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?

Showgirls (1995) - Verhoeven's outrageous, ridiculous, hilarious Hollywood anomaly

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A nubile, long-legged blond figure adorns this dark poster for Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls

Nomi arrives in Las Vegas without her suitcase but with her head full of dreams. And luckily she soon befriends Molly, a seamstress who introduces her to the town's adult dance scene.

 

Showgirls is written by Joe Eszterhas (Flashdance (1983)) and directed by Dutch master filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Wat Zien Ik (1971)), whose 11th feature it is. 

It is an anomaly in Hollywood history: The first and only wide release NC-17 rated movie, Showgirls is likely the big studio pic with most bare breasts, a giant budget and no major stars. It is a lustful, young-boyishly-enthused, strange work that could only come from Verhoeven.

Elizabeth Berkley (Meet Market (2004)) is wild and electric as Nomi, (and writhes almost convulsively in her sex scenes), but in the context of the fever dream-like film her ridiculed performance actually could hardly have been better. Gina Gershon (P.S. I Love You (2007)) camps it up as the show's star Cristal. Robert Davi (The Hot Chick (2002)) is ideal as a creep, and Kyle MacLachlan (Free Jimmy (2006)) is funny (and shows off his great ass) as a rich playboy.

The melodrama gets another gear here. The photography (by Jost Vacano (Supermarket (1974))) and execution is highly competent and vivid, and the result is an outrageous, ridiculous, hilarious bucket of juicy, rich entertainment, a good/bad reflection on the American performance culture. The dance acts are phenomenal, and once the news sensation of the nudity evaporates, Showgirls still has more and more laughable developments to offer. It may be exploitation, (as Quentin Tarantino has called it), but in any case Showgirls is delivered with a major twinkle in the eye. 

Related posts:

Paul Verhoeven: Hollow Man (2000) - Superb effects in Verhoeven's miss 

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Basic Instinct (1992) or, Irresistable Desire!  

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The Fourth Man/De Vierde Man (1983) - Verhoeven's amazing Dutch sex thriller nightmare

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 45 mil. $

Box office: 37.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Showgirls premiered 21 September (California) and runs 131 minutes. Eszterhas became the highest-paid screenwriter in movie history for Showgirls: He was reportedly given a 2 mil. $ advance based on an idea scribbled on a napkin at a meeting with Verhoeven, and then another 1.7 mil. $ once the film began production. Verhoeven was paid 2 mil. $ for directing; and Berkley was paid 100k $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from August - December 1994 in Los Angeles, California and in Nevada, including in Las Vegas. Distributor United Artists reportedly dispatched hundreds of employees to cinemas in the US to make sure no patrons snuck into showings and that the 17 age requirement was upheld. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Seven, to an 8.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 20.3 mil. $ (53.8 % of the total gross). The film was banned in Ireland for blasphemy. Berkley was dropped by her agent following the film's release and was ignored by other agents. Although theatrically a huge flop, the film since became a cult favorite, accruing a reported 100 mil. $ through its video release. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Verhoeven returned with Starship Troopers (1997). Berkley returned in White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild (1996). Showgirls is rotten at 23 % with a 3.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Showgirls?

Closer (2004) - Nichols and Marber's intelligent film of love and infidelity

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The elegant poster for Mike Nichols' Closer

QUICK REVIEW:

A failed writer meets a stripper in London, SPOILER and they fall in love. He also starts an affair with a photographer, who leaves her husband, but then goes back to him. And the stripper leaves the him.

That is the plot in this the penultimate film from the great, recently passed on German director Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)). It is a love-themed relationship drama that impresses with its fine performances from Jude Law (A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)), Natalie Portman (Black Swan (2010)), who was Oscar-nominated for her work, - along with Clive Owen (Children of Men (2006)). But for me it was especially Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman (1990)) whom I relished in the film.
It is based on an intelligent script by Patrick Marber (Notes on a Scandal (2006)), adapting his own 1997 play here. It confronts us with the complexities of love and its hard, hard conditions of sustaining itself for a longer period of time.
Closer does, unfortunately, have a strip club scene that I thought was incredibly contrived and unbelievable.

Related reviews:

Mike Nichols: Angels in America (2003, TV-miniseries) or, Dying in the 80's, of AIDS, at L-E-N-G-T-H
Biloxi Blues (1988) or, '45 Army Camp Confidential   
Catch-22 (1970) - Nichols wages war on war with ensemble cast in absurdist satire 

Natalie Portman in Mike Nichols' Closer

Julia Roberts in Mike Nichols' Closer

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 27 mil. $
Box office: 115.5 mil. $
= Big hit
[Closer made a nice 33.9 mil. $ (29 % of the total gross) in the US, and was extremely well-received in Brazil (1.1 mil. admissions) and several European countries, especially England (where the plot takes place, and where Marber's play also had its original run) (7.9 mil. £), Italy (5.3 mil. €) and Spain (4.8 mil. €).]

What do you think of Closer?
Which of Nichols' many good movies do you treasure highest and why?

Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp

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+ Best Dance Movie of the Year

Please note that Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike isn't a film about The Village People, - as this poster may make some think, - but instead about a group of male strippers in Tampa, Florida

Mike is a stripper in Tampa, Florida, where he meets young Adam on a construction day job and later introduces him to the colorful, festive, lucrative world of male-stripping.

Magic Mike is the guilty pleasure movie based on its title star Channing Tatum's (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)) own experiences as a young stripper in Tampa. The film is half-way built on its more or less irresistible (depending on your sexual preferences) gimmick of ... hot men stripping!
But around this the film's spectacle (the stripping) is wrapped a good story of a young man finding out a bit more about himself, and how the good life can be, which slowly moves forward to the ending of the film, - which is also terrific.
Magic Mike features some good acts, but none can compete with Tatum's own, divinely wiggling talent in the male stripping dance discipline; Tatum has what will always remain a defining, classic role for his career here. Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012)) gets another wild, fleshy (in more than one sense) part here, and he is worth both good looks and more than a good laugh as the strip group leader. Young Alex Pettyfer (The Butler (2013)) hits all the right notes as the innocuous Adam 'The Kid', as does Cody Horn (End of Watch (2012)) as his caring sister, whom Mike warms up to, despite her protective step-mothering her brother.
The film is directed by great director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich (2000)), who is his own director of photography here as usual, and his easy-going camera and low key lighting is masterful. He's obviously having a great, relaxed, fun time with this group of easy-going, happy-go-lucky go-getters here, and the result is hugely enjoyable.
Reid Carolin (Magic Mike XXX (2015)) wrote the script.

Related posts:

Steven Soderbergh: Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller 
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark 

Watch the awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 167.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Mike was first supposed to be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive (2011)), Tatum's first choice, but it fell apart, and Soderbergh seems a better fit anyhow. The film became a sensation especially in the States with a 39.1 mil. opening weekend behind Ted (2012). Big especially with women and gays, - which the PR-department for the film targeted at them with different campaigns, - Mike made its budget back 28 times, 68 % of it from North America. The inevitable sequel, Magic Mike XXL (2015) is filming at the moment and eagerly anticipated by Film Excess.]

What do you think of Magic Mike?

Atom Age Vampire/Seddok, l'erede di Satana (1960) or, Spaghetti Mutant Trash

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It's pretty much guaranteed that you will not 'gasp with horror' from watching Anton Giulio Majano's Atom Age Vampire, as this poster promises, - although you may... - FALL ASLEEP!!

A stripper gets disfigured from a traffic accident, and she fears that her boyfriend will leave her as a result, so she gets a mad professor to cure her with radiation. He, of course, falls in love with her, and turns into a kind of mutant.

Recounted like this, the plot may sound pretty funny. If you have a thing for mad professors/doctors and/or strippers in movies, you may wanna check this film out, which is now in public domain and available for free, legal watch right here.
No vampire ever actually appears in the film, which must be its main defect. The sensational title promises something spectacular and a lot more thrilling than the actual movie, unfortunately.
Susanne Loret (Uncle Was a Vampire/Tempi Duri per i Vampiri (1959)) as the stripper acts horribly; the dialog is long and boring, and the American dub is scratchy.
Co-writer-director Anton Giulio Majano (The Eternal Chain/I Grandi Peccatori (L'Eterna Catena) (1952)) was a life-long director in Italian films and TV, - something that is not beneficial to Atom Age Vampire, but interesting to know. Majano wrote the script with Alberto Bevilacqua (Black Sabbath/I Tre Volti Della Paura (1963)) and Gino De Santis (Fury of Achilles/L'ira di Achille (1962)), and with Piero Monviso (Red Lips/Labbra Rosse (1960), second assistant director) contributing story elements.
What keeps Atom Age Vampire from totally failing is the dark fear of the atom age, which shines through it and remains fascinating, and also that it does have a fairly good ending, which I won't spoil here. Still, Atom Age Vampire is a terrible film.

Listen to the theme from the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 90 mil. Italian Lira (Italy only)
= Unknown
[Atom Age Vampire opened 16 August (Italy) and runs 105 minutes; there are truncated versions of the film; the release outside of Italy was 89 minutes, and there is also a 69 minute version in rotation. Majano only directed one more theatrical feature before committing himself exclusively to TV: The Corsican Brothers/I Fratelli Corsi (1961). Loret returned in The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete/Teseo contro il Minotauro (1960), Alberto Lupo (Blood Feud/Il Sicario (1961)) in Anna Christie (1960, TV movie) and theatrically also in The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete. 1,170 IMDb-users have given Atom Age Vampire an average rating of 3.7/10.]

What do you think of Atom Age Vampire?