Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, and Keke Palmer hustle their way to fame 2019 film “Hustlers” directed by Lorene Scafaria. Photo from IMDB.
‘Hustlers’ takes a dark, humorous take on a crime drama
“Hustlers,” a drama based on a true story and directed by Lorene Scafaria, follows a group of strippers who begin to drug Wall Street tycoons and employees to embezzle their money after the stock market crash leaves them without options after their club stops getting business. This is a thoroughly entertaining crime drama with very good performances, a smart yet very funny script and great storytelling methods that work on multiple levels.
To explain, “Hustlers” completely engrossed its audience in a realistic New York setting where its characters feel like real people with flaws and reasons for their situations. Jennifer Lopez gives one of her best performances as Romona, the ringleader. Alongside her is Constance Wu, Keke Palmer and Lilli Reinhart giving very good performances as her accomplices Dorothy, Mercedes and Julia, respectively.
What makes this film truly work is its presentation in which it starts as a typical news interview story and quickly turns into an understandably dark yet humorous take on a crime drama. “Hustlers” is a very well shot film with plenty of good editing and music choices that go through history without ever feeling too much time go by. The film’s characters are very well written and developed without relying on too many cliches because they are given plenty to do.
Additionally, the film even takes time to really give a good message about motherhood which is well utilized within the films narrative. In contrast, “Hustlers” does suffer from showing similar sequences such as drugging wall street guys a bit too often and rushes through one or two subplots involving Constance Wu’s Dorothy.
Some of the story involving some misunderstandings can get a bit predictable and yet the film does find new ways of showing it’s fairly repetitive story up until the very end. There is not a moment in the film that feels forced or uninteresting because it moves at a very brisk pace with just enough necessary build up for its characters.
Furthermore, none of the conflict in the film feels forced or contrived in the slightest. Even the transitions between the interview plot and real life story are very well put together with just enough narration to keep audiences invested in what is going on.
Lastly, “Hustlers” goes through the typical ending of showing where the real characters are while making it interesting by showing different perspectives to keep up its brisk pace.
Overall, it is a thoroughly entertaining and funny crime drama with very good performances, brisk pacing and realistic elements that make it easily one of the better based on true events story in some time. I would rate “Hustlers” as a seven and a half out of 10.