Hustlers

One of the strange things about this newly arrived fall season of movies is hearing the name Jennifer Lopez attached to "Oscar buzz." I don't think Lopez has even made a good movie since Out of Sight over twenty years ago. I took a look at her filmography and the only movie of hers I think I even attempted to see since then was Monster-In-Law, which I turned off halfway through.

But here she is in a very good, if not great, movie called Hustlers, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria and based on an article from New York magazine. It's about how a band of strippers fleeced some Wall Street hot shots by drugging them and running up huge amounts on their credit cards. Yes, it's a family film.

Hustlers is getting a lot of good press and exceeded expectations at the box office, but let's take it easy. It's very entertaining, but I think critics were starved by a weak summer and are thrilled that there's a movie out that is not a sequel or reboot that is actually well made. But Hustlers is not a classic--it tends of be heavy-handed in the "sisters are keeping it real" department, and no matter how repugnant some of these guys are, I don't think any of them deserved to be drugged, so I never fully got behind this "steal from the rich, give to the poor" attitude.

Lopez is a supporting character, even though she is one of the producers, so I give her props for not attempting to dominate her own film. The lead is Constance Wu, as a new girl at Moves (a stand-in for Scores). Lopez plays the older, wiser stripper, who works magic on the pole. They become friends, and I enjoyed this early part of the film, where we see the drudgery of stripper life--how some men enjoy demeaning and humiliating the women, trying to get them to do illegal things in the private rooms. I must admit I know something about this, as I spent a lot of time in strip clubs in the '90s (this is set in the late '00s) and I could practically smell that distinctive perfume, which to me always smelled like vanilla.

The girls are living it large, but when the recession of 2008 hits, it affects them, as a financial crisis has long tendrils. Before they know it, most of the girls are Russians who give blowjobs in the back rooms. Wu has had a baby and is out of the life, but struggles to find a job. She and Lopez and a few other girls hatch a plan--they meet Wall Street types in bars, drug them, and take them to the club, where they have a agreed to split the proceeds as they max out credit cards. They are again living large, because most men don't want to admit they've been ripped off at a strip club. Until one guy does.

Hustlers is fun, but not exactly a morality play. Lopez tries to rationalize what they are doing, saying that the money they are stealing was stolen from the people anyway. But there's something Machiavellian about her character. Wu is set up as the one who has doubts, but goes along because she has no other choice. But some scenes, such as one at Christmas where everyone exchanges expensive gifts, and even Wu's grandma takes place (does she know what they are doing?) is way over the top.

Though Lopez is a supporting character, she can't help but dominate the film. She may have had a string of bad movies, but she's still a superstar, and she shows it off here. She's fifty years old now, and doesn't hide her age, but she knows how to present herself in front of a camera. When you walk out of the theater it's her in her fur coat, on high heels, that you remember.

Scarafia shows a firm hand as a director. Her previous feature, The Meddler, is unseen by me, but I look forward to more films from her.