HUSTLERS

US, 2019, 110 minutes, Colour.
Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Mercedes Ruehl, Wai Ching Ho.
Directed by Lorene Scarafa.

The world of hustlers is generally a sleazy one – and this world is no exception (perhaps more so). Hustlers, men and women, are out to exploit other people for own advantage, predominantly for money (and exercising power and dominance) and, very often, sex. This is a money, power and sex story of hustling.

Interestingly, while the film has had favourable reviews, bloggers and many in the general public have not been so favourable, finding the story and treatment rather offputting, many considering the film both distasteful and boring. They are not entirely wrong.

The central character here is Dorothy, an Asian American, with the young daughter, caring for her grandmother. She is a minor pole dancer but with ambitions and determination to get finance for her family. She is played by Constance Wu (Crazy, Rich Asians). She becomes very friendly with Ramona, the star pole dancer for some decades, played with quite some exuberance by Jennifer Lopez, her fitness on display at age 49.

For audiences wanting a lot of pole dancing, their wishes will be fulfilled, especially in the first half of the film, loads of men tossing money, many girls twirling on the polls, and the audience spending a lot of time in the dressing (undressing) room. Jennifer Lopez even gives Dorothy, professionally called Destiny, a kind of tutorial on pole dancing movements (which does require some skill in movement, balance, and use of muscles).

The hustle is to trap as many men as possible, generally Wall Street financiers, seduce them, introduce the group who pass themselves off the sisters, get the men drunk, spike their drinks, max out their credit cards and abandon them. The victims often don’t remember what happened or are too embarrassed to remember. Several of the dancers form a team and prove themselves successful at the hustles. A couple of other women are invited in but prove to be unreliable. Eventually, the police are involved.

The action of the film moves around between 2007 and 2015 – and introduces a journalist who interviews Dorothy about the hustle. The film is, in fact, based on an article in New York Magazine. The journalist is played by a rather stodgy and humourless Julia Stiles.

There is a rather cynical final line from Jennifer Lopez who remarks that the whole country is like the con: “they toss the money, they do the dance…�.

While the women exploit the men (who are very much a sleazy lot), the thought comes up about a remake in which gender roles are reversed, a group of pole-dancing gigolos conning leasing female businesswomen. Me#Too questions and reactions? Actually, one blogger summed up a response which is worth considering, “Adults acting like bad children, passing it off as anti-establishment hyper-feminism�.