“Hustlers” recently came out this past Friday starring Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu , Julia Stiles, Cardi B, Lizzo, Keke Palmer and Lili Reinhart. The movie, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, is based off of the 2015 New York magazine article called “The Hustlers at Scores” by Jessica Pressler.

We follow Wu’s character, Destiny, as she strips in order to make money to provide for her grandmother. She eventually develops a friendship with Lopez’s character, Ramona Vega, in order to get more work at the club they strip at. She recalls these events to a reporter who is writing an article about the events we follow in the movie. 

Destiny then explains what happened when the recession hit. A few years afterward, Romona and Destiny reconnect. Romona presents Destiny with an offer that can provide her with security that had been hard to come by after the recession hit. She agrees, and we follow them as well as Palmer and Reinhart’s characters as they try to hustle in New York City. 

This movie sheds light on the profession of stripping and the workers who take it up. As a society, there’s a stigma that is present when we think of strippers. This movie shows a side of the profession that not many see. We see what they deal with, the struggles they face, such as providing for their families, and the friendships they forge while in this profession. Not only that, but the movie also shows that the women in this line of work are confident, fearless and not afraid to do what needs to be done in order to get what they need. 

What makes this movie very enjoyable is the relationship between Wu and Lopez’s characters and the humor. Both Wu and Lopez go beyond just playing their characters for 110 minutes. They make their characters into complex people that have reasons as to why they do the things they do in the movie. While it may be hard to connect to the characters, by the end of them movie you feel as though you were part of the sisterhood that the characters created in the movie. 

The humor in this movie makes me wish that I was in the movie with these characters. It’s crude in a way that you definitely wouldn’t want your mother to hear, but it is the way  you would talk to your girlfriends. The remarks they make are relatable to any girl working long hours or having guy troubles. To me, this was something that made me want to keep watching, and not because I already paid for the ticket. I laughed out loud along with the other movie goers in the theater from what the characters said in the movie. 

Of all the things that this movie did really well, there was still one thing that I didn’t like from the movie. Some of the situations that certain characters are depicted in a way that would be similar to other situations that people we know or in general have unfortunately encountered. 

In my opinion, they way that they handled this part in the movie was hard to watch. They honestly could have handled this better so that it would flow well with the story line. 

I overall enjoyed the movie. Lopez and Wu did really well interacting with one another in this story, and with a strong supporting cast,  this movie is something that everyone can enjoy.