Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I โ™ฅ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe

Entries in Hustlers (26)

Wednesday
Sep182019

Soundtracking: Hustlers

by Chris Feil

“This is a story about control...”

Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers begins by brilliantly underlining its thesis through the musical vessel of Janet Jackson. The film is a story about control, of reclaiming it in a workforce that tries to take it from you, and ultimately of losing it. But the film is also about female power and shoving back against an oppressive system, all of this embodied in the pop perfection prowess of Jackson herself. Hustlers may be the most slamming pop soundtrack of the year, but it’s also deployed with similar subtextual wisdom. The hits keep coming, but they also reinforce Scarfaria’s examination of feminine defiance with a razor specific period detail.

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Sep172019

TIFF Jury of One - Chris Feil

Chris here, giving my own quick rundown of TIFF! Overall, I was able to see 33 films in total, including some under-the-radar thrills and more Midnight Madness films than ever before. As ever, closing out the festival is always quite bittersweet - but I'll have a little pick me up sharing what I loved most (and a few misses). Climb in my fur, and recap TIFF with me...

Best Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Director
: Marielle Heller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Sep152019

"Hustlers" Collects the Cash

We're baa-aaack. We haven't done a box office post in two weeks due to our TIFF jaunt so we're dying to know what you've been watching while we were cramming fall and winter movies in. Next weekend things get VERY competitive with the Brad Pitt led sci-fi drama Ad Astra, the leap to the big screen for Downton Abbey, and yet another Sylvester Stallone milking-his-franchises sequel Rambo: Last Blood all arriving to compete with Pennywise and JLo for the box office crown.

The weekend estimates for all 14 pictures in wide release and the corresponding top platform titles are after the jump along with a few notes...

Weekend Box Office
Sept 13th-15th (Estimates)
๐Ÿ”บ = new or expanding / โ˜… = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)
PLATFORM TITLES
1 IT CHAPTER TWO $40.7 (cum. $153.8)
1 ๐Ÿ”บ BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON  $1.5 on 757 screens (cum. $3.8) REVIEW โ˜…
2 ๐Ÿ”บ  HUSTLERS $33.2 *new* REVIEW โ˜…
2 ๐Ÿ”บ LINDA RONSTADT: SOUND... [DOC] $734k (cum. $889k) on 220 screens 

Click to read more ...

Friday
Sep132019

Celebrating Jennifer Lopez

by Murtada Elfadl

Hustlers opens today, so let's celebrate Jennifer Lopez. She's getting the best reviews of her career - including a rave from Chris right here. There's Oscar buzz. The movie is poised to become a substantial hit this weekend.

Answer these 3 questions for fun:

What is the first thing you think of when you think of Jennifer Lopez?

Is it that green dress that has its own wikipedia page? That infamous interview from the late 90s? She's a big big star who's been involved in many memorable cultural moments. Tell us what comes to mind...

Click to read more ...

Monday
Sep092019

TIFF: Lorene Scafaria Ascends with "Hustlers"

by Chris Feil

After Hustlers, give Lorene Scafaria the keys to the kingdom. After writing and directing the character-based comedies The Meddler and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, she steps into crime comedy territory with all of her generous character detail unsacrificed as she steps into a new genre. Here she’s made something that feels like kicked-in doors and popped champagne bottles. It’s women behaving badly as a natural extension to an ecosystem led by men who burn the world down to serve their own interests, and it’s as entertaining as it is because of Scafaria’s balance between the affectionate and the defiant.

But while the film will immediately cause comparisons to ubermale crime sagas likes of The Wolf of Wall Street or examinations of the final crisis like The Big Short, Hustlers is less of a familiar retread of those films than it is two middle fingers blazing in their direction...

Click to read more ...