Gotta fill in that decade gap somehow. What better way than with what is easily the best fur film of the new millennium? Granted, that is a puny bar to clear, but let’s be fair, Hustlers does a pretty good job of setting the standard. Even if the furs make no goddamn sense.
I saw the promos of Jennifer Lopez in the fox coat, and I then heard it was a “period piece” and assumed we were getting a fur-authentic ‘80s movie. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the events portrayed in this movie occurred between 2008 and 2014. I think the only person wearing those furs then was (checks notes) Jennifer Lopez.
Touché.
Sponsored.
Hustlers [Blu-ray]
Genre: Drama, Crime, Comedy
Format: 4K, NTSC, Subtitled
Hustlers – The Film
Told from the POV of Dorothy / Destiny, played by Constance Wu, the film tells the tale of a group of strippers who formed an alliance of sorts in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Based on a true story, the group bilked rich Wall Street types by charging up their credit cards at the club. The ringleader / mistressmind is Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), who eventually gets too greedy, and the whole enterprise falls apart. This results in… pretty minor legal ramifications for all involved. I mean, this wasn’t precisely Red Notice territory.
Hustlers – The Furs
We open with perhaps the most famous fur scene of the century to date. Again, there is not a lot of competition, but kudos to Hustlers for really doing it well. Ramona relaxes on the roof of the club, smoking and wearing a full-length lynx fur coat, as one is wont to do after an evening’s stripping.
“Climb into my fur.” The best line of fur fashion dialogue delivered since, ever, really.
So Destiny and Ramona spend almost three minutes chatting and smoking in the full-length lynx coat.
Nothing about this movie’s furs makes sense. This scene is early in the film before the “get rich” scheme occurs when Ramona is just a “successful” stripper. A pretty damn successful one to afford a coat like that.
We see it again later when a more successful Destiny, under Ramona’s furry wing, needs help stuffing her boots with cash. The lynx is well shot in this scene, but so are the boobies in the background, so not a lot of useable still capture options.
Destiny visits Ramona’s crib and finds she has more than one fur in the closet.
We get to see fur number two shortly. As the “get rich” scheme starts to pay off, Ramona and Destiny shop for the standard late 00’s status symbol, an Escalade. Again, Ramona has both furs before the whole get-rich-quick scheme starts paying off.
As the scheme starts to pay off, Ramon buys cheaper fur! I find this full-length golden isle fox coat even more appealing than the lynx. But there is no way it is more expensive than the lynx she already had. Comments are open if you wish to argue, but I’m gonna need some convincing.
Look, this fox works perfectly for the “queen of the club” walk-in sequence, and it’s perfection.
Some fiscal sanity is restored when Ramona gifts Destiny with a chinchilla stroller for Christmas. This is 100% the most expensive fur in the film. What I love most about this is the expressions on their faces. A callback to happier times like… the early 2010s? Back to the movie’s costuming making no sense.
Destiny and her chinchilla fur stroller preside over the scheme falling apart as Ramona’s greed leads to poor crime ring recruiting decisions.
This is shot way too short, but it is still great. A nice send-off for the golden isle fox from the film, sadly.
What is that saying? You can’t wear fox to a funeral? I think I just made that up, and I don’t think I agree either. Spoiler: Destiny’s mom dies, whom she was supporting with her stripping / grifting. Her relationship with Ramona deteriorated at this point, but Ramona shows up to the funeral to support Destiny in the film’s conservative fur, a full-length fitch coat.
Probably somewhat tasteless, but, sure: “I’d trade places with either one of them.”
There’s a little bit at the end where we get Destiny reminiscing about Ramona, which includes shots of three of Ramona’s coats, but it’s mostly just recycled footage. I still think the costume designer thought this was supposed to take place in the ‘80s, but good for them. I’m not sure we’ll be getting a lot of authentically furred ‘80s period pieces anyway, so pretending full-length fox coats were fashionable in the early ‘10s is just fine by me.
The runtime percentage is kinda slim, but the movie clocks in at 110 minutes, and you get 7 minutes of fabulous fur, so that’s a solid value.
Fur Runtime: approx 7 minutes
Film Runtime: 110 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 6.4%
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