Hustlers

Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez stick it to the men in Hustlers

Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers, from her adapted screenplay, has won praise as a superior Jennifer Lopez vehicle and I suppose it is that. Constance Wu is the nominal lead as a young stripper taken under JLo's wing. The two women and their under drawn comrades soon go out on their own, hustling Wall Street lizards out of their ill-gotten gains. Like Magic Mike, this is a populist stripper movie in which economic desperation drives the dishabille. The slimy business titans are drugged and fleeced by JLo and her crew, but the film acknowledges the victims are not always getting their just desserts. Still, the film revels in these ladies turning the tables on powerful men and in the bling and fineries their crimes bring. The film leans towards populist crowd pleasing rather than grappling with ambivalence.

The main drawback of the film is that it is visually pedestrian. There is an over reliance on closeups that telegraph emotion instead of evoking it. A single tear streaming down Ms. Wu's right cheek becomes a typical signifier. A few of Ms. Scafaria's tracking shots capture the aura of a strip club, but comparing them to similar moments in Magic Mike or even Magic Mike XXL shows the lack of visual rhythm and excitement displayed here. Ms. Lopez gives a committed and gutsy performance. She is a physical wonder at fifty and deserves her plaudits. However, Scafaria's camera works tends to box in her physical prowess instead of letting it explode and expand beyond the frame.

Scafaria displays skill with her players and her screenplay is well constructed. The film's lack of visual snap heightens our sense of its predictability. The crew is brought down by greed and the peccadillos of its weakest link, just like numerous 30s gangster films. Hustlers is above average entertainment, but not much else.