Lorene Scafaria
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There are shades of the wit and grit of Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street but Scafaria combines it with a refreshingly sincere approach, akin to Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike .
Scafaria (“Seeking a Friend at the End of the World”) has studied the Martin Scorsese playbook perfectly, and there’s a distinct “Wolf of Wall Street”/“GoodFellas” vibe to the accumulation of money, furs and Louis Vuitton bags.
Hustlers cuts back and forth between the past and the present (there is also narration and an elaborate long take around the entire strip club reminiscent of the tracking camera work in Goodfellas, just to further drive the Martin Scorsese comparisons home), but it should be obvious to anyone reading this review that eventually someone does blow this up into a scandal.
Indeed, Hustlers feels akin to the crime films of both Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino) and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice).
Todd Banhazl’s cinematography, which snakes and dashes and zooms around this pre-2008 crash excess, recalls the virtuosic, cocksure visuals we associate with Martin Scorsese’s kinetic studies in greed ( Goodfellas , Casino , The Wolf of Wall Street ).
Playing a scheming stripper who rips off men and barely bats an eyelash, Jennifer Lopez has her best role since "Out of Sight" in "Hustlers," a seductive crime drama that's like "Goodfellas" with stripper poles.
Indeed, Hustlers feels akin to the crime films of both Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino) and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice).
Todd Banhazl’s cinematography, which snakes and dashes and zooms around this pre-2008 crash excess, recalls the virtuosic, cocksure visuals we associate with Martin Scorsese’s kinetic studies in greed ( Goodfellas , Casino , The Wolf of Wall Street ).
“The Untouchables” (explicitly referenced), “Casino,” you name it.
In a way, this behind-the-scenes tutorial offers the film’s most compelling material, not unlike how Scorsese’s opening to Casino outstrips the rest of that movie.
One thing that’s been noticed by many critics and other viewers of Hustlers is just how much it resembles Martin Scorsese’s crime films, most notably Goodfellas , Casino , The Departed , and The Wolf of Wall Street .
The Casino gangsters made too much noise.
There are shades of the wit and grit of Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street but Scafaria combines it with a refreshingly sincere approach, akin to Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike .
Though there are early moments when the film recalls the vibe (if not the particulars) of Magic Mike, Scafaria uses the opening scenes to provide a “stripper primer” – how it’s all about the tease and what kind of Wall Street workers provide the best marks (always look for the wedding ring).
When Magic Mike arrived in 2012 the stripper was infused with an air of seriousness, courtesy of director Steven Soderbergh, though it reminded audiences of the double standards that plague these narratives (women are regularly nude, men aren’t).
It has its drawbacks; the pacing is not always on point and can lurch forward at some moments or ritard to a standstill, particularly in the second act; but, like Magic Mike before it, Hustlers is a movie that successfully manages to interweave surfaces pleasures with substantive themes.
In this introduction, Lopez gives the audience a jaw-dropping spectacle and full-body rush on par with Channing Tatum’s “Pony” sequence from Magic Mike.
"Hustlers" could, and should, do for her what "Magic Mike" did for Matthew McConaughey.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Hustlers (2019)
Themes Visuals Plot
There are shades of the wit and grit of Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street but Scafaria combines it with a refreshingly sincere approach, akin to Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike .
Conceived as a ‘financial crash film’ in the vein of Adam McKay’s The Big Short and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street , it was first offered to these two men.
Todd Banhazl’s cinematography, which snakes and dashes and zooms around this pre-2008 crash excess, recalls the virtuosic, cocksure visuals we associate with Martin Scorsese’s kinetic studies in greed ( Goodfellas , Casino , The Wolf of Wall Street ).
There are certainly echoes of Scorsese’s work here, namely Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street , since we’re watching Destiny’s morality chip away bit by bit.
Elaine Lui has said that Hustlers should be talked about in the same breath as GoodFellas — that it’s as good as that classic gangster film and better than The Wolf of Wall Street and should therefore get the same prestige treatment come Oscar season.
Writer and director Lorene Scafaria crafts what is essentially The Wolf of Wall Street where the filthy rich incapable of staying away from debauchery repeatedly get their own comeuppance from the wits of independently driven strippers looking to prey on them and drain their wallets, in the same manner, they might do to some unlucky schmuck they take advantage of over the phone.
Last Night (1998)
Directed by Don McKellar
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Plot Themes
Before the world does in fact end, you might want to track down a copy of 1998�s "Last Night."
It also borrows (some might even say steals) a screenplay from Don McKellar’s Last Night, a 1998 Canadian indie focusing on an unlikely love story taking place amid the chaos of a planet hours away from destruction.
Hell, there was even a nifty little 1998 film from Canada called "Last Night" that saw the end of the world through a filter of bemused resignation--in one key moment, a woman entered an abandoned liquor store in search of a bottle of wine with which to toast the end of times, picked up and examined two still sitting on the shelf and then put one back before leaving with the other.
Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World covers almost exactly the same ground as Don McKellar’s beautiful 1998 gem Last Night: a middle-aged loner whiles away the last days before a calamity (unspecified in McKellar’s film; an unstoppable asteroid here) wipes out the planet.
(There have been a few, though, including a fine Canadian film from 1998 called "Last Night.")
…well, since Don McKellar's excellent, bittersweet 1999 end-of-the-world reverie, Last Night.
Conceived as a ‘financial crash film’ in the vein of Adam McKay’s The Big Short and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street , it was first offered to these two men.
It is serious business – both literally and figuratively – and yet this 2008-financial-crisis cautionary tale ( The Big Short director Adam McKay is one of the producers) channels the stylized form of a female buddy movie.
The marketing for Hustlers gives the impression that this has The Big Short or Vice (and Adam McKay, the director of both, is a producer on Hustlers) or even Ocean’s 11 vibes, but Hustlers is a more grounded and sombre movie than those dramedies.
Indeed, Hustlers feels akin to the crime films of both Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino) and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice).
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), “The Big Short” (2015) and “Wall Street” (1987) all capture fast cash and high times in vivid blurs of overindulgence, articulated through mounds of designer drugs, $100 bottles of champagne and long-legged women in G-strings sashaying about for well-fleeced oglers.
There have been many Wall Street movies that include strippers and sex workers as background filler or punchlines; these can range from Martin Scorsese’s intentionally debauched The Wolf of Wall Street —where the line between documentation and exploitation is intentionally blurred—to even Hustlers producer Adam McKay’s own The Big Short , which might be the definitive cinematic tragi-comedy about the housing crisis.
Melancholia (2011)
Directed by Lars von Trier
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Plot Themes Music
While the film’s website helpfully points out the many movies with a similar premise that inspired this story, they also bring to mind so many other recent apocalypses that have approached the familiar set-up with far more creativity and insight into human behavior, let alone entertainment value—Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter , Brit Marling and Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, or Lars von Trier’s Melancholia .
Lars von Trier's Melancholia , for example, cared little about the science of an extinction event (to the point where his utter lack of any kind of realistic touchstone became a distraction) and instead explored how a small group of individuals would react to their imminent demise.
The obvious movie referent is Lars von Trier's "Melancholia," a much nastier film in a much lovelier wrapping: This one lacks an eight-minute Wagner montage.
Right from the first scene in Scafaria’s film, the world is going to go boom a la “Melancholia” or “Armageddon” (one of the few times you’ll hear those two movies compared in a sentence).
Last year alone brought us Lars von Trier's "Melancholia," Brit Marling's "Another Earth" and such television shows as 'Falling Skies' and 'The Walking Dead' among others.
Armageddon (1998)
Directed by Michael Bay
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Plot Themes
Right from the first scene in Scafaria’s film, the world is going to go boom a la “Melancholia” or “Armageddon” (one of the few times you’ll hear those two movies compared in a sentence).
Humanity’s last hope, in the presumed though unseen shape of (say) Bruce Willis in Armageddon, has just failed to deflect an asteroid from its collision course.
There are the big, brawny effects-laden blockbusters like "Armageddon" that are all about watching a few good men (with maybe one woman in a supporting role) race against time to save the day while stuff blows up around them a la "Armageddon" and the like.
The perfect Canadian retort to the bombastic "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" of the same year, it was a relatively calm and, well, very Canadian ensemble piece about how various people responded to imminent global doom.
A manned space mission to save the day, a la Armageddon, has failed due to basic human error, and now humans are left to ponder the abject silliness of their own institutions.
Cinema has long been fascinated with Armageddon, but with technology advancing ever forward, many movies about the end of the Earth overlook true human emotion in favor of big explosions, big gestures, and big box office.
I also felt the eventual collapse of their scheme was a bit rushed and the film certainly doesn't match the brilliance of "Boogie Nights" in showing the rise, decadence, and fall of those in the skin trade.
On the other hand, the very idea of "Hustlers"--a jazzed-up crime spectacle in the vein of "Goodfellas" and "Boogie Nights" that has been given a feminist spin--is so undeniably appealing at its core that it takes you a while to finally realize that it never really comes together in a satisfying manner.
Like Boogie Nights or Magic Mike XXL , there are some who will stay away from the story because of the subject matter alone.
Instead, a la Boogie Nights, they form part of a de-facto family.
Like P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights (an old favorite), director Lorene Scafaria frames Hustlers as historical allegory, a story of America as much as of its characters' rise and fall, straddling the unfettered, decadent excess and mournful, grimy desperation on either side of the 2008 economic crash.
Unlike say Showgirls, which throws glitter on these stereotypes and asks us not to take anything too seriously, or Pretty Woman, which worked the aspirational princess fairy tale angle, Hustlers tries for a Sex and the City vibe, which might work as a feel-good set-up if not for the whole drugging and deceit thing.
Each woman’s sob story about abuse and resentment brought me back to a 1990 incident: A middle-aged female friend interrupted a group of adolescent girls fawning over Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman .
There’s a long line of movies about strippers and sex workers— Player’s Club , Showgirls , Magic Mike , and Pretty Woman to name a few.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Themes
Making this concept into an outright farce would have taken the most subtle and clever of comic directors, and I don't know that we have anybody working in America right now who'd be able to do it; Stanley Kubrick in his Dr. Strangelove mode is what it's looking for, and that is a powerful rare commodity.
As I dipped in and out of the various moods of Seeking a Friend, I began to miss the uncompromising satire of bravura end-of-the world movies such as Dr. Strangelove.
Another Earth (2011)
Directed by Mike Cahill
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Plot Themes
While the film’s website helpfully points out the many movies with a similar premise that inspired this story, they also bring to mind so many other recent apocalypses that have approached the familiar set-up with far more creativity and insight into human behavior, let alone entertainment value—Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter , Brit Marling and Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, or Lars von Trier’s Melancholia .
In Mike Cahill's Another Earth, a carbon copy of our planet approached from points unknown and ended up taking up orbit in the sky, as those on our world discovered that the twin Earth had alternate versions of themselves.
Last year alone brought us Lars von Trier's "Melancholia," Brit Marling's "Another Earth" and such television shows as 'Falling Skies' and 'The Walking Dead' among others.
The end of the world is hardly a rare subject for movies; recently we've had " Melancholia " and " Another Earth ," and who could forget Don McKellar's bittersweet " Last Night " (1998)?
Survivalists are counting the days until the rapture or the Mayan meltdown, and last year we had two separate movies about astronomical annihilation ("Another Earth" and "Melancholia").
The marketing for Hustlers gives the impression that this has The Big Short or Vice (and Adam McKay, the director of both, is a producer on Hustlers) or even Ocean’s 11 vibes, but Hustlers is a more grounded and sombre movie than those dramedies.
Indeed, Hustlers feels akin to the crime films of both Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino) and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice).
Hustlers is an electrifying response to the deluge of stories we’ve had over the years about very rich, very bad dudes (it’s worth noting one of the film’s producers is Adam McKay, the director of Vice and The Big Short , which both deal with such characters).
Among the film’s producers is Adam McKay, whose 2018 “Vice” (about Dick Cheney) was a model of political and social satire.
But it’s also unlike anything Scorsese has made, relishing in a lively feminine energy, the same way that Michael Bay combined Scorsese with his signature testosterone-pumped gym rat energy in 2013’s underrated Pain & Gain.
Reminiscent of better films like Pain & Gain and I, Tonya , this stretch packs a long-teased energy and wit — that promptly disappears as quickly as it arrived.
Hustlers is like if The Wolf of Wall Street had a baby with Dead Presidents , but was high on Pain & Gain during the pregnancy.
Striptease with Demi Moore is a non-starter, for her ass, although enviable, didn’t possess any powers—evil or good—that I could detect.
Those with long memories might remember Demi Moore in Striptease (1996) and Elizabeth Berkley in the unfairly maligned Showgirls (1995), with which Hustlers bears some similarity, though only in its flash and dazzle.
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Directed by Geoff Murphy
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Themes
There have been gentle apocalypses before, to be sure, like 1985's lyrical " The Quiet Earth ," the excellent " Last Night " (a 1998 film I love so much I had to work to get past my initial knee-jerk unfounded resentment over this film's seeming resemblance to it) and many more.
Not unlike seeing Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman for the first time, the experience of watching Hustlers is akin to having a veil lifted from your eyes.
Surely, it’s better than Showgirls, which featured Elizabeth Berkley’s evil ass.
Those with long memories might remember Demi Moore in Striptease (1996) and Elizabeth Berkley in the unfairly maligned Showgirls (1995), with which Hustlers bears some similarity, though only in its flash and dazzle.
What follows plays like a lively page-turner that grafts some of Martin Scorsese's trademark verve and paranoia into a narrative that recalls Sofia Coppola's underrated “The Bling Ring.”
I thought a lot about Sofia Coppola’s more recent works, namely The Bling Ring , in how Scafaria synthesizes pop culture into its own subgenre of reality.
Take Shelter (2011)
Directed by Jeff Nichols
influenced Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Plot Themes
While the film’s website helpfully points out the many movies with a similar premise that inspired this story, they also bring to mind so many other recent apocalypses that have approached the familiar set-up with far more creativity and insight into human behavior, let alone entertainment value—Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter , Brit Marling and Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, or Lars von Trier’s Melancholia .
The recent spate of onscreen Armageddons kicked off with Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, but we’ve also endured Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter and Abel Ferrara’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth.
In “Seeking a Friend For the End of the World,” the despair of “Melancholia” and “Take Shelter” and “The Road” get a spin toward romantic comedy in the hands of “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” writer Lorene Scafaria, making her directorial debut.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World has much less in common with Take Shelter or Beasts of the Southern Wild – the two greatest recent apocalypse films – than it does with Safety Not Guaranteed, another offbeat charmer that avoids the danger of too much whimsy.
It joins a raft of other doomsday scenarios, including "Melancholia," "Take Shelter," "The Walking Dead," "Falling Skies" and the upcoming TV series "Revolution," in portraying human behavior as being tested under the most extreme of circumstances.