‘Hustlers’ review: A wild ride you’ll want to throw money at

Hustlers is a rollicking good time with a witty script anchored by a fierce and flawless performance from leading lady Jennifer Lopez

There’s a unique double standard in the presentation of stripping on-screen. Where women are concerned their movies follow characters who are beautifully broken, their stories both hokey (Showgirls) or melodramatic (Striptease) but always hewing towards how there’s something inherently crazy that makes a woman jump on a pole.

When Magic Mike arrived in 2012 the stripper was infused with an air of seriousness, courtesy of director Steven Soderbergh, though it reminded audiences of the double standards that plague these narratives (women are regularly nude, men aren’t). In watching Lorene Scarfaria’s masterful Hustlers, the director doesn’t just tell a story of strippers turned swindlers, but generally criticizes the treatment of sex workers on-screen to exemplary effect.

Destiny (Constance Wu) is a stripper desperate to crack the code and make some money in a business where men have all the control. She catches the attention of Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), the strip club’s crown jewel, who takes Destiny under her wing. But when the financial crisis of 2008 causes them to hit their own personal recessions, the two hatch a scheme to take back what was stolen from them.

Scafaria’s work champions characters wading through the loneliness and isolation of adulthood. We meet Wu’s Destiny during her first night at the unnamed strip club where most of the events take place. In a job that’s all about confidence, Destiny does what she can to get by, but that’s it. When she sees Ramona, doing an impressively athletic dance to Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” it’s like watching a star baseball player hit a home run. (Scafaria has said she wanted to emulate sports movies.) The pair’s burgeoning friendship starts out as that of mentor/mentee and transitions into something deeper. The two never acknowledge they’re friends, but when times are tough Ramona is the first to offer up her home. And when their scheme finally blows up, it’s the loss of seeing each other that terrifies them.

What’s often been described as “Goodfellas with girls” is anything but. Yes, there are elements of the crime within, particularly once the recession hits and the women start robbing clients, but there’s always a deeper motivation that goes beyond money. Over an hour of the nearly two-hour runtime is spent watching Destiny learn the ropes as a dancer and discovering the underbelly of wealthy Wall Street men that come to the club to control women for a night.

Scafaria captures not the sexiness of the women – though that’s on display – but the sense of camaraderie and friendship. The last good night, as Destiny tells it, is a wild scene of pure fun and freedom; a comfortable high before the depression that would undo everyone in America. The film’s second half does have a far more muted impact and can make Hustlers feel like it’s run out of steam. It isn’t to say the movie is ever boring, more that the party ends and the cleanup begins.

The film is touted as an ensemble piece when really it’s elevated by leads Lopez and Wu. Wu, who was so earnest in Crazy Rich Asians, changes that dynamic slightly as Dorothy a.k.a. Destiny. A woman who just wants to take care of her ailing grandma and “maybe go shopping every once in awhile,” Wu plays the character as naive but far from dumb. She claims to be a career stripper, yet doesn’t understand the commercialism that goes into making serious money. Since Wu is the straight man, in a sense, her character is there more often than not as an observer. Her relationship with Lopez is strong, but she’s swallowed up by the diva.

This is Lopez’s movie. From her spellbinding opening dance to her final scene opposite Julia Stiles, Lopez is a mistress of control. Her Ramona is a complex figure, calculating and nurturing in equal measure. There’s no artifice to her feelings for Destiny; the audience is never waiting for her to screw her over. But she is a bad friend. Regardless, Lopez prowls through the film, making everything fun regardless of the sequence. She’s hard to transcend and it’s understandable that the rest of the cast fades to the back when she’s around.

To their credit, Lili Rhinehart, Madeline Brewer, Lizzo, and Cardi B are all good; they just have little to do in contrast to the A-list ladies. Lizzo and Cardi B, in particular, feel particularly wasted because they’re so fun to watch.

Hustlers is such an exuberant good time at the movies. Lopez is captivating with all the right moves, and there’s not a bad performance in the house, albeit most feel smaller. One of the year’s must-see movies.