Hustlers: Movie Review
There is a sense of wicked indulgence to Hustlers. On the surface, Hustlers entertains with a shocking story of a crew of strippers in New York who — after the 2008 recession — took upon illegal methods to keep business going. Yet, the movie’s success lies within its resonating themes of gender dynamics, economic inequality, and female solidarity.
Hustlers is told through Constance Wu’s character Destiny, who prioritizes never having to be dependent on anyone, as she begins to work at a strip club out of economic necessity. As we follow Destiny, her story, and her choices, Hustlers focuses on demonstrating that her questionable decisions stem from a necessity to survive: as her story reflects the harsh societal structures and the troubled background that left Destiny with few options on how to survive and thrive.
“Doesn’t money make you horny?” is Jennifer Lopez’s opening line as Ramona. Lopez allures when we first see her dance, embodying everything Destiny isn’t at the beginning of the movie - in control of her sexuality, her business, and customers. Destiny, who has discovered that being a stripper is neither glamorous nor lucrative, is taken under Ramona’s wing. The two become partners and develop a close friendship, earning money together. Yet, the recession hits them hard. Destiny gets pregnant and as it soon becomes apparent that her past has made her unemployable, she returns to the strip club. She is reunited with Ramona, who hatches a plan where Destiny, Ramona, Annabelle (Lili Reinhart), and Mercedes (Keke Palmer) find and drug men from outside the club, bring them back to the strip club, and rack up exorbitant credit card bills on their cards. For Ramona, the plan is not just fitting revenge, but it is a means of survival and an opportunity to prosper post-recession. However, as the crew begins to earn huge amounts of money, their plan soon spirals out of control.
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Through the lens of economic inequality, Hustlers uses the culture of the strip club to briefly explore complicated themes of power and gender dynamics in American society. "It’s all a strip club," is what Ramona powerfully ends the movie with. "You have people tossing the money and people doing the dance." Hustlers does not judge Lopez’s character and her crew. Instead, it shows us the moments in which the women in this movie briefly rebel against “doing the dance.” Rather, they take charge of changing their circumstances, taking revenge on the men who used corrupted means to orchestrate the recession that drove them towards their downwards path. In those moments, “the hustlers” are the ones tossing the money while the men, figuratively, are the ones dancing.
Ultimately, Hustlers’ greatest strength is its focus on women, being a movie about strippers made by Lorene Scafaria, a female filmmaker. It explores the life of a stripper from the woman’s point of view. Hustlers neither exoticizes nor romanticizes the profession. The characters are fully fleshed out and complex, deeply flawed and tough. Likewise, the strong friendships in the film, such as Ramona’s and Destiny’s, are intensely intimate but not sexualized, built instead from a sense of understanding and solidarity.
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