First Take: Hustlers- it’s amazing what a chat in screen 3 can result in

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

With all the awards season nominations over and done with for another year, a lot of people have said that this is a film that has been overlooked by all the voters- having now seen Lorene Scafaria’s latest film, I can see why there has been a lot of backlash, especially as one of the Great Men and Women™ of the blog has been begging me to review this. Finding safe for work images from this film has been a challenge- but this is TheJackSmit.com. We always find a way.

Scafaria writes and directs this film pretty well, using the original magazine article to her advantage as a storytelling device- clocking in at 1 hour 49 minutes, it is paced pretty well, with only a few minor cuts needed to get it running to the optimum levels of enjoyment. Obviously the BBFC have wisely given this a 15 certificate, and I think it’s the right call considering the themes we have here, something which is shown with the soundtrack- which is pretty much every club hit of the late 2000s and early 2010s, so I have zero experience with any of that. But I can easily say that Todd Banhazi’s work behind the camera helps the film transcend into awards territory, something which adds to what is already a very unique film.

Performance wise, this is a strong film. Jennifer Lopez once again proves that she is more than Jenny from the block with some incredible work- again, it could have got her a nomination if the last 12 months had been a little lighter on great movies, the same can be said with a supporting cast that includes Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, a brief cameo from Usher, Lili Reinhart, Cardi B and many others. But of course, the timing of this film’s release, and its awards season chances arguably hit it hard. It opened in UK cinemas on the same day as Downton Abbey, and it had to compete for screens against Joker (review is on the way, don’t worry)- but for STX Entertainment, they can be happy with how it did in cinemas.

THE VERDICT

For what it’s worth, Hustlers does a good job of what it tries to do. As for the awards thing though, this hasn’t been, and probably never will be, the kind of film that voters are looking for- as I have said for many years, awards voters like watching people suffer for their art.

RATING: 4/5