One of the better feel-good movies of the past couple years, ‘Hustle & Flow’ follows the standard template of a man finding his dream amidst hardships but wraps it up in the distinctive and effective Memphis world of pimps, ho's and ghettos.
Howard, also earned a lot of praise for his role in ‘Crash’ that same year, which went on to win best picture, but the role of Djay is what might have started his path to stardom. He didn’t win the statue that night but this film certainly shows he has the talent to make sure it happens in the future.
The film, centered only around rap the way ‘Rocky’ is to boxing or ‘Rudy’ is to football, is more about a man overcoming the odds and finding his ‘flow,’ his artistic voice amongst the desolate ghetto of Memphis. We start with a sequence that establishes Djay’s ‘flow’ right off the bat as he, rather, eloquently goes into detail about what separates man (“not men, but man, mankind”) from the rest of the animals, particularly dogs.
He directs this speech at his main breadwinner, Nola (Taryn Manning), a white-trash ho with braided extensions and the not unexpected sense of naiveté.
This speech alone lets us know we’re dealing with somebody a little deeper than, say the BBQ-eating pimp from ‘Norbit.’ There’s a brooding contemplation to his manner of speaking that indicates this small-time pimp and drug-dealer isn’t quite happy with what fell in his lap. He wants to achieve something better but he hasn’t quite figured out what yet.
Fate leads to a few fortuitous happenings that encourage him in one direction. Hanging out at a local club, his owner and friend (Isaac Hayes) fills him on an upcoming shindig. July 4th will see the return of Skinny Black (Ludacris), a now famous crunker, who returns home to Memphis to party at that local club. With this bit of info firmly in place, he runs across a Casio keyboard that gets him thinking about music and then the desire really kicks in when he meets up with an old school friend, Key (Anthony Anderson), a stable married man who records church music.
Seeing that Key can help him, he arrives at Key’s house, ho’s in tow to show off some of his beats. Key, reluctantly agrees despite what-the-hell looks from his wife, and he also gets caught up in the energy. Key brings in another church musician bud, a skinny as rails white boy Shelby (DJ Qualls) and together they start to put together some music in some very effectively staged music sequences. There’s a fascinating energy to these scenes despite what you may feel about rap music in general, and Howard, Anderson and Qualls make these music scenes ‘flow.’
The ultimate goal being to put some good music down on a demo tape so he can hand it over to Skinny Black on July 4th where he thinks a fellow Memphis crunker will help him out. The resolution of this sequence is slightly disappointing as I hoped that we could make it through a film of this nature without resorting to the exhausting threat of gun violence, but by the end, the film finishes up at a good spot (although not without a few misgivings that I’ll detail below).
For a second film, Craig Brewer exhibits a surprising confidence in his filmmaking. The pic is well-written and structured for the most part, and the gritty realism of the Memphis streets is captured in a way that makes clear the situation but doesn’t hit the audience over the head with depressing slow pans of the streets.
Terence Howard is great as Djay, an actor who is able to do a lot with the subtle lighting of a cigarette all the way to energy-fused rap sequences. Anderson, usually cast in the comic side-kick schlub role, also does a great job here along with Qualls who gets a few great scenes.
The prostitutes all have their moments to shine with Manning and Henson getting the bulk of the well-deserved attention. The music is lively if the lyrics aren’t quite more than your run-of-the-mill misogynist doing all he can rhymes. My biggest issue in the film is the somewhat confused message. Taking it for what it is will find a very entertaining film, but digging a little deeper, one has to wonder.
Some spoilers here if you have yet to see the film – Djay’s eventual success has more to do with the resort to violence more than anything else, and considering the great speech that Djay poses to Skinny Black about not selling out, and sticking to your roots and yet this entire scene is based on the momentum that Djay wants to give Skinny Black the tape so he can get the hell out of Memphis. I suppose that was the hustle…but where does the flow come in?
The film is presented in a high definition VC-1 encode with a slightly opened up 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Shot on 16mm to emulate the grittiness of a 70s pic, the grain and texture are intentional. People expecting a flawless, clean film should look elsewhere, but I personally think this film looks exactly as it did in theaters and therefore is a pretty dang good transfer.
The Special Features are fairly comprehensive and even include a few new ones specifically for this HD-DVD. First up, carried over form the standard def DVD is the Audio commentary by writer/director Craig Brewer. A fairly easy listen, Craig Brewer keeps the commentary flowing about the makings of a low budget movie, his inspirations and so on.
Next is a half-hour making of called ‘Behind the Hustle’ that includes the usual elements. ‘By Any Means Necessary’ is a fifteen minute look at the film’s financing, production and reception at Sundance. ‘Creatin’ Crunk’ is a short highlight on the pic’s music and songs, ‘Memphis Hometown Premiere’ includes some interviews and ‘Promotional Spots’ have 6 TV Spots.
New to the HD-DVD is a 3-minute audition from actress Paula Jai Parker, some rehearsal footage featuring Terrence Howard and Ludracris, six minutes of ‘Scene Extensions,’ a funny Country/Acoustic version of ‘It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp’ and the films theatrical trailers bumped up to HD.
Besides a few misgivings about the somewhat confusing buried message of the film, I found it to be a generally uplifting and hopeful movie with great performances, an addictive soundtrack and a solid script. The HD-DVD also provides the added benefit of a great transfer, booming sound and exclusive extras.
Hustle & Flow [HD DVD] is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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