REVIEW: Hustlers

By: Emily Lanoue

Jennifer Lopez, New York City and strippers? “Hustlers,” a movie based on a real New York

Magazine article, combines all these elements and more as it follows a group of strip club

employees hustling Wall Street employees for all they’re worth. Jennifer Lopez commands

attention as her character Ramona leads the strippers through less than legal tactics to drain the pockets of wealthy men. It’s Lopez and the theme of strong female friendship that makes this movie worth your time.

Lopez gives a staggering performance in her opening scene as Ramona, featuring a strappy

diamond-studded number, knock-out stilettos and hundreds of dollar bills. It’s this performance that draws in Constance Wu’s character Dorothy, a stripping newbie who goes by Destiny.

Lopez is then reintroduced in a scene where she does nothing but sit on a roof in a fur coat

smoking a cigarette. The scene is equally as flooring as the strip routine as Lopez gives off a

sultry, “you only wish you could be like me” attitude. Her deep brown eyes entice the camera and give off a charisma that dares the film audience to keep watching. My eyes were drawn to every slow blink of her eyes and long strut in her heels, her power undeniable throughout the film. In a later scene, Lopez strolls down a street in a shot where the only part of her you can see is her back. She wears a juicy sweatshirt with the hood up, eliciting confidence and oozing desire as the camera follows behind.

Destiny is drawn to Ramona’s powerful presence, and after the sultry scene on the roof, Ramona takes Destiny under her wing. The world of stripping is hard to navigate, and Destiny begins thriving under Ramona’s care. Destiny’s character is complex. She cares for her grandmother, her permanent caretaker since she was a small child, and eventually has a baby, who she ends up giving up everything for. You can see her internal struggle with the morality of her actions, which made me feel connected to her and feel sympathy for her. Ramona and Destiny grow into a profound friendship, one that “Hustlers” pushes to a place of physical and emotional intimacy.

Their friendship takes dramatic turns after the economic collapse of 2008. The strip club

struggles to stay in business because the Wall Street men don’t come to spend money anymore and Ramona, Destiny, and the other strippers have to get creative to stay afloat.

The women become a family. They refer to each other as sisters and trust each other with the world. They are forced to build a scheme to hustle men and drain their pockets, which includes lots of alcohol, a room with no cameras and drugs. The theme of female friendship runs deeply through the film as the women execute the plan time after time.

I especially enjoyed the comedic dynamic of Mercedes, played by Keke Palmer, who pays bills for her incarcerated significant other, and Annabelle, played Lili Reinhart, who was disowned by her family and throws up when she experiences emotional distress. The women inspire female strength, their toughness and resiliency moving me to hold tight to my own values, all while wearing thigh-high boots and skin-tight dresses.

The story is told through the lens of an interview taking place years later, in 2015. Elizabeth, a

journalist played by Julia Stiles, is interviewing Destiny about her life leading up to the fall-out from the strippers’ post-economic collapse scheme. This cinematic choice was a good one, allowing the audience to see inside Destiny’s head as it flashes back and forth between the interview and the story she’s telling. At one point Destiny becomes so vulnerable she turns off Elizabeth’s voice recorder and practically forces her to leave, touched by her friendship with Ramona even years after their last interaction.

“Hustlers” is a movie pushing strong female friendship despite the characters’ questionable

moral choices. With Destiny’s deep friendship with Ramona and Jennifer Lopez’s undeniably

strong presence and performance, Hustlers left me content but also wanting more.