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Movie Review
Hustle & Flow
By Scott Sycamore Published July 21, 2005
US Release: July 22, 2005
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Starring: Terrence Howard , Ludacris , Taryn Manning , Anthony Anderson
R
Running Time: 114 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $22,201,636
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Starring: Terrence Howard , Ludacris , Taryn Manning , Anthony Anderson
R
Running Time: 114 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $22,201,636
C+
There's something that just feels hollow at the center.
I love hip-hop/rap. Hustle & Flow focuses on the rap music scene in Memphis, Tennessee (where writer/director Craig Brewer hails from). That's home to one of my favorite groups, The Three-Six Mafia, of which both core members (DJ Paul and Juicy J) appear in the film, and they also taught Terrence Howard how to rap as preparation for his lead role. I am a prime candidate to like this flick, and while I was taken in by some of the things presented in this MTV Film, I felt that the total experience was just not that riveting.
Howard plays D-Jay, a ghetto pimp with the soul of a struggling Working Man. He pimps hoes from inside his Cadillac by day and slaps them up to get his money by night. He does what he has to do to keep his workers in line, but he?s not an overly malicious person...unless of course, he's pushed too far. D-Jay sees a tape of now-famous Memphis rapper Skinny Black (played by Atlanta rapper Ludacris) and realizes that he has a big dream: he wants to blow up in the rap game too. D-Jay recruits his pal Key (Anthony Anderson), a sound engineer for the local church choir. Key in turn calls up young Shelby (the always-gaunt DJ Qualls), a white boy who knows a thing or two about rhythm and beats. The trio set up shop in a spare room at D-Jay's house and begin the sometimes grinding process of writing and recording songs. This leads to some intriguing interactions between D-Jay and other characters, including his prostitutes (Taraji Henson, Taryn Manning, Paula Jai Parker), a music shop owner, a tough customer who lives down the block, and finally, Skinny Black himself (D-Jay swears that he used to know Skinny back in the day). It all leads to a few twists and surprises, and the movie coasts in for a smooth landing.
There's plenty to like about this movie. I enjoy the Southern rap sound, and it is featured prominently here. The scene in which Qualls creates a back beat like magic while D-Jay starts flowin' will energize audiences across the map. And I thought it was witty to have the producer of the hard-style music be a nerdy-looking white guy; this reflects the fact that there actually are many excellent white producers in the rap game today, probably more than there are white rappers. And this casting choice is a mirror of director Craig Brewer, who is also white. Terrence Howard gives a splendid performance and is right on the money for this character; he will have you wanting to talk in his Southern twang after you leave the theater. The rest of the cast is good as well.
But there's something that just feels hollow at the center of Hustle & Flow. Part of it is the MTV-sanctioned pandering to the audience, encompassed in the scene I mentioned. While I enjoyed it on one level, I also saw it as a shallow attempt to hype the audience for a brief spurt in an otherwise mid-tempo film. This movie lacks the bluster of great exploitation fare (which it is clearly aping in many aspects - just look at the title when it comes onscreen). But since Brewer's direction doesn't take the movie to the opposite extreme of high cinema, it ends up being somewhere in the middle, and comes off as undercooked (strange, in the land of ribs and B-B-Q and all that). I didn't care much about the characters until about halfway through, and even then I didn't care that much. It's also hard to follow some of the lines because the accents are so heavy, and there's a fair amount of near-mumbling going on.
The music is good and Howard does a great job of transforming into both a pimp and a rapper, but the actual lyrics he spits are pretty lackluster (I assume that would be faulted to the writer, Brewer). Also, why should he be in the rap world over someone who has been working at it for years? Just because D-Jay has heart and an interesting life story doesn't necessarily mean that his music will be more compelling or worthy than anyone else's. He feels he deserves a shot a little too soon. Many people will not care about this kind of stuff and will just want to see D-Jay come out on top. I see and recognize the charm of Hustle & Flow, but I think the levels could have been adjusted a little bit to make a better mix of the existing tracks.
Howard plays D-Jay, a ghetto pimp with the soul of a struggling Working Man. He pimps hoes from inside his Cadillac by day and slaps them up to get his money by night. He does what he has to do to keep his workers in line, but he?s not an overly malicious person...unless of course, he's pushed too far. D-Jay sees a tape of now-famous Memphis rapper Skinny Black (played by Atlanta rapper Ludacris) and realizes that he has a big dream: he wants to blow up in the rap game too. D-Jay recruits his pal Key (Anthony Anderson), a sound engineer for the local church choir. Key in turn calls up young Shelby (the always-gaunt DJ Qualls), a white boy who knows a thing or two about rhythm and beats. The trio set up shop in a spare room at D-Jay's house and begin the sometimes grinding process of writing and recording songs. This leads to some intriguing interactions between D-Jay and other characters, including his prostitutes (Taraji Henson, Taryn Manning, Paula Jai Parker), a music shop owner, a tough customer who lives down the block, and finally, Skinny Black himself (D-Jay swears that he used to know Skinny back in the day). It all leads to a few twists and surprises, and the movie coasts in for a smooth landing.
There's plenty to like about this movie. I enjoy the Southern rap sound, and it is featured prominently here. The scene in which Qualls creates a back beat like magic while D-Jay starts flowin' will energize audiences across the map. And I thought it was witty to have the producer of the hard-style music be a nerdy-looking white guy; this reflects the fact that there actually are many excellent white producers in the rap game today, probably more than there are white rappers. And this casting choice is a mirror of director Craig Brewer, who is also white. Terrence Howard gives a splendid performance and is right on the money for this character; he will have you wanting to talk in his Southern twang after you leave the theater. The rest of the cast is good as well.
But there's something that just feels hollow at the center of Hustle & Flow. Part of it is the MTV-sanctioned pandering to the audience, encompassed in the scene I mentioned. While I enjoyed it on one level, I also saw it as a shallow attempt to hype the audience for a brief spurt in an otherwise mid-tempo film. This movie lacks the bluster of great exploitation fare (which it is clearly aping in many aspects - just look at the title when it comes onscreen). But since Brewer's direction doesn't take the movie to the opposite extreme of high cinema, it ends up being somewhere in the middle, and comes off as undercooked (strange, in the land of ribs and B-B-Q and all that). I didn't care much about the characters until about halfway through, and even then I didn't care that much. It's also hard to follow some of the lines because the accents are so heavy, and there's a fair amount of near-mumbling going on.
The music is good and Howard does a great job of transforming into both a pimp and a rapper, but the actual lyrics he spits are pretty lackluster (I assume that would be faulted to the writer, Brewer). Also, why should he be in the rap world over someone who has been working at it for years? Just because D-Jay has heart and an interesting life story doesn't necessarily mean that his music will be more compelling or worthy than anyone else's. He feels he deserves a shot a little too soon. Many people will not care about this kind of stuff and will just want to see D-Jay come out on top. I see and recognize the charm of Hustle & Flow, but I think the levels could have been adjusted a little bit to make a better mix of the existing tracks.
Scott's Grade: C+
Scott's Overall Grading: 417 graded movies
| A | 15.1% | |
| B | 59.2% | |
| C | 24.5% | |
| D | 1.2% | |
| F | 0.0% |
