Page 78 - AVN December 2019

SCREEN
SHOTS
THREE MAINSTREAM
VIEWS ON ADULT
Portrayals of the adult industry
in film and TV are rare—and
usually fictionalized tales written
by people who don’t work in the
adult entertainment industry. But
recently a big-budget Hollywood
movie, a premium cable series
and an indie film have told stories
based on real events in the
industry. The movie Hustlers was
inspired by strippers at Scores in
NYC who drugged their Wall Street
clients and charged up their credit
cards. The indie film Mope follows
the headlines involving two young
guys literally dying to be porn
stars. And the HBO series The
Deuce chronicles two decades of
the sex trade in New York’s Times
Square. You won’t be able to stop
watching.
HUSTLING WALL STREET
Hustlers is based on a New York magazine article by Jessica Pressler about
strippers at New York City’s Scores who drugged and illegally charged up their
Wall Street customers’ credit cards from $10,000 to $50,000 a night. The story
begins in 2007 and stars Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez, whose J-Lo ass
looks asstastic, BTW.
Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, the story is told from the female
dancers’ perspective, which portrays the Wall Street hedge funders, traders and
brokers as “mostly assholes.” It’s easy to sympathize with these women, who
endure the job to support their grandmothers and kids, and are abused every
night by douchey married guys who ask them stupid shit like, “So what did Daddy
do to you? Tell me.”
Since the film was written and directed by a woman, female friendship is at its
heart. The dancers are heroes, and the Wall Street jerks are the villains. The movie
chronicles an unfair power dynamic, starting with the exploitation of the strip club
owners and managers, and the repeated disrespect by jerky customers.
Everything changes when Wall Street crashes in October 2007. Wall Streeters
lose their jobs and stop coming to the club. That’s when the strippers get
desperate and devise a credit card fraud scheme. In the post Me Too era, you
find yourself not wanting the strippers to get caught, since they are finally getting
power over their oppressors. The film has grossed more than $100 million.
≠ STORY: ANKA RADAKOVICH ≠ PHOTOGRAPHY: BRYAN KOSS/MOPETHEMOVIE.COM
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