Review: Jennifer Lopez is a star reborn in 'Hustlers,' a smart, bracing tale of strippers turned grifters

The movies have rarely done right by Jennifer Lopez, but the brashly entertaining “Hustlers” isn’t just the exception that proves the rule; it reconfigures her cinematic image with such brazen intelligence and purpose that it seems determined to make up for lost time.

Ramona seizes hold of the pole and proceeds to run through a series of gravity-resistant acrobatics that reportedly took the actress months to master but will have your jaw on the floor in seconds. You might recognize the song in the background as Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” whose opening lyrics cheekily sum up the premise and the allure of this feel-good-feel-bad movie.

As a movie about the seductions of the flesh and the satisfactions of a well-executed con, “Hustlers” is brassy and invigorating, its pleasures obvious and right there on the surface. As a portrait of women at work, bickering and bonding and doing whatever it takes to get some measure of their own back, it’s smarter and more grounded than Hollywood has given us reason to expect, and told with a welcome matter-of-factness that can melt without warning into tenderness.

In its you-are-there physicality, the tracking shot feels like a tip of the hat to Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” the granddaddy of all gleefully amoral rise-and-fall true-crime narratives. As Scafaria has, Scorsese was one of several filmmakers who passed on her “Hustlers” script before she was given a crack at directing it herself, a behind-the-scenes footnote that can’t help but play like a wry commentary on the movie’s own hard-luck parable of female ascendancy.

JustinCChang Get out of here. I just saw the movie last night so no one else would have to. Here’s the synopsis:

JustinCChang A Very slow news day when JLO is a topic.

JustinCChang Jordan's 💯

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