Review of Pain Hustlers

midlandsmovies • November 10, 2023

Pain Hustlers (2023) Dir. David Yates


Have you seen The Wolf of Wall Street? Well, you’ve mostly seen Pain Hustlers then, which tells a similar true-life rise-and-fall story in a vibrant style similar to the Scorsese classic.


Here, our underdog is not Leonardo DiCaprio but Emily Blunt whose poor life is turned around when she joins an energetic business start-up trying to sell questionable drugs to doctors. Chris Evans is her Jonah Hill-in-crime and before too long, their dodgy sales practices result in high business growth and indulgent personal wealth.


Blunt is hugely impressive, as she always is, and Evans’ sleazy office drone continues to push him away from his heroic Captain America persona and the two make a formidable and likeable duo. Andy Garcia rounds out the lead trio with a suitable villainous turn as the rich boss and the film tries to find its ways to tackle important issues but it all feels a bit surface level.


And although it’s not particularly fair to judge a film purely in comparison to another, when the similarities are so overt, it’s difficult not to. This and The Wolf of Wall Street are both based on true stories but if they took this plot and delivered it by way of a different style or genre, I could see that working. Alternatively, if they used the frantic-style of editing, modern music and quick cutaways but chose a different story angle then again, we could have had a winner.


As it is, I just couldn’t shake the fact that we’re just getting a Tesco Value version of a superior film.


7 out of the last 8 films directed by Yates were Harry Potter-related and it’s admirable he’s finally moving away from the Potter-verse. But familiarity, which is needed for franchise films, can be a double-edged sword especially when your satire is a sub-par facsimile.


In the end it’s a harmless piece of streaming fluff with actors who I enjoy but everyone has done better work elsewhere, and Pain Hustlers’ lack of originality is the bitterest pill of all to swallow.


★★½


2.5 / 5


Michael Sales


Available to stream on Netflix now

By midlandsmovies April 26, 2025
Up! (1976) Dir. Russ Meyer  Well, bi-Adolf Hitler BDSM is not something (a) I thought I’d ever see 5 minutes into a movie and (b) ever expected to write in my lifetime to be fair but this spicy start is pretty standard for the work of exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer. Up! is a kind of r*pe-revenge softcore p*rn film (there’s gonna be a fair bit of self-censorship in this review so apologies in advance), the type Meyer is known for. I’d describe the plot in more detail but it’s mostly a convoluted and incoherent mess of double-crossing, murder, violence and lots and lots of humping. In short, a man called Adolph gets murdered and a woman investigates (kinda) the circumstances but as she does so, a group of locals blackmail, attack and screw each other with the murder mystery barely mentioned throughout. With so little narrative, it could be argued if it’s essentially p*rn? To be fair, not far off. It’s about extreme as you can go without simply making a s*x film. Is that a…no, it’s a belly button hole. Bookending the film (and also seen at various points throughout) is a Greek Chorus - simply a busty fully nude woman of course - who delivers dialogue like “Pummelling the scrotum with joyous supplication” and other such poeticisms. This artistic flourish is mostly pointless - the actress herself saying the words were tough to learn because it was utter nonsense. On a technical level, the editing is surprisingly well done and the 4k image is frankly fantastic. Someone somewhere must be putting together a post-modern take about the beautiful landscapes and cinematography of Meyer’s * ahem * output. But it definitely does have a kitsch artistry. It has certainly provided plenty of cinematic influence though. Elements of Tarantino grindhouse sensibilities are on show - Meyers likes bosoms as much as Quents likes feet - and there’s even a leather gimp early on. I can also see how its had an impact on Ti West X’s with a focus on sexuality and the body as well, more obviously, Anna Biller’s feminist-twist The Love Witch (2016). Suffice to say it’s not for the weak of heart. I think in this day and age you can’t go into this completely blind to its style, period and context though. It's an X-rated Carry On style that was bad taste then and it’s bad taste now. It revels in its sleaziness without a single hint of shame or apology. Simply saying 'deal with it'. The main negative though is the absence of plot - if the film can even be looked at like that - which is barely present. This is a shame as the whole thing could do with a bit more coherence rather than endless shagging. But it’s far from titillation, it’s mostly clowning - albeit a very adult version of it. More saucy than sexy. Trying to review this through modern sensibilities is almost impossible. It’s as offensive can be from the first scene through to the final credits - heck even this 4k menu is simply one of the film's many s*x scenes. But there are some progressive themes as it doesn’t shy from confronting sexual freedom, bisexuality, gay sex, BDSM and consensual exploration. There's moments of comedy thrown in and I enjoyed a frankly hilarious 5-minute monologue explaining the culprit’s intentions, which was a ludicrous way to deliver a slasher-style ending. I suppose the main thing about Up! (and Meyers’ work overall) is there’s a sort of love it or loathe it quality about the whole shebang. But it’s so unlike anything being made today - for good or bad - that it’s never anything other than unpredictably fascinating. More explicit than most Meyers films - in fact more than any film - it’s a lewd, rude and crude (s)exploration with a satirical edge and campy enjoyment bouncing from every frame. ★★★ 3 / 5 Michael Sales Severin Films releases Russ Meyers' UP! (1976) and MOTORPSYCHO (1965) on 28 April 2025 in newly restored and scanned 4k with hours of new and archival Special Features https://severinfilms.co.uk/
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