Female Filmmaker Friday: Lorene Scafaria, Writer and Director of the Film "Hustlers"

Lorene Scafaria’s film Hustlers is a film that must be experienced.

On first glance, one might assume this is just a glitzy, Hollywood-glamourized version of a Robin Hood type story. But it’s so much more.

Adapted from the New York Magazine article, Hustlers is about a group of female strippers who steal from their Wall Street clients. The cast is powerful, with performances from Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Julia Styles, Cardi B, Madeline Brewer, Lili Reinhart, and Keke Palmer.

At first, this might come across as just a “strip club movie”, a genre given to us from the male gaze. But Hustlers gives these women point-of-view that is closer to the real-life struggles of everyday people just trying to survive in a world where Wall Street has cheated many people, and gotten away with it.

Constance Wu thinks it's more as well:

“Underneath all this stuff, these are women trying to connect with each other.”

At the helm is Lorene Scafaria, who wrote and directed the film, and comes with a reputation for making complex, female-fronted stories. Her directorial debut came with the Steve Carell, Kiera Knightly apocalyptic film, Seeking a Friend at the End of the World. She also directed several episodes of the television series New Girl, and wrote and directed The Meddler starring Rose Byrne and Susan Sarandon in 2015.

Now, with the release of Hustlers, Scafarina can show her skills to a more diverse audience.

Hustlers is in theaters now.