Rome is a sort of high priestess, or minister, of women’s grandeur. “Magic Mike XXL” is to him what “ The Thing” was for Howard Hawks (whose longtime editor, Christian Nyby, nominally directed it). It’s as if, hiding in plain sight, Soderbergh were working out some ideas of an obsessional force within the framework of an arm’s-length commitment. The director is Gregory Jacobs, Soderbergh’s longtime assistant director, though with Soderbergh holding the camera and supervising the script, auteurship seems at least divided. He didn’t direct the sequel, but is the executive producer as well as the cinematographer (under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews) and the editor (as Mary Ann Bernard). That’s where Soderbergh was born and raised. “Magic Mike XXL,” however, is about the South.
“Magic Mike,” though set in and around Tampa, treats the setting like a backdrop, providing plenty of mood and tone but no dramatic particulars. The six men take the sentimental journey in the Kings’ truck-a sort of caravan of dreams-and it’s a road trip through some specific and significant turf. They’re going to break up the group so that each of them can pursue his ambition, as Mike already has done, and their journey to Myrtle Beach is also an adventure in bromantic bonding. Tarzan (Kevin Nash) is an artist Ken (Matt Bomer) is an actor Tito (Adam Rodriguez) is a chef (specifically, an ice-cream and frozen-yogurt guru he sells from the truck-which Tarzan painted-during the summer) Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias) is a DJ and Richie (Joe Manganiello) is absorbed by personal dreams-he’s a romantic who yearns to find the right woman and get married. They’re on the verge of disbanding, but are en route to Myrtle Beach to perform together one last time at a strippers convention, and Mike decides to join them.Įach of the five members of the Kings has an outside pursuit that’s his true ambition, yet they are also unsuccessful ventures for which stripping is a day job.
Then, by chance, his former dance crew, the Kings of Tampa (or what’s left of them-no Dallas or the Kid, who’ve gone on their own), pass through town and comically reach out to him (too cute to spoil). The thrill of fantasy strikes him late one night when, laboring alone in his workshop to the loud sound of hip-hop, he does some erotic gyrations with the bar of metal he’s working with and then bursts into a thrilling dance of sweet reminiscence (one of Tatum’s athletic moves reminds me of a 1953 turn by Bobby Van). It’s the “ Marjoe” of sexual desire.Īs Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) had planned at the end of the first movie, he has gotten his custom-furniture business off the ground in Tampa, but it’s a constant struggle and a lonely grind-rendered all the lonelier by his romantic misfortunes. Where “Magic Mike” reflected ruefully on the eternally-out-of-reach illusion of intimacy that movies provide, “Magic Mike XXL” channels the evangelical frenzy of revival meetings. Even though the plot of “Magic Mike XXL” is even more explicitly built on the temporary-it’s a classic one-last-mission story-it stands the notion of ephemeral fantasy on its head and yields uninhibitedly to the celebratory ecstasy of fantasy, delivering itself over to the energy of performers and the collective revelry of engaged audiences.
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