Magic Mike

Despite it being a Steven Soderbergh film, I avoided Magic Mike until last night. I suppose I was just uncomfortable about watching a film about male strippers. This is odd, because I've watched hardcore gay porn and find it intriguing.

Anyway, I liked Magic Mike well enough. It takes a well-worn story--the guy who has ambition but continues to stay in a zone of protection--and sets in a world not too many of us know about. There is also the subplot of a young man who finds his calling, but at a price.

Channing Tatum stars as Mike, who holds a number of jobs, the one making him the most money is stripper in all-male revue. He longs to start a custom furniture-making business, but his credit isn't good enough for a loan. On a job at a construction site he meets Alex Pettyfer, a moorless 19-year-old. Tatum gets Pettyfer a menial job at the revue, but when a dancer is indisposed, Pettyfer is shoved out on stage and told to strip. He becomes popular, and loves the lifestyle.

Pettyfer has a sister, Cody Horn, who disapproves of all this, but Tatum is taken with her (she is pretty cold to him--perhaps this is why). Tatum is used to having his pick of women, including a psychology student (Olivia Munn) who likes to have threeways.

The owner of the club, Matthew McConaughey, wants to make a big move to Miami, but Tatum starts to resent being taken for granted.

All of this is pretty predictable. What makes Magic Mike different is the dancing sequences. I've never been to a male strip show, but given Tatum's background in it I would imagine this is accurate. I've spent way too many hours in strip clubs featuring women, so it's interesting to note the differences. Except for feature dancers, girl strippers don't have routines--they just sashay on the stage, allowing men to ogle them (occasionally they spin around a pole). The men have elaborate routines with props, with a lot more showmanship. Also, women in strip clubs, perhaps because they have to hold in their lust by day, go pretty wild in clubs, while men in strip clubs are usually lethargic, as though the nudity has sedated them.

Soderbergh's direction is also pretty fancy for the subject material. He employs a lot of interesting cuts, with dialogue from the next scene starting in the one before it. He shot the film (using his pseudonym, Peter Andrews) in an interesting palette, with the Florida exteriors washed out, and the club interiors bathed in blue. A beach party is shot in an almost sickly green hue.

Tatum is pretty good in the role. McConaughey won a number of critic awards for his role as the former stripper who has found a gold mine. He struts around, wearing a cowboy hat and a vest with no shirt, his crotch thrust forward. Horn, who is a model, is fairly wooden, though it's not clear whether it's just because her character is wooden. There's all sorts of savage comments about her on the Internet, suggesting she got the part because of family connections. I will need to see more to be sure.