What The Critics Say

"Howard, dripping in the Memphis humidity, is the embodiment of virility, prowling like a wolf, purring like a tiger." Annlee Ellingson FILMSTEW.COM "Brewer and Howard turn DJay into the most inspirational underdog champion since Rocky Balboa." Edward Douglas COMINGSOON.NET "This is probably the grittiest film I’ve seen all year, but it’s also one of the more emotional." Kevin N Laforest MONTREAL FILM JOURNAL "Brewer and Howard have created a full-throated character in D-jay, and the rest of the troupe do a great job too." Eric Lurio GREENWICH VILLAGE GAZETTE "Craig Brewer's first feature film is a volatile mixture of slickness and sincerity, hard-edged naturalism and sheer show-business hokum." A.O. Scott NEW YORK TIMES "The soulful, heartfelt and musically infectious Hustle & Flow rests squarely upon the sturdy shoulders of the quietly charismatic Howard, a journeyman actor who gives a revelatory, and frankly Oscar-caliber, performance." Duane Dudek MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "One of those terrific out-of-the-blue movies that come along every so often." Eleanor Ringel Gillespie ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION "The movie’s effortless charm and earthy naturalism, combined with strong performances from its main and supporting actors, are beguiling enough to draw in any audience" Frank Houston PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS "Every actor delivers dead-on, heartfelt performances that are as touching as they are convincing." Steve Rhodes INTERNET REVIEWS

The Inside Story

"Howard is simply terrific as DJay - he really makes you root for his character, despite his pimping, drug-dealing ways." ... Matthew Turner VIEWLONDON

This is a Memphis story, a movie about making music by any means necessary," says "Hustle & Flow" Writer and Director Craig Brewer. "Music has been our common love and language. It’s our chance to take our pain, our struggle, our tools, and put it into something that has a beat, raw and unfiltered." It's hard to argue with that because to be honest it's exactly what Brewer's done, and he's done it well with this gritty tale of a pimp, his whores, a keyboard and a song that might just change their lives. The story of how "Hustle & Flow" came about is an extremely interesting one defined by the death of Brewer's father. "I lost him to a sudden heart attack," Brewer explained. "He never smoked and never drank, but a blood clot ended his life at age fourty nine. When you are the only son and your father dies at fourty nine, you can’t help but think you’re on borrowed time after age fifty. Being that I was twenty seven, I couldn’t help but feel that I was past the halfway point. At the same time, I was location scouting in Memphis for another movie and this hustler rolled up on me. He was trying to sell me his woman, and his mumble, his hustle, his spin, was unrelenting, he even tried to sell me his car. He just would not let me go. So I just put the two together. I thought, 'Man, if that guy had the same mid-life crisis that I had, and suddenly he started thinking about making something creative, what kind of story would that be?' It seemed to me that his creative outlet would be music, in Memphis, that means hip-hop, crunk, and his hustle would translate into his flow." Brewer created the character DJay out of that encounter with the hustler. Now that's pretty neat, don't you agree? The downside to this introduction is that Brewer would struggle over the next three years to get the film made. The star of "Hustle & Flow" Terrence Howard thinks "Craig is DJay. He’s a hustler; he’s going to make it by any means necessary." There will be a lot of people in the audiences who will, after seeing "Hustle & Flow", applaud Brewer for having the tenacity to go through the struggle to get his film made. Brewer agrees with Howard's comment. "I’m exactly like DJay," Brewer said. "There is a lot of hustling to making guerrilla, low-budget, independent films, and even when I came to Hollywood, I realized I had to do the same amount of talking and hustling. I felt like I was always hustling in order to flow." And did the 'race' issue come up? After all, this is a film about the struggle of an African-American, written by a white man. "I knew people were going to ask about this," Brewer said adding, "but this story is not about black and white; I’m writing about a world I know well. In creating the character of DJay, I tried to work against the stereotype, to make him a complex person. I didn’t want to glorify DJay’s lifestyle. I wanted the audience to see the humanity of this person without ignoring his flaws. What intrigues me about DJay is how his raw emotional and economic level affects his actions in these situations. So having written the story in 2000, how did it get into production? He had a fan in Producer Stephanie Allain and she wasn't about to give up on him. "Stephanie was on the movie for three years," says Brewer. "I’d try to quit, but she wouldn’t let me. She flew me to L.A. on her own dime; sometimes, she paid my rent." How much faith did she have in the story and Craig Brewer. Well let me tell you some facts you might never find out. Allain sold her house in order to continue to push ahead on the film. Why? "When I read the script, I was transported," Allain recalls. "I felt like I was in the hands of a master storyteller. It was exciting. Craig isn’t afraid to put complex characters in desperate situations and then reveal their hearts." Allain showed she was prepared to 'put her money where her mouth was' when she went to Brewer and told him, "When you made your first feature, 'The Poor & Hungry', you made a really good movie for 20 grand; let’s see what $400,000 can do." Allain went to John Singleton who had just directed the smash hit "2 Fast 2 Furious". The question she wanted answered was, "would he be interested in financing the movie with her." Given the script, Singleton 'flipped out'. "It was different from anything I’d read," he says. "I loved how audacious it is." When he saw Brewers first film he thought, "Wow, this guy can direct." Singleton also realized they needed a bigger budget. Brewer recalls Singleton telling him, "Man, it’s gotta be a bigger budget. Let’s do it right." They hit a brick wall. A year later and no funding had been forthcoming. In a gutsy decision Singleton decided to provide finance himself. He told Brewer, "Okay, I’ll greenlight the movie." When "Hustle & Flow" won the Audience Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Singletons faith was rewarded. "This movie became about all of us trying to do something different," says producer Allain. "It was about John Singleton wanting to work outside the system, and about Terrence stepping up to the plate as a lead actor. Anthony Anderson is primarily known as a comic actor; here, he gets to do a dramatic turn. Everyone who made "Hustle & Flow" became like a family, and Craig was DJay, leading the family, trying to help us live our dream." Music supervisor Paul Stewart believes, "Everybody involved in this movie needed it. Craig needed the movie. Al Kapone, a Memphis rapper who wrote many of DJay’s raps, he needed it. Everybody needed it, and they brought it." The big reward for audiences is in the cast, headed up by Howard who plays Djay. He's a cool, hard, tough pimp who is looking for a way out for him and his girls. "DJay is like a shepherd with a flock. These girls are his family; he’s the father figure, and when they’re in a dark place, it’s up to him to find the way out," says Howard. He says the film "doesn’t glorify DJay. It breaks DJay’s heart to send these girls out to do these things. He tries to think of a better life, to keep his sanity." Craig Brewer's faith that Terrance Howard should play the lead was justified when Howard was nominated in the 2006 Academy Awards Best Actor category. "When you have the right person to play the part, you feel like you have a shot at making something that’ll stand the test of time, because you know that you have an actor that’s also thinking of that same thing. That was Terrence," says Brewer. And lets not forget the girls who play his whores. The three women, Taryn Manning, Taraji P Henson and Paula Jai Parker are absolutely convincing. Manning says of her character, "There’s no sex between them; it’s very much a brotherly-sisterly relationship. At the same time, she really looks up too him, hangs on his every word, believes everything he says. It goes too far; DJay definitely takes advantage of Nola. But she finally does come out of her shell; that’s not going to happen to her anymore." Taraji P Henson who plays the heavily pregnant Shug says, "She’s the only one that DJay can really trust with his heart, because she’s going through a similar thing." Paula Jai Parker who plays the hustling stripper was told by Brewer, "You need to be uncompromising. You need to be like a Memphis thunderstorm: you need to come in, you need to cause some chaos, and then just leave, and not give a damn". That 'leaving scene' will rip some cinemagoers heart right out of their chest. And if you think what you've just read appears colorful, wait until you see "Hustle & Flow". It's worth every one of the 4 Star rating I'm giving it. Cast & Crew Bytes "HUSTLE & FLOW" stars .......
Terrence Howard ["Mr Holland's Opus", "Dead Presidents", "Crash", "Four Brothers" and "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"]; Anthony Anderson ["Exit Wounds", "Barbershop", "Cradle 2 The Grave", "Scary Movie 3" and "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"]; Taryn Manning ["Lucky 13", "White Oleander", "8 Mile", "Cold Mountain" and "After Sex"]; Taraji P Henson ["The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle", "All or Nothing", "Baby Boy" and "Four Brothers"]; D J Qualls ["Road Trip", "Lone Star State of Mind", "The New Guy" and "The Core"]; Paula Jai Parker ["Friday", "High Crimes", "Phone Booth" and "She Hate Me"]; Elise Neal ["Malcolm X", "Scream 2", "Mission To Mars" and "Paid in Full"]; Isaac Hayes ["Flipper", "Six Ways to Sunday", "Reindeer Games" and "A Man Called Rage"] and Ludacris ["The Wash", "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Crash"] as Skinny Black.
"HUSTLE & FLOW" was .......
directed by Craig Brewer ["The Poor and Hungry" and "Resolutions of the Complacent Man"]; screenplay by Craig Brewer ["The Poor and Hungry", "Pressure", "Resolutions of the Complacent Man" and "Water's Edge"]; costume design by Paul Simmons ["Posse", "Panther" and "Dead Presidents"]; production design by Keith Brian Burns ["Higher Learning", "2 Fast 2 Furious", "Johnson Family Vacation", "Tuesday Morning Ride" and "Four Brothers"]; edited by Billy Fox ["Woman Thou Art Loosed" and "Four Brothers"]; cinematography by Amy Vincent ["Death In Vince, CA", "Way Past Cool", "Kin" and "Home of Phobia"]; produced by Stephanie Allain ["Muppets from Space", "Biker Boyz", "Good Boy!" and "Something New"] and John Singleton ["Boyz n the Hood", "Shaft", "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Four Brothers"]. What It's All About

"The way it peels back the layers of that first speech and shows us how naked and vulnerable ambition truly can be makes it one of the most interesting films of the year." ... Mary F Pols CONTRA COSTA TIMES

DJay, a philosopher-hustler has always wanted to break free from his life of drugs and pimping. The only thing stopping him is his lack of ambition. He has three whores in his life. Shug who is pregnant and ready to pop; Lexus who works in a strip joint hustling customers, and Nola who sells tricks from the window of DJ's unairconditioned mobile office on wheels. By chance he is offered a keyboard by a down and out deadbeat. The instrument sparks something within his soul. He starts writing down his thoughts on life in lyrical form. Another chance encounter will reunite him with his old friend Key. Key works as a sound engineer making recordings of Gospel Songs in a local church. DJay, filled with enthusiasm turns up at Key's house. Key agrees to help him and between them they begin the task of finding equipment and reshaping one room in DJay's crowded house into a sound studio. Key brings in Shelby, a church musician with a beat machine who can lay down bass-thumping crunk tracks. DJay has plenty of lyrics but lacks that killer track, the one every radio station will want to play. A track that will guarantee he gets air time. Unexpectedly Shug and Nola provide the catalyst for what DJay, Key and Shelby are looking for. They lay down a track that fully reflects DJay's pimping, hustling life, "It's Hard Out There For A Pimp". Successful recording artist Skinny Black is due in town and DJay has been asked to supply 'high quality goods' for his visit. The pimp decides to hustle his way into the music industry though Black. The Verdict "Terrence Howard received a 2006 Academy ® Award nomination in the Best Actor category for his performance as DJay in this out of left field film. His gritty, emotional performance should not to be missed. Howard burns up the screen as the pimp DJay in another career defining role. If you missed him in the 2006 Oscar winning Best Picture "Crash", then you must see "Hustle & Flow". As for the 2006 Academy Award winning Best Song "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp", it's sure hard to get it out of your head. "Hustle & Flow" is a must see movie, even for those of us who have generally harboured a dislike for hip-hop. Highly recommended." Who's Who?

Terrence Howard Anthony Anderson Taryn Manning Taraji P Henson D J Qualls Paula Jai Parker Elise Neal Isaac Hayes Ludacris Juicy J William 'Poon' Engram Bobby 'I-20' Sandimanie Haystak Claude Phillips Josey Scott John Still DJ Paul Al Kapone Jennifer Bynum Green Terrence Brown Lindsey Roberts Erica Miller

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Djay Key Nola Shug Shelby Lexus Yevette Arnel Skinny Black Tigga Slobs Yellow Jacket Mickey Harold Elroy Shop Owner R L Kateezy Choir Lead Singer Piano Player Harper God Bless America Girl

The Crew Directed & Written by Craig Brewer Produced by Stephanie Allain & John Singleton Cinematography by Amy Vincent Film Editing by Billy Fox Casting by Chris Gray and Kimberly R Hardin Production Design by Keith Brian Burns Art Direction by Alexa Marino Costume Design by Paul Simmons Run Time 116 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - United International Pictures - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved