Hustlers' review: Jennifer Lopez's movie about the stripper



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Film critic

I fell in love with "Hustlers", hard, during the Chopin. In one of the first scenes of Lorene Scafaria's film heist about a true story, a veteran stripper named Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) gives the newcomer, Destiny (Constance Wu), some tricks for pole dance. She whirls nonchalantly, flies and twists, reversing difficult movements (one of them calls herself "the Peter Pan") with easy indifference, while a hypnotized fate l & # 39; He observes, his eyes wide. Scafaria associates all this with an undulating and ethereal study of Chopin, which unexpectedly emphasizes and relieves the beauty of movement, similar to that of the bird – and the relationship that is created immediately.

All "Hustlers" are not beautiful, certainly, but it's still a kick. Inspired by an article in Jessica Pressler's New York magazine (whose film closely follows the details), the film tells the story of Ramona and Destiny's transformation from diligent strippers into leaders of an effective group of prostitutes. Tired of a system in which clients humiliate them and their colleagues – managers, DJs, bartenders, security – demand a reduction in their increasingly lean wages after the recession, the women have concocted a plan: choose a Carefully brand (a Wall Street leader, with money) to burn), seduce him into an evening of debauchery and drug him with a carefully prepared cocktail that makes him let go on his credit cards – and forget, the next morning, exactly what happened. "The game is rigged," says Ramona, so why not level the playing field?

Like everyone else, this one does not work forever. But it's a good game as long as it lasts and a pleasure to see this cast create a torrid fraternity. Lopez, flipping through the film like a satisfied cat (in a foreground, she smokes on a roof wearing her stripper leotard, a fur coat and sequined platforms, and cursed if she does not make everything look like the seam), is incredibly cool, reminding us what presence it was in "Out of Sight" a few decades ago. Wu shows us Destiny's quiet determination – to support his grandmother and maiden, to survive in a world where everything seems to be against him – and a happy satisfaction when the roles are reversed. You root for them and for the film, which is finished too fast; you just want to stay with these women a little longer.

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★★★ ½ "Hustlers, "With Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Mercedes Ruehl, Cardi B. Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, according to an article by Jessica Pressler. 110 minutes. R rated for invasive sexual content, drug content, language and nudity. Opens on September 13 in several theaters.

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