Generally speaking, cinephiles love onscreen gangsters. As the writer-director of the gangsteresque dramedy Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria, recently told the New York Times, “we can name 1,000 of those characters by their first and last names. We’ve enjoyed them.” Indeed, Hustlers feels akin to the crime films of both Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino) and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice). This movie too is zingy, surreal, and wildly entertaining. The key difference between it and the many great films that depict men doing horrible things for understandable reasons—love, money, power—is that Hustlers asks, why not women?
Hustlers‘ opening shot tracks Destiny from the dressing room through the strip club on her first night of work to Janet Jackson’s “Control,” which sets up the gaze through which the audience will view the narrative while revealing the protagonist’s primary goal: Destiny wants to hold the reins of her own life. As she tells Ramona, who also is a single mom to a young daughter, “I don’t want to rely on anyone for anything.” Theirs is a platonic love affair, as Destiny’s dreams ignite as she observes Ramona’s fierce independence and entrepreneurial streak.
Directed by Lorene Scafaria. R, 110 min. In wide release.
