose degrading, disgusting tendencies in the strip clubs earn them no sympathy whatsoever compared to the working-class central characters. It also makes for great entertainment seeing the worst of the Wall Street rich get horribly bamboozled in this day and age, even if it is just in a movie.
While there are a lot of quite lovely actresses in various states of minimal dress, “Hustlers” wasn’t made with the intention of presenting another cinematic excuse for a straight male fantasy. It’s very much presented from a female point of view, showing the predatory and creepy tendencies they endure from the male-dominated world they live in. The women’s actions are the results of a life that requires hustling for money and struggling to survive financially amidst recession and abusive clients who take advantage of such — as well as being partially culpable for said recession.
It’s not going to be in any top 10 lists for drama of the year or anything, but “Hustlers” is an enjoyable movie worth a rental or maybe a matinee, even if the dialogue is noticeably stilted at points. It’s hard not to imagine a few husbands and boyfriends who might try to sneak this one in for a couples movie night, whether at home or in the theater. But fear not, ladies: This movie is more for you than the boys.
Featuring layered, capable, and savvy female characters and performances by Wu, Lopez, Reinhart, and Palmer, “Hustlers” is an overdue reminder that a person’s vocation doesn’t define their value or humanity.
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“Hustlers” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.
George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.
