Since it was over 100 degrees again today, I decided to spend the hottest part of the afternoon in a dark, air conditioned room: a movie theatre. I went to see “Magic Mike” with a good portion of the female population of the greater Winston-Salem area. I don’t think I’ve been in a room with that many women since my last convocation at Salem College.
Let’s get something out of the way first – I’m very over the reaction women seem to be getting when they tell people they’ve seen or are going to see “Magic Mike.” The smirk, the wink, maybe the rolling of the eyes, as if to say “OOOOOOOOOOh, of COURSE you are, you slut with no taste in Film™.” Seriously, the guy at the ticket window acted like he was selling me a ticket to an actual strip club. I’ll have you know that I’m doing a terribly serious research project comparing and contrasting how Steven Soderbergh composes ensemble shots from “Che” to “Magic Mike,” so lay off.
Okay, okay, that’s not true. I’d have gone to see “Magic Mike” no matter who directed it. And why not? It looks like fun, actors I like are in it and it’s getting a lot of buzz. Your average multiplex is full of movies that guys line up to see for the sheer spectacle even though they know they’re not going to be any good story-wise (and I say that as the only woman in my showing of “Prometheus” in IMAX 3D). And unless you’re the one guy who’s never ever once said something like “I don’t care if Natalie Portman’s a good actor; she was so hot in ‘The Professional’ when she was 12” (ew, by the way), you have exactly no room to make fun of “Magic Mike” or anyone who goes to see it. And what’s with this “man card” business that seemed to sweeping Facebook this week? As in, if you’re a straight guy who goes to see “Magic Mike,” you lose your “man card.” You boys have cards? How fragile.
What’s sad (other than the self-esteem level of too many of my male friends, apparently) is that “Magic Mike” is a better movie than it’s getting credit for. What you see in the trailer is just about every bit of stripping in the movie. It’s actually kind of dark. As in, “drug dealers threatening people” dark. That one scene with the pig – if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean – should be shown in high school drug prevention lectures. Basically, if all you want is to look at some naked men, stay home and surf the ‘net, because this is an actual movie with plot and character development.
Soderbergh is an interesting director, in that every one of his movies feels different. I just saw “Haywire” last weekend, which, like “Magic Mike,” has a backstory. Soderbergh saw MMA fighter Gina Carano and thought she was cool, so he developed a movie to showcase her (as opposed to casting a waifish starlet to play the lead). It was while making “Haywire” that Soderbergh learned of Channing Tatum’s past as an exotic dancer, which inspired “Magic Mike.” And don’t forget his second unit work on “The Hunger Games.” I love that he just does whatever interests him, regardless of the whining of the fans who want him to just make “The Limey” over and over again (and I say that as someone who loved “The Limey”). It’s very refreshing to see at least one director in Hollywood who doesn’t say “Second unit? Stripper movie? Bitch please, I have an Oscar.”
And I think this is a better movie because he directed it. I had a few quibbles of the “Why does Mike live in an awesome beach-front house if he’s so poor?” variety, but I really enjoyed it. I want to see it again just to catch all the supporting-character-in-the-background stuff I missed the first time. Honestly, my only complaint was the women in the theatre today who started hooting and hollering the second the lights went down (Matthew McConaughey CANNOT HEAR YOU), but at least they shut up once it became clear that no one was going to give them a lap dance.
I predict lots of screenings full of 200 women, six gay men and two well-adjusted husbands, followed about six months from now by many Facebook status updates along the lines of “My wife made me rent ‘Magic Mike,’ and it actually wasn’t half bad.”
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