Director: Steven Soderbergh
When it comes to how prolific he is, Steven Soderbergh is like the new Woody Allen. But where Soderbergh differs from Allen is his versatility. Allen's movies are consistently good, but they frequently feature similar characters and similar themes. With Soderbergh you never know what you're going to get, and there's no better example of that fact than Magic Mike, a movie starring Channing Tatum about male strippers. There was an automatic stigma attached to the movie just on the basis of the cast and its subject matter, but anyone who knows Soderbergh's work knows that this movie isn't going to be some cheap lady-pandering fluffy Channing Tatum vehicle.
The movie is less about male stripping and more about the recession. It's very much a movie from this time. If there was never a recession we probably wouldn't see a movie about two financially struggling good-looking white men. It's also a unique film because of the bait-and-switch Soderbergh pulls by changing up the concept of the male gaze and by almost using a female gaze in certain scenes. The audience settles into the world of male stripping with ease, and that's helped by Soderbergh's style which keeps the editing and the visuals interesting always reminding us of the "different-but-not-quite" world the characters reside in. Soderbergh has so much knowledge on the craft of film that if you're a film buff you'll never be bored during his movies, and when he takes on fascinating subjects like male stripping then it's even better. He's been making so many movies recently that none of them are truly masterpieces, but they're all fascinating and extremely well-made. Whenever I see a Soderbergh I gain a renewed hope for mainstream Hollywood filmmaking.
Grade: B
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