Review: "Hustlers" Steals Your Heart with Humor and Meaning

Scene from Hustlers (2019)

When thinking of exotic dancers, a certain image comes to mind. It's a stereotype of a down-on-their-luck woman exploiting her body for money as she spins around a pole. It's never an act of celebration, but one done of desperation, often ending in sadness. In one scene especially, director Lorene Scafaria's excellent new heist drama Hustlers finds a deeper empathy on a rooftop between veteran Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) and newcomer Destiny (Constance Wu). As Destiny walks around in the cold in her performance outfit, Ramona opens her lavish coat, encouraging her to sit in comfort with her. For the first time, a world of exotic dancers has become a place of hospitality, and one full of people drawn together in an act of protection. It's the first of many sweet moments that excel this seemingly seedy film into the heights of hilarity and social commentary. Sure, the exotic dancers may be down-on-their-luck, but this isn't a sad story. It's one of overcoming economic struggles and finding deeper meaning in your life.

The film starts with a familiar set of cards. Destiny's journey into the strip club world is full of witnessing women pole dancing and giving lap dances for tips that amount to very little profit. There's so much awe over the female form, especially as the mood lights kick in and dollars fly onto the stage. Everywhere the camera goes, there's a sense of objectifying. That is, except for the back room, where costume changes interfere with personal experiences, such as bad boyfriends trying to flirt with them at work. It's here where the story begins to reveal its bigger intentions for the male clientele. This isn't just a place to make money. It's a place to manipulate into big paydays, and nobody knows how to do it better than Ramona: a dreamer who wants to start a fashion line and get her daughter through school. It helps that the customers (almost exclusively) are Wall Street bankers wanting to blow money on their dirtiest impulses.

At this point, there's a revelation that this whole film is going to be a heist story, where women manipulate men into bigger paydays and make all of their dreams come true. There is also a divide as the story chronicles 2007 to the modern era, with the women representing a lower class and Wall Street being seen as a corruptive force on par with The Wolf of Wall Street. It's a modern-day Robin Hood with more club beats, justifying the bad behavior by taking down the evil forces that hurt the poorer communities. While it creates a push-and-pull over whether the robberies are morally right, the results speak for themselves. Destiny goes from living in a dumpy home with her Nana to a sky-level apartment where their dreams come true. Christmas is full of happiness for the first time in their lives. And the best part? They did it not with their bodies, but with their brains.

It helps that Scafaria turns the male gaze on its head, never allowing the camera to linger on eroticism without a bigger purpose. It's always done to reflect how the exotic dancers are feeling at the moment. When Ramona is seen teaching Destiny how to navigate a stripper pole, it's a charming look into a teacher-student dynamic. This is a story about women working together to overcome male oppression, and it's hard to not find it all so charming. Scafaria also manages to wrangle together an impeccable cast who make the simple act of sitting together feel empowering. Thankfully moments of peril, such as a con gone wrong involving a man named Gary, are the perfect blend of darkness and humor as the performers weasel their way out of trouble with improvisational techniques. Keke Palmer is a delight as Mercedes, whose reactions to every corrupt act gives the film its strongest punchlines. 

However, this is Wu and Lopez's film to beat. With the film largely being from Destiny's perspective of a flashback, she finds herself exploring her economic strife and slow rise to power as she befriends Ramona. The female friendship is charming, itself full of a mystery given Ramona's lack of trust with anyone else. Still, their bond is what keeps the operation together as they pull in money. The other figures rotate like a mafia hiring different people for each hit, but Destiny and Ramona are almost inseparable, making third act revelations all the more heartbreaking. The film goes beyond titillation and understands the complexity to which friendship and corruption don't always blend. Sometimes the chaos becomes too much and when it catches up with you, it's going to come hard.

With film festivals positing Lopez for a deserved Oscar nomination, one must also consider Wu -- who has had incredible luck in recent years with Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians. In her strongest role to date, she evolves from a doe-eyed exotic dancer to a confident woman. She's also vulnerable as she discusses her past with journalist Elizabeth (Julia Stiles), allowing her to express regret with a quiver in her voice. Lopez's natural charisma from decades of performing also gives one of her strongest roles, though to remove either performer is to take out a piece of why Hustlers work. By the end, Wu and Lopez's chemistry elevates the film from the raunchy beginnings and wild antics that follow to something more powerful. In a time where female heist movies have become their own special genre (Ocean's 8, Widows), this one knows to add pathos within the fun so that you can watch the exotic dancing and have fun, but know that deep down there's more to the story.

If nothing else is taken from this story, please let it be that Scafaria clearly cares about sex workers. While she has moments to embrace the joy in their life, it's not done to fulfill the male gaze, but the person gazed upon. It's giving empathy to a figure often reduced to tragedy, and by having women from multiple ethnic backgrounds, it shows how the economic struggles impact everyone. It's at times one of the sharpest comedies of 2019, but most of all it places a fascinating context on the housing crisis and other tragedies from the past decade and shows how a certain class deals with it. As Destiny claims to Elizabeth at one point, people have to use what they have to get what they want. Sometimes that involves drugging or less ethical means. 

Hustlers is a powerhouse of talent and a film that continues to prove Scafaria's gifts as a writer and director. Not only was she capable of bringing an entertaining group of women together and turning the seedy strip clubs into a place straight out of a gangster movie, but she manages to explore the modern struggle of women through a fascinating lens. It's a story about using what power you have to better yourself or just get by. Sure, these women start the story down-on-their-luck, but by the end, their sadness doesn't come from the stereotypical struggles of a lower class. There is no violence or mythical ghetto of evil. It's one based more on friendships and misunderstandings - real feelings that everyone has. If the film achieves nothing else, it gives a dynamic to exotic dancers that haven't been seen often enough in mainstream American film. It's one that suggests that there's more to stripping than just their desperation. It's about the bigger struggles to survive in the modern American system.