No one was more surprised than me at how much I enjoyed Magic Mike. My dude-crush on Channing Tatum is now undeniable, as is the majesty of this teaser for the unlikely-yet-impeccably-titled sequel, Magic Mike XXL.
Seriously, this thing is perfect in every way. From Tatum's bench spasms turned gravity-defying dance moves, to Joe Manganiello opening beverages through sheer cock strength, to the sassy "You're Welcome" title card, to the fact that this will seemingly be a film which attempts to glamorize Myrtle fucking Beach. But most of all I adore when Tatum tells Amber Heard his name, does a little spin move, doesn't quite stick the landing but MAINTAINS EYE CONTACT and then saunters off like a boss. You just can't teach that stuff.
Am I a little worried that Soderbergh and McConaughey are both AWOL? Sure. But I'm excited at the addition of Heard, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Glover and even Jada Pinkett Smith. If she does her weird Eartha Kitt voice from Gotham, I'll be over the moon.
Magic Mike XXL will make 50 Shades Of Gray look like a punk ass bitch on July 1st.
"It doesn't make you anything you're not. It just makes it easier to be you."
Knowing that we had some late night activities planned, I opted to start the day with a movie rather than end it with one. I've been on a real Soderbergh kick recently, mostly due to the spectre of his apparent retirement from filmmaking. Assuming he maintains his inactive status,* Soderbergh actually ended up with a sort of double swan song; while Behind The Candelabra is his last film, the fact that it was made for HBO means that his final theatrical release is the psycho-pharmaceutical thriller Side Effects. The trailers went pretty far out of their way not to reveal a lot of specifics about the plot mechanics, but it's essentially about a depressed, potentially suicidal woman who stands accused of murder but claims that one of the side effects of her anti-depressants rendered her completely unaware of her own actions. Her shrink (Jude Law) is held responsible in the court of public opinion and launches his own investigation in order to clear his reputation, which leads to the revelation of either a criminal conspiracy or his own psychosis.
I'm not a big fan of the thriller genre, as I feel it's been largely watered down by a glut of generic, boring films (mostly starring Ashley Judd) around the turn of the century. But I have to admit that Side Effects is actually pretty cleverly constructed; whereas most thrillers are built around some specific lack of information, thus forcing the audience to guess at what happened off screen during a key scene, Soderbergh instead goes the other way, showing us everything as it happens until the viewer is sure of what's going on and then pulling the rug out and revealing that was what it seemed. It's a very strong choice, essentially forcing you to empathize with Jude Law even as you begin to question his sanity. The film also has a lot to say about our cultural dependence on medication to solve all our problems as well as some curious double standards in terms of gender in the doctor/patient relationship. While the final few turns of the plot felt a bit murky, it's still thoroughly engrossing. Over the course of watching Side Effects, Candelabra and Magic Mike, I've come to seriously fall in love with Soderbergh's camera work and visual style. If the man really does stop directing films, I think it's a pretty crushing blow to the community at large.
Once Jamie woke up and we'd had breakfast, we decided to return to the northern beaches of Tulum, but this time we'd learned our lesson. We drove instead of walking and we settled into a more secluded spot, complete with shady lounge chairs, purple hammocks and many, many grande caipirinhas delivered right to the beach. We basically had the place to ourselves for the day, a gorgeous little inlet that stayed largely shallow until you reached some decent sized waves out past the rocks. Eventually we went back to Charlie's for a late lunch/early dinner, opting this time for a chorizo quesadilla (my favorite) and chille rellenos.
We took a brief siesta and then drove back out to Akumal to observe sea turtles climbing out of the ocean to lay their eggs up on the shore. The turtles are afraid of white light, so we brought headlamps with red bulbs in order to see in the dark. We were a little worried that the turtles might be a no show due to the bright glow of the an almost full moon and the frequent flash of lightning bolts all along the horizon. But not only did we see multiple tortugas crawling in and out of the surf, but we saw multiple nests and even a little hatchling that Jamie got to hold in the palm of her hand. Apparently the number of turtle nests rises and falls on alternating years, but this year has seen a record high despite being a scheduled low year.
After walking about a kilometer down the beach to see all the nests, we decided it was time to head back around 10:30. We got halfway back to our starting point when suddenly the skies opened up and we were caught in a torrential downpour. The wind whipped the water at us from every angle and the lightning struck so close that it momentarily bleached out my entire field of vision, as if someone had set off a camera flash an inch from my eyeballs. I saw one guy on the beach calling out for his daughter and I could barely hear him over the wind, despite the fact that the was only standing about three feet away. We ducked under a thatched roof mean to provide shade for a couple of lounge chairs until the wind died down and made the remainder of our walk bearable. It was still raining but by then we were soaked to the bone anyway, so we didn't really mind.
But it did make for a soggy drive home and a musty smelling car the next day.
*Turns out we may have little to fear. Since I first wrote this, Soderbergh has already announced that he'll be producing and directing all 10 episodes of Cinemax's new Clive Owen series The Knick, about the Knickerbocker Hospital in downtown New York in the year 1900, before the advent of antibiotics.
--------------------------------------- Title: Side Effects Director: Steven Soderbergh Starring: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vinessa Shaw, Ann Dowd Year Of Release: 2013 Viewing Method: Redbox DVD
No, this was not a Wife's Choice. In fact, Jamie hated the movie far more than I did.
For years the line on Channing Tatum was that he was one of those guys who "killed in the room," which is to say that when he sat down with casting directors or producers he was charming and funny and likable and (obviously) good looking. Putting him in your movie seemed like a no brainer. But once cameras started rolling it was Tatum himself who appeared to lack brain activity. He came off stiff, boring and he had no chemistry with anyone. The guy was pretty much unwatchable.
When I tell that story to my future kids, they're never going to believe me.
Just a few years later Tatum is not only watchable, he's magnetic. He's got personality oozing out his perfect cheekbones and on top of all that he's fucking hilarious. In fact, I find myself inordinately excited for movies like White House Down simply because of Tatum's presence. There are two movies we can credit for suddenly propelling his career to the next level and they were both released in 2012. The first is Phil Lord and Chris Miller's brilliant 21 Jump Street, one of the funniest movies released that year. The second is Steven Soderbergh's stripper anthem Magic Mike.
In Jump Street Tatum is paired with Jonah Hill, playing a physically adept but intellectually stunted cop. Hill does the real emotional heavy lifting in the film, leaving Tatum free to look cool in the action scenes and be generally hilarious. That's not to minimize his comedic skills; before Jump Street you could not have convinced me that the man would be able to match humorous wits with Carrot Top, let alone Jonah Hill. But you can tell that, as opposed to something like G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra, the pressure is largely off here. Tatum is absolutely essential to the film's greatness but he doesn't have to carry the thing single-handedly. Without that weight on his shoulders, he's able to really loosen up and be the guy who wins over producers so easily.
There's a similar factor at play in Magic Mike. The script by Reid Carolin was largely influenced by Tatum's own experiences as a Florida stripper before he got into modeling and later acting. The fact that he's in a familiar world here goes a long way towards elevating Tatum's comfort on camera, but so does the copious amount of dancing. Just like we all go to Michael Bay movies to see shit explode, a big part of the draw here is seeing good looking, muscular dudes show off their assets on stage. But this isn't just grinding and ass-shaking, this is legitimate dancing with impressive choreography and Tatum is more than equipped handle the challenge. He and the other dancers really shine whenever they're up in front of the screaming ladies of Tampa, dressed in a variety of amusing costumes that range from Tarzan to cowboys to Tatum's shirtless paramilitary getup.
Again, it's as if knowing that he's got a handful of ace dance numbers up his sleeve gives Tatum the freedom to be himself throughout the scripted stuff. He's got an easy, almost goofy charm as Magic Mike that makes you simply fall in love with the guy as he struggles to leave the stripping life behind in favor of his dream career of designing and building custom furniture. He's got two love interests in the form of Olivia Munn as his frequent booty call and Cody Horn as the sister of his protege "The Kid" played by Alex Pettyfer. Tatum has an easy rapport with both actresses and the relationship with the no-nonsense Horn (who's a dead ringer for Missy Peregrym) works precisely because it's kept to a minimum. We don't get any of the cliched, expected story beats given the set-up (they fall for each other, her brother gets pissed and lashes out, etc) and it never feels like the story hinges on whether or not they get together. All they have to do is make each other laugh and look hot walking on the beach.
Then again, the story doesn't really hinge on much of anything, which is precisely what drove Jamie up a wall. The movie sort of meanders around a couple of half-hearted plotlines without ever focusing on any of them. There's Mike's furniture-based aspirations, his constant hustling at a half dozen jobs, his mentorship-turned-rivalry with The Kid, his double edged relationship with Matthew McConaughey's Dallas* and his romance with The Kid's nurse sister. Throw in a drug overdose and a violent shakedown with some dealers and you end up with a collection of vapor stories that never quite coalesce into a full-blown plot. I enjoyed Tatum's performance and Soderbergh's sharp eye enough that I was willing to overlook it to a certain degree, but I can see why Jamie found it so frustrating to watch. But in a way that seems like an even bigger test of an actor's ability. Can they give a performance that elevates a mediocre script into a movie worth watching?** That takes a special kind of something.
I think that Tatum has a lot of room to grow and I mean that in the best way possible. He can clearly handle both comedy and action. Careers have been built on far less. I'm actually curious to see Tatum really start to stretch himself dramatically in the future. He recently did nice work in the high school reunion flick 10 Years, and perhaps he'd benefit by doing some more ensemble pictures where he can soak in the work of some talented veterans. He was pushed into starring roles pretty quickly when he might have been better served by paying his dues and slowly working his way up the Hollywood ladder. But I think that the driven aspect of Magic Mike, the guy who's always working and willing to go in any direction and seize any opportunity to achieve his goals is also true of Tatum himself. He certainly doesn't seem interested in coasting on his success and the guy seems up for just about anything, as evidenced by his absurd appearance in one of this summer's biggest comedies. Tatum's got the Wachowskis' sci-fi epic Jupiter Ascending coming next year and, after being totally floored by Cloud Atlas, I'm fascinated to see what kind of performance Andy and Lana are able to coax out of him. No matter where Tatum goes from here, it's sure to be an interesting journey.
And I'm totally on board.
*Also not to be undersold is McConaughey's performance. Dallas is one of those roles that simply couldn't be played by anyone else - for shit's sake, at one point he comes out on stage with bongos. The guy is on a cinematic hot streak the likes of which I've never seen and right now I'm just enjoying the ride... **To be clear, Tatum is only half the reason Magic Mike works as well as it does. The other half is Soderbergh, whose direction and cinematography are frankly superb. His adoption of the digital aesthetic really works here, with the dark sheen of the strip club standing in stark contrast to the hazy golden Florida exteriors.
--------------------------------------- Title: Magic Mike Director: Steven Soderbergh Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Olivia Munn, Matthew Bomer, Joe Manganiello Year Of Release: 2012 Viewing Method: HBO HD
