Hustlers (2019)

Elevator Pitch: A group of women who dance and provide other (non invasive) services in a club patronised by Wall Street executives, are faced with men who want more bang for their buck after the 2008 financial crash. Instead they embark on a structured crime spree of drugging their potential clients and  maxing out their credit cards. When it is all over one of them is interviewed by a journalist.

Content: Quite a bit of pole and other forms of dancing in the club and a lot of exchanges in the dressing rooms, the ladies mostly scantily clad. No sex although they talk about it quite a bit. Some drinking and social drug taking, as well as the drugging of the clients. A bit of a turning point when one of the clients dives off a balcony onto the concrete surround of a swimming pool and they have to take him to hospital. A bit of child care, and an intent to promote “family values”.

A View: This is almost a fly on the wall documentary, and since it was promoted as a sort of feminine version of “Wolf of Wall Street”, “The Big Short”  or “Margin Call” and had gained more or less positive reviews, I thought it might be a watch. But honestly these women might as well have been hitting their victims over the head with blunt instruments and rifling through their wallets. Subtle it was not. So it was one of those times when I have sat in the cinema wishing I had gone to see something else.

Additional Info: So regardless of what I think, it made a lot more than its production cost, estimated at $20 million, on its first weekend and has gone on, up to now, to gross $148 million.