Ticket Stubs #2: Pimpin' Ain't Easy
On the heels of last issue quickly comes an awesome, inspiring, inspired, award-worthy performance by Terrence Howard (Iron Man).
FROM April 11, 2006 (SW@ Ticket #47: Pimpin' Ain't Easy): Sleeping around, sperm banks, ho's in different area codes, giving ass and forgetting names; whatever you want to call it, Pimpin' Ain't Easy. Just ask the stars of Hustle & Flow.
Crash's Terrence Howard plays DJay, a one-ho pimp selling skin to support his pregnant wife and their 3yr old son.
Tired of selling Nola (Taryn Manning) and some prime bags of Mary Jane just to break even, DJay looks to make an impression on the rap industry. Fueled by self-delusion and supportive family and friends, DJay cuts a demo tape with some raw, personal rhymes (sadly, none were actually written by Howard. He performs them as if the lyrics came from his heart and mind, and the movie would have been more impressive if Howard had authored DJay's songs, but that he performed them rather than lip-synching is an impressive enough fact in itself) and shows it to Skinny Black (Ludacris, also in Crash), a big rap mogul who DJay believes to be his childhood friend.
Despite the demise of his delusion, his murder of Skinny, and his public arrest for the crime, DJay becomes a household name in prison and the fresh new face of rap. Happy ending! YAAAAYYY!
But a man named DJay becoming a rap star is like a man named Lou Gherig dying of Lou Gherig's disease: you can kind of see it coming.
So what's so great about Hustle & Flow? It's not about DJay getting air-play; it's about DJay being the unprecedented Nice Pimp of Cinema. Other movie pimps beat their ho's, treat them as property, and tell them they aren't good enough to be anything else. DJay, like the pimps of yore, believes that a trick's a trick and money's money (and Nola gets abused by perverted customers as a result), but unlike the traditional movie pimp, DJay gives Nola credit for more than what's between her legs. He puts her in charge of both her own life and his music career, and with good faith and reason.
Let's not forget all the artistic crap, either; Hustle & Flow's gritty subject matter is amplified by the dark 80s-style cinematography and the blaxploitation-style (yes, this is a real word) camera angle. 36 Mafia should not have won an Oscar for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp," but Hustle & Flow (and especially Terrence Howard's performance) is worth the rental fee. Whup that trick!
A (Most Wanted)
The other "Pimpin' Ain't Easy" selection, the brilliantly pointless Broken Flowers, is another review for another day. A mention of Mary Jane requires me to re-issue my Spider-Man retrospective in a collection I call "Spider-Man, Then & Now." I hope to finally see ASM, which I have heard great things about, so I can give my two cents on the subject. Until then, stay tuned for "Then & Now," after which we'll find out that when a pimp gets in a Crash, things go Sideways.
Crash's Terrence Howard plays DJay, a one-ho pimp selling skin to support his pregnant wife and their 3yr old son.
Tired of selling Nola (Taryn Manning) and some prime bags of Mary Jane just to break even, DJay looks to make an impression on the rap industry. Fueled by self-delusion and supportive family and friends, DJay cuts a demo tape with some raw, personal rhymes (sadly, none were actually written by Howard. He performs them as if the lyrics came from his heart and mind, and the movie would have been more impressive if Howard had authored DJay's songs, but that he performed them rather than lip-synching is an impressive enough fact in itself) and shows it to Skinny Black (Ludacris, also in Crash), a big rap mogul who DJay believes to be his childhood friend.
Despite the demise of his delusion, his murder of Skinny, and his public arrest for the crime, DJay becomes a household name in prison and the fresh new face of rap. Happy ending! YAAAAYYY!
But a man named DJay becoming a rap star is like a man named Lou Gherig dying of Lou Gherig's disease: you can kind of see it coming.
So what's so great about Hustle & Flow? It's not about DJay getting air-play; it's about DJay being the unprecedented Nice Pimp of Cinema. Other movie pimps beat their ho's, treat them as property, and tell them they aren't good enough to be anything else. DJay, like the pimps of yore, believes that a trick's a trick and money's money (and Nola gets abused by perverted customers as a result), but unlike the traditional movie pimp, DJay gives Nola credit for more than what's between her legs. He puts her in charge of both her own life and his music career, and with good faith and reason.
Let's not forget all the artistic crap, either; Hustle & Flow's gritty subject matter is amplified by the dark 80s-style cinematography and the blaxploitation-style (yes, this is a real word) camera angle. 36 Mafia should not have won an Oscar for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp," but Hustle & Flow (and especially Terrence Howard's performance) is worth the rental fee. Whup that trick!
A (Most Wanted)
The other "Pimpin' Ain't Easy" selection, the brilliantly pointless Broken Flowers, is another review for another day. A mention of Mary Jane requires me to re-issue my Spider-Man retrospective in a collection I call "Spider-Man, Then & Now." I hope to finally see ASM, which I have heard great things about, so I can give my two cents on the subject. Until then, stay tuned for "Then & Now," after which we'll find out that when a pimp gets in a Crash, things go Sideways.
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