Magic Mike
Jun. 30th, 2012 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowfireflameWent to see Magic Mike LIKE A BOSS with some of my female friends from work. Not going to lie, I went entirely because Matt Bomer was in it. Totally fun, especially seeing it with a very indulgent and easily pleased audience, but to me the stripping bits were not sexy at all. However, I find myself unexpectedly turned on by Channing Tatum dancing (not stripping).
All the showings of this movie at my theater were completely sold out, and my showing was about 80% filled with females. And I feel like this movie was deliberately marketed in a skewed way in order to appeal to that audience. Because this was a very interesting movie, but it wasn’t really about male stripping. It’s about a loyal guy with an entrepreneurial spirit (Channing Tatum’s character) who is struggling to find his place in a depressed economy.
Don’t get me wrong, this is very far removed from The Full Monty, but there are definitely very pointed jabs at banks who will not finance a guy’s dreams because his credit score doesn’t make the cut (because he deals entirely insingles cash). I feel like these are themes that might really strike a chord with male viewers, as well as female ones, but they might be discouraged from going (at least the straight ones) because the marketing seemed only designed to catch those with an aesthetic appreciation for the male body. *cough* I mean, obviously the movie is to some extent about male stripping, but it could have been any profession that has a kind of stigma associated with it.
And now to more superficial things—if you’re a Matt Bomer fan, prepare to be disappointed. He’s no more than a particularly good-looking extra in this movie, with the exception of one odd threesome/foursome. Total waste of his acting, and I doubt this will get him noticed that much. (EDIT: Except, it seems, by Sherlock writer/actor Mark Gatiss!! I love it when fandoms collide!)
I found Matthew McConaughey revolting, as always. One of my least favorite actors out there, and I think it’s because he always seems to play the same character (an obnoxious, confident Texan whom people inexplicably find sexy), and whom I’m unable to separate from his real-life persona. I mean, he plays this role very well and convincingly, but I have no idea how much of it is acting.
Alex Pettyfer was very good here, even if the situations he gets into are a tad dramatic. I went in prepared to like him and found his character initially likeable but then on that edge between creepy and disagreeable. I could see Pettyfer playing a serial killer very believably. (Not sure if this is a compliment?)
I’m beginning to see why lots of my friends find Channing Tatum irresistible. I feel I owe him an apology for being disparaging about his work previously: usually I find his acting one-dimensional but convincing, as long as his role is simple. But I think what’s missing is that he just needs natural writing instead of huge speeches; he needs dialogue where he can be awkward but with reserves of power under the calm outward façade. The dialogue here was really great. There were times when I am convinced that the actors were ad-libbing or had made funny mistakes that Steven Soderbergh deliberately left in, because this dialogue, especially between Tatum and Cody Horn, was extremely everyday and plausible. And while I didn’t find any of the stripping sexy, pretty much at all, seeing Tatum dance was unexpectedly sexy.
And damn, Cody Horn played was one of the most natural and well-developed female characters I’ve seen in a while (shout out to Olivia Munn’s character, too, who goes out cruising for girls to have threesomes with). (Their characters have jobs/things they do all day! And we know what they are!) They both took a while to grow on me, but in the end I was impressed by how fleshed out they were in a film that is ostensibly directed at young, horny women.
This movie won’t change your life or anything, but I found it unexpectedly good, despite the male strippers (rather than because of them).
EDIT: I forgot to mention this because it was late, but there were two elements that temporarily threw me out of the movie and made me really disgusted. There are very few people of color in this—like, the only people I can think of were, and I am not kidding, DJs/people selling drugs/enforcers for people selling drugs. I guess male stripping is a whites-only kind of gig.
And also there’s a scene of fat-shaming thrown in there. Because that’s exactly more of what we need in a movie directed at women. The sad thing is that this scene could have been really empowering—and was, in fact, rather empowering, and I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised—until the end with an oh-so-funny “just threw my back out lifting this fat chick” joke thrown in. Yeah, absolutely hilarious.
All the showings of this movie at my theater were completely sold out, and my showing was about 80% filled with females. And I feel like this movie was deliberately marketed in a skewed way in order to appeal to that audience. Because this was a very interesting movie, but it wasn’t really about male stripping. It’s about a loyal guy with an entrepreneurial spirit (Channing Tatum’s character) who is struggling to find his place in a depressed economy.
Don’t get me wrong, this is very far removed from The Full Monty, but there are definitely very pointed jabs at banks who will not finance a guy’s dreams because his credit score doesn’t make the cut (because he deals entirely in
And now to more superficial things—if you’re a Matt Bomer fan, prepare to be disappointed. He’s no more than a particularly good-looking extra in this movie, with the exception of one odd threesome/foursome. Total waste of his acting, and I doubt this will get him noticed that much. (EDIT: Except, it seems, by Sherlock writer/actor Mark Gatiss!! I love it when fandoms collide!)
I found Matthew McConaughey revolting, as always. One of my least favorite actors out there, and I think it’s because he always seems to play the same character (an obnoxious, confident Texan whom people inexplicably find sexy), and whom I’m unable to separate from his real-life persona. I mean, he plays this role very well and convincingly, but I have no idea how much of it is acting.
Alex Pettyfer was very good here, even if the situations he gets into are a tad dramatic. I went in prepared to like him and found his character initially likeable but then on that edge between creepy and disagreeable. I could see Pettyfer playing a serial killer very believably. (Not sure if this is a compliment?)
I’m beginning to see why lots of my friends find Channing Tatum irresistible. I feel I owe him an apology for being disparaging about his work previously: usually I find his acting one-dimensional but convincing, as long as his role is simple. But I think what’s missing is that he just needs natural writing instead of huge speeches; he needs dialogue where he can be awkward but with reserves of power under the calm outward façade. The dialogue here was really great. There were times when I am convinced that the actors were ad-libbing or had made funny mistakes that Steven Soderbergh deliberately left in, because this dialogue, especially between Tatum and Cody Horn, was extremely everyday and plausible. And while I didn’t find any of the stripping sexy, pretty much at all, seeing Tatum dance was unexpectedly sexy.
And damn, Cody Horn played was one of the most natural and well-developed female characters I’ve seen in a while (shout out to Olivia Munn’s character, too, who goes out cruising for girls to have threesomes with). (Their characters have jobs/things they do all day! And we know what they are!) They both took a while to grow on me, but in the end I was impressed by how fleshed out they were in a film that is ostensibly directed at young, horny women.
This movie won’t change your life or anything, but I found it unexpectedly good, despite the male strippers (rather than because of them).
EDIT: I forgot to mention this because it was late, but there were two elements that temporarily threw me out of the movie and made me really disgusted. There are very few people of color in this—like, the only people I can think of were, and I am not kidding, DJs/people selling drugs/enforcers for people selling drugs. I guess male stripping is a whites-only kind of gig.
And also there’s a scene of fat-shaming thrown in there. Because that’s exactly more of what we need in a movie directed at women. The sad thing is that this scene could have been really empowering—and was, in fact, rather empowering, and I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised—until the end with an oh-so-funny “just threw my back out lifting this fat chick” joke thrown in. Yeah, absolutely hilarious.
