‘Magic Mike’ puts twist on gender roles

By Julie Hinds

Detroit Free Press

What three words best describe “Magic Mike”?

“Funny, sexy, cool,” says Joe Manganiello, aka werewolf Alcide on HBO’s “True Blood,” who co-stars in the new movie from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh.

Well, that’s a start. But there’s a lot more going on in this R-rated movie, which opens June 29 and blends drama and humor with some incredibly eye-popping scenes of male strippers.

Not since 1980’s “American Gigolo,” which featured a young Richard Gere as an expensive male escort, has a movie about beefcake been so exuberant and yet so ambitious.

Female moviegoers are already intrigued.

“Some of my friends on social media are nearly panting about it,” says Anne Brodie, a film writer/critic, with a laugh. She’s noticed a level of enthusiasm that is making “Magic Mike” seem like one of the event films of the summer.

“I’m just glad to see a bunch of guys who aren’t making an action movie,” notes Brodie. “It’s about time they try to please us.”

Is something happening here beside the fact that multiplexes soon could seem a little more like bachelorette parties? And is there a connection to the “Fifty Shades of Grey” phenomenon that’s been steaming up the book best-seller lists?

“I see it as on the same continuum,” says Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor of the Women and Hollywood blog on www.IndieWire.com. “There’s something going on here.”

Marketing male celebrities as eye candy has been trending for a while now in TV, advertising and music, from the Super Bowl ad with a skin-baring David Beckham to the crowded abs-fab roster of current singers.

“Magic Mike” reflects that trend, but it also steps up the game. Right there on the big screen, well-known actors bare almost all and approach the bump-and-grind style of the dance numbers with gusto. But the movie also explores the main character as a person with dreams of a different life and takes a fresh approach to some gender stereotypes.

This is Hollywood taking a familiar genre and story line and reinventing it in a way that could make people stop and think.

In the movie, Channing Tatum plays Mike, an entrepreneur and talented furniture designer who earns cash for his serious ambitions by performing with an all-male revue. Matthew McConaughey portrays the club’s owner. Newcomer Alex Pettyfer is a 19-year-old novice who learns the rules of the job from Tatum.

Manganiello, Matt Bomer of USA’s “White Collar” and Adam Rodriguez of “CSI: Miami” also portray dancers. Cody Horn plays Pettyfer’s sister, a medical assistant who’s intrigued by Mike but leery of his lifestyle.

The movie — the idea was inspired by Tatum’s own experiences as a dancer — has been getting a big publicity push from trailers that include highlights such as McConaughey warning a crowd of screaming women that it’s against the law to touch the dancers, then adding, “I think I see a lot of lawbreakers up in this house.”

That’s a smart way to balance the film’s steamier aspects and also grab attention in an online-driven marketplace of endless entertainment choices. “Fun’s the name of the game. Fun can save the box office,” says Brodie.