Hustlers (2019) or, Strip and Rob, Go Girl!

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A string of sexually charged stills of the scantily clad female stars of the film makes up most of this poster for Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers

After the 2008 financial crisis tightened the belt around New York's surviving Wall Street elite, a group of strippers who depended economically on these men decided to go to extremes to keep - and accelerate - their luxurious lifestyles...

Hustlers is written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)), based on the 2015 New York magazine article The Hustlers at Scores by Jessica Pressler.

Can one use stripping as a means to female emancipation, or is the discipline per definition degrading? Scafaria's superficial, consumeristicly fixated bubble of a film asks that question. Hustlers attempts to work as a runaway train that one boards and becomes seduced by, - probably against one's better judgment, - just as the woman characters around Jennifer Lopez's (Out of Sight (1998)) veteran stripper leader do in the movie. Men on Wall Street screw the world over, and women strippers then screw over these men, - that's the story here. Go look in the phonebook for additional depth, if you require it. - It isn't available in Hustlers.

The plot unfolds in snappy, short, unmemorable scenes with lots of sleazy, accompanying hit songs. Hustlers doesn't teach its (presumably mostly young) audience anything; nothing edifying at least. Offensively and decidedly unedifyingly, however, it teaches its viewers that one can get away with a wealth of crime by being a smiling, laughing, over-consuming, attractive stripper, who believes that anything goes in the 'holy' name of women's liberation.

 

Related post:

 

Lorene Scafaria: The Meddler (2015) - Stars elevate Scafaria's mother-daughter romcom

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 20.7 mil. $

Box office: 157.5 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 7.60 times its cost)

[Hustlers premiered 7 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. Lopez was paid 9 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from March - May 2019 in New York. The film opened #2, behind It Chapter Two, to a 33.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for another 3 weekends (#5-#2-#4), grossing 104.9 mil. $ (66.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.4 mil. $ (6 %) and Australia with 6.5 mil. $ (4.1 %). The studio reportedly spent 38 mil. $ promoting the film. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and 3 Independent Spirit awards, among many other honors. It additionally made a reported 5.5 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Scafaria returned with Succession (2021-23) but has has yet to make her theatrical return. Lopez returned in 6 short and music video credits prior to her theatrical return in Marry Me (2022); Constance Wu (Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022)) in Fresh off the Boat (2015-20)), with a voice performance in Wish Dragon (2021) and with a physical theatrical performance in I Was a Simple Man (2021). Hustlers is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hustlers?

Anaconda (1997) - Limited fun in slick jungle escapade

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A giant anaconda lurks in the dark on this effective poster for Luis Llosa's Anaconda

A documentary film crew on the Amazon river quickly meet resistance, which gets them to turn around. - With a monster anaconda on their trail!

 

Anaconda is written by Hans Bauer (Komodo (1999)), Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. (Top Gun (1986), both) and directed by Luis Llosa (Crime Zone (1988)).

It is a very silly and flat studio invention, - almost more package than film. The different actors are more so in the picture to activate certain demographics than for any other reasons, pick up a paycheck and maybe have a laugh or two. None of them get to show what they can in this stupid story: Ice Cube's (Three Kings (1999)) character is laughable; Jonathan Hyde (The Tailor of Panama (2001)) as the sneering Brit, who doesn't seem to serve any function on the trip, is also ungainly.

The giant snake is very well-made, and that is what gives Anaconda its bite of entertainment value. SPOILER Also this is the place to go, if you were wondering where to see Jon Voight (Rosewood (1997)) gobbled up and then thrown up by a giant snake!

 

Watch a very short trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 45 mil. $

Box office: 136.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.04 times its cost)

[Anaconda was released 11 April (USA) and runs 89 minutes. Jennifer Lopez (My Family (1995)) was paid 1 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - August 1996 in Brazil, Las Vegas, Nevada and in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 16.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another weekend in the top 5 (#3), grossing 65.8 mil. $ (48.1 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. 3 sequels and a 2015 crossover movie (with Lake Placid (1999)), all without the involvement of any of the filmmakers and stars of the first film, have been made. Llosa returned with La Fiesta del Chivo (2005). Lopez returned in U Turn (1997); Cube in two music videos prior to his theatrical return in The Players Club (1998); and Voight also in U Turn (1997). Anaconda is rotten at 38 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Anaconda?

Home (2015) - Not much sense to DreamWorks' silly alien romp

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An instantly likable, cute, purple alien character with a snug housecat on its head makes up this poster for Tim Johnson's Home

An unpopular alien, who has made problems for his equals, bands up with a little girl, who has gotten lost from her mother here on earth.

 

Home is written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart (2008), both), based on the children's book The True Meaning of Smekday (2007) by Adam Rex (Smek for President (2015)), and directed by great Chicagoan filmmaker Tim Johnson (Antz (1998)).

The silly Boov alien race has somehow overtaken earth here in Home, and that is just one of the many things that aren't explained in it. The film is more invested in being a colorful mix of bright eye candy with patches of comedy and up-tempo music, where inquisitive questions are barred at the door; just brainless good times here. The film embraces the time it is made in for better and worse, so that when it still attempts to straddle a well of themes, it comes off as both superficial and dishonest. The questions can't be bridled by the thinking mind: Why this and why that, one can't help but wonder, - SPOILER and in particular; why do the entire Boov race suddenly go nuts for our ill-faring purple friend towards the end? Their conversion from unsympathetic bullies in the beginning is also unexplained.

Home conjures up a utopian, harmonious, multi-cultural world, - but it is actually funny along the silly way, - Jim Parsons (A Kid Like Jake (2018)) voicing is inspired, - and that is its saving grace.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 135 mil. $

Box office: 386 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.85 times its cost)

[Home premiered 7 March (Boulder International Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 94 minutes. Production took place in California. The film opened #1 to a 52.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#2-#4-#4-#5). grossing 177.3 mil. $ (45.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 38.8 mil. $ (10.1 %) and China with 27.7 mil. $ (7.2 %). It was reported that DreamWorks spent an amount similar to the cost of the film for prints and advertising it. A hand-drawn spin-off series, Home: Adventures with Tip and Oh (2016-18) was produced without the voice stars for Netflix by DreamWorks Animation. Johnson returned with 2 shorts but has not returned with a feature yet; instead he has turned to executive producing. Parsons returned in Visions (2015). Home is rotten at 52 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Home?

Out of Sight (1998) - Clooney and Lopez burn up the screen in Soderbergh's crime comedy

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+ Best Crime-Comedy of the Year + Best Erotic Movie of the Year

High-contrasted, primary-colored, cool throw-back exploitation-style poster for Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight

A serial bank robber winds up in a Florida prison, but he breaks out with a new scheme to rob a rich inmate, - a plan which gets complicated when he falls for an FBI agent, whom he shares a trunk with for a period, as well as the company of some bad characters...

 

Out of Sight is written by Scott Frank (Marley & Me (2008)), adapting the same-titled 1996 novel by Elmore Leonard (Stick (1985)) and directed by Georgian master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)), whose 7th feature it is.

It is an enthusiastic, typically 1990s 'smart', (for lack of a better word), film, meaning that it's laced with ironic dialog and advanced chronology. It is also a star-making feature for George Clooney (Michael Clayton (2007)), who exudes sexy ruggedness, a hearty lead for the film that isn't big on teeth and has a penchant for boorish fatalism, - but is partnered up with Jennifer Lopez (Anaconda (1997)), who is equally sexy and bad-ass to boot here. Lopez has the film's best scenes. Soderbergh cultivates their chemistry and the sexiness of the pair with snowfall and love-making scenes, which is the brand of Out of Sight.

It has, however, a large cast of energetic charlatans; Dennis Farino (That Old Feeling (1997)), Michael Keaton (Jackie Brown (1997)), Luis Guzman (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)), Steve Zahn (Night Train (2009)), Don Cheadle (Things Behind the Sun (2001)), Isaiah Washington (Dead Birds (2004)), Albert Brooks (Taxi Driver (1976)) and more. Soderbergh, stylishly assured as is his normalcy, uses freeze-frame, zoom and other filmmaking grips coolly, and locations are also utilized for the underlining of Soderbergh as a technical master craftsman. Some feel that Out of Sight could use some action, and there may be something to that reservation, as the film can come of as somewhat sly. - I enjoyed it nevertheless.

 

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Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 48 mil. $

Box office: 77.7 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.61 times its cost)

[Out of Sight was released 26 June (USA) and runs 123 minutes. Clooney was paid 10 mil. $ for his performance; Lopez 2 mil. $. Shooting took place from October 1997 - January 1998 in Louisiana, Michigan, including in Detroit, Florida and in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Doctor Dolittle and hold-over hits Mulan and The X Files, to a 12 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 37.5 mil. $ (48.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, lost to Bill Condon for Gods and Monsters, and Editing, lost to Saving Private Ryan. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Soderbergh returned with The Limey (1999). Clooney returned in The Thin Red Line (1998); Lopez with a voice performance in Antz (1998), in 6 music videos and physically in a theater in The Cell (2000). Out of Sight is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Out of Sight?