Many years ago, when I was a kid, I use to dream of Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno doing a cabaret show together but now that I am a big kid I think of a cabaret show starring Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles. Where does all this come from? Watching "Hustlers" I thought of Lopez making a big splash in the movies when she starred opposite George Clooney in "Out of Sight" and Beyonce doing the same when she co-starred in the movie "Dreamgirls" and neither did any more movies worthwhile.
Chita became a star playing Anita in "West Side Story" on Broadway and Rita won an Oscar for the same role in the movies. Chita would remain a big and much loved star on Broadway for the next 60 years while Rita became a star on television.
In any case, thinking about the 4 women was a diversion from looking at a movie that, while certainly glorifying a woman's body, shows smart women 'taking' dumb rich men. It sort of looks like in spite of all having sad backgrounds, most being uneducated, what choice did women have except for pleasuring men whether stripping or giving them lap dancers while other men took most of the money they made.
This all takes place before the 2008 recession when men threw money around as if it wasn't theirs and in most cases it wasn't but then that recession came along and the women team up together to fleece the wealthy clients they still have, making thousands of dollars knowing the men are either married or would be too humiliated to report them to the police or still had enough money not to worry about.
After Lopez's fantastic entrance doing a pole dance I lost interest in the rest of the movie possibly because the story of rich men being taken is so common place in South Florida that it seems to be in the paper and on television at least once a month if not once a week.
The performances, by Lopez especially, are all good while the direction by Lorene Scafaria keeps the movie going but her screenplay, based on a 2015 magazine story by Jessica Pressler, gets tiresome very quickly.
"Hustlers" is getting good reviews including talk about Lopez getting an Oscar nomination but I would rather see a 'duel' between her and Knowles or, even better, between Moreno and Rivera!
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Many years ago, when I was a kid, I use to dream of Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno doing a cabaret show together but now that I am a big kid I think of a cabaret show starring Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles. Where does all this come from? Watching "Hustlers" I thought of Lopez making a big splash in the movies when she starred opposite George Clooney in "Out of Sight" and Beyonce doing the same when she co-starred in the movie "Dreamgirls" and neither did any more movies worthwhile.
Chita became a star playing Anita in "West Side Story" on Broadway and Rita won an Oscar for the same role in the movies. Chita would remain a big and much loved star on Broadway for the next 60 years while Rita became a star on television.
In any case, thinking about the 4 women was a diversion from looking at a movie that, while certainly glorifying a woman's body, shows smart women 'taking' dumb rich men. It sort of looks like in spite of all having sad backgrounds, most being uneducated, what choice did women have except for pleasuring men whether stripping or giving them lap dancers while other men took most of the money they made.
This all takes place before the 2008 recession when men threw money around as if it wasn't theirs and in most cases it wasn't but then that recession came along and the women team up together to fleece the wealthy clients they still have, making thousands of dollars knowing the men are either married or would be too humiliated to report them to the police or still had enough money not to worry about.
After Lopez's fantastic entrance doing a pole dance I lost interest in the rest of the movie possibly because the story of rich men being taken is so common place in South Florida that it seems to be in the paper and on television at least once a month if not once a week.
The performances, by Lopez especially, are all good while the direction by Lorene Scafaria keeps the movie going but her screenplay, based on a 2015 magazine story by Jessica Pressler, gets tiresome very quickly.
"Hustlers" is getting good reviews including talk about Lopez getting an Oscar nomination but I would rather see a 'duel' between her and Knowles or, even better, between Moreno and Rivera!
