'Magic Mike' At 10: Channing Tatum's Still-Underrated Stardom & The Male Stripper Movie Subgenre [Be Reel Podcast]

For the 10th anniversary of “Magic Mike,” Be Reel makes it rain critical reflection on Channing Tatum’s career-defining role and other standouts of the male stripper genre like “The Full Monty” (1997) and “Chocolate City” (2015). After watching all three, suffice it to say if this episode had a stage name, it would probably be “Cash Rich” or “Threatened Masculinity.” 

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Stephen Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike” is remembered today as a far darker entry to this soon-to-be-trilogy than “Magic Mike XXL” (2015). But what we discovered upon rewatch is that Soderbergh has an almost strained relationship with the stripping itself. Certainly, Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and company move beautifully (lit like nightclub gods), but the camera and script are so interested in making “Magic Mike” a financial and anthropological study that it often seems both the smartest and most frustrating parts of the movie have nothing to do with Tatum moving like a whirling dervish with a six-pack. 

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After musing on Mike, we move to “The Full Monty,” a massive indie hit from 1997 that sees a crew of down-and-out Sheffield, England steel workers attempt to support themselves with some loosely choreographed stripping. Simon Beaufoy’s debut script certainly has its charms, and we both have high praise for Mark Addy and Tom Wilkinson. Then, we close with “Chocolate City,” which openly identifies as a Black response to “Magic Mike,” critiquing the more successful film’s lack of diversity and engagement with any paradigm beyond hustling white dudes. Is that mission statement enough to elevate “Chocolate City” (starring Robert Ri’chard, Michael Jai White, and Tyson Beckford) beyond slapdash VOD imitator status? We’ll say this—there is a sequel. 

Other burning questions include: 

  • Tatum is among the most exciting American movie stars, but should his movies still endeavor to make greater use of his virtuosic movement abilities?
  • All these films espouse a somewhat narrow fantasy about what women get from male strippers, but why do they struggle to show it through women characters?
  • Are the best dances of this whole genre actually in “Magic Mike XXL”? 

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