Hustle & Flow (2005) ***

 

Going to a few film festivals over the years, I have noticed that movies seem a lot better when you see them in that environment. I saw “Hustle & Flow” when it premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and it seemed like the best movie ever. Watching it again all these years later, in the comfort of my own home, it's a pretty good movie, but not nearly as epic as I thought it was at Sundance.

Terrence Howard plays Djay, the least glamorous pimp in the history of pimps. Working the sweltering Memphis streets with a stable of 3 women, one of whom is pregnant, he struggles to pay the rent on a crappy house and keep gas in a beat-up car without air conditioning. Experiencing a mid-life crisis in his 30's, Djay rediscovers his talent for rapping. With the help of his women and a couple of friends (Anthony Anderson, DJ Qualls), he sets out to make a demo tape that will hopefully change his life.

Sounds a lot like 2002's “8 Mile,” doesn't it? “Hustle & Flow” is just too derivative to be considered a great movie. It also is just very typical of the kind of stories Hollywood loves to tell. Hollywood artists have a tendency to tell stories about their fellow artists, and this film continues a tradition that suggests that the only way out of poverty is to succeed as a musician, an actor, or maybe an athlete. Would “Hustle & Flow” have been as engaging if Djay had gone to night school to study dentistry? Probably not, but his poor, Memphis neighborhood could probably use a dentist a lot more than another rapper.

The redeeming factor here is the music. The songs Djay and his friends produce are pretty catchy, and one of them, “It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” (by Three6 Mafia) won an Oscar. Also, Terrence Howard has enough charisma to smooth over a lot of cinematic flaws in a film, and Taraji P. Henderson and Taryn Manning also give memorable performances. “Hustle & Flow” isn't the greatest, but at the end of the day, its strengths outweigh its weaknesses to make for a reasonably-entertaining film.

3 stars out of 5