“This city, this whole country, is a strip club. You’ve got people tossing the money, and people doing the dance.”
What drew me into this movie wasn’t who was staring in it or the trailer. No, what made me want to see Hustlers was the article it’s inspired by: New York Magazine’s “The Hustlers at Scores,” written by Jessica Pressler in 2015. The fact that Samantha Barbash and Roselyn Keo were able to take so much money from Wall Street men and make a business out if it fascinated me. It made for an intriguing read and an interesting movie.
Hustlers is shot from the perspective of Dorothy (Constance Wu), who also goes by the name Destiny when she is working in the clubs. She is smart, a quick learner, and business savvy. I think that is why Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) and Destiny form a bond. They both see what the other can do and what they can help each other achieve. Although Barbash and Keo claim in the magazine interview that there was no friendship between them, I think there is at least a small one, along with understanding and mutual respect.
Ramona had been working at the strip club for a long time before meeting Destiny and taking her under her wing. Ramona educates Destiny about how to work the clients. They break down their Wall Street clients into categories and know what ones they can get the most money off of, essentially playing them like fiddles. The women are cleaning up until the 2008 recession hits, which leads people to stop spending thousands of dollars a night at strip clubs. Desperate to keep up the lavish lifestyle they have become accustomed to, Ramona, Destiny, Mercedes, and Annabelle start stacking the deck by “fishing.”
“Fishing” brings a whole new level to their work. The women invite men from their list of big spenders to meet them at a bar. After getting their targets all liquored up, they throw out the idea of going to a strip club. Once they’re there, the women run up the client’s cards and split the money. This scam gets one thing right: who is going to believe someone who tries to report being robbed by strippers at a strip club? When they max out their list, the women resort to picking out men at high-end bars and spiking their drinks with MDMA and ketamine. The need to hold power over these men, combined with their greed, leads to illegally drugging men. Combining MDMA with ketamine makes the men feel great, puts them in a trance, and gives them memory loss. The new business plan is: targeting men that have money, spiking their drinks, and cleaning out their bank accounts.
During the story, we get a glimpse at the women’s personal lives as well. Ramona is a single mother who also wants to create a denim bathing suit line and is ruthless when it comes to getting what she wants. Mercedes (Keke Palmer) has a fiancé in jail and is loosely based on Mari Rosen. Destiny becomes a single mother, taking online classes and trying to care for her grandmother. Elizabeth (Julia Stiles) plays the journalist writing the article, Jessica Pressler. Vaguely based around Karina Pascucci, Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) is an innocent-looking woman who vomits whenever she is under emotional pressure; I found her character to be more comedic than contributing to the overall story. I also have to mention that I loved the moments Lizzo, Cardi B, and Usher were on the screen.
The Wall Street men are not perceived as characters but as targets. The only men that are named and focused on a little bit are the ones that go to the police. After multiple years of getting away with the scam, the four women are caught and arrested. However, they don’t see anything wrong with what they did. Destiny immediately takes a deal, while the other women go through the courts a bit longer before settling.
As to what Barbash and Keo think about the movie, they have opposite opinions. Keo attended the Toronto International Film Festival in support of the film, while Barbash was not impressed and talked about suing for defamation of character.
In my opinion, you walk away from the movie with a conflicted feeling of empowerment and a reminder not to underestimate people. Either way, it is enjoyable.
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