Girl Powertakes on a darker meaning with this seductive drama starring big names like Cardi B, Lili Reinhart and JLO.
The film follows the lives of strippers turned con-artists as they scam millions from Wall Street players in retribution for the 2008 financial crash. The operation is spearheaded by JLO’s character Ramona, a master manipulator with a fondness for fur coats. She stars opposite Constance Wu’s Destiny, a protagonist who brings humanity to this ruthless way of life. The story unfolds from Destiny’s perspective, touching first on the aftermath of the women’s scheme as she speaks to a reporter about those turbulent years. This distance gives Destiny the space to feel remorse for her actions, to grieve about what she lost in terms of both her freedom and her friendships. It reminds the audience that what they did was wrong – from drugging men and cleaning out their life’s savings to pimping out other women. We need to see Destiny’s clenched fists and smudged eyeliner as she cries like a woman ruined, we need to see Ramona’s fate as a forgettable bureaucrat, we need to see it all to forget the glamor…
Which is most striking when Usher makes a surprise cameo. We knew about Cardi B and Lizzo – but somehow Usher’s role was kept completely under wraps! He glides into the strip club the night before the stock market collapses, flourishing hundred-dollar bills while the women all dance on stage. JLO steals the spotlight, dipping into a low crawl as she puts her lips close to Usher’s. “What’s your name?” she coos. It’s a celebration of what Cosmopolitancalled “the golden era of strip clubs,” a time when money and champagne flowed freely and the clubs were the hot place to go on a Friday night. But it all ends the following day. With the wealthy clients gone, the women are forced to improvise. For some that means giving hand jobs to make a little cash, for Ramona and Co., it means hustling.
For a few years they make enough money to move their children into better apartments, to wear designer clothes, to take care of their elderly grandparents, and – most importantly – to become a family. The most poignant scene is at Christmas, when the women gather beneath the tree to exchange presents and swap magnified tales of their youths. The audience forgets the swindling, the violence, because in that moment they are simply women who survived the hardships of poverty, abuse, and single parenthood. They are women who built a life together.
It’s easy to champion their victories at first. Their victims prompt little sympathy, men with piggish natures, convinced they can take what they want and when they want without consequence. But as Ramona becomes high on her power, deluded that her scheme is unstoppable, she gets sloppy. She and Destiny outsource their “jobs” to unreliable hookers, and it doesn’t take long before one confesses to the police. After a failed attempt to catch the women in the act of drugging a “client” with their deadly mix of ketamine, “molly,” and cocaine, the cops give up. Enter Gary, the only pitiable victim in the entire narrative. He and Destiny bond over the trials of single parenthood, and you can see her doubt her plan when he also reveals that he lost his house to a fire, and that his wife left him and their sons when one was diagnosed with autism. Yet Destiny doesn’t stop Ramona from drugging him and stealing his savings. Gary calls the next day, begging for just enough to pay his mortgage. Constance Wu perfectly captures Destiny’s struggle as she robotically echoes what Ramona has ordered, losing her conviction with every word.
She gives him nothing. But the recorded call is enough to arrest the women. In a testament to each of their characters, Destiny is taken from her home as she prepares to pick up her daughter from kindergarten, and Ramona is taken as she stealthily withdraws stolen money from an ATM.
Their fall is justified, deserved, but why then do our hearts ache for the women? It isn’t for their lost lifestyle, nor their time in jail, it’s for their shattered friendships. Their whole lives the women wanted nothing more than the security and independence of money, but for one glorious moment they had something far more valuable – each other.
Hustlersdoesn’t idolize female criminality anymore than Fast & Furiousor The Godfatherdoes for men. It’s an empowering narrative about the dedication and the intensity of women. It portrays women at the top of their game, but also just how far they can plummet.