Film

Hustlers

Name: Hustlers
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: 2019
Cast: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart

Con-artist caper

Hustlers dramatizes a real scheme: strippers fleecing Wall Street clients after the 2008 crash gutted their income. Lorene Scafaria shoots it like a crime saga — rise, excess, fall — with Jennifer Lopez as the magnetic ringleader and Constance Wu as the outsider pulled into her orbit. It's stylish, funny, morally slippery, and tender about sisterhood forged in survival. For anyone who wants their heist movie with heels and heart.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love crime stories built on sharp dialogue, tight partnerships and a moral grey area you enjoy arguing about on the way home.

Skip it if you want a tidy con with a clear plan and a fast clock; this is looser, more invested in its characters than in the mechanics.

What it asks of you: It runs about two hours with a leisurely build, and it stays inside its characters' heads, so you need patience before the sharper, funnier turns arrive.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

GoodFellas1990

Scorsese's rise-and-fall blueprint is the movie Hustlers openly borrows from — the voiceover, the freeze frames, the giddy climb before the floor drops out. Same bones, mob money instead of strip club money.

But Three hours of male-dominated crime; if you came for female camaraderie, this offers none.

Widows2018

Viola Davis leads a crew of women left holding debts by dead men, turning crime into their own bailout. Same appetite for competent women finally taking what men owe them.

But Colder and more political than Hustlers — less party, more grim calculation.

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

See the exact species of Wall Street guy Hustlers' women were fleecing, told from his side with even more cocaine and self-satisfaction. The victim's-eye mirror image, basically.

But Three hours of unrepentant male excess with barely a woman given any interior life.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Hustlers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

How to Marry a Millionaire1953

It's the same con — women converting male money into their own security — six decades earlier, before it needed a crime to count as a scheme.

Three women scheme to land rich husbands using looks, timing and each other as backup — the hustle Hustlers' crew runs, minus the drugs and the felony charges, played entirely for laughs.

But Dated gender politics and a happy-marriage ending that Hustlers would find quaint, even naive.

American Hustle2013

Con artists, wigs, and a scheme that spirals past anyone's control — the same tonal cocktail of comedy, crime and heartbreak, just swapped to the FBI sting era.

But Baggier and more scattershot; the con here is messier and less satisfying than Hustlers' clean revenge structure.

Ocean's Eight2018

An all-female crew, a gorgeous heist, and the sheer pleasure of watching women out-plan every man in the room. Lighter and glossier than Hustlers but the same sisterhood-as-weapon energy.

But Toothless compared to Hustlers — no real stakes, no real cost, just fun.

Molly's Game2017

Jessica Chastain runs an underground poker empire serving the same class of rich, reckless men Hustlers' crew targets — another woman turning male excess into her own income.

But More courtroom framing device and less friendship; it's a lonelier story than Hustlers.

The Big Short2015

The same 2008 crash that wrecked Hustlers' club economy, told from inside the banks that caused it. Essential context for why the men in Hustlers had so much cash to lose.

But Dense with financial jargon and structured as comedy-lecture; it can feel more homework than heist.

Set It Off1996

An underseen classic about four women pushed by a system that failed them into robbing banks together. Same rage, same loyalty, same refusal to stay victims.

But Grittier and far less glamorous — this is survival, not seduction.

Magic Mike XXL2015

Flip the gender and lower the stakes: strippers as a joyful found family on the road, all camaraderie and hustle without the crime. Pure comfort watch after Hustlers' harder edges.

But No plot to speak of and zero moral complexity — it's a party, not a story.

Inside Job2010

Same villains, same crash, opposite register: where Hustlers turns the aftermath into a caper, this turns the cause into an indictment.

The Oscar-winning documentary that lays out exactly how the 2008 crash happened, narrated with cold fury at the men Hustlers' women later fleeced for spare change of what they'd stolen.

But No characters to root for, just interviews and charts — it's righteous anger, not entertainment.

Zola2021

Same industry and the same female bond curdling into transaction, but the format and tone swing from glossy crime-caper to hallucinatory social-media horror-comedy.

A stripper's road trip to Florida spirals into exploitation and danger, told with the jumpy, meme-bright energy of the Twitter thread it's based on. Same world, dialed straight into chaos.

But Deliberately disorienting and much darker underneath its candy colors — the hustle here doesn't pay off.