Can't Knock The Hustle.
110 Mins. Starring: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Madeline Brewer, Lizzo & Cardi B. Director: Lorene Scafaria.
Hustle and flow through the dollars and sense that rain on this dancefloor and the comeback of Jenny from the block will smack stereotype like a pole across the face. Respect this hustle. Open your eyes and not just your jaws to 'Hustlers'. This might one of this year's best, in a film bigger than the gaping holes between the mouths and the wallets of a boiler rooms worth of these Gekko lizard like Wall Street wolf in funeral clothing types. One kind of looking like Jason Sudeikis' character in 'Horrible Bosses' when he laughs after a tired chauvinistic joke. Another like that slimy corrupt cop partner of Misty Knight (I'm sorry but that almost sounds like a strippers name in itself) in 'Luke Cage'. Hustled and getting shook down here like they were being dangled by their feet off the ledge of the Empire State building. As all their cents change falls down the drains of a Manhattan sidewalk. Taken for a ride and all they're worth, this movie based on the New York Magazine article 'The Hustlers At Scores' wrote by Jessica Pressler has 'Save The Last Dance's' Julia Stiles (terrifically tying this story together like a narration) going from the prom to the strip club. Taking over the journalists pen as 'Crazy Rich Asian' Constance Wu and a fellow gold pole Oscar worthy Jennifer Lopez like Shaq and Kobe take to the floor with some of the youngest and biggest names in acting and music. All for something as New York as Hot Dogs on every corner smelling like roasted peanuts and steam rising from the yellow cab passing grids on a Winter warming fall in the Big Apple of Gotham City. But front hook, ankle hook, knee hook, this carousel of a corrupt circus in the city from Lorene Scafaria's penmanship and director's chair bests even 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' that is the perfect soundtrack for 'Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World'. And oh how different a film it is. All to the power of a 50 Cent, 'I Get Money', Big Sean, 'Dance A$$' and Usher 'Love In This Club' special Spotify soundtrack. And the real reason all the strippers go running from their dressing room screaming in union in the trailer like an N.Y. rat was in there as they were changing. All for a film that is more than just a XXL Mars to the 'Magic Mike' Venus meets 'Oceans 8' remake (thank God it's not 'Oceans Eleven'...nobody wants the full monty of seeing those old a$$ balls Clooney...not even me) getting their 'Widows' on with J-Lo playing Viola. But one that beyond the face card look of what will bring the boys to the table, knows how to play this all like 'Molly's Game'. All for the girls that run the world like Jessica Chastain's forthcoming '355' spy hard, epic ensemble. Drop drop money on this and throw awards their way like you were making it rain in gold too, but be careful what you're wishing. Because these 'Hustlers' have ambition like you've never seen before for their eyes only.
Love don't cost a thing...but lust does. And after an epic entrance to the stage, the theatre curtains roll up for the grand return of Jennifer Lopez. Fabulous at 50 (it ain't just Keanu that's breathtaking, killing it like Wick) this is the best yet from the woman who literally spearheaded the Latin pop movement, breaking borders, barriers and boundaries down like walls. Running this world like girls when Beyoncé was still a Destiny's Child like the one she mentors here. But 'On The 6' did you forget that the dancing 'If You Had My Love', 'I'm Real', 'Aint It Funny' and 'All My Love' huge hit maker with the likes of Ja Rule, Jadakiss and LL Cool J was in one of her biggest movies the year before her debut album in 'Out Of Sight' with George Clooney of all people? And now she's back where she belongs commanding the screen like she does the stage in a supporting role which is real and all front and center. Slick but with more substance enough to be one of the lawyers she takes to the cleaners everytime she walks in to the same bar to the nines. Leading a crew, some almost half her age, but nowhere near her stage with that look on her face that she's about to take you're checking account all the way to 0.00. But there's an overdrawn reason to her crime rhyme that will have you in the red more than the raging hangover and colour in your cheeks when you check your balance, whilst trying to maintain your actual own one suit and tie still on, but your pants around your ankles. Jenny off the block is so good you'd give her her phone back too, instead of throwing the book at her. But if she deserves an Academy Award then fresh off the 'Crazy Rich Asians' boat that's still rocking, Constance Wu deserves one too. Lopez is the legend in the limelight. But Wu is the star of the moment and nothing to f### with! And her Destiny character is the child that's blessed to have her own. All she wants to do is not rely on anyone, take care of her family and go shopping once in awhile. But she's got to deal with the blatant, bull#### ignorance of clients calling her Lucy Liu, or horrible bosses taking the majority of her earnings, but insult to debt injury shamefully giving her the money for her to only have to hand back in some toxic masculinity power trip s###! But she'll have the last laugh drowning in champagne and rolling in cash. Screaming like Anne Hathaway's Catwoman acting for all the cream in 'The Dark Knight' as she takes a naked 'Rough Night' like client whose taken a turn off the penthouse for the worse to the hospital, only to turn the waterworks off the moment the gurney is rolled away like not her problem anymore. Roll that alongside a scene stealing Lili Reinhart, AKA 'Riverdale's' Betty Cooper biting her thumb and striking a Vogue pose for your instant text back and 'The Handmaid's Tale' Madeline Brewer popping up with all eyes and even more ears lent, then this is one crew even Sandra Bullock wouldn't be 'Bird Box' too for Queenpin Lopez's New York City street team in Juicy Couture velvet behind the rope. Especially when it comes to music's best scoring on film like the soundtrack. From a coming out on screen party of Keke Palmer and classic cameos from Rap Queen Cardi B featuring her 'Money' trailer tease cha-ching like M.I.A. 'Paper Plane' gunshot taking your change and the biggest star in music right now Lizzo complete with her flute. This movie just took a DNA test...and it turns out it's the s###! Now if you think this 34 year old white writer got the lyrics wrong then you're wrong. I don't even call a female dog a b####. Did you really think I was going to join the rest of the senior citizens watching 'Downton Abbey' this weekend? B#### please!
Strip all that away however and behind the dirty money of the gold curtain the only thing more stronger than the power of women here in the same time big three pops icons Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey are coming together in their best year for the soundtrack of a new girl power flick to tell Charlie, 'Don't Call Me Angel', is the camaraderie. From the moment they teach pole on the grind. The soul of this may be somewhere in the murky moral compass that looks lost in the five N.Y.C. boroughs like the Bronx b####. But these 'Hustlers' have heart. Especially next to who they Robin Hood from. And like this fast and furious time even all the crime is all about family with Lopez's Godmother character trading in De Niro sneering lips to everyone's nodding approval as her Escalade guzzles Diesel gas. This is even far more self aware in the morality over celebratory cautionary tale storytelling than say a Scorsese and DiCaprio debauched 'Wolf Of Wall Street'. Stopping short before making false idols out of Lopez's Ramona Vega (but what an entrepreneur she would make and oh how she knows how to take the house from those who think they are running it), like all the boys who drooled over Jordan Belfort and his book and seminars. And that's why these 'Hustlers' make more than the rest in a slick, but Soderbergh sobering story of rags to blood soaked riches. The mink coat isn't the only fur that's dripping in more ways than one. Imagine taking your child to school in the same outfit you wore to the club last night, all with something a little worse for wear than alcohol spilled on it. Now that should be able education for where your dedications at. It's clear here that we see right through those clear heels. All the way to the curtain closing credits emceed by a hilarious tongue in cheek D.J. telling us the shows over, nothing to see here. There's nothing wrong with stripping to make your money, but pole to pole when the con is on that's when all bets are off. But for all those pig men under the Wall Street bull's sack and those who think they're even higher than Trump Tower, calling crooked. How about you take a look in the mirror of the champagne room and see what's glaring back in a sleazy neon glow of crumpled Lincoln's and creased Tom Ford's for these women wrestling for their place out the corner and in the Rocky ring? After all this is America. The world's biggest strip club. Everyday everybody's hustling. But 'Hustlers' hustles real hard. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Oceans 8', 'Molly's Game', 'Magic Mike'.
No comments:
Post a Comment