It’s not just a homicidal clown dishing out justice in the downtown financial district on the big screen this month….More Wall Street guys meet their match, with less blood but more sweat and tears as Jennifer Lopez puts in a career best performance in Hustlers, a film based on a 2015 New York Magazine article about Big Apple strippers who rip off unsuspecting guys in the aftermath of the 2008 GFC.

J-Lo is truly incredible as Ramona Vega, a veteran stripper who in between taking off her clothes for cash, find time to take in new girl Dorothy AKA Destiny, played by Constance Wu, and the film traces their personal, professional and criminal relationship across a decade between 2007 and 2017.

It is written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, a New Jersey native who absolutely smashes this out of the park, making Hustlers a friendship tale about morals that has more in common with The Big Short and American Hustle than Showgirls or Striptease.

With clever use of music fashion and technology we flip through the years and the camera gets right amongst the action, onstage at the club and with the girls as they aren’t sure if they should rip off these sleazy guys…

Ultimately as Ramona is well aware, the whole country is a strip club and everyone’s a hustler. Hustle along and see this one when it opens on Thursday.

4 & 1/2 Stars – Hands Down One of My Favourite Films of 2019.