MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Hustle Code’ kicks off hot, burns out fast

Cast: Uche Montana, Chinenye Nnebe, Phyna Otabor, Daniel Nsude, Emmanuel Damilare, Jbronze, Chiamaka Okoye, Nnoruka Ugochukwu, Ume Daniel, Joshua Frederick Adum

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Director: Omoruyi Efosa Emmanuel

Run time: 127 minutes

In an era driven by the “content is king” mantra, many young people have invested person-hours into becoming internet stars.

The result is a fast-paced world of trends and instant gratification. But what happens when the realisation that there is always a price to pay hits?

Inspired by a true story, ‘Hustle Code’ follows the life of Mena (Chinenye Nnebe) and Zara (Uche Montana), two seemingly broke ladies living the Lekki life.

On the surface, Mena is a forex trader while Zara is an entrepreneur. In reality, Mena assists fraudsters, also known as Yahoo Boys, in their activities. In street lingo, she is what you would call a ‘Picker’.

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Zara, on the other hand, is broke and jobless. She dates Pato (Daniel Nsude) for a living.

In comes Kelly (Phyna Otabor), a glamorous content creator who just returned from South Africa and needs a place to stay.

With a spare room and bills to pay, the ladies rent out a part of their apartment, but, as is expected, differences in their personalities begin to get in the way.

While Zara takes a hostile path, Mena meets Kelly for tips on how to start creating content.

Triggered by her constant bickering with Kelly, Zara uses content creation to rival her new roommate.

However, in a moment of shared trauma, the three ladies realised they are bound by the same thing: mounting bills, black tax and indebtedness.

After brainstorming ideas on how to get out of their financial mess, they settled for the escort service hustle.

Kelly calls Dapo (Emmanuel Damilare), who links them up with a gig.

As they set out to ‘secure the bag, ’ what was supposed to be a one-time thing soon becomes a habit even as the consequences manifest.

Review

‘Hustle Code’ is a take on the desire to live the soft life without working.

The movie explores the content creation world behind the scenes and all the pretence it is known to come with.

Although viewers may be familiar with the themes presented in the movie, ‘Hustle Code’ still tries to be impactful by offering a fresh perspective that resonates with audiences.

Even though she starts by masquerading her Yahoo girl antics as forex trading, Mena has an epiphany and eventually tells the girls to wrap it up and seek paid employment.

They insist on going for enticing payouts that they are bound to receive. She eventually gives in to peer pressure.

In a fleeting moment of self-doubt, Mena caves. What follows is that they get more than they bargained for, and she becomes the biggest victim of their shenanigans.

One thing that works against the movie is its lack of attention to detail. Otherwise, how does Zara go to sleep and wake up with heavy makeup?

The movie was interesting until the moment the girls started taking escort service gigs. Then suddenly, it veers off and starts struggling.

‘Hustle Code’ is another movie that highlights a problem without solving it.

Although taking the spiritual route is not the ending viewers hoped for, the movie missed opportunities to properly address problems around fraud, fake life, the downside of going viral, and other sub-themes.

Rated 5/10