INSIDE
‘I wanna be inside.’
There’s a moment towards the end of ‘Magic Mike’ that is so sad and so ridiculous, so perfectly performed by Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, so earned by all that’s gone before, that an already intense film gets taut like a spandex g-string over a chap’s artificially-enlarged goods.
Yes, according to this film penis enlargers work. Science please look away now.
Tatum is Mike, trying to be more than he currently is. He keeps the plastic on his car stereo so that when he comes to sell it it’ll look as though it’s never been touched. Everything is for sale even when you own it. Tatum is so good in this film it’s unreal - sure, it’s autobiographical, but he sells the silliness and the seriousness and you buy it all up. Mike has been selling himself but trying to remain untouched. But what are you if not the money you make and how you came to make it?
The film is getting great write-ups because it’s secretly about economics, but it makes the case for stripping as a kinda freaky performance art. It’s a great show. If you can live with being in the show that might be enough - Mike’s little protege is happy to be in the show - but when you want to be you, whatever that means, you’re out and you might just be screwed.
‘Magic Mike’ has generous helpings of everything you could want. Also, makes a good case for men being hopeless at 19 and a better prospect at 30. If you’re lucky.
