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August 19, 2005
Hustle & Flow
Hustle & Flow (2005), Craig Brewer:
I want to know who's in charge of creating buzz. I assume there must be a person, because I can't see how as bad as this can do it on its own. Ok, it wasn't terrible, but when two of your movie choices for opening weekend are Hustle & Flow and The Island, you clearly expect the former to be better than the latter. Sadly, it wasn't.
As many, many other people have pointed out, Hustle & Flow is an amalgam of two movies. One is the Memphis neo-realism, showcasing a pimp's hard life (what AO Scott classifies as The Hustle) and the other is the Rocky-style triumph of the underdog as he goes from pimp to rapper (aptly enough, the Flow). The problem is, unlike Rocky, the two halves seem to come from entirely different film universes. Some domestic catastrophe will fill a scene to the brink with drama, then the group will be off merrily following their burgeoning rap career, suffering no ill consequences at all. I can't buy your hardship when it comes and goes depending on what the scene needs. Everything resolves too patly, as well; the filmmakers seem to back off when things get too rough.
Emily felt a little odd at DJ Qualls' inclusion in the film, as if it was a ploy to make the film more accessible to mainstream (read: white) audiences. I didn't really think about that, but I'd buy it.
4/15
Posted by bing at August 19, 2005 10:41 PM