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Review

DJay (Howard in a compelling portrayal) scratches out a life in the underbelly of Memphis with his small stable of whores. Like Tony Montana and Don Corleone and others in the pantheon of underclass protagonists on film, he is not blind to the horror of his circumstances and has a dream for a better life. He spun discs in high school, and recalls long-forgotten ambitions for a career in music when he hears that Skinny Black (Ludacris), a now-nationally known rapper, is visiting the old neighborhood for the July 4th holiday. DJay hooks up with Key — who took a straighter path and now has a wife and a mortgage — to produce a song dredged from the circumstances of his daily life, from a consciousness formed by a blend of myth and history. He plans to give a copy to Skinny Black; he thinks it’s his ticket out. But it’s a cassette tape, and Skinny may not even own a tape player. When the guys are in their makeshift recording studio, Hustle & Flow is right there with 8 Mile and Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil in communicating the evolutionary and collaborative nature of the creative process. The ensemble provides uniformly arresting, authentic performances, and the film moves with the desperate urgency it describes. And while the film shows unflinchingly the ugliness and brutality of these marginal lives, it also contains moments of compassion and tenderness. Hustle & Flow is surprisingly sweet through the hard, brutal grit.