Midnight Hustle – TUBI Review (1/5)

MIDNIGHT HUSTLE on Tubi is a new thriller with a very predictable storyline. Also, ballet dancers becoming pole dancers is at the core of the plot, so there’s that. I was not a fan, but I’m sure others will enjoy it. Read our full Midnight Hustle (2023) movie review here!

MIDNIGHT HUSTLE is a new Tubi thriller produced by MarVista, which is a production company we also know from Netflix. If you’re familiar with these productions, you’ll know they have a very Hallmark / Lifetime movies vibe and can be kitsch and fun or just cringey,

For me, this new thriller had an extremely predictable storyline, which is never a hit with me. It may be a guilty pleasure for some, but it’s pure agony for others. Well, me, personally anyway. Also, I do not appreciate including any kind of LGBTQ storyline when the only purpose is to immediately venture into the most hurtful trope.

Continue reading our Midnight Hustle movie review below. Find it on TUBI now.

From ballet to pole dancing

There really isn’t much in Midnight Huslte that surprises. Two ballet dancers meet at an audition that one doesn’t do well at and the other literally breaks her foot during. The two are not friendly towards each other – well okay, one less so that the other – but that doesn’t keep them from becoming fast friends the second time they meet.

Now neither of them is dancing ballet anymore, but they need to make money and get into pole dancing. Well, why not, you may say, but their background storylines just don’t line up very well with this.

One of them wants to help her recovering alcoholic mom to give her little sister a better life. The other just needs to get away from her parents who have been pushing her into ballet.

For the record, when you see the daughter and alcoholic mother, you may mistake them for sisters or even life partners. This is probably due to there being only ten years (yes, 10!) between the actors playing mother and daughter. It’s just weird.

Just kiss the girl… and die!

Yes, it’s a minor (non-specific spoiler) and we don’t do spoilers here at Heaven of Horror. However, there are two exceptions. One is if a dog (or another pet) dies, and the other is when LGBTQ characters immediately die after experiencing a positive gay encounter.

With Midnight Hustle, we see two girls making lovey-dovey eyes at each other, then they kiss, and the next thing we know, one of them dies.

It’s the old “bury your gays” trope and I am so over it. This didn’t ruin the movie for me, as it wasn’t good in the first place. But it didn’t help.

You can watch Midnight Hustle on TUBI now

Elaine del Valle is the director of Midnight Hustle which is her feature film debut. I can’t blame the director for my not liking this movie, but the style could’ve maybe improved a bit on the experience. As it is now, it didn’t. The screenplay comes from Cate Holahan, which I never would’ve guessed.

In fact, I never would’ve guessed that this movie was directed and written by women. For me, the only explanation is that it’s a “made-to-order” movie. Someone asked for a movie with certain elements and that’s what they got. Sort of like all the crazy shark movies on SyFy.

Every now and then a Sharknado kitsch hit comes along, but along with this, there are many really bad shark movies.

The plot of having two ballerinas become pole dancers and enter a world of crime and murder, could’ve turned into a kitsch and crazy movie. In a good way. Instead, it becomes a classic Hallmark or Lifetime movie that takes itself way too seriously. And the ending of Midnight Hustle on TUBI is perhaps the most predictable of all.

Midnight Hustle is out on TUBI now.

Details

Director: Elaine Del Valle
Writer: Cate Holahan
Stars: Kyle Kankonde, Savoy Bailey, Rob Figueroa, Raquel Antonia