: intellectually servile
Ah, the weekend before the election, and I don't want to talk about it. Let's talk instead about two movies I've rented recently that I think you should see.
Magic Mike (2012)
Sure, you can think of it as the "Channing Tatum stripper movie," because that's what it is. But it's also one of the year's better entertainments. Tatum, in a star-making performance (that is, if he wasn't already a star), is Mike, an entrepreneurial young man who has ambitions to start his own business but is forced to earn a living as a male dancer/stripper at a nightclub run by charismatic owner Dallas (Matthew McConaughey). Mike, the star of the show and a 30-year old without one meaningful relationship, befriends a wayward nineteen-year old, played by Alex Pettyfer, and takes him under his wing. It's a classic, film-like entryway into an exotic world - show it through the eyes of a newbie - and one of the things I like so much about the classically-structured film (directed with verve and energy by do-it-all Steven Soderbergh and written by Reid Carolin) is that it doesn't objectify the dancers and it also doesn't give us the pat moralizations we're used to: sure, these guys might do all right for themselves and make good money, but stripping is wrong, folks. Like Boogie Nights, the film shows the pitfalls of the profession, but mostly it looks like a lot of fun. Grandly entertaining and shot nicely by Soderbergh (using a pseudonym, as usual), who vividly contrasts the color tone of the nightclub sequences with the dirty-yellow, bright, unforgiving daytime sunlight of Tampa, the film features a somewhat blank performance by Cody Horn (as Pettyfer's sister and Tatum's love interest) but a hypnotic one by McConaughey, who steals all his scenes commandingly. I'm sure the routine with Tatum dancing and stripping to Ginuwine's horny, propulsive "Pony" will be something of a classic and YouTube sensation.
(***1/2)
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Equally terrific and better than it has any right to be is this Sundance smash about three Seattle magazine writers (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni) who decide to do a story on a strange man who placed an ad seeking a companion to time travel with. When the trio shows up at the man's seaside town of Ocean Shores, they find him working as a cashier in a supermarket; the plan is to get the girl, the novice of the three, to befriend him and see what exactly he is up to. She does so, and begins to find his eccentricity oddly endearing and attractive; the guy, Kenneth, is played compellingly by Mark Duplass (it's a tricky role). I thought the whole thing would break under the weight of its whimsical premise, but what's remarkable in Derek Connolly's smart script is that the movie is engaging, strangely believable, and surprising scene after scene; I never knew where the film was going, and I was on board with the entire way. Well-directed by Colin Trevorrow, the film is anchored by a good cast, at the vanguard of which is the breakout turn by Aubrey Plaza as Darius, the girl (virgin?) who sets about finding what makes Kenneth tick. Plaza is funny and sharp and witty, and by the time her character takes a leap of faith at the end, it's clear that it's earned.
(***1/2)
*
I was going to do a bio today on... well, I forget. I don't know many people have really been reading my blog lately anyway, so I'm not gonna bother. Instead, here are my NFL picks for the weekend:
Denver over Cincinnati (a very easy game to pick)
Baltimore over Cleveland
Green Bay over Arizona
Chicago over Tennessee
Miami over Indianapolis (tough one)
Washington over Carolina
Detroit over Jacksonville (though the Jags displayed signs of a passing game last week)
Houston over Buffalo (I can just smell the Buffalo turnovers in the air)
Tampa Bay over Oakland (though the Bucs never win on the west coast)
Seattle over Minnesota
NY Giants over Pittsburgh (maybe the game of the week)
Atlanta over Dallas (Big D's last stand for 2012 - but the Dirty Birds are awfully good)
Philadelphia over New Orleans ( a shoot-out, regardless)
Images courtesy of:
http://roccosrevolution.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/magic-mike-0.jpg
http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/mark-duplass-interview-safety-not-guaranteed.jpg
Last Week's Record: 8-6
Season Record: 73-45
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