“Doesn’t money make you horny?” That’s one of the earliest lines in Hustlers, spoken seductively by Ramona Vega (Jennifer Lopez) to new dancer Destiny (Constance Wu) as Ramona walks off stage carrying an armful of cash.
This one quick line sums up the movie quite well. As much as it might like the audience to think otherwise, this is the characters’ motivation: the almighty dollar.
At this point in the movie, Destiny only recently began dancing at this club, Moves. She sees Ramona make all this money on just one dance, and she’s hooked. She wants to know how Ramona does it. Destiny asks for help, Ramona takes her in under wing, and just like that, the friendship is born.
These early scenes take place in 2007, when Wall Street was booming, and the finance guys couldn’t wait to get off work and spend their money at strip clubs. Ramona, Destiny, and the other dancers at the club reap the benefits; times are great. But unfortunately for them, the 2008 recession was about to rear its ugly head.
It’s when said recession hits that Ramona brings Destiny into her new operation, which she’s running with two other dancers, Mercedes (Keke Palmer) and Annabelle (Lili Reinhart). They go, as they call it, “fishing” for marks at bars around town, get them drunk, and take them back to the club. Once there, the girls steal his credit cards, spending as much as they please. Their arrangement with the club gives them a cut of whatever he spends.
Soon after, the crew begins drugging the men, with a homemade mixture of ketamine and MDMA. They also abandon the clubs altogether, choosing instead to run their scheme out of hotel rooms or the clients’ own homes.
And from here, we see many of the normal beats of this kind of movie: cracks within the group, outside problems arise, the usual. It’s a mostly entertaining story, though one that doesn’t quite live up to its hype.
Power of friendship
Hustlers tries to position itself as a story of friendship and female empowerment. And it hits those marks, but only to a degree. The movie is at its best when it focuses on the four main characters – particularly Ramona and Destiny – and their relationships with each other. They have great chemistry, they each have their own distinct roles, both in the plan and in the movie itself.
Each of these women has their own reasons for doing what they’re doing. And the plan needs all of them in order to succeed. And from that standpoint – forging strong bonds, the importance of finding others you can count on – Hustlers does a great job. But it’s when it gets into the scheme itself where things become a bit unbalanced.
Something is missing
And that something is character depth and motivation. Hustlers tries to present the four women as deeper characters, with more pure motivations than simply wanting to make a lot of money. Ramona says she wants to give her daughter a better life. Destiny wishes to take better care of her grandma. Mercedes needs a lawyer for her boyfriend. Annabelle doesn’t want to have to move back in with her parents.
As long as it took you to read that preceding paragraph is about as much time the movie spends on these motivations. Each one gets a brief mention, and that’s about it. Ramona and Destiny’s receive a little more screen time, being the main characters and all. But as the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.” And their actions point to one shared desire: money, money, and more money.
And that can be fine, but by itself. By including the familial and personal motives, it feels almost manipulative, trying to gain the audience’s empathy for these women who may not be any better than the perceived thieves and scumbags they’re drugging and robbing.
Writer-director Lorene Scafaria could have leaned into the fact that all these women wanted was money. Viewers understand it right away, and there’s no confusion. That’s not to say she shouldn’t have tried to make a smart movie. But by framing the characters the way she did, and then not doing enough with that set up, it always feels like a piece is missing.
Cast kills it
As well-written and directed as a movie may be, if the cast isn’t up to the task, it doesn’t matter. Thankfully that’s not the case here. Front and center, of course, is Jennifer Lopez. She is very good throughout, often great. If you’ve been even slightly following the news and reception for Hustlers, you have no doubt heard or read countless times how Lopez should be in contention for an Oscar. I’m not quite there, but if she does end up with a nomination, she is certainly good enough where I won’t argue it.
Lopez is not a consistently great actress, but she is very good. But more than that, she is a superstar, plain and simple. And that’s what this role needed more than an A-List actress (talent wise at least, as she is an absolute A-List celebrity). Ramona had to be this larger than life personality, someone who owns the room as soon as she opens the door. And Lopez doesn’t need to act to do that; all she has to do is be herself. She is perfectly cast here.
Right behind Lopez is Constance Wu. There’s really not much to say. She’s mostly fantastic. It comes as no surprise, as she’s received numerous award nominations for Fresh Off The Boat, and was excellent in last year’s hit Crazy Rich Asians.
Lili Reinhart and Keke Palmer hold their own as Annabelle and Mercedes, respectively. They both let Lopez and Wu take center stage, and happily fill in the gaps with their great supporting performances.
As great as the entire cast is, Palmer might actually be the best part of the whole movie. She’s responsible for a lot of the better comedic bits, and basically steals the scene any time she gets more than a few lines. Her energy fills the screen every time she has a chance to let it shine. It felt like there was room to feature Mercedes a little bit more, and we all would have been better off for it.
Good not great
Thanks to a dynamite cast, flashy sets and costumes, and an absolute banger of a soundtrack, Hustlers provides plenty of fun stretches. When the crimes take a back seat to the rest of the story, the movie succeeds. While those aspects are quite good and enjoyable, the lack of character depth and development necessary for this story drags it down enough to prevent Hustlers from being great.
You can read the article used as the inspiration for Hustlers here.
The Verdict: 7/10