| | | Everybody's Gotta Have A Dream.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary, Featurettes, Promotional Spots, English Subtitled
Producer John Singleton and award-winning director Craig Brewer bring to life the unforgettable tale of DJay (Terrence Howard), a pimp whose gritty hustle selling sexy Nola (Taryn Manning) and supporting pregnant Shug (Taraji Henson) leaves him wondering if this is it for him. Only when he trades contraband for a keyboard and bumps into his old schoolfriend Key (Anthony Anderson) does he see a way out by laying down some tracks and fulfilling his dream of becoming a respected rapper. When he learns Skinny Black (Ludacris), a local rapper turned mogul, is rolling through town for the 4th of July, DJay plans for the hustle of his life to get his voice heard. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Hustle & Flow is an intense and brilliant portrayal of one man's struggle for redemption and inspiration on life's mean streets.
"A sensation! A star is born! Terrence Howard explodes with coiled energy intelligence and sexuality!" Time
"Two Big Thumbs Up!" Ebert & Roeper
"****!" Chicago Sun-Times
"Explosive entertainment!" Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"A sensation! A star is born! Terrence Howard explodes with coiled energy, intelligence and sexuality!" Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
Editor's Note
A gritty fairy tale of dreams deferred, HUSTLE & FLOW infuses the torpor of the Memphis ghetto with electric tension. Terrence Howard delivers the performance of a lifetime as DJay, a pimp and drug dealer eking out an existence with his three whores, one of whom, Shug (Taraji P. Henson, HOLLA), is hugely pregnant. Nola (Taryn Manning, 8 MILE) turns tricks from the backseat of DJay's beater, while Lexus (Paula Jai Parker, LOVE CHRONICLES), the hustler's high-maintenance girlfriend, strips in a cellar-like club. DJay's dissatisfaction is increasing as he senses that life has nothing more in store for him, but a chance encounter with an old school friend, Key (Anthony Anderson, KING'S RANSOM), reignites his musical aspirations. Key is a small-time recording artist, and DJay, armed with a notebook full of lyrics, pays him a visit at home, much to the displeasure of Key's prim and proper wife (Elise Neal, PLAYA'S BALL). Initially dubious, Key agrees to partner with DJay after hearing his stuff, and the two build a makeshift recording studio in DJay's back room, enlisting the aid of a skinny white boy (DJ Qualls) with an unlikely talent on the drum machine. There unfolds the triumphant meat of the story, where, against all odds--and after a few bouts of infighting--everyone pitches in to cut DJay's crunk demo.Essentially a rags-to-riches story, director Craig Brewer avoids the saccharine through his achingly human portrayal of the characters. DJay is fraught with an undeniable misogyny that colors his otherwise sympathetic angst, and Howard portrays that complexity with grace and soul. With John Singleton in the producer's chair, HUSTLE & FLOW strikes an unprecedented balance between feel-good fare and unstinting urban drama, in what amounts to a powerful depiction of the pain and poignant struggle of those who populate this often-misinterpreted milieu.
| Features | 6 Promotional Spots | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Director Commentary | | Featurettes: Behind The Hustle; By Any Means Necessary; Creatin' Crunk | | Interactive Menus | | Memphis Hometown Premiere | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Widescreen Version Enhanced For 16:9 TVs |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 5/1/2007 |
| Running Time: 115 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 345354 | | UPC: 00097363456544 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Sundance Film Festival (2005) |  | Craig Brewer, Winner, Audience Award | | Amy Vincent, Winner, Cinematography Award | |
Golden Globe (2006) | | | Terrence Howard, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"The home-recording sequences in HUSTLE & FLOW are funky, rowdy, and indelible. Brewer gives us the pleasure of watching characters create music from the ground up, beat by beat, take by take." 07/29/2005 p.47-48New York Times
"It's certainly live, with fine performances and a strong soundtrack..." 07/22/2005 p.E1 Rolling Stone
"Things go brutally wrong for DJay but hauntingly right for Brewer and Howard, who create explosive entertainment." 07/28/2005 p.92 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[T]he vibrant details of setting and characterization freshen the journey." 07/01/2005 p.100 USA Today
"The best thing HUSTLE & FLOW has going for it is Terrence Howard's powerful performance?.The urban setting is grittily real. We can almost feel the sticky heat..." 07/22/2005 p.4E Sight and Sound
"HUSTLE & FLOW transcends its gangsterfied origins to become an unexpected contemplation on the transformative power of art." 12/01/2005 p.56-57 Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten Films Of The Year -- "[A] gritty, lived-in, up-from-the-streets fable, as compulsively watchable as SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER or EIGHT MILE..." 12/30/2005 p.117-118 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
Hustle & Flow takes a cliche and imbues it with new life through the virtues of directorial flair and talented acting. For most of its running time, Hustle & Flow follows familiar patterns, deviating only during a third act that brings the street's grit into what initially appears to be a happily-ever-after fairy tale. Never fear, though - writer/director Craig Brewer respects his characters too much to leave them in an unredeemed state. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
Sometimes you never really see an actor until the right roles bring him into focus. Terrence Howard has made 22 movies and a lot of TV (most notably the series Sparks), but now in Crash and Hustle & Flow, he creates such clearly-seen characters in such different worlds that his range and depth becomes unmistakable... Hustle & Flow, he plays a Memphis pimp and drug dealer who yearns to make something of himself -- to become a rap artist. His quest for success is seen so clearly and with such sympathy by writer-director Craig Brewer that the movie transcends the crime genre and becomes powerful drama. - Roger Ebert
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