Hustlers

Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria

Based on the article “The Hustlers at Scores” by Jessica Pressler

rating: 🏆 most excellent

After the recession hit in 2008, a group of NYC strippers get creative and find new ways into Wall Street’s wallet. 

Holy sh*t. This movie. From the trailer it looked like a fun, female-powered sexy comedy that would be high in entertainment and low in substance. If that’s your view of Hustlers, throw it out the window ASAP. This movie has substance, heart, strong performances, and a message that I can get behind. Jennifer Lopez is stirring up Oscar buzz for playing a stripper... Why is that so amazing? Because strippers are real people with real stories and so often all we see of them on screen are caricatures, or worse, just a body. I love that it showed that in the midst of hard times women can be creative entrepreneurs. Another thing that I loved was that while there is a lot of skin in this movie (mostly booties and titties), there are no sex scenes, and the only full frontal nudity shown is a man. Hustlers is written by and directed by a woman so they were able to tell this sexy story without objectification and for that I applaud the filmmakers.

Review written by Zianna Weston