Magic Mike (Steve Soderbergh, 2012)

Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) is a male stripper with big dreams.

Nearing 30, he knows his days as a performer are numbered, and is making plans for his retirement.

His plans are complicated by the arrival of a naive new dancer, Adam (Alex Pettyfer). 

As he mentors Adam, Mike forms an unlikely bond with the kid’s sceptical sister Brooke (Cody Horn).

As Adam becomes more enraptured with the lifestyle, Mike’s future is thrown into jeopardy…

I missed the Magic Mike movies in theatres.

I watched the first one on video and, while interesting, it didn’t make that interested in catching the follow-ups.

Magic Mike XXL had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as Mad Max Fury Road, and I was just flat broke when Last Dance came out.

I heard good things about the series, particularly XXL, so I decided to check them out in one piece. 

And so, let’s go back to 2012, and Steve Soderbergh’s original.

At the time of its release, Magic Mike represented the culmination of a comeback for Channing Tatum. After a series of commercial disappointments, in 2012 he starred in a series of hits - first there was the romantic drama The Vow, with Rachel McAdams, and then almost immediately afterwards, there was the action comedy 21 Jump Street.

Magic Mike followed in the summer and became a massive hit, cementing Tatum’s place as a butts-in-seats movie star, and providing showcases for his unique persona and underrated talents as an actor.

Soderbergh has been interested in sexuality going back to the beginning of his career. Coming a few years after his collaboration with adult performer Sasha Gray, 2009’s The Girlfriend’s Experience, Magic Mike is another take on the commodification of sexuality.

Written by Tatum’s collaborator Reid Carolin, Magic Mike’s perspective does not condemn sex or nudity - there is more of an awareness of the hypocrisy and the way capitalist framing both enables and silos sexuality.

Soderbergh frames everything from a distance, taking in reactions to the characters, cutting away from or intercutting between scenes. While it works for the film we get, one can see the disconnect between the film’s advertising and the film itself.

The set pieces we do see keep the frame wide enough that we can follow the choreography, often with the crowd’s reaction in the background.

The colour palette is faded, and scenes are shot with low light - outside of the action onstage, Tampa is grimy and worn out.

It is more of a character study, as Mike tries to move out of stripping - he is ageing out of the role and looking to start his new business.

Tatum’s inherent earnestness and inability to articulate is so compelling - when he tries to justify the distinction between his job and himself, it is depressing. When Adam ODs, and his sister confronts him, there is a naked shame to Tatum’s performance as Mike is forced to look at his life anew.

While a novice, from his introduction Adam is an asshole - Pettyfer gives the role an arrogance and his blank American accent makes him come off even more as a self-focused manchild. While Pettyfer was given a couple of chances to headline major films, his performance here, as a foil to Tatum, shows where he is best placed.

Soderbergh once referred to himself as a good neutraliser of potentially melodramatic material. 

I will be honest - while watchable, Magic Mike is not the most engaging watch. That is, until the ending, where Soderbergh’s coolness of touch pays dividends.

Without dialogue, the film conveys Mike’s final decision solely through editing.

It is the closing night of the club: we get intercutting shots of Tatum watching Pettyfer and the other dancers hang out backstage while Dallas sings an ode to the ladies of Tampa.

When Mike leaves, the film intercuts between him in his car and the build-up to the dancers’ final show.

Just as the number is about to commence, we cut away to Mike arriving at Brooke’s door.

And for such a supposedly cool filmmaker, Soderbergh knows how to play sensuality and romance - the final exchange between Tatum and Horn leaves everything to the viewer’s imagination. It is not Out Of Sight-level heat, but it leaves the movie on a simmer that works for the movie.

I cannot say it is one of my favourites, but Magic Mike is a fine film. Tatum and the rest of the cast are great, but there is underlying familiarity to the story that always leaves me cold. This might be the result of having another Magic Mike to compare it with, but while Soderbergh’s approach makes it interesting, there is something so rote about the film’s dramatic bones that makes it a bit of a curiosity.