Imbued with gamer sensibilities similar to the design of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Hustle: Episode 4 is charming and fun aesthetically while also cleverly and hilariously addressing the everyday microaggressions of racism and sexism, ending up with a mixed bag of “it’s funny because it’s sad” comedy.

This short film stars screenwriter Rekha Shankar (also creator & producer)as Nina and Rachel Pegram as Paige, two girlfriends living in the city and riding the struggle bus through life together. On their everyday hustle of grinding at their jobs, Nina and Paige both experience ups and downs while dodging and dealing with crap thrown from their crappy bosses, though at least they have each other at the end of the day.

If I had never seen an episode of Broad City or Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl or any of the other quirky female comedy duo shows coming out as of late, I might think that the inner thoughts of Hustle‘s everyday-type millennials riding on the struggle bus sounded original or interesting, but I have seen those other shows. However, Hustle: Episode 4 playing out almost like some sort of fan fiction for these aforementioned shows is not necessarily a knock at its quality, as its familiar structure of parallel storylines between two besties that eventually converge for their bonding moments was a winner for those original shows and is reproduced well in Hustle: Episode 4.

I am sure that there are other episodes for these characters, given this short film’s title, but judging Hustle: Episode 4 as a standalone short film, I believe the team successfully created well-rounded characters and also displays a very distinctive style, one that intertwines the sounds and graphics of old-school gaming like “Super Mario Bros.” Hustle: Episode 4 also boasts a very diverse cast, with its besties both being BIPOC, allowing them to effectively sidestep that too often and woeful occurrence of shows using token minority characters as mere sidekicks–both were given room and agency over portraying how their life is affected by racial inequality and the inherent imbalance of power in the workforce of capitalist and male-dominated society.

The Hustle: Episode 4 team deftly approaches disheartening issues in a light-hearted way and does so through the use of relatable characters in all too relatable work-situations. I would be interested to see what other directions these characters can be pointed in while exploring their young adult life as cogs in the racial and capitalistic wheels of modern times–perhaps something like the dating scene, as it may get old to primarily have white male bosses picking on this quirky duo every episode.

Hustle: Episode 4 played at Slamdance 2021.

6.25 out of 10