Word: flowing
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...from L.A. It's specific to the South," says U.S.C. professor Todd Boyd, author of The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop. "A big part of hip-hop is about representing, and they want to rep their culture." The Sundance hit Hustle & Flow, about a Memphis, Tenn., pimp who wants to be a rapper, will introduce the sound to an even wider audience and ought to boost collaborators like Memphians Al Kapone and Three 6 Mafia, not to mention Ludacris, who has a pivotal role as a rapper from the streets made good...
...house and invested in the project. Then she alerted Singleton. "He loved it," says Brewer, "He said, 'All you need is me to go into the room with you.'" Still no takers. So Singleton put his house up for collateral and financed the movie (for $3.5 million). Hustle & Flow hadn't been made, but it was already making news on the entertainment and real estate pages...
What is there in Hustle & Flow to fall in love with? Start with Howard, who has a busy résumé, with the UPN series Sparks and the films Dead Presidents and Crash, but here explodes with coiled energy, intelligence and sexuality. To the simple scheme of DJay's redemption, he lends nuance and magnetic power. Ta-da! A star is born...
...secret of Hustle & Flow's appeal is that it's a conventional dream movie with a realistic surface--a marshmallow dipped in grit. With its muddy color palette, the film looks as if it has been painted on velvet. But the plot is pure wish fulfillment. DJay gets transformed from no-gooder to go-getter by beautiful music (when he's moved to tears by a church choir). Then there's the Rocky factor. That movie, about a bum turned hero, was a happy pill after the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate. Brewer sees his film as a return...
Still, Hustle & Flow wins a critic's and an audience's rooting interest. It boasts a seductive lead performance and the best ensemble cast since Ray. It has a palpable sense of place; every frame reveals the heat and heart of Memphis. The film may be more like Rocky the club fighter than Rocky the box-office champ, but as people keep saying here, "Everybody gotta have a dream." One would be that the Hollywood factory starts financing movies like this--handmade and homegrown. --Reported by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles