Hold onto your wallets, folks! The trailer for The Hustle, featuring Anne Hathaway playing a sophisticated British con artist and Rebel Wilson as her eager apprentice, has rolled out. Think of it as a gender-flipped version of the iconic ’80s caper, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Hilarity and potential emotional damage are sure to follow, thanks to the comedic talents of our leading ladies.
In a striking trend that can make one wonder if Hollywood has finally found its glasses, The Hustle joins the ranks of female buddy comedies like Ocean’s 8 and Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Are studios finally realizing that women can also be funny, or is this just a calculated marketing strategy to sell more popcorn and overpriced soda?
Buddy comedies have long been a boy’s club, with classics ranging from The Odd Couple to Dumb and Dumber. One might think the recipe for a laugh is as tried and true as a canned sitcom rerun. And still, women needed an invite to the fraternity? Apparently, Hollywood was too busy rehearsing its aw-shucks looks to notice the talent in skirts.
The answer to the glaring absence of female-led buddy films? Oh, the patriarchy—it’s a classic villain in Hollywood’s fairytale. Though women’s comedies can rake in the dough, studio execs often cling to the idea that we only crave sappy romances. Spoiler alert: we want to laugh too, preferably without the constant reminder of our last breakup.
Sure, there have been rare gems, like Big Business and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, that performed well at the box office. But it took the seismic sensation of Bridesmaids to truly shake the foundations. Breaking the $100 million mark and launching Melissa McCarthy into comedic superstardom, it was like watching a phoenix rise from the ashes of stale romcom tropes.
Even the rather contentious female reboot of Ghostbusters managed to pull in $229 million. Can you imagine the possibilities if the bitter trolls would just let their keyboards rest? Perhaps the internet might one day become a place for civil discourse—or at the very least, a cat video or two. But I digress.
And lest we forget Girls Trip, which smashed records and silenced critics with its $140 million profit on a budget that one might spend on an overpriced brunch for four. Thanks to the breakout star Tiffany Haddish, we’re reminded once again that funny women are indeed a force to be reckoned with. So, grab your tickets and let’s support more female-driven comedies! Every laugh is a step closer to social change, or at least to less outdated movie tropes.
(image: Christian Black / MGM Pictures)
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