118: doesn't money make you horny?

"J.Lo is such a revelation as Ramona"

This is For Your (Re)Consideration, the segment where I revisit things I didn’t like or I am ready to change my mind about. In honor of Leo season and J-Lo being the most Leo of all Leos, I rewatched Hustlers, one of the better contemporary period pieces I’ve ever seen.

It all started with “Criminal.” A few months ago, while playing Music League with friends, Fiona Apple’s 1996 track came on and I immediately thought, “Wow this is so sexy! This is made for someone to really dance to, to PERFORM to.” Throughout the following days, I kept listening to the song again and again, thinking the same thing until I realized that someone had danced to it, in a completely awe-inspiring way: Jennifer Lopez in Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers.¹ I’ve been wanting to rewatch Hustlers for a while because despite the raves it got when it came out, I found myself underwhelmed following my initial viewing. From what I remember, I saw it with a friend at Toronto’s Varsity cinema, a small Cineplex in one of Toronto’s bougiest malls, and we ate movie theater nachos. I remember not really having as much fun as I expected to have, though there were certainly moments of delight: Usher’s incredible and giddy cameo; the use of Lorde’s “Royals.” Despite the people I followed on Twitter expressing the need for J-Lo to receive an Oscar immediately, I will confess that I didn’t see what they were talking about. Not that I thought she was bad in the movie, but I didn’t necessarily feel that she did anything more extraordinary than what she had done in previous roles. Obviously, I was young and dumb back then!