Hustlers Movie Review

I saw the movie Hustlers (not to be confused with the similarly titled “The Hustle” with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson) on Wednesday night. I went to the theatre alone and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. But, before I go any further, I just want to issue a big SPOILER ALERT! This movie follows female strippers who, after getting sick of not being able to make ends meet and being treated poorly, start drugging and scamming their male customers. Did I mention that it is based on a true story? It stars Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Keke Palmer, and Lili Reinhart. There is a severe amount of nudity, which makes sense as it’s a stripper movie. Something that definitely altered my experience watching this film is that I am a lesbian who highly respects sex workers. Moving on, the movie was quite a bit funnier than I expected. One of my favourite lines, from Jennifer Lopez’s character Ramona, was “What are they gonna do? Say ‘I just spent $5000 at a strip club send help?’” Another aspect that added humour was Lili Reinhart’s character anxiously vomiting in the worst times - for example, near the end she puked as police showed up at her house to arrest her. Not only are the acting performances in this film  simply amazing, but also the actual dance performances. Jennifer showed off how strong, flexible and fit she is despite being 50 years old. Something I liked is that not all of the strippers were as thin as Victoria’s Secret models - there were a few scenes with singer Lizzo. There is a scene near the beginning where Jennifer is teaching Constance how to pole dance, and it reminded me of the hilarious Youtube video where Markiplier learns - or tries to learn - how to pole dance. Something I found interesting was how in some scenes.Constance’s character (Destiny) is being interviewed by a reporter who is writing an article about the events in the film. It broke up the actual crimes that were taking place. I definitely would HIGHLY recommend not taking anyone under the age of 17 to see this movie - there is a lot of nudity (as stated before), drug abuse, and alcohol abuse. The casting was absolutely perfect - there was even a cameo from Usher! The rapper Cardi B had a small part in it, which I find appropriate (although I dislike her) because the exact subject matter of the movie is how she got her start before fame. The film is about sexuality, scams, money, friendship, crime, and chosen families, and just how quickly and accidentally you could lose everything that you have. Overall, I would give it a 5/5 star rating! Now, time to (legally!) hustle!