Hustlers is a 2019 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, based on Jessica Pressler’s 2015 New York magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores”.[5] The film stars Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo in her film debut, and Cardi B in her film debut. The film follows a group of New York City strippers who begin stealing money by drugging stock traders and executives who come to their club, then draining their credit cards. Lopez also serves as a producer on the film through Nuyorican Productions, along with Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay through their Gloria Sanchez banner.
First announced in February 2016, the film was originally financed and distributed by Annapurna Pictures. However, amid financial difficulties, Annapurna dropped the rights in October 2018. After STX Entertainment acquired most of the cast, the film was dropped the following spring, and filming took place in New York City from March to May 2019.
In 2014, former New York City stripper Dorothy is invited to interview Elizabeth, a journalist who is writing a story about Dorothy’s former friend and mentor, Ramona Vega.
Seven years ago, Dorothy, known by her stage name Destiny, worked at Moves, a strip club, to support her grandmother, but was barely making ends meet. Enchanted by Ramona’s performance and the tips she earned, Destiny met her on the rooftop of the club. Ramona agrees to protect Destiny, and the two form a formidable team. Destiny enjoys her newfound wealth and friendship with Ramona. A year later, during the financial crisis of 2008, both women find themselves short of money. Destiny becomes pregnant. She kicks her boyfriend out of the house shortly after their daughter is born, and she is unable to find a new job.
Left with no other choice, Destiny moves back into her grandmother’s house with her daughter. Things have changed: the financial crisis of 2008 has impacted their business, and the club is largely staffed by immigrant women who are willing to perform sexual acts for money, a line Destiny doesn’t want to cross, but crosses in a moment of desperation. She reconnects with Ramona, who introduces her to a new plan. Along with her two protΓ©gΓ©s, Mercedes and Annabelle, Ramona targets wealthy men at bars, gets them drunk, and then escorts them to Moves, where the girls steal their credit card numbers and charge them up to their limits. Destiny joins in and learns that Ramona uses a mixture of ketamine and MDMA to impair her targets’ judgment and cause memory loss, a tactic that is considered worthwhile because their victims rarely admit to being robbed by strippers.
The scheme works, and the women enjoy their newfound wealth. When some of the targets prove too aggressive for Mercedes and Annabelle, Destiny suggests bringing in other girls who are carefully trained to avoid drinking or using drugs. Ramona’s partnership with Moves makes credit card fraud profitable for them. However, their operation begins to run into trouble. Other strippers begin to copy their strategy. Furious, Ramona cuts off business ties with Moves and the group begins servicing clients in their hotel rooms or homes.
Mercedes and Annabelle become increasingly unreliable with this new operation, so Ramona hires women with drug problems and criminal records to replace them, while Destiny is reluctant to bring in βjunkies and criminals.β Destinyβs fears come true when a client has a near-fatal accident and she has to take him to the hospital. Meanwhile, Ramona is busy rescuing a particularly unreliable recruit, Dawn. Destiny returns home to find her grandmother dead. At the funeral, Ramona makes amends and promises to take care of Destiny from now on.
Back in 2014, Destiny becomes upset and stops the interview when Elizabeth insists on talking about Ramona. When Elizabeth returns home, Destiny calls and agrees to end their conversation, recalling how her friendship with Ramonaβand their crime ringβhas fallen apart. Ramona’s insensitivity has caused a rift between the women, and Destiny feels she can no longer justify her crimes. Dawn is arrested by the police and “betrays” her co-defendants, while investigators find several victims and identify all of the girls. Destiny, Ramona, Annabelle, and Mercedes are arrested, but only Destiny (thinking of her daughter) accepts a plea deal. Ramona is sentenced to five years of probation, while the others serve short prison sentences before being released.
