How far is to far when seeking to even the score?
“Hustlers” by Lorene Scafaria is a movie based on New York magazine article following the story of a group of former strippers who turn the tables on some Wall Street businessmen.
The movie has moments of both humor and hardship and makes the audience question: “when is revenge taken too far?”
The Review
This movie was a surprising one. There were truly a lot of great moments from beginning to end, ranging from humorous to heartfelt to just plain crazy. It was enjoyable to watch.
However, it does take awhile for this flow of quality moments to start. The first quarter or so of this movie doesn’t have much for substance. It’s largely just a lot of strip club footage, but once Usher comes to visit, the movie takes off.
It becomes more focused on the life of Destiny (Constance Wu) and the eventual hustle they pull off. This is where a lot of the great moments happen.
With Ramona’s (Jennifer Lopez) justification stemming from “revenge on Wall Street”, it makes the audience ask: “At what point is it time to stop?”
Overall, I give this movie a 7/10.
The Plot Summary (NO spoilers)
Hustlers starts off in 2007 New York City where Destiny is the new girl at Sin City Strip Club. At home she is struggling to take care of her grandmother and not making enough money at her new job.
She is quickly taken under the wing of fellow stripper Ramona and befriends many of the others, including Diamond (Cardi B) and Liz (Lizzo).
They start raking in the cash from rich Wall Street businessmen and have the time of their lives, peaking with a visit from none other than Usher.
However, all good things must come to an end, and for these girls it was the 2008 recession. With the financial crash, their Wall Street clientele couldn’t afford to come in anymore, so they all lost their jobs.
The club has changed drastically and none of her former friends are there anymore. Then, out of the blue, she meets her old friend Ramona, and they hatch a plan.
With the help of Mercedes (Keke Palmer) and Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) they decided to start “fishing” men. They meet men at bars, slip them some MDMA, bring them to Sin City and then drain their credit cards.
Despite some initial hesitation, the group goes through with their plan and starts raking in the cash once again. While the plan works at first, ever so slowly the cracks start to form leading to more and more problems.