Bring on the Dancing Boys!
Jul. 18th, 2015 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Magic Mike XXL was the most fun I've had in a movie theater all year. It even edged out Mad Max Fury Road by having more nudity and fewer heartrending deaths. (Though only slightly.)
It was logarithmically more fun than the first one, and better too: while the plot was once again formulaic, it was more loosely woven, letting the characters breathe and move and demonstrate themselves to a much greater degree. It had women talking to each other (perhaps not literally Bechdel-tezt-passing, but I think a conversation about het sex that's about women's pleasure in it can still be a good thing) and lots of people who weren't White (including lots of people who weren't Black -- I think about that, because often narrative works will include a Black person or two and consider that It For Diversity) and never mind my dry analyses it was SO MUCH FUN.
All that dancing. ALL THAT DANCING. BY HOT MEN. For an assortment of women (one girl, who was getting a dance from an astonishingly hot guy, looked a lot like me OMG), with a lot of discussion of asking women what we want, of our pleasure being the focus.
(The convenience store dance OMG.)
Its a specific model thereof, which doesn't cover the tastes of many women interested in men, let alone all women. But, you know, ti was nice to see the subject addressed at all. It was validating to see men looked at via the female gaze, and knowing it, and playing to it appreciatively. It was fun to watch this iteration of Getting The Band Back TOgether For One More Score. It was glorious to see Jada Pinkett Smith be glorious (this is not a redundancy).
And it was so much fun to sit in an audience full of appreciatively screaming women and scream in delighted company.
Plus, Matt Bomer sings.
SO MUCH FUN. I went with
theloriest , the friend I HAD to see this movie with, and had the highlight of my week. And this one, unlike the first one, I am totally watching again.
It was logarithmically more fun than the first one, and better too: while the plot was once again formulaic, it was more loosely woven, letting the characters breathe and move and demonstrate themselves to a much greater degree. It had women talking to each other (perhaps not literally Bechdel-tezt-passing, but I think a conversation about het sex that's about women's pleasure in it can still be a good thing) and lots of people who weren't White (including lots of people who weren't Black -- I think about that, because often narrative works will include a Black person or two and consider that It For Diversity) and never mind my dry analyses it was SO MUCH FUN.
All that dancing. ALL THAT DANCING. BY HOT MEN. For an assortment of women (one girl, who was getting a dance from an astonishingly hot guy, looked a lot like me OMG), with a lot of discussion of asking women what we want, of our pleasure being the focus.
(The convenience store dance OMG.)
Its a specific model thereof, which doesn't cover the tastes of many women interested in men, let alone all women. But, you know, ti was nice to see the subject addressed at all. It was validating to see men looked at via the female gaze, and knowing it, and playing to it appreciatively. It was fun to watch this iteration of Getting The Band Back TOgether For One More Score. It was glorious to see Jada Pinkett Smith be glorious (this is not a redundancy).
And it was so much fun to sit in an audience full of appreciatively screaming women and scream in delighted company.
Plus, Matt Bomer sings.
SO MUCH FUN. I went with
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no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 12:41 pm (UTC)BG, I actually saw this for the second time last night, and was sincerely hoping that you had (& was sad that I didn't get to see it with you).
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 06:51 pm (UTC)* Well, they are a "dollar" theater in that they still accept dollars as payment. But never just a single one.
no subject
Date: 2015-07-21 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-26 07:03 am (UTC)