*** (out of ****)
Starring Terence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, Isaac Hayes, DJ Qualls, and Ludacris
Directed & written by Craig Brewer
2005
116 min R
The overall arc of “Hustle & Flow” is, if not fake, then at least stock, with the schmoozing of the master rapper in the third act replacing the Battle of the Bands or the big audition. The ending is pure fairy tale; you can’t get stuff on FM radio just by going down to the station, unless you happen to live in Atlanta and the station is Clear Channel Headquarters. Or unless you live in 1962.
But “Hustle & Flow” is a sincere film, and the details are where it shines. Like “Walk the Line” from the same year, it expends an incredible amount of energy and momentum on the work that goes into popular music. We watch our aspiring rapper scribbling lyrics in his notepad, rehearsing them, revising them, bouncing them off his friends, sometimes constructively but just as often destructively. We also watch the rapper’s studio being assembled—all the plugs, power outlets, lines, wires, and styrofoam on the walls—and focus on machinery and microphones. In miniature, stretches of “Hustle & Flow” fascinate us in the same way as “Blow Up” or “The Conversation:” we sit back and watch skilled men knowledgeable of their equipment go about their work.
“Hustle & Flow” uses a classic formula, in which we see the lot of the struggling artist, and then have a better understanding of the art that springs from it. It follows two men who can’t stand how they are dependent on women, so they write rap songs about slapping hoes, tricks, and bitches. Djay (Terence Howard) is a pimp, surrounded by women who work much harder at much more degrading work than he does, yet all he can do is think “woe is me.” To the movie’s credit, he is reprehensible from beginning to end, and never quite learns his lesson. He is a pimp in the truest sense of the world, seeing people only as useful to himself.
Djay is helped in his attempts to rise from the Memphis ‘hood by his old school chum Clyde (Anthony Anderson). Clyde may not be a pimp living with a stable of dirty, irritable prostitutes, but he resents that he owes his middle-class existence to his hard-working wife. In the course of “Hustle & Flow,” he will learn a lot of bad habits from his old friend Djay, because the pimp puts on a good show of being in charge of women. Both men are in awe of Skinny Black (played by real-life rapper Ludacris), a rap star who has risen from Memphis and left it in his rearview mirror. Djay claims to know Skinny from “back in the day,” but we’re never quite sure.
Skinny is presented as existing in an all-male universe of money and drugs, with women who may be hoes, but are someone else’s hoes, and not his problem once he’s done nuttin’. (It is pointed out that Skinny cut his first tape in his mother’s laundry room, but Djay and Clyde admire him because he seems to have risen above female clutches.) At times Skinny is a true artist and at others he is an immense phony. In the same way “Hustle & Flow” doesn’t pass judgment on Djay, it doesn’t pass judgment on Skinny Black either. The movie does give Skinny Black the opportunity to greet an old friend with a huge litany of racist, sexist, xenophobic, pornographic, and homophobic obscenities so beautifully vulgar that it almost brought tears to my eyes. It’s as gorgeous as anything in “Sexy Beast.” It ought to be on IMDb, but it isn’t, simply because it’s too long for any mere mortal to catch it all.
Terence Howard (“Crash”) is in every scene and gives a star-making performance as a tough man with soft eyes, who dreads the slightest display of weakness. Often next to him is the perfect ho (Taryn Manning), a dread-locked girl who would be attractive if she were cleaner, heavier, and not so skenky. If you like rap music, you’ll like “Hustle & Flow.” If you don’t, you’ll at least understand the sincerity and where it’s coming from, and you’ll mourn how Djay is too self-obsessed to do anything but cover his weaknesses with boasts and swagger. It’s not the most original movie in the world, but, with its ‘70s exploitation styling and slick MTV production, it’s certainly one of the coolest.
Finished Saturday, February 4th, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Friday & Saturday Night
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