The words Magic Mike may conjure up images of sweaty, sculpted, undulating men, dancing unthreateningly for hoards of screaming women, but there has always been a backdrop of brutal economic reality looming over the fantasy world.
The unlikely franchise has explored the escalating devaluation of physical laborers, the suffocating effects of the college industrial complex, predatory loan businesses, recession and even COVID-19, which has effectively destroyed poor Mike LaneB次元官网网址檚 furniture business in this latest film.
When we re-meet Channing TatumB次元官网网址檚 gentle hunk in B次元官网网址� ,B次元官网网址� in theaters Friday, heB次元官网网址檚 bartending at parties for the very rich in Miami. The gig could be worse, but though he doesnB次元官网网址檛 quite say it, the implication is that heB次元官网网址檚 even aged out of dancing now. He has to seriously think about it when his wealthy employer offers him $6,000 for a dance later that evening.
Asking why sequels exist doesnB次元官网网址檛 usually produce satisfying answers, but B次元官网网址淢agic MikeB次元官网网址檚 Last DanceB次元官网网址� is a film that was born backwards, a fit of inspiration from Steven Soderbergh after seeing what Tatum had done with Magic Mike Live. The Las Vegas stage show, inspired by the first two movies, is described on its website as B次元官网网址渁n unforgettably fun night of sizzling, 360-degree entertainment,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址渉ot,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址渉ilarious,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址渢he great time youB次元官网网址檝e been looking forB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址渢he ultimate girlB次元官网网址檚 night out.B次元官网网址�
But B次元官网网址淢agic MikeB次元官网网址檚 Last DanceB次元官网网址� is not quite any of those things and perhaps might even annoy some of its most enthusiastic fans B次元官网网址� the ones who simply want to holler at the six-packs in front of them. Because this film is that thing that many sequels promise but donB次元官网网址檛 deliver on: ItB次元官网网址檚 both a true evolution and a conclusion. ItB次元官网网址檚 also part fantasy, part bleak reality, part commentary the fundamental value of dance and whatB次元官网网址檚 lost in a society that has forgotten how. It is not, in other words, simply another striptease.
B次元官网网址淢agic MikeB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淴XLB次元官网网址� (directed by Gregory Jacobs) both latched on to a kind of pure joy in the spectacle of the male stripper. But that audience, by nature of its venues, is inherently limited and B次元官网网址渄own market.B次元官网网址� In B次元官网网址淟ast Dance,B次元官网网址� Soderbergh gives Mike a wealthy benefactor, in the form of the operatically named Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek) who is in the midst of a messy divorce from an obscenely successful media mogul and looking to shake things up.
After an acrobatic, but fully clothed, encounter with Mike, she decides to whisk him away to London, dress him up and put him in charge of staging a show that promises to make its audiences feel the way she did the night she met Mike. In the process, she, and Soderbergh, Tatum and screenwriter Reid Carolin, set a historic London theater, and all of its fussy rules, ablaze (figuratively). If only all scorned socialites could do something so charitable with their rage.
ItB次元官网网址檚 a clever conceit for a filmmaker who never tires of singeing the establishment he continues work in. And like many Soderbergh films, B次元官网网址淢agic MikeB次元官网网址檚 Last Dance,B次元官网网址� shaggy, earnest and innocently tawdry, goes down so easy that itB次元官网网址檚 almost impossible to appreciate it fully on a first watch. I imagine it will only improve with more.
If there is a quibble, itB次元官网网址檚 that Hayek and Tatum donB次元官网网址檛 quite inspire the will-they-wonB次元官网网址檛-they tension that the movie seems to be asking of them. They work well together when theyB次元官网网址檙e working together, but the romantic chemistry is a bit lacking. Besides, his great unrequired love isnB次元官网网址檛 a person but his furniture business, right? It doesnB次元官网网址檛 help that Maxandra is also an extremely underdeveloped character.
Even so, Mike manages to wrest an inspired dance in the rain out of the idea of them (his co-dancer is Kylie Shea) that pays homages to classic movie musicals with just a bit more skin and writhing.
This story is told like a fairy tale, or a poetically composed school paper from a particularly precocious student, with a silky voiced young narrator telling us about MikeB次元官网网址檚 woes and the waning significance of dance in the culture. SheB次元官网网址檚 not just a disembodied voice, but an important character the story reveals later.
But itB次元官网网址檚 a lovely little flourish in Mike LaneB次元官网网址檚 journey. HeB次元官网网址檚 a guy who just wants to make furniture but seems destined (or doomed) to continue performing in one way or another. Like his director, heB次元官网网址檚 just too good at it to say goodbye forever, no matter how much they both keep trying.
B次元官网网址淢agic MikeB次元官网网址檚 Last Dance,B次元官网网址� a Warner Bros. release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for B次元官网网址渟exual material and language.B次元官网网址� Running time: 112 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
B次元官网网址擫indsey Bahr, The Associated Press
