Synopsis
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Terrence HowardDjay
- Anthony AndersonKey
- Taryn ManningNola
- Taraji P. HensonShug
- DJ QuallsShelby
- LudacrisSkinny Black
- Paula Jai ParkerLexus
- Elise NealYevette
- Isaac HayesArnel
- Juicy JTigga
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
The home-studio recording sequences in Hustle & Flow are funky, rowdy, and indelible. Brewer gives us the pleasure of watching characters create music from the ground up. - 80
Film Threat
While never sacrificing any of the hard-knock authenticity and specificity of his characters and their milieu, Brewer has crafted a deeply felt film. - 75
ReelViews
It celebrates art, hope, and dreams, and you don't have to like hip-hop to appreciate the message or the way in which it is delivered. - 75
Rolling Stone
Explosive entertainment. - 70
The New Yorker
Ends with a burst of movie-ish mayhem, and then a burst of sentiment, but when Brewer, Howard, and Ludacris stick to the bitter texture of South Memphis failure and success they produce a modest regional portrait that could become a classic of its kind. - 70
Variety
Director Craig Brewer has given his second feature film a vibrant pulse amplified by an outstanding cast led by Terrence Howard. - 70
The A.V. Club
The vibrant rap drama Hustle & Flow wraps the authentic around the inauthentic, telling an underdog story that sticks to formula, yet resonates with an undeniably real energy and texture. - 50
Newsweek
Howard redeems this lumpy fantasy. Soft-spoken and mysterious, he presides over the movie with a dangerous, feline grace.
