HUSTLE AND FLOW (DVD)

Director: Craig Brewer (Minor film work, The Poor and Hungry)
Starring: Terrence Howard, Taryn Manning, Anthony Anderson

Hustle and Flow is an incredibly uneven movie, at times laughably silly, but often entertaining, and occasionally intriguing. Terrence Howard particularly shines, managing to give an edge of pathos to a ridiculous pimp character. Most of the other main characters are also compelling and enjoyable, if not well drawn in the page. Once again I also kind of liked Ludacris in a small, but important role as a famous hip-hopper. Seriously, this guy should keep going down the acting road. He's a compelling presence on screen. Good luck to him.

Plot-wise, Hustle and Flow is the story of a dirt-poor pimp, his hoes, and his big dreams of becoming a star. Basically he tricks out his ladies, and uses their cash to finance his dreams of stardom. There is comic relief in the form of a middle class, chubby black recording tech and the skinny white musician kid. I’ll not divulge the nice irony to the ending, where he attempts to get his demo tape into the hands of a famous rap star, but it’s one of the more effective pieces to the story.

My problem with this film lay primarily with the tone and construction of the story. In some ways, this is a story that has serious goals: the power of dreams and what we’ll do to chase them, class culture clashes, and emotional rage. Unfortunately, most of the characters and events in the film are broad, silly, and frankly quite goofy. Terrence Howard manages to bring a degree of seriousness to a character that was flawed as written (or at least as I imagine it was written). You see, this guy is just the bestest darn pimp in the whole wide world. He treats his whores with nothing but respect. Somehow this plot even tries to show Howard’s pimp as empowering the girls. I have no idea why anyone thought that was a legitimate notion, but they sure tried.

Solely from a philosophical standpoint I disagreed with some of the views on black culture as well. They show the stable black middle class in a poor light. Here, the nice well-off black character is bored beyond belief, needing the dream of rap stardom to get out of his life in the doldrums. The pimp and his whores however, are shown as compelling, misunderstood heroes. I'm not sure I can get behind those kind of portrayals.

Standouts: Terrence Howard in a quite good, although not quite Oscar-worthy performance.
Blowouts: Broad, occasionally silly, occasionally objectionable script.

Grade: C+