Mild spoilers follow.
So I decided to take a look at Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike" because of both its content matter and potential film historical importance (Soderbergh has announced he is retiring, making this his third to last film) of the work itself. I admit I didn't have terribly high expectations, especially after the weak acting and shallow plot of the last Soderbergh film I saw, the beat-em-up "Haywire"; I was pleasantly surprised by the interesting narrative construction and the seemingly quick and dirty camera-work.
One thing he's known for is having Directed, DP'd (shot), and many of his films himself and from what I can tell, this is no exception. It has the same semi-verite style that began in The Girlfriend Experience and managed to keep my attention despite everything else in Haywire. Creative framing and unusual angles (sometimes even breaking the fundamental rules of cinematography) go wild here to great success. When "the kid" is first brought into a bar by Mike, he's tasked with chatting up two barely of-age girls. Mike arrives and the scene becomes a series of circular low-angle shots that are edited furiously in a dizzying circle. At first, it really bothered me and my film-school educated mind. The constant switching of screen positions and 180-degree violations made my head spin. Then quite suddenly I got it -- It wasn't hard to follow the dialogue, nor did the audience loose a sense of place. We'd seen the space in the beginning of the scene, and it allowed us to "be" intimately involved in the conversation. The swirling edits around the characters helped us to experience the same vague disorientation that "the kid" was. One particular moment I liked was a dialogue sequence shot as a long take as the two characters walked around a shallow sandbar. The camera tracks them 180-degrees as they walk from being half-in-sunlight to being backlit and then back again as they skirt the tiny island. At one point the sunlight shimmers off the water and reflects between the lens and (I assume) ND filter, creating a sparkling flair across the actors. It's a beautiful moment, and not just due to the unusual cinematography -- the dialogue is witty and believable and the actors are natural and comfortable.
Channing Tatum really came into his own in this one. I haven't, admittedly, been much of a fan of his through his previous acting endeavors. The part of Mike, however, seemed to fit him like a glove. Completely natural and unforced, he delivered an honest and vulnerable performance. It's the kind of breakout that Jim Carrey experienced in The Truman Show. I had assumed that Tatum was just a pretty face. I stand corrected. Cody Horn was excellent as the romantic interest, as was Alex Pettyfer as her little brother, "the kid." Matthew McConaughey's smarmy character Dallas was literally oozing the sexuality and back-room cash-only inuuendo that one would expect from a strip club owner. His confrontation with Tatum's Mike was a particularly well-acted scene.
Narratively it was what you would expect, but I enjoyed the way it was constructed, with the storyline of the starry-eyed kid following a trajectory similar to Mike's past, combined with Mike's own coming-of-age plot and a pleasant romantic sideplot. It reminded me of old Italian neo-realist gems -- it felt like a slice of life, and ended on a up note but without a whole lot of resolution. The dialogue was witty but not forced and felt natural, as if in a documentary.
Overall, a good film and definitely worth a look.
So I decided to take a look at Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike" because of both its content matter and potential film historical importance (Soderbergh has announced he is retiring, making this his third to last film) of the work itself. I admit I didn't have terribly high expectations, especially after the weak acting and shallow plot of the last Soderbergh film I saw, the beat-em-up "Haywire"; I was pleasantly surprised by the interesting narrative construction and the seemingly quick and dirty camera-work.
One thing he's known for is having Directed, DP'd (shot), and many of his films himself and from what I can tell, this is no exception. It has the same semi-verite style that began in The Girlfriend Experience and managed to keep my attention despite everything else in Haywire. Creative framing and unusual angles (sometimes even breaking the fundamental rules of cinematography) go wild here to great success. When "the kid" is first brought into a bar by Mike, he's tasked with chatting up two barely of-age girls. Mike arrives and the scene becomes a series of circular low-angle shots that are edited furiously in a dizzying circle. At first, it really bothered me and my film-school educated mind. The constant switching of screen positions and 180-degree violations made my head spin. Then quite suddenly I got it -- It wasn't hard to follow the dialogue, nor did the audience loose a sense of place. We'd seen the space in the beginning of the scene, and it allowed us to "be" intimately involved in the conversation. The swirling edits around the characters helped us to experience the same vague disorientation that "the kid" was. One particular moment I liked was a dialogue sequence shot as a long take as the two characters walked around a shallow sandbar. The camera tracks them 180-degrees as they walk from being half-in-sunlight to being backlit and then back again as they skirt the tiny island. At one point the sunlight shimmers off the water and reflects between the lens and (I assume) ND filter, creating a sparkling flair across the actors. It's a beautiful moment, and not just due to the unusual cinematography -- the dialogue is witty and believable and the actors are natural and comfortable.
Channing Tatum really came into his own in this one. I haven't, admittedly, been much of a fan of his through his previous acting endeavors. The part of Mike, however, seemed to fit him like a glove. Completely natural and unforced, he delivered an honest and vulnerable performance. It's the kind of breakout that Jim Carrey experienced in The Truman Show. I had assumed that Tatum was just a pretty face. I stand corrected. Cody Horn was excellent as the romantic interest, as was Alex Pettyfer as her little brother, "the kid." Matthew McConaughey's smarmy character Dallas was literally oozing the sexuality and back-room cash-only inuuendo that one would expect from a strip club owner. His confrontation with Tatum's Mike was a particularly well-acted scene.
Narratively it was what you would expect, but I enjoyed the way it was constructed, with the storyline of the starry-eyed kid following a trajectory similar to Mike's past, combined with Mike's own coming-of-age plot and a pleasant romantic sideplot. It reminded me of old Italian neo-realist gems -- it felt like a slice of life, and ended on a up note but without a whole lot of resolution. The dialogue was witty but not forced and felt natural, as if in a documentary.
Overall, a good film and definitely worth a look.