Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Hustle & Flow (2005)

1/18/2022

Hustle & Flow (2005) - Brewer's Memphis rapper breakthrough

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Tennessee Movie of the Year

A carefully balanced poster that showcases the bling and contrasts of Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow

DJay is a pimp in Memphis, Tennessee, who aspires to a life as a hiphop recording artist by conning his way close to local star Skinny Black. - He winds up incarcerated, - but with a radio hit.

Hustle & Flow is written and directed by Virginian master filmmaker Craig Brewer (The Poor & Hungry (2000)), whose 2nd film it is.

It is a fairly realistic and quite entertaining music crime-drama, despite the protagonist's path being too far away from many viewers' life to fully ignite identification. The film has good one-liners and performances, but also weary, expletive-filled lingo and male delusion. It is mainly a movie about dreams.

Related reviews:

Craig Brewer: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Black Snake Moan (2006) or, The Mississippi Blues

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 2.8 mil. $

Box office: 23.5 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.39 times its cost)

[Hustle & Flow premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Memphis, Tennessee from July - August 2004. The film opened #7 to a 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it decreased from there but enjoyed a long theatrical run, grossing 22.2 mil. $ (94.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 416k $ (1.8 %) and Australia with 339k $ (1.4 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars, winning for Best Song (It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp by Three 6 Mafia). It lost Best Actor (Terrence Howard (Fighting (2009))) to Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit award, a Golden Globe, won 2 National Board of Review awards, and 2 awards at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Brewer returned with Black Snake Moan (2006). Howard returned in Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005, TV movie) and theatrically with Four Brothers (2005). Hustle & Flow is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)