Hustlers Review: 8 Ups & 3 Downs

3. The Interview Format Is Inspired

There's something to be said about interview format movies that present an excuse for the main characters to talk directly to the audience. It means not only that the audience gets someone to come along the narrative journey with - which is always nice because it takes away the idea of the idiot in the room (us) that third party story-telling requires - but also makes the story entirely unreliable.

You might think that that's a disastrous thing to celebrate in a film that comes with a Based On A True Story banner at the front, but actually, it means that there's room for some embellishment that not only helps make everything a little more entertaining (as when the Usher sequence is clearly seen through the eyes of the dancers), but also makes sure the most emotional moments are piled on too.