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?

Madea's Family Reunion (2006) - Perry returns endearing universe in enjoyable first sequel

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Tyler Perry's popular character amusingly replaced as Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe art-piece on this poster for Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion

Madea gets a court ordered foster child, who is a rebellious teenage girl, at a time when she is also advising her grown-up nieces: One is falling on love with a solid, sweet bus driver, while the other is marrying her rich, tyrannical boyfriend through a longer period.

 

Madea's Family Reunion is written, co-produced and directed by Tyler Perry (Acrimony (2018)), who also plays title character Madea as well as two other characters. It is based on Perry's same-titled 2002 play, and the film is a follow-up to the first Madea movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005).

Blair Underwood (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2015-16)) is convincing as the cruel tyrant, and in fact the cast is good throughout here, with Perry back as the wise, hard-hitting Madea - and her low-brow brother. The bus scene is fantastically sweet and romantic - the film's best - and the plot surprises, when it sheds a bold light on incest.

Madea's Family Reunion still manages to be funny, entertaining and heart-warming, although it is also theatrical and becomes cloyingly God-fixated in the end around the inevitable wedding.

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 63.3 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 10.55 times its cost)

[Madea's Family Reunion was released 24 February (USA, Canada) and runs 109 minutes. Shooting took place around July 2005 in Georgia, including Atlanta. The film opened #1 to a 30 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and another in the top 5 (#5), grossing 63.2 mil. $ (99.8 % of the total gross). Perry returned with Why Did I Get Married? (2006, short), Madea Goes to Jail (2006, video) and theatrically with Daddy's Little Girls (2007); as a star he returned in Madea Goes to Jail. Madea's Family Reunion is rotten at 26 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Madea's Family Reunion?

Shrink (2009) or, Rotten Hollywood

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Kevin Spacey lies passed out on a lounge chair by a Hollywood Hills pool on this mellow-colored poster for Jonas Pate's Shrink

A celebrity shrink in Los Angeles isn't worth much himself lately, addicted to pot after his wife's suicide, as he meets an African-America teenage girl, whose mother also offed herself.

Shrink is written by Thomas Moffett (The Last International Playboy (2008)), with Henry Reardon contributing story elements, and directed by Jonas Pate (The Grave (1996)).
Although there are things that connects the many characters we are introduced to in Shrink, it remains unclear why we are to meet and follow them all, - except for the fact that the film attempts to paint a collective portrait of Tinseltown. And a repulsive, cold and severely unloving portrait it is. But also one that is neither particularly amusing or seriously relevant. - Besides, who says that we even want to know about it, if the LA entertainment business is really as rotten as Shrink proposes?
The film co-stars Robin Williams (Being Human (1994)), and in light of his illness-provoked suicide in 2014, Shrink is even less pleasant to watch; his scenes are almost painful to behold, so far are they from the past greatness of his career.
Kevin Spacey (Margin Call (2011)) does a good job of playing the alienated, depressive title character, but Shrink fails to get at the core of its issues - the suicides - although it is them, and their consequences, which it seems should have been the film's main occupation.
Keke Palmer (Scream Queens (2015-16)) is also good as the teenage girl. Jack Huston's (The Yellow Birds (2017)) character Shamus seems likely based on Irish movie-star/ladykiller Colin Farrell. A couple of his scenes with Williams are out of tone with the rest of the film and too exaggerated to seem realistic.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 5.1 mil. $
Box office: 303k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.05 times its cost)
[Shrink premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #59 to a 16k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #40 and in 27 theaters the following week and grossed 189k $ (62.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Romania and Latvia, each with 31k $ (10.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Pate has gone back to directing for TV after the film and has stayed away from features since. Spacey returned with a voice performance in Moon (2009) and a physical performance in The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009). Shrink is rotten at 27 % with a 4.57/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Shrink?