Everybody's Gotta Have A Dream Producer John Singleton and award-winning director Craig Brewer bring to life the unforgettable tale of DJay (Terrence Howard), a pimp whose gritty hustle selling sexy Nola (Taryn Manning) and supporting pregnant Shug (Taraji Henson) leaves him wondering if this is it for him. Only when he trades contraband for a keyboard and bumps into his old school friend Key (Anthony Anderson) does he see a way out by laying down some tracks and fulfilling his dream of becoming a respected rapper. When he learns Skinny Black (Ludacris), a local rapper turned mogul, is rolling through town for he 4th of July, DJay plans for the hustle of his life to get his voice heard. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Hustle & Flow is an intense and brilliant portrayal of one man's struggle for redemption and inspiration on life's mean streets.
(25 votes)
2.
The idea of a soulful pimp as the hero of a movie will strike some viewers as objectionable and perhaps even repellent, but Terrence Dashon Howard's complex and fierce performance will challenge such easy moral decisions. DJay (Howard, Crash, The Best Man) hustles a small stable of whores, including corn-rowed Nola (Taryn Manning, A Lot Like Love). When he learns that former local rapper turned superstar named Skinny Black (real life rapper Ludacris) is coming back to town for the 4th of July, DJay teams up with a frustrated sound engineer (Anthony Anderson, Kangaroo Jack) and a geeky musician (DJ Qualls, Road Trip) to put together a demo tape that he hopes will be his ticket to fame and fortune. What's most impressive about Hustle & Flow is that it doesn't oversell its hero. DJay's aspirations are more economic than poetic--he's not out to create art, he just wants a better life. This lack of pretension allows the movie to capture a genuine sense of how creativity can improve people's lives, which surprises DJay as much as anyone. The movie's other strength is a keen eye for social behavior, in particular the ways in which DJay manipulates everyone around him. Howard, who's almost always stood out in every movie he's made, plays these scenes with what can only be called smooth desperation. The entire cast gives substantial performances, but it's Howard who drives the movie irresistibly forward. --Bret Fetzer
(25 votes)
3.
A gritty fairy tale of dreams deferred, HUSTLE & FLOW infuses the torpor of the Memphis ghetto with electric tension. Terrence DaShon Howard delivers the performance of a lifetime as DJay, a pimp and drug dealer eking out an existence with his three whores, one of whom, Shug (Taraji P. Henson, HOLLA), is hugely pregnant. Nola (Taryn Manning, 8 MILE) turns tricks from the backseat of DJay's beater, while Lexus (Paula Jai Parker, LOVE CHRONICLES), the hustler's high-maintenance girlfriend, strips in a cellar-like club. DJay's dissatisfaction is increasing as he senses that life has nothing more in store for him, but a chance encounter with an old school friend, Key (Anthony Anderson, KING'S RANSOM), reignites his musical aspirations. Key is a small-time recording artist, and DJay, armed with a notebook full of lyrics, pays him a visit at home, much to the displeasure of Key's prim and proper wife (Elise Neal, PLAYA'S BALL). Initially dubious, Key agrees to partner with DJay after hearing his stuff, and the two build a makeshift recording studio in DJay's back room, enlisting the aid of a skinny white boy (DJ Qualls) with an unlikely talent on the drum machine. There unfolds the triumphant meat of the story, where, against all odds--and after a few bouts of infighting--everyone pitches in to cut DJay's crunk demo.
Essentially a rags-to-riches story, director Craig Brewer avoids the saccharine through his achingly human portrayal of the characters. DJay is fraught with an undeniable misogyny that colors his otherwise sympathetic angst, and Howard portrays that complexity with grace and soul. With John Singleton in the producer's chair, HUSTLE & FLOW strikes an unprecedented balance between feel-good fare and unstinting urban drama, in what amounts to a powerful depiction of the pain and poignant struggle of those who populate this often-misinterpreted milieu.
(25 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
<>
Movie Database
In Theaters
