Hollywood archetypes tend to have the most staying power in our world. Whether it be the meet-cute in a romantic comedy or the happily ever after in a blockbuster, these archetypes always find their way back into our modern-day culture. However, not all Hollywood traditions are relatively unproblematic as the meet-cute or the happily ever after, yet they still are given room to shine in Hollywood, the most problematic and unnoticed being male domination, a tradition that seemingly gives the male character “emotional layers” while laying waste to its female characters. Hustlers is a rebuttal towards this tradition as it explores the idea of female control and the greatness and complicated nature of female friendships.
Directed by Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers follows Destiny (Constance Wu), a female stripper who has a difficult time making money to support her and her aging grandmother. One day, as Destiny makes her rounds, she spots Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), a veteran stripper, who, despite her age, dances and makes the most money. Seeing the opportunity to make more money, Destiny eagerly asks Ramona to teach her how to effectively earn money stripping, leading to a successful mentorship that makes Destiny and Ramona’s wallets and bond grow stronger. However, after the Great Recession, Destiny and Ramona find themselves losing the power and money they once knew, leading them to drug and max the cards of the same men who attended the strip clubs before the financial fallout.
From the film’s narrative to how each scene is shot to the people in control of the film’s production, it is clear that Hustlers is a film motivated by the idea of power and control, specifically female power and control. It explores the idea: what if the gender dynamics in terms of control were flipped? Would it lead to the same tragic yet deserved endings found in their male counterparts like Wolf of Wall Street? In Scafaria’s world, the complicated answer is why Hustlers is so compelling.
These women aren’t just damsels in distress, overtly sexual human beings with no soul, or just subjects within the male gaze. Instead, they are hard-workers and are depicted as such. Even when they are stripping, the camera captures the work and control these women have rather than the typical voyeuristic and aggressively sexual lens that is normal in Hollywood. Through the use of the still frame and the accounts of Destiny and Ramona, we see the deliberation of each move and the power they try to create for themselves in a normally vulnerable position.
Adding to another level of female control is how the story is presented to us. Through the lens of the article the film is based on, the tracking shots that follow Ramona and Destiny, voiceovers, the selective muting of voiceovers, and the prioritization of the complexities of female friendship over the sexual nuances of stripping, the film effectively gives the intimacy that makes each friendship more believable while also pondering what type of control women have in their narrative. Does Destiny have control of her narrative even when someone else is writing it for her? Do the strippers have control of the money they get despite the amount depending solely on the men sitting in front of them?
However, one cannot comment on Hustlers without mentioning the star performance from Jennifer Lopez, who adds another layer of depth within the film’s central theme of female control. Lopez brings charisma and tenderness to the typical veteran role that creates an aura in Hustlers suggesting that she is always there. Hustlers effectively uses Lopez’s real-life star power to its advantage. Similar to how Quentin Tarantino allows Brad Pitt to ooze his “somewhat relaxed” real-life persona onto the screen, Scafaria takes Lopez’s radiating star-powered persona and exemplifies it (the first time we see her character, she walks in and pole dances to Fiona Apple, what more can you ask?), making the work that Lopez does in the quiet and intimate moments all the more surprising as she wonderfully plays off the cast around her.
Films about women are rare. Films directed by a woman are rarer. However, films highlighting female control and friendships through the lens of women are the rarest and that’s why Hustlers is such a treat. No more are squealing girls yelling in delight as the boy they like finally likes them back. No more are overtly sexual shots of women being damsels to the heroic man. In Hustlers, the women are in control as they thoroughly develop relationships with one another while trying to survive a world that has placed them at a disadvantage since birth. Never in my life did I think I would see a film about strippers depicting the fallout of the Great Recession, yet Hustlers does and is one of the best to do so in its depiction. In doing so, Hustlers has become one of the best films of this year.
4/5 STARS