The marketing and female fervor for Magic Mike has largely surrounded the fact it takes place in the world of male stripping and features an often shirtless Channing Tatum in the film’s titular lead role, flanked by a variety of additional man flesh to give ladies something to scream about. The film delivers on its promise of gyrating and pelvic-thrusting, barely clothed men as the music plays and the lights shine, but beyond that you get a film that comes across as a truly authentic drama with a performance from Tatum that makes you believe you may actually be looking at the movie star Hollywood so desperately wants him to be.
From the outset there is no doubt this is a Steven Soderbergh feature. His attention to detail, every frame drenched in a sepia hue and the gentle hum of ambient noise in a room as two people share thoughts without a score laid over the scene to tell you how you should feel, instead giving all attention to the words and the performances. Yes, on top of dancing, naked men, Magic Mike is a legitimate drama and certainly one of Soderbergh’s best films in over ten years.
Tatum plays Mike, a man of varying trades from roof tiler to stripper, but, as you’ll probably hear from so many wearing so many hats, there is one true dream in mind. For Mike that dream is to make custom furniture, but his personal credit won’t allow him the loan necessary so he continues to save his ones and fives, hoping to one day make his dream come true while he rolls around Tampa in his new truck of which he won’t even remove the plastic. “That way when I sell it, it will look like new.”
The story takes shape when Mike meets 19-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer) on a roofing job. Just in town, no money and living with his sister (Cody Horn), Adam isn’t exactly an inspiring sight to behold and, for the most part, Mike dismisses him right off. The two, however, meet again that night and Mike takes Adam under his wing, into a club to recruit a group of sorority girls and point them in the direction of Club Xquisite where the night will end, but the party doesn’t.
It isn’t long before Adam and Mike are inseparable, a telling relationships when it comes to the events of the film as they will play out. Magic Mike is about growing up, knowing yourself, not defining yourself by what you do and taking responsibility for your life. It’s about more than just words with a focus on taking risks and knowing who your friends are. Friends that will tell you what you don’t want to hear, but what you need to hear.
Now I know for some of you this isn’t what you wanted to hear. Well, don’t worry, there is more than enough ass to keep you hot and bothered in-between the real drama. In fact, as one very real conversation is being had, one of Mike’s fellow dancers gives himself a few extra inches with a penis pump in the foreground, a moment where the payoff plays out shortly thereafter in silhouette behind a white screen that would give Dirk Digler a run for his money.
All fantasies are played out in sailor caps, fireman uniforms, chaps and Tatum spinning above the stage as techno, strobes and a fog machine supply the ambiance. For that matter, the soundtrack is excellent, ranging from Foreigner to T-Pain, Excision and Datsik, Rihanna and Win Win. The best part of all of this, the dance and stripper sequences are played with such authenticity you can either laugh, as I did, at the silliness of it all or be titillated by what you see on screen. Either way the scenes work as part of the narrative because the film doesn’t betray the moment or make you feel uncomfortable for watching. Whatever your natural reaction may be, it fits.
Admittedly, some moments late in the film involving drugs and a falling-out are rather traditional bits of story-telling and Mike’s dream of owning his own custom furniture business reeks of cliche. Why it works, though, is because the film doesn’t depend on these moments in the traditional sense. Then again, I could be reacting to the way Soderbergh presents each situation in an appreciation of style generating substance. However, without the needless score beneath each scene it feels far more “real” than it otherwise would.
Performance wise, Tatum knows this role seeing how before he was a Hollywood star he was a stripper, and he owns it making it his best performance to date. Pettyfer is perfect as Adam (aka The Kid) as he continues his knack for playing slimy grease-balls and McConaughey is just his usual self, giving Dazed and Confused fans a lot of love with continued utterances of “Alright, alright, alright,” rom-com fans plenty of shirt-off moments and his teaching time with Pettyfer is priceless.
One of the more interesting characters, and one the film depends on as a voice of reason, is Adam’s sister Brooke played by relative newcomer Cody Horn who just so happens to be the daughter of new chairman of Disney Studios and former Warner Bros. President and COO Alan Horn. Cody is more of a slouched-shouldered everygirl rather than a more obvious choice, and I liked her in the role and prefer her to just another one of Hollywood’s glamor stars.
All-in-all, Magic Mike is a surprising feature and a welcome one at that. I do wonder, however, if audiences will be turned off by the fact it isn’t a goofy look inside the world of male stripping and is more of a story of growing up, taking responsibility and becoming man. Ladies will have a chance to cheer and scream but will their burning loins allow them to appreciate the rest?
