Hustlers – 2019
The film’s centerpiece was the relationship between Destiny (Constance Wu) & Ramona (JLo) but to me it never went any deeper than lap dance training sessions. The strip club world, a subculture completely foreign to me, should have kept my interest, but didn’t. After what felt like forever, I glanced at the time and it was less than an hour into the movie. How can pole dancing be such a bore? The shift from conventional strip dancing to a quartet of club ladies starting their own lucrative but illegal spinoff business, offered no drama or thrills. Seriously, I’m mystified why this movie doesn’t work because it has all the ingredients to be at least interesting, including being based on a true story for inspiration. JLo is an amazing physical specimen but, as one of the two main characters, simply isn’t gifted enough as an actor to carry the show beyond looking stunning in a mink stole (and a whole lot less). The ensemble of the four “strippers as close as sisters” never won me over. I always fall in love with a film’s illicit underdogs and root them on to tear down the prideful and powerful—but not in this case, they never won my affection or my cheers. Unfortunately, this movie, that could have, should have hit the big screen as a fun, tantalizing romp through an exotic underworld of beguiling women, fiercely meeting Wall Street decadence with wile and wit, never made it off the stage. 👎
