Vitaphone must have really enjoyed Earl Burtnett because they made four shorts together in 1928 and this here was the first. Burtnett introduces the musical numbers as well as the musician doing the tune and for the most part I thought this was fairly entertaining. "Miss Annabelle Lee" was the final number and probably the highlight of everything but the other numbers are well worth listening to.
Hustlers was meant to be a film about female empowerment. And it was, to a certain extent. I expected and wanted this to be a kickass and complex film of sexy women who use their confidence, skills, and wits towards a brilliant plan to get revenge on the Wall Street guys who wronged them.
Produced by Vanguard Animation and released on Netflix, this animated fairytale movie has a lot of ironies as the story is told by the prince himself.
America is the crux of the storyline: she is the only person in existence with the power to jump between universes. As central as America is to the Multiverse of Madness story, she somehow didn’t get that much to do.
While it is more than established that Halston’s life is far from a fairytale, the narrative suffers as a result of the decision to revolve more around sex and drugs than his artistry, it likely does a disservice to his cultural impact by pulling focus from his achievements.
The biggest highlight of the film is easily the performance of Andrew Garfield. In his days since hanging up his Spiderman suit, Garfield has routinely churned out great performances, and Mainstream is no exception. He proves that he is willing to try anything and go anywhere in a character.
