Common Sense Note
Parents should know that the movie, focused on the efforts of a pimp trying to change his life, features explicit references to sex and prostitution (as well as scenes in a strip club). Characters use harsh language, smoke, drink, do drugs, have sex, and fight with one another, on occasion drawing blood. Women wear scanty clothing.
Families who see this movie can talk about the obstacles DJay tries to overcome, including poverty and lack of education. How are his ideas shaped by media images (music videos, news)? How does music help him gain another perspective on his life? How is this pimp and drug dealer simultaneously appalling and sympathetic? How does he treat the women around him?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Perceptive and provocative, HUSTLE & FLOW focuses on the limits and excesses of a Memphis pimp named DJay (Terrence Howard). He first appears in close-up, head in curlers, thinking out loud in his Chevy Caprice Classic: "A man ain't like a dog. Man, they know about death. They got a sense a history," he says, as the camera pulls out, slowly, to reveal that he's not alone, but sitting with his new girl, Nola (Taryn Manning). Men, he continues, "They got religion. A dog don't know s--t about no birthdays, no Christmas or Easter." A dog, in other words, has no sense of time, context, or meaning. A dog lives for the moment. A man, he lives for more.
Even as he's imagining a world beyond his own, however, DJay's vision is limited by immediate needs. Women, he admits to Nola, are like men, not dogs, with aspirations and needs. "People like you and me are always guessing what if," he muses. But then her next trick rolls up, and DJay sends her to work. Craig Brewer's first film doesn't hold back from showing DJay's gritty side: he's selfish, short-sighted, and angry, selling dirt-weed and living in a one-floor shack with his girls; in addition to Nola, the household includes lapdancer Lexus (Paula Jai Parker), her young son, and the very pregnant Shug (Taraji P. Henson).
The women are caught up in stereotypical roles, arguing with or supporting their man, who in turn sells their bodies to any creep with $20. But the actors bring depth, detail, and poetry to these character outlines. When Shug describes a recent nightmare (in which she gives birth to a dog, then finds herself "breastfeeding a big old catfish"), she thinks it through and concludes it's because of her fear of the unknown, a fear afflicting everyone in the house.
But when DJay gets hold of an old Casio keyboard, he's inspired to make music, specifically, to express himself through hip-hop. And so he tries to make a demo tape, with the help of sound engineer Key (Anthony Anderson) and church pianist/vending machine stocker Shelby (DJ Qualls), who brings his beat machine. They spend hours and hours putting together a couple of tracks, "Whoop That Trick" and "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." These are examples of a Southern style of hip-hop called crunk, which Key here likens to the blues, reshaping tragedy into art; "Every man has the right," he says, "to contribute a verse."
The belief that he has this "right" inspires DJay to deliver his tape to a rap artist, Skinny Black (Ludacris), when he comes by a local bar (the owner played by Isaac Hayes) one evening. His hopes raised, DJay runs into predictable trouble. But if the plot fails him here, DJay resonates with spirit, desire, and a convincing fragility. Resilient in his ignorance, posing like a proud, tough guy, he can't escape the fact that he has a sense of history and context.
Families who like this movie should also see producer John Singleton's films (including Boyz N The Hood and Poetic Justice), as well as other redemption through music films (8 Mile, Honey), the remarkable Piñero (about the Nuyorican poet), Paid in Full, and Lauren Lazin's excellent documentary, Tupac: Resurrection.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentReferences befitting a story of a pimp and prostitutes, scene in a strip club. |
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ViolenceBrutal fight at the end. |
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LanguageVery strong language. |
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Social BehaviorProtagonist is a pimp, and aspires to be a hip-hop star. |
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CommercialismLiquor names. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoMain character sells marijuana; characters drink, smoke, do drugs. |
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