By Luis Reyes
Jennifer Lopez in her best role in years as Ramona, the hard-edged Bronx single mother and top strip club dancer in the hit film Hustlers, might just clinch an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress come award season.
In a year where there was a dearth of Latino talent represented in major theatrical feature films, (the exception being Dora The Explorer and Alita: Battle Angel) only Antonio Banderas is being talked about as a potential Oscar nominee in the Best Actor category for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory. Banderas has already won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival this past May.
A strong Oscar campaign on Lopez’s behalf by the film’s producers and distributors should ensure at least a nomination for the veteran Latina actress who at age 50 is a true superstar and internationally recognized as one of the most beautiful and talented women in the world.
Hustlers is Lopez’s biggest-grossing live-action film of her career, with a domestic box-office total gross to date of $104 million according to Box Office Mojo with an additional $32 million in worldwide earnings.
Produced by Benny Medina (under Lopez’s own Neuyorican productions) and directed by Lorene Scarfia, from her own script, Hustlers was made on a $20 million dollar budget and is already profitable.
Based on a true-life incident featured in a 2015 New York Magazine article, Hustlers is about a group of New York City strippers, led by Lopez’s Ramona, who orchestrate a plan to scam their wealthy Wall Street clients after the 2008 recession.
Beyond its box office success, Hustlers is also one of those rare movies starring diverse women of color which also inclueds Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), Cardi B., Lizzo, Kiki Palmer, Julia Stiles and Lili Reinhart. Wu as the neophyte Dorothy plays well against Lopez’s hardened but sympathetic Ramona and they give each other ample support under the sensitive and stylish direction of Scarfia, one of the few women in Hollywood to helm a major feature film. Sixty-seven percent of the film’s audience has been made up of women, 36% Caucasian, 27% Hispanic, 26% African-American, and 11% Asian/other.
Lopez is currently at work in New York City starring in a new romantic comedy Marry Me, a Universal feature film starring in the role of Kat Valdes opposite Owen Wilson with Sarah Silverman and featuring Columbian pop star Maluma.
Hustlers is distributed by STX.
