A sharp, glossy crime dramedy with a strong sense of momentum and a standout lead performance. It works best as a character-driven con movie about survival, power, and the seduction of easy money, even when it occasionally smooths over the rougher edges of its true-story inspiration.
47% ★★☆☆☆ (422,216)
Hustlers
Where to watch: Hulu
Movie · Drama · Comedy · R
2019 · 1h 50m · ★ 47% (422.2K)
Director: Lorene Scafaria
Starring: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles
Overview
A crew of savvy former strip club employees band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.
Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Mercedes Ruehl, Cardi B, Lizzo, Mette, Madeline Brewer, Trace Lysette, Wai Ching Ho, Emma Batiz, Vanessa Aspillaga, Jay Oakerson, Marcy Richardson, G-Eazy, Konstantine Drakopoulos, Dov Davidoff, Brandon Keener
Where to watch
Hulu, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, glossy crime dramedy with a strong sense of momentum and a standout lead performance. It works best as a character-driven con movie about survival, power, and the seduction of easy money, even when it occasionally smooths over the rougher edges of its true-story inspiration.
Best for
Viewers who like stylish crime stories with antiheroes
Fans of female-led ensemble films
People interested in class, money, and post-2008 fallout
Audiences who enjoy charismatic star performances
Anyone looking for a slick, entertaining true-crime-adjacent drama
Skip if
You want a strictly realistic or morally sober crime film
You dislike movies that glamorize their world before critiquing it
You prefer tightly plotted capers over episodic character studies
You are looking for a hard-edged documentary-style account
Overview
Hustlers turns a tabloid-ready premise into something slick, funny, and surprisingly observant about labor, class, and the way power gets packaged as glamour. It has the rhythm of a con movie and the emotional logic of a workplace drama, with the club functioning as a brutal economy where everyone is performing for survival.
Worth noting
The film’s biggest asset is its cast, especially Jennifer Lopez, who gives the movie its charge and a real sense of lived-in authority. Constance Wu grounds the story in vulnerability and ambition, and the movie smartly lets the relationship between the women carry the emotional weight rather than treating the scams as the whole point.
Bottom line
It is not a perfectly balanced film, and it sometimes softens the sharper implications of its own story. But as a piece of entertainment with bite, it lands: confident, propulsive, and more thoughtful than its premise initially suggests.
Top Letterboxd reviews
maria (4★) · 6899 likes
feminist lesbian strippers drugging and robbing wall street criminal dudes while giving oscar worthy performances is my favorite film genre
nick (4★) · 6809 likes
jlo could do the wolf of wall street but leonardo dicaprio couldn’t do hustlers
Stephanie (4.5★) · 4509 likes
had more to say about society than Joker
Lucy (4.5★) · 3829 likes
“we were fucking hurricanes, weren’t we” not a joke in the slightest: this is one of the best films of the year. a movie with a premise like this could have been made in a million horrible ways, but this is a perfect example of how good something can be when treated just right. it’s engaging from the first scene until the cut to black. everyone is a star player, j-lo is ridiculously great and even cardi b and miss… more
Patrick Willems (4.5★) · 3690 likes
As soon as "It's Britney bitch" hit I knew I was watching one of the best movies of 2019
2013 · Drama, Crime · 1h 30m · Where to watch: Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, FlixFling
A glossy, ironic look at youth, status, and theft as a form of aspiration and performance.
A high-anxiety portrait of greed and self-destruction in a money-obsessed world.
Themes
female friendship, class resentment, financial crisis aftermath, crime and survival, labor and exploitation, power dynamics, glamour and performance, moral ambiguity