‘Hustlers’ Banned by Malaysia

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Malaysia has deemed Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers” too vulgar for audiences. The country’s censorship board said no way to the film’s apparent parade of nudity and eroticism. The film’s international distributor confirmed the ban on social media today. See the post below.

“Hustlers” last weekend took the second spot at the top-10 box office, beneath “It Chapter Two,” and is currently riding high on rave reviews — as well as Oscar buzz for star Jennifer Lopez, who plays a streetwise stripper who takes ingénue Constance Wu under her wing (and into her fur coat).

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The film’s nudity and sex are relatively light, but apparently went too far for Malaysian censors, who have a long history of banning films. “Alien: Covenant,” “Black Swan,” “Bad Moms,” “How to Be Single,” “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and, weirdly, “Beauty and the Beast” (allegedly due to homosexual references, but the film was later released without cuts) were all given the ax by Malaysia. Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” was also banned — which, yeah, we know why — but was later released.

Earlier this year, Malaysia censored gay sex scenes in “Rocketman.” The country deemed scenes from “Hustlers” unsuitable for public screening.

“‘Hustlers’ is funny, empowering, sexy, emotional, and a bit scary,” IndieWire deputy editor Kate Erbland wrote in her A- review, “with most of those superlatives coming care of a full-force performance from Jennifer Lopez genuinely deserving of awards consideration.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT We regret to inform you that Hustlers movie release has been cancelled as it has been banned in Malaysia. We deeply apologize for the inconveniences caused to our beloved followers, fans of the movie, medias and partners. A special shout-out to @presenceparis @reebokmalaysia @benefitmalaysia @flyproject.co @thenictionary @acutabovegroup @restylemy @tgvpictures and other medias involved. We certainly appreciate all the love and support from our fans and movie lovers for this title; yet it’s our loss that we are unable to carry on. Our sincere apologies that we have let you down. Nevertheless, we hope to bring you more exciting movies in the near future with your continuous support. Thank you 🙏🏻

A post shared by Square Box Pictures (@squareboxpicturesmy) on Sep 19, 2019 at 8:36am PDT

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