August 9, 2005
mini-review: Hustle and Flow
A good flick, well-written and -directed by Craig Brewer. Terence Howard is amazing as a Memphis pimp trying to make it as a rapper, inflecting his character with humanity and humor. It would be good to view this performance with his very different one in Crash. The other performances are good as well, including Isaac Hayes and Ludacris (tho Ludacris's performance is basically the same one he delivered in Crash).
The trickiest thing about this film was to take borderline-misogynist lyrics and situations and infuse and undercut them with nuance and subtlety. I think the writer/director and actors pull it off, though I'd like to hear what women think of this film.