Hollywood Hustler Review: To everyone in his inner circle, Zach Horwitz was just another guy who dreamed of becoming a star. However, when an elaborate scam is revealed and the facade crumbles, his closest family and friends realise that they have been duped out of $650 million.
Hollywood Hustler Prime Video Director
Rebecca Chaiklin
Original Title
Hollywood Hustler: Glitz, Glam, Scam
The series consists of three episodes, each with a runtime of approximately 40 minutes.
Hollywood Hustler Review
When you’re looking in from the outside of a Ponzi scheme, you wonder frequently how someone can fall into something this transparent. However, interestingly, in Hollywood Hustler, we see how difficult it is to actually figure out that you’re in a scheme when there’s no reason for you to doubt the person selling you dreams in any way.
With three short episodes, this Prime Video docuseries follows former actor, film producer and convicted fraudster Zach Horwitz, known by his stage name Zach Avery, as he lies, cheats and schemes his way to realise his dreams while defrauding friends, family and other investors of millions of dollars.
The series, surprisingly, focuses a ton on Horwitz’s life, and particularly on his romantic relationship with his wife and mistress, and leaves us feeling rather disgusted from the start. However, the deeper we delve into the schemes and, eventually, into Horwitz’s mind, viewers will be left shocked by how easily he was able to con several people without a thought in the world.
The three episodes detail how he defrauded everyone around him, and his background, shedding light on how and why he was the way he was and how he ended up manipulating so many people into doing his bidding. You are also left to question over and over again how his victims never looked deeper into what they were getting into, as the tall claims feel a bit too far-fetched from the start and are quite unbelievable to boot.
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Things just keep getting more and more extreme until they eventually fall apart, like how Ponzi schemes always do, and viewers are left to take in a rather curious and thrilling series full of questions. It does a great job of showcasing the downsides of greed and how the smallest glimmer of fame can make people lose all semblance of reality. However, we also learn that the conniving goes deeper for Zac, and the ties with his mother are nothing short of juicy.
As with every other true crime documentary, the series brings forth all of these truths through interviews, archival footage and call recordings that will give you goosebumps and tells a complicated tale of how Zac effortlessly got so many people to do his bidding. It’s truly mind-blowing and a little disturbing, especially the call recordings, and will leave you curious about the whys and hows of the entire situation. I think the interviews are very interesting as well, especially the conversations with his wife and mistress, that paint a very personal picture of the scammer.
Final Thoughts
Hollywood Hustler is a very entertaining series, as the story is very juicy; it has everything that you would expect a remorseless, disgusting conman to do and then some, and other curious little segues that will be completely fascinating for anyone who likes learning about scams. All in all, this one’s quite entertaining.
What did you think about Hollywood Hustler: Glitz, Glam, Scam? Let us know in the comments below!
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