I saw the poster of this movie since few weeks back in Cinema 21 theaters and I noticed it had some well known names in it. But it did not make a list of my most anticipated movies. When it was released on Friday, then I read a little bit more and realized it had interesting premise and had been quite successful as well in the US. So I decided to see this movie yesterday together with my wife who had come back from her holiday trip the day before. OK, I will get straight to the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Destiny (Constance Wu - Crazy Rich Asians etc) was a new stripper working for a strip club and earning little money. One night she noticed an experienced stripper named Ramona Vega (Jennifer Lopez - Ice Age: Collision Course, Maid in Manhattan etc) who was able to dance her way to so much money in a night. They both seemed to hit it off nicely and soon became partners and best friends.
Few years later, Ramona came up with the idea of doing some hustling towards their Wall Street clients. Together with Destiny and other strippers Mercedes (Keke Palmer - Akeelah and the Bee, Scream TV series etc) and Annabelle (Lili Reinhart - Riverdale TV series, Galveston etc) the four of them would work on their Wall Street clients to get more money illegally. But as their "business" become bigger the risk was getting higher as well.
So what would happen to these strippers? Find them all in this interesting drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Few years later, Ramona came up with the idea of doing some hustling towards their Wall Street clients. Together with Destiny and other strippers Mercedes (Keke Palmer - Akeelah and the Bee, Scream TV series etc) and Annabelle (Lili Reinhart - Riverdale TV series, Galveston etc) the four of them would work on their Wall Street clients to get more money illegally. But as their "business" become bigger the risk was getting higher as well.
So what would happen to these strippers? Find them all in this interesting drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I read the brief synopsis of this movie, I thought it felt intriguing and interesting. In fact it was also the reason why my wife was willing to accompany me seeing this movie, despite just getting back from her holiday yesterday. After seeing the movie though, I realized that the main focus of the film was not the hustle itself but a lovely relationship between 2 women who happened to find friendship while working as strippers.
The movie was categorized for 21+ in Indonesia, a very rare adult genre for movies released here. I think I have only seen 2 or 3 movies of such category before. It should not come as a surprise since the story was about strippers and a lot of scenes were done in a strip club. The censorship body managed to do their job quite well as the only time I noticed the scene was cut abruptly was during Jennifer Lopez' dance, while the rest were done by covering certain body parts using a blurring effect (you might be familiar with it if you have watched programs or movies/series on Indonesian public TV as they used similar technique). The actual movie's duration according to various websites was 110 minutes, but the version shown in Indonesian cinemas was only 104 minutes.
The movie's storytelling was pretty interesting with a bit of documentary feel here and there, especially during the interview scenes involving the journalist Elizabeth (Julia Stiles - Jason Bourne, Save the Last Dance etc). One thing that made this movie worth your while was the fact it was inspired by true events. It was said to be based on an article published in the magazine New York titled "The Hustlers at Scores" written by Jessica Pressler.
Another factor that made this movie nice to watch was the various songs played in the background with few hip hop songs which set the mood perfectly. There was even a surprise cameo of a famous rapper. The instrumental music was also nice, especially during the closing credits. There was no mid or post end credit scenes.
The actresses playing in the movie were mostly great. Jennifer Lopez was very convincing as a stripper, most likely due to her prior experience as singer and dancer. My wife was also in awe of her especially for a woman her age. Meanwhile Constance Wu was also wonderful portraying this character. She quickly showed that she was not an actress playing stereotype roles. For a drama movie, I thought this one was quite moving. It had some touching moments as well (once or twice it was able to affect my wife too). I thought the director Lorene Scarafia did a great job in making this movie not just about sensual scenes but mostly about the strippers and the reason for doing things they did.
Overall this was a pretty good drama movie. It had an interesting story with nice drama combined with a little bit of hustle and little comedy. It is not a sensual movie or a con artist movie, so people should not expect such attributes in here. Now if you are looking for more of the conning/hustling (like I did), then this might not be to your satisfaction. But if you just want to see a nice enough drama and you are fans of movie inspired by true events, then this one should be able to please you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
The movie was categorized for 21+ in Indonesia, a very rare adult genre for movies released here. I think I have only seen 2 or 3 movies of such category before. It should not come as a surprise since the story was about strippers and a lot of scenes were done in a strip club. The censorship body managed to do their job quite well as the only time I noticed the scene was cut abruptly was during Jennifer Lopez' dance, while the rest were done by covering certain body parts using a blurring effect (you might be familiar with it if you have watched programs or movies/series on Indonesian public TV as they used similar technique). The actual movie's duration according to various websites was 110 minutes, but the version shown in Indonesian cinemas was only 104 minutes.
The movie's storytelling was pretty interesting with a bit of documentary feel here and there, especially during the interview scenes involving the journalist Elizabeth (Julia Stiles - Jason Bourne, Save the Last Dance etc). One thing that made this movie worth your while was the fact it was inspired by true events. It was said to be based on an article published in the magazine New York titled "The Hustlers at Scores" written by Jessica Pressler.
Another factor that made this movie nice to watch was the various songs played in the background with few hip hop songs which set the mood perfectly. There was even a surprise cameo of a famous rapper. The instrumental music was also nice, especially during the closing credits. There was no mid or post end credit scenes.
The actresses playing in the movie were mostly great. Jennifer Lopez was very convincing as a stripper, most likely due to her prior experience as singer and dancer. My wife was also in awe of her especially for a woman her age. Meanwhile Constance Wu was also wonderful portraying this character. She quickly showed that she was not an actress playing stereotype roles. For a drama movie, I thought this one was quite moving. It had some touching moments as well (once or twice it was able to affect my wife too). I thought the director Lorene Scarafia did a great job in making this movie not just about sensual scenes but mostly about the strippers and the reason for doing things they did.
Overall this was a pretty good drama movie. It had an interesting story with nice drama combined with a little bit of hustle and little comedy. It is not a sensual movie or a con artist movie, so people should not expect such attributes in here. Now if you are looking for more of the conning/hustling (like I did), then this might not be to your satisfaction. But if you just want to see a nice enough drama and you are fans of movie inspired by true events, then this one should be able to please you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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