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M

oreGoodfellasthanShow-
girls, writer-director
Lorene Scafaria’s latest
feature is a masterful example of
knowing how to reel in one’s
audience while commanding
they stay for more.Hustlersis an
ambitious film, one that seeks to
balance its crime narrative with
sharp, satirical comedy and its
slick marketing veneer with a
depth of storytelling, all while
housing a powerhouse bill of fe-
male actors whose presence to-
gether is already larger than life.
Thankfully, Scafaria is in clear
command of Hustlers, a film
that’s much deeper than the
shallow fanfare generated by the
marketing of its excellent cast.
Her direction here is controlled,
concise and empathic, lending
her adaptation of Jessica Press-
ler’s well-read 2015 New York
magazine article more sensitivity
than one might expect from a
more loosely fictionalized ac-
count of strippers robbing their
main demographic (for the un-
initiated: wealthy men).
A film that was reportedly
passed on by Martin Scorsese
himself, Scafaria’s film tran-
scends its more humbling origin
story in its insistence on the inte-
rior lives of its female characters.
Comparisons to Scorsese’s work
(The Wolf of Wall StreetandGood-
fellasin particular) have followed
early reviews of Hustlers for a
reason: A family-centered crime
drama set against the narrative
backdrop of the 2008 financial
crisis clearly echoes the great
Italian-American director’s work
(and yes, the women ofHustlers
are undoubtedly a family). But
here, Scafaria fully steps into her
own by shaping a film which
organically extends a sensitivity
to its characters.
First things first: The hype sur-
rounding Jennifer Lopez’s per-
formance as Ramona, the queen
mother of theHustlersworld and
reigning matriarch of its strip
clubs’ ecosystems, is absolutely
to be believed. Lopez dominates
the film with a performance that
is as strong as it is vulnerable, as
conniving as it is caring. Set in
contrast to Constance Wu’s Desti-

ny, a wide-eyed newbie to the

world of pole-dancing and fleec-

ing financial titans, Ramona car-

ries the film with a material sub-

stance we haven’t seen from her

since the days ofSelena(indeed,

the Latino Twittersphere is aloud

with calls of Oscars redemption

for her 1997 awards snub). The

cast is nothing but stellar, with

the performances of music and

entertainment heavyweights

Cardi B and Lizzo in smaller roles

jumping off the screen with an

electrifying charisma – which

should come as a surprise to ex-

actly no one at all.

Destiny herself is the perfect

beta to Ramona’s almost other-

worldly alpha. WhereHustlers

succeeds best is in its study of

their relationship and the mercu-

rial constant it exists in. The em-

pathy in the writing of these two

roles is something not often seen

in similarly women-led block-

busters (most of which settle for

the idea of female solidarity and

pop feminism, rather than any

actual in-depth exploration of

the intricacies of female friend-

ship). Even within this,Hustlers

has a more-than-justified anger

bubbling below its glossy surface

• a wholly dissatisfied stand on
  the role of ethically vacant, pow-
  erful men in shaping the world,
  or perhaps more aptly, a world
  that more often than not shapes
  women as collateral damage.

Hustlersopens Sept. 13

LiliReinhart,JenniferLopez,KekePalmer,andConstanceWustarinHustlers.

JenniferLopezmakes

along-overdue

comebackinHustlers

Writer -director

LoreneScafariaisin

fullcontrolwithafilm

muchdeeperthan

theshallowfanfareof

itsmarketingsuggests

SARAH-TAIBLACK

Lopez,top,andWu,aboveleft,arestellarinafamily-centredcrime

dramasetagainstthenarrativebackdropofthe2008financialcrisis–

onethatcontainsmore-than-justifiedangerbubblingbelowits

glossysurfaceagainstthepowerfulmenshapingtheworld.

REVIEW

Hustlers
CLASSIFICATION: R; 109 MINUTES

Directed by Lorene Scafaria
Written by Lorene Scafaria,
based on the magazine article
by Jessica Pressler
Starring Constance Wu,
Jennifer Lopez and Julia Stiles
★★★

I

n Armando Iannucci’s screen adaptation ofThe Personal

History of David Copperfield,just launched at the Toronto

International Film Festival, there are a host of Dicken-

sian characters who provide a delicious batch of cameos

for various British acting talents. One of them is the pecu-

liarly frustrated Mr. Dick, who can never manage to finish

writing his memoirs because thoughts of King Charles I on

the eve of his execution keep interrupting him. Actor Hugh

Laurie makes the man’s erratic energy and occasional va-

cancy amusing, but also poignant – in Charles Dickens’s era,

Mr. Dick was a sad eccentric; in Iannucci and Laurie’s, he is

clearly suffering from mental illness.

Still, madness and genius lie side-by-side, to this day. Mr.

Dick is provided some relief, if not a cure, by flying a kite

pasted together from scraps of paper carrying his errant

thoughts, a practice encouraged, particularly in this contem-

porary adaptation, by David Copperfield himself. Dev Patel’s

cheerful version of the title character even invents the idea

of the kite and kindly empathizes with the experience of

hearing voices in one’s head. After all, Copperfield is a bud-

ding writer who also scribbles on scraps of paper, trying out

bits of dialogue and metaphor.

In Dickens’ original, David Copperfield’s calling as a writer

is a quiet note that emerges late in a novel considered the

author’s most autobiographical. In his update, Iannucci

makes the point more emphatically with all those pieces of

paper appearing on screen – here is a portrait of the artist as

a young man.

Or as a young woman. This year’s festival is full of films of

a confessional nature that chart an artist’s development, in-

cluding the aptly namedHow to Build a Girl. Based on a

semi-autobiographical novel by British newspaper colum-

nist Caitlin Moran, it tells how a 16-year-old, working-class

Midlands nerd named Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein)

reinvents herself as the vicious London rock critic Dolly

Wilde. This time, the writing is not scribbled on paper but – a

bit anachronistically, considering the 1990s setting – pound-

ed out on a small typewriter. Of course, pounding at those

keys, no matter how hard, is not very cinematic nor dramat-

ic: What makesHow to Build a Girlan exuberantly comic

movie (in the hands of director Coky Giedroyc) is the frum-

py Johanna’s sudden transformation into a creature dressed

in a sequined tutu, black tailcoat and top hat perched over

voluminous curls newly dyed magenta.

In this coming-of-age story, Johanna inevitably learns that

it’s better to be yourself than somebody else, but as is often

the case, the film’s crisis is more revealing than its solution.

Johanna’s initiation as a writer involves donning a guise; she

adopts a foreign voice, just as David Copperfield’s scribbled

papers mimic the accents and expressions of the colourful

figures around him.

If the authorial voice is possibly an act of mimicry or

deception, it can also be one that lies painfully close to per-

sonal truth. What else to make of Pedro Almodovar’sPain

and Glory, also at the festival, a film by a famous but aging

Spanish film director about a famous but aging Spanish film

director? In interviews, Almodovar has been frank about the

autobiographical nature of the project, which was shot on a

set that reproduced the director’s Madrid apartment, right

down to the art hanging on the walls.

The protagonist, played by Antonio Banderas, is one Sal-

vador Mallo, a pre-eminent Spanish director whose physical

ailments are numerous and artistic ideas scarce. He breaks

through his creative block when a series of encounters with

figures from his past triggers both memories and forgive-

ness. Finally, the auteur starts writing ... presumably the

script for the film we are now watching.Pain and Gloryis so

meta, it can become difficult to summarize all the interwo-

ven references to art and to life, but the point is that cine-

matic storytelling is a lifeblood to Salvador – or to Almodo-

var.

Sometimes the only voice an artist hears in his head is his

own.

TIFF2019showcases

moviesaboutthe

making,andunmaking,

ofgreatartists

Top:DevPatelstarsasthecheerfulversionofthetitle

characterInArmandoIannucci’sscreenadaptationof

ThePersonalHistoryofDavidCopperfield.

Above:Aworking-classteenager(BeanieFeldstein)triesto

reinventherselfasaviciousLondonrockcriticinHowtoBuilda

Girl,acoming-of-agestorybasedonBritishauthorCaitlin

Moran’ssemi-autobiographicalnovel.COURTESY OF TIFF

KATE

TAYLOR

OPINION