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- [00:10]
A
Hello.
- [00:13]
B
Welcome to the Magic Mike episode of Slate. Money Goes to the Movies Season 2. I'm Felix Salmon of Axios. I'm here with Emily Peck.
- [00:24]
A
Hello.
- [00:25]
B
And we are here with. I'm very excited about this one. The one and only Shane Farrow. Welcome, Shane.
- [00:33]
A
Hello. Thanks for having me.
- [00:35]
B
Shane Farrow. For some people listening to this podcast, you do need an introduction. So who are you?
- [00:41]
A
Well, I used to work with both of you at various publications. Prior I was an economics journalist at Reuters with Felix and at Huffington Post with Emily. Then I went to law school and now I'm a public defender in New York City.
- [00:57]
C
And you have a great newsletter.
- [00:59]
A
Yes, I have a newsletter. Shanef.substack.com it's called Cruel Unusual. Talks about the mundane but horrific things that happen in the criminal legal system.
- [01:11]
C
I always learn something when it appears in my inbox.
- [01:13]
B
Shane is going to tell the story of when Shane and I went to the movies one drunken evening and watched Magic Mike xxl, which is not the movie we're going to be talking about today. What is the movie we are talking about today?
- [01:25]
A
Today we're talking about the First Magic Mike 2012 classic about the precarity of being a freelancer in the post great recession gig economy.
- [01:38]
B
Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike taken apart and graded by me, Emily Peck and Shane Farrow. Coming up on Slate, Money Goes to the movies.
- [01:51]
C
Magic Mike, as I told my daughter, is a movie about a dancer named Mike who just wants to make furniture and is thwarted in his ambitions.
- [02:01]
A
No, it's a movie about the gig economy.
- [02:04]
B
Okay.
- [02:04]
A
In a post recession great recession world and the precarity of freelance work.
- [02:12]
C
Say more about this Shane. Cause Shane is the one who picked the film.
- [02:15]
B
Okay, so number one, yes, we have to say, Shane, you picked this movie. Let's start at the beginning before we start talking about disquisitions, about the tensions between labour and capital. You picked this movie. Where were you and when was it that you first saw the phenomenon that is Magic Mike?
- [02:36]
A
I actually, I cannot remember the first time I saw Magic Mike. The first movie, the one that we're talking about. But I do remember that when the second one came out, Magic Mike xxl, which is a more fun movie, although not so much about the economy. Felix and I had some wine and decided that we were gonna go to the movies.
- [03:00]
B
We had dinner and then we decided there was like a midnight showing at the local movie theater. Yeah, but one of the reasons you wanted to see it was that you liked the first One. You had already seen the first one at that point?
- [03:12]
A
Yes. Actually, to be honest, I think when we saw Magic Mike xxl, I had already seen the first one and already seen Magic Mike XXL once before.
- [03:22]
B
And this is because you are a fan of Steven Soderbergh, right?
- [03:25]
A
Yes, and I am a fan of movies about male strippers.
- [03:31]
B
It's a noble genre. Are there any other movies about male strippers? That's English one about the coal miners. We should remember that one that came out in like the 90s, maybe the late 80s.
- [03:42]
A
I was not born yet.
- [03:43]
B
So the English one about the coal miners, if I remember correctly, and I can probably look this up, was basically an economic empowerment movie. It was this very down on its luck northern coal mining town and everyone was unemployed and miserable. And then all of the former coal miners who'd lost their jobs got together and created a group of male strippers. And it was lots of fun and it was like a triumphant ending when they all.
- [04:15]
A
It was the opposite of this movie.
- [04:16]
B
It was the opposite of this movie. The Full Monty. There you go.
- [04:20]
C
Of course, I think this movie is one in a line of movies about strippers and economics because flashdance from the 80s was essentially like the same kind of narrative. She's a stripper, but she wants to be taken seriously. But there's class issues. And then after Magic Mike, there was Hustlers, based on a Jessica Presser New York magazine, a new classic, which maybe we wanna do in this season, where the strippers basically rob the bankers, the dumb bankers drug them and rob them and steal their credit cards. And it's also sort of an economic tale also about the Great Recession, right, Shane?
- [05:01]
A
Yeah, that's the new genre. New York City Great Recession, stripper tail. And this is the. More the Florida Great Recession stripper tale.
- [05:12]
C
Yes. Two sides of the same coin, sort of. JLO and Channing Tatum are kind of the. Actually, no, I don't think that's right, but similar.
- [05:22]
B
Shane, place this movie for us in its proper geotemporal context. This is after the Florida housing boom has bust and yet there's still some work for roofers, but I guess not enough.
- [05:36]
A
Yes. So he works as a roofer, but that's not his only job, as far as I can tell. He has, I think, at least four different sort of freelance jobs, things he's got going. So he has some work as a roofer, but it's not enough to fully pay the bills. He also has an auto detailing business. At night he works as a stripper and this is all to try to save money to start a furniture business because he what his like real passion is to design and make furniture but he can't do that because he can't get a loan because he doesn't have a credit score or he has a terrible credit score. It doesn't really, it's never really clear.
- [06:15]
C
Why is it so bad. It's like in the 400s there's a scene where he goes to a bank for a loan.
- [06:20]
B
It's very low. We don't know exactly how it is, but I can answer why his credit score is so low.
- [06:27]
C
Please do.
- [06:27]
B
And for this I'm going to flashback to the first season of Slate. Money goes to the movies when we watched Indecent Proposal and one of the first things that Woody Harrelson the architect does when he comes into his million dollars is he buys this very famous Frank Gehry cardboard chair. And one of the first things that we see in Magic Mike when he starts talking about his furniture business is that he has a modest Florida upstairs apartment living situation. But in the middle, I don't know.
- [07:00]
A
If I would call it modest, but.
- [07:02]
B
Yeah, yeah, but anyway, so he has this apartment, sun drenched apartment. And in the middle of the apartment there is a pair of vintage brown Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs which even in the depths of the Great recession in Florida you have to pay a lot of money to get those shares. So I, my theory is the reason he has a bad credit score is because he's been splurging on vintage furniture.
- [07:29]
A
And he has a beachfront apartment that I'm sure costs him most of his, the money he makes and he, all of these things that he does, he gets paid in cash. There's so much cash in this movie and you just can't exist in a 2010 world only on cash because then you're not building credit and your credit score is going to be terrible.
- [07:55]
C
That's a really good explanation.
- [07:56]
B
Shane, do you think that Mike, the titular Mike of the movie is what the financial services industry would call unbanked?
- [08:06]
A
I bet he has a bank account but it doesn't have very much money on it in it. I mean I would say he like has a debit card for, for maybe his auto detailing business. Like he needs a bank account for that. But certainly the construction roofing job he's getting paid in cash under the table and the stripping job, he's getting paid in cash probably under the table on.
- [08:32]
C
The podium stage if you will is where he is paid in Cash.
- [08:36]
A
Yeah, well, and he. But he gets a cut of the door, too, remember?
- [08:39]
C
Yeah. Equity, baby.
- [08:41]
B
So what the fuck is going on in Miami?
- [08:43]
D
Miami is looking good. I got a couple loopholes I gotta get through with the real estate attorneys down there, but after that, it's gonna be all green lights, brother.
- [08:52]
B
What you need from me? What's my side?
- [08:53]
D
You just gotta keep doing what you do.
- [08:56]
A
Yeah, level.
- [08:56]
D
Your head's out, you're focused like a big brother to this team. You keep that up, you can be making a lot more than this door money. I guarantee you that.
- [09:05]
B
Both ways this time, though, right?
- [09:07]
D
Two way street, man.
- [09:08]
A
Want you to hear the.
- [09:09]
B
Say the word equity, eq.
- [09:12]
A
Say it, T.
- [09:15]
B
So we need to talk about the difference between the cut of the door and equity. Because, like, it's like maybe the cut of the door is, like, mezzanine equity.
- [09:23]
C
Wait, before that, I just want to add to the banking question. Let's remember that Magic Mike, Channing Tatum has a safe in his home where he keeps his lifestyle. $13,000 in. In the little safe, not in the bank.
- [09:38]
B
My savings account is. Is a safe with $13,000 in, like, singles and fives, which was, like, the cost.
- [09:45]
A
So maybe he is unbate this movie, right?
- [09:47]
C
You're like, why are they mentioning such a specific number? And then later, it's like, oh, okay, he has to pay $10,000 to help out the kid, the worst actor in the movie, and loses his life savings. And the door to the safe is open and all empty and stuff. Now we can talk about equity. I just wanted to point that out.
- [10:06]
B
So, okay, so this is a movie about Shane. You were saying this is a movie about economic precarity.
- [10:13]
A
Yes.
- [10:13]
B
What is the message of the movie? What is it telling us about economic precarity?
- [10:17]
A
I think what it tells us is no one in the movie seems to have any sort of safety net except for Mike, who has his $13,000 in a safe safe. But one mistake by this kid, that he has to use most of it to stop these people from destroying his house. And then his entire savings is gone, and he's just got to get up the next day and go again from gig to gig, trying to make ends meet. He doesn't really get a paycheck, per se, but everyone seems to be living basically from paycheck to paycheck, with potentially the exception of the medical assistant sister of the kid, Although I would say she also doesn't seem like she. She seems to have her shit together, but she doesn't. She's Got the knockoff furniture. So she's probably also living paycheck to paycheck.
- [11:13]
B
I'm sure she is. The speech, of course, comes from Dallas, from Matthew McConaughey, when he basically tells Mike that there's no way he can quit, there's no way he can leave, because, like, he needs this job. And that Dallas, who represents capital in this movie compared to Mike, who represents labor, that, you know, capital here holds all the cards. That's. That's the speech. Now, whether it's true or not is interesting, but it's also interesting that Dallas is a worker. He is out there on stage gyrating and flashing his muscles as much as any of the rest of them. Right. That is not a purely extractive form of capitalism that Dallas is performing here.
- [11:55]
A
Right. I mean, I think that Dallas, in many ways, represents capital. Looks like a lot of the time in the United States, like, it doesn't look like the very top where people are just, like, not working and collecting rents. He wants to see himself that way, but he actually still has to hustle, and he doesn't actually have much capital at all. It all could fall through tomorrow. He's been waiting forever to be able to get this second strip club in Miami. And this is, like, some great triumph that he is able to, like, just scrape together enough, by the way, stealing from his workers, because he keeps telling people all through the movie, like, you'll get $100 at the end of the night. And then at the end of the night, he comes, here's the $75 I promised you, or whatever it is, he says, and he finally scrapes together enough for one more branch of the strip club.
- [12:57]
B
Oh, it's not even one. I think he closes down. Isn't he closing downtown from just moving the whole thing to Miami?
- [13:02]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [13:04]
B
He's staying with one branch.
- [13:05]
C
I must interject at this point with some Matthew McConaughey Dallas research. Okay, so apparently he, in the script, wasn't supposed to dance at all, but Matthew McConaughey insisted that on doing a dance in the film, which was that amazing ending scene where he just gives it his all. He's, like, sweating, and people are going crazy. Second fact about that scene is that the extras went so crazy with Matthew McConaughey's stripping that they ripped his G string off for real, and he just kept going. And so that scene where he's, like, covering his crotch because his G string has been ripped off, that is something that wasn't supposed to happen, but they just went with it. And they. There you have it.
- [13:47]
A
I'll have to go back and watch that scene again.
- [13:49]
C
Yes. And also what was interesting about his character, to go back to what you were saying was just like, he is capital, but he's just like this cog in the wheel. And the way he treats the workers is so disposable that it taints him too. Right. When Mike finally quits and walks away towards the end, which we should talk about. Cause I didn't like that part of the movie. But he just goes to the kid and he's like, all right, Mike's out, you're in, let's go. And it's just like, no one matters to this man.
- [14:20]
A
Right.
- [14:21]
C
Because he just has to make his money and do his thing and exploit all these people, including himself, kind of.
- [14:26]
A
Yeah. Well, it seems like he has been exploited for so long that he sees that as like, the only way to project any power.
- [14:33]
C
Yes.
- [14:34]
A
And so he's like, hanging onto this shred of power that he might have by exploiting everybody else.
- [14:41]
C
The shred of power, like the shred of G strength.
- [14:44]
B
But there's also a fascinating subplot about the dangling the equity in front of the workers. So there's this whole sort of subplot for most of the movie where basically the idea is that when they move to Miami, Mike is going to be a partner in the business with 10% of equity. And then already at that point, Dallas is trying to hackle him down to 7.5%. But this places Mike squarely in the number two position in the small little business that is the mail review. No one else is in line for equity, but he's in line to be like an owner rather than just a worker. And then a couple months later, he's driving back with the kid, and the kid just happens to drop in. You know, his drunken honesty that, hey, yeah, Dallas has promised him, the kid, 7.5% equity. And this is a betrayal of Mike. Right. Mike's response to this is not, hey, great, we all get equity. That's awesome. This is a worker's socialist paradise. His response to this is like, how on earth I've been working for all of these years and working very hard to finally get that 10% I was promised. And now you're just promising 7 and a half percent to this fuck up of a kid. What's up with that? It's like success isn't just like the workers get equity in the capitalistic business. It's also doing better than your fellow workers.
- [16:24]
A
Yeah. And I think that's a way for a lot of capital to pit labor against each other in a way that keeps them from organizing, say, and that it's just a bargaining chip to keep people at each other's throats and keep them competing with each other so that they're not actually competing with capital.
- [16:48]
C
The other thing I would say about the film is there's like class war elements to it because everyone in Mike's orbit, like all the strippers, all of them. Delightful, let's just say right away. Delightful.
- [17:01]
A
Delightful.
- [17:02]
C
We love them. They're all great. And the kids, sister, hard working lady, nurse, technician, whatever she is. But then all the people that are like educated in this film with college degrees are absolute douches. Like, the sister has this boyfriend who's just really snobby and like, he does.
- [17:23]
A
Better insurance work than she does. Yeah, she handles more higher profile insurance or something like that.
- [17:30]
C
Yes. And then there's the Joanna character that like Channing, that Magic Mike wants to like, be his girlfriend and she's just. Can you please just stop talking and be pretty? Like, just totally demeans him.
- [17:41]
A
I love her though. She's so good.
- [17:43]
C
Olivia Munn, right? Yeah, she's really good. But clearly looks down on him. Cause he's a stripper. And oh, and then of course the scene where they go to the sorority party, which. Why are there a bunch of boys there? I don't understand why they're there. But anyway, again, it's like a class thing. Like, here are these college kids and they're looked down upon, the trashy strippers. Which, to be fair, he did give the girlfriend the ecstasy or whatever. But that doesn't. You shouldn't have a bottle broken on your head over that, obviously. But again, why are the boys at that party? I don't understand that part. If you want to explain that to.
- [18:18]
B
Me, Shane, being a veteran of many sororities, can explain that.
- [18:23]
A
I think I've been to maybe one sorority party ever in my life. I've been to fraternity parties, but there are always girls at fraternity parties. So, like. Yeah, I can't explain it to you.
- [18:33]
C
Well, if there's a fraternity party where a stripper comes, probably there's not gonna be girls there also. And then also, like, why are the boys just huddled in the room looking all angry? Like, I just, I didn't really understand the dynamic scene.
- [18:45]
A
Didn't make a lot of sense. They just needed a plot device to like, get them in a fight and make him lose his $10,000 worth of.
- [18:54]
C
Ecstasy also, like, humiliated them a little bit.
- [18:57]
B
I thought, I want to just come out and say this is not a plot driven movie. Right? I mean, no, no one is watching this one. Even if you really do take it seriously as a disquisition on modern capitalism. Like, the disquisition on modern capitalism is in the situation and the way that the whole setup is framed more than it is in any kind of character arc. Although I did read one interview with Steven Soderbergh where he talked about how it's about having to basically work out what you do when you feel that the labor you're performing is being undervalued. Like, how do you react? What kind of decision do you make? How do you express that when you feel like you're being undervalued for what you do?
- [19:41]
C
Really? How is that part of the movie? When does he. Because he's angry he's not getting equity. That's how he's undervalued in that instance.
- [19:48]
A
Yeah, I think Dallas really undervalues him. He does a lot of the work for the strip club in terms of just going out and getting people to come and bringing money in the door and thinking about it as a business. While Dallas is up there on stage playing with his flamethrower or whatever.
- [20:07]
B
Not to mention discovering the kid who was recruiting obviously a fuck up from day one and is the guy who turns up to a roofing job wearing sneakers and. And instead of saying like, you are obviously a fuck up, what he does being Magic Mike is he can look past the sneakers to the fact that this kid is actually really good looking. And that's all you need to be a successful stripper.
- [20:31]
C
I listened to Slate Spoilers Special podcast, did an episode on Magic Mike. So I went back and listened to it and I think Dana Stevens was pointing out, like, the first time the kid gets on stage, it's just ridiculous. His whole act is he takes his pants off awkwardly and kisses someone and then he gets off the Stage and Matthew McConaughey or Dallas, the character Dallas is like, you've got it, kid. You're so talented. You're so good at this. You're a star. And it's like, wait, what?
- [20:59]
A
Well, it's all based on the fact that the girls, like, lost their shit when he kissed them, which could have gone very poorly, but because they reacted well, he was a star.
- [21:12]
C
But Channing Tatum clearly is a good dancer. He is a star.
- [21:16]
B
Channing Tatum is an amazing dancer.
- [21:18]
A
I have to say.
- [21:19]
C
He's incredible. He's doing his backflips. He didn't have a stumbling.
- [21:23]
B
I don't know that he did all of the backflips, but he is an amazing dancer.
- [21:27]
C
Well, my half assed Internet research turned up that he did it all himself.
- [21:31]
B
He did it all. Wow.
- [21:32]
C
Yeah.
- [21:33]
A
Well, this movie is part autobiographical about him. Right.
- [21:36]
C
He was once a stripper in Tampa.
- [21:38]
A
And I don't know, one of the things that I really like about this movie is it shows how much work labor goes into their act. It really portrays like sex work as work and they like really put thought and effort into it and they practice and it's like physically demanding.
- [21:58]
B
Although I have to say that it was Magic Mike XXL more than Magic Mike itself that really showed the amount of work they put into just pumping iron and watching their diet. Which is the main qualifications you need to be a stripper. You need highly visible muscles and therefore you need to be very lean and very muscle.
- [22:21]
A
I continue to maintain that the first Magic Mike is about the economy and the second Magic Mike is about stripping.
- [22:28]
C
Although in the first one there's a scene, I don't remember which dancer it was, but he lifts up like a heavier woman. They're always lifting up the women. That's like a very core gimmick picking up a woman.
- [22:38]
B
Is that normal in male strip clubs? As someone who has not been to many of these places, I don't know.
- [22:44]
C
I've never been to one either. Shane, this is a real.
- [22:47]
A
I should have gone for research.
- [22:48]
C
Failing on our part, we should have gone for research. Maybe it's a slate plus episode or something. But anyway, he picks up the heavier woman and you see, he like hurts his back and I was like, ooh, occupational hazard right there. I bet you can't get workers comp for that or anything. Must be really hard on your body.
- [23:05]
A
I wonder if OSHA's on it.
- [23:08]
C
Maybe in the Biden White House.
- [23:11]
B
Well, there is that whole speech that Dallas gives at the very beginning of the movie. Basically saying, you're not allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do that. But I don't see any police in here and you look like a bunch of lawbreakers to me. And that's it, right? I mean, as we were saying, everything, it's all cash under the table. Like every single job that Mike has is, I'm almost certain not being reported to the irs. Right?
- [23:37]
A
Yes, yes. I really, I love the opening scene there. As someone who is very passionate about there being a difference between the law and enforcement of the law. I think it's a great opening scene.
- [23:49]
C
What was the opening scene? I don't remember.
- [23:50]
B
Was it the scene what you can and can't touch?
- [23:53]
A
Oh, I see he, like, goes through his body, and he's like, can you touch this? Can you touch this? And then he, like, grabs his crotch and he says, you can't touch this. But I see a bunch of lawbreakers here or whatever.
- [24:06]
D
Can you touch that?
- [24:09]
B
Can you touch it? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And finally.
- [24:18]
D
Last one, ladies. Can you touch this? Can you fucking touch this? That too. The law says that you cannot touch, but I think I see a lot of law breakers up in this house, and I don't see a cop inside.
- [24:39]
A
All right.
- [24:40]
C
Yes. There's a lot of touching. I thought you were talking, for some reason, about the union. The roofing scene where the guy's like, I'm not bringing in a union worker for this. Like, I'll pay you $10 an hour. And there's haggling there, and it's just so sad.
- [24:52]
A
That scene is more sad without the funny bits and without Matthew McConaughey grabbing his crotch.
- [24:57]
C
So Matthew McConaughey, I think he's just the star of this thing. I mean, I. Channing Tatum is technically the star, and he's wonderful and delightful, but McConaughey just being so McConaughey.
- [25:08]
A
Ish.
- [25:09]
C
Is wonderful. Yes. In the spoiler podcast, they wanted him to win an Oscar for this, but I don't think that.
- [25:14]
B
I just couldn't watch that, like, triumphant final stripping scene of Matthew McConaughey's Without Thinking, is this the next governor of Texas?
- [25:25]
C
I hope so. He can't be any more ridiculous than the current governor of Texas. And he would play the bongos, too. They got the bongos in there. He said, all right, all right, all right. Like, a million times just to make sure you knew who he was.
- [25:38]
A
Right.
- [25:39]
C
I mean, it was incredible.
- [25:40]
B
It's a good piece of casting there. And he suddenly steals every scene that he's in. In contradistinction, as you say to most of the rest of the cast, including, like, Elvis Presley's granddaughter. Yeah, the girl with the pig.
- [25:53]
C
The girl with the pig. Yeah.
- [25:54]
A
Yeah. Every time I watch the movie, I'm just like, I forgot there's a small pig in this movie. Just randomly with a bottle.
- [26:04]
C
That was disturbing. She was feeding the pig with the bottle, right?
- [26:07]
A
Yeah.
- [26:07]
C
I didn't care.
- [26:08]
B
That whole character, the existence of that character, who she is, what she represents. She has, like, one line in the entire movie. I do want to ask you, Shane, is this a feminist movie in any way at all?
- [26:21]
A
I'm definitely prepared to say the second one is a feminist movie. I mean, I think that it has certain elements of the male strippers. All the strip club scenes are sort of about thinking towards female pleasure and making the women happy. But I don't know that it's necessarily feminist. I mean, I think it has some feminist critique in it. Like the scene that we talked about with the medical assistant sister who. One is like. She's just. She's got her shit together and can't understand why all these guys don't. But she has this terrible boyfriend who puts her down for the kind of work she does. And just the way that scene is framed I liked. But I don't know that it's an explicitly feminist movie.
- [27:17]
C
It wouldn't pass the Bechdel test. Not that that makes it automatically feminist. That's when you know you have. What is it? At least two women talking about something other than a man. Like, this film fails that particular thing.
- [27:29]
B
I was thinking about the Bechdel test, and I was thinking it totally fails the Bechdel test. With the possible exception of, like, right at the beginning when those two girls are at the bar trying to get a drink. And they're like. One says to the other, can you get me a drink? And I think that was the one. As Jessamine points out, the women who speak to each other have to be named. So that's definitely not the case in this. It definitely fails the Bechdel test.
- [27:55]
A
The only two women who speak to each other in the film are Olivia Munn and the Sister. When Olivia Munn is trying to get the Sister to sleep with her and Mike, I think that's the only time the two women characters talk to each other at all.
- [28:09]
B
And she's like. She's trying to get the sister to talk about her tattoos.
- [28:14]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [28:14]
C
To my mind, the only way you could say it's feminist is that. Well, it doesn't. Ex women are not exploited women's bodies in this movie. It's really all about men's bodies being exploited in this movie. And they're exploited in a delightful way, I thought. But maybe that's what men say about most other movies where women's bodies are exploited. So I don't know. That doesn't seem actually feminist now that I'm saying all these words out loud. And I had another point, but I lost it because I got distracted thinking about the bodies.
- [28:42]
B
It's like it's. Yeah, well, I mean, one thing I will say about this movie, and I think this was very conscious on the part of Soderbergh, is that he wanted to make a very physical mov movie. Right. The way the dancing scenes in particular, but basically all the scenes are set up there. Movements of people in the frame, very carefully framed, very carefully set up.
- [29:12]
A
And.
- [29:14]
B
He. I remember reading an interview with him where he's like, you really ought to be able to work out what's going on if you're watching this with the sound off. It's not a dialogue driven movie in any way, shape or form. In fact, one of the most charming parts of the movie is the way in which Mike is so. Finds it so difficult to express himself verbally, while he also finds it so easy to express himself physically. And Soderbergh is basically saying movies don't need to be about words. It can tell the story just through bodies and movement. And I think he does that. Part of the interesting cinematic innovation there is definitely, you know, we're going back to the classic Hollywood musicals of the 1950s.
- [29:59]
C
Yeah, it did sort of feel like a musical. The most enjoyable scenes were probably the dancing and not just because everyone looked really good, which they did. But those were the fun scenes and the dialogue and the acting and the plot was dumb. Right. I mean, I know it was a critique of capitalism and all, Shane, but really, was it?
- [30:18]
A
I mean, yeah, I think it is. I do think that like, it is definitely the glossiest version of this kind of critique of capitalism.
- [30:29]
B
And it's not as glossy as showgirls.
- [30:32]
A
Yeah, but there's economic precarity without anyone actually being poor. And, you know, all of these people, they're mostly white, mostly male. They have the most amount of privilege you could have to free themselves from this precarity. And so sort of shows this a little bit of freelance life and economic precarity without actually having to get into that really depressing parts of the economy when you are actually talking about these things in real life.
- [31:11]
C
Yeah, I felt like the stake, like when I was talking about Hustlers before, like the stakes in Hustlers were so much higher because the women had children. And it seemed like there was more at stake and at risk. And for the kid, he's 19, he'll be fine. Like, the stakes just didn't seem very high. None of them had kids.
- [31:32]
B
There wasn't a single person in this movie who had kids.
- [31:35]
C
No, the pig was the closest we got to any kind of thing that Needed caring for. Yeah. The stakes were just. They were really low. And I just felt like Mike could have tried a little harder and gotten his credit score up. Like, how hard could that have been? The kid could have gotten a job, but he wouldn't wear a tie. And that was supposed to be.
- [31:54]
A
Yeah, that was one of my favorite parts.
- [31:56]
C
I don't play that.
- [31:58]
A
I could work at T Mobile, but I didn't want to wear a tie.
- [32:01]
C
Forget it. It's hard to feel the pathos of their situation, I guess.
- [32:05]
B
Well, the kid is clearly the fuck up, right? I mean, the kid makes precisely zero good decisions in the entire movie. Really.
- [32:13]
C
He's probably fine. Now, if we flash forward to 2021, what's the kid doing? He's probably, what, trading crypto?
- [32:19]
B
He's a dogecoin millionaire.
- [32:22]
C
He's fine. And that was my other thing, I think, with the movie was the ending. It all works out okay. And Magic Mike walks away from the stripping and he gets the girl. It just seems so boring. Part of me wanted him to just lose everything or. I don't know. I wanted something more.
- [32:40]
A
I liked the boring ending, though. I liked that he walked away from it without really a plan. And he just went to this boring girls boring apartment, and they wanted to have breakfast together, and he didn't really know what was gonna happen after that. I liked that ending.
- [32:57]
B
It's romantic. Do you not have any romance in you? Emily has all of this journalism just done for your romance, and I like.
- [33:05]
A
That it picks up in the next movie with her having left him. And it wasn't a great romantic ending. Sorry, no spoilers. But life goes on. And it doesn't have to be some great lifelong romance. They just had a nice night and then breakfast together.
- [33:21]
B
It's really hard to make a sequel to Magic Mike where he's given up stripping and then never takes his clothes off again. Because no one would watch that sequel.
- [33:30]
A
Yeah.
- [33:33]
C
Also, you know when he goes in the bank and he wears the suit and he flirts with the bank loan officer, which was a delightful scene. And she gets all flustered by him, but can't give him the loan.
- [33:44]
B
That's a beautiful necklace. Is that.
- [33:48]
C
No, it's. No, it's a survived for me from target, I think. SBA. Yes. Name and social.
- [34:00]
B
Absolutely. Michael Lane. 038-007128. And I brought the funds from.
- [34:11]
C
Is there always a scene where a guy goes to the bank and tries to get a loan? And so that's A and B in real life, even in 2012, don't you just go on the Net, on the web, and try to get a loan?
- [34:22]
B
There was zero Internet in this movie. There was an iPhone, but it was an overload.
- [34:25]
A
But the problem is he has no credit score, so he has to charm his way into a loan if he's gonna get it. Like, the Internet does not care about your charm. It sees your credit score and says no. So I'm sure he's been online, he's been rejected several times, and he has to try to flirt his way into a loan, which also doesn't work because the banks aren't into flirting.
- [34:46]
C
There's also a scene in Falcon and Winter Soldier where the Falcon character, superhero, tries to get a loan. I feel like it's some kind of cinematic shorthand for something else. It's just, like a common thing. Now we have the lone scene.
- [34:59]
B
Does he get it?
- [35:00]
C
No, he doesn't. He is. He doesn't get it. He's a black superhero, and even though he can fly and save the world, he cannot get a bank loan in America. So even though Magic Mike can essentially fly with his body, he also cannot get a loan because capitalism does not reward these things, these talents.
- [35:21]
B
Can I talk about the scene where Dallas talks about his hypothetical kid and, like, whether he's going to send his hypothetical kid to school? And he's like, no, I'm just going to park him in front of Jim Cramer all day.
- [35:32]
A
Oh, yes. That's one of my favorite scenes.
- [35:34]
B
Get him in the Merit rad account and quote, by the time he's 18, he's going to be flushing money.
- [35:40]
D
When I have a kid, I'm gonna set him in front of the tv, make him watch Mad Money all day long. I'm gonna teach him about the stock market, get him into some Ameritrade and shit like that. I guarantee you, by the time he's 18, that little fucker's gonna be flushing cash.
- [35:55]
B
You know, I don't know why more.
- [35:57]
A
People don't do that, you know, just.
- [35:59]
B
From an investment stand.
- [36:00]
D
Well, that's the state of the country, man. America.
- [36:03]
C
People.
- [36:05]
B
Stupid.
- [36:06]
C
I hope I get to meet your kids someday.
- [36:08]
D
Oh, no problem. Come visit anytime in one of our three pool houses, dude.
- [36:13]
C
That's not a good strategy, Felix, for raising money.
- [36:15]
B
Well, you did that with your kids, right? How did it work out?
- [36:17]
C
Well, they're watching CNBC right now. I couldn't tell you. They're not 18 yet, so they're not quite millionaires, but they're on their way, obviously.
- [36:25]
A
Wasn't there some story recently about some of these robo advisors, like opening accounts for like 13 to 15 year olds or something like that?
- [36:33]
C
I think people do that.
- [36:34]
B
I know people who do.
- [36:35]
A
Your kids have a Robinhood account.
- [36:36]
B
I know a lot of people who've opened up accounts for their teens to quote unquote, teach them about investing. It's a thing.
- [36:42]
C
I mean, compound interest being what it is, they could do well.
- [36:46]
A
Yeah, I mean, Dallas's kid is going to be on R Wall street bets and be making money on Bitcoin and dogecoin and amc.
- [36:56]
B
So that's like hinted at, I guess in Magic Mike, Avant, Lalette. It hadn't happened yet, but that was. It was prescient in that sense.
- [37:04]
A
Yeah. And the precursor to that was just sitting in front of Jim Cramer for hours.
- [37:09]
C
Everyone just wants to get rich quick. Soderbergh also made Ocean's Eleven, which is also about a bunch of charming, good looking men trying to get rich quick. I'm seeing a theme, actually. I just realized.
- [37:20]
A
Yeah. Although in Ocean's Eleven they're really committing crimes. So I like that movie even more.
- [37:26]
C
It's victimless crime.
- [37:27]
B
It's a defense lawyer.
- [37:31]
C
The insurance even pays it off.
- [37:33]
A
Yeah, exactly. Victimless crime.
- [37:35]
B
Victimless crime. Was Logan Lucky Soderbergh. I think it was.
- [37:38]
A
Yeah.
- [37:38]
B
Yeah, that was another great crime caper.
- [37:41]
C
All the reviews also said Soderbergh is known for his capitalism critique. His films have that in common. But is that right? Could either of you speak to that? The one review I read compared. The stripper wants to be taken seriously, but all anyone actually wants them to do is strip. Is like how Hollywood, the entertainment industry treats actors who want to be taken seriously. And they're just like movie moguls are like, yeah, just look pretty.
- [38:05]
A
Go be in a superhero movie. Make us some money.
- [38:08]
C
Just go be in a superhero movie.
- [38:10]
B
I need to ask you guys. It is an auteurish movie by a very, very big name, famous independent film director, probably the biggest name there is in like independent film. Did it feel like that? Is this one of those, like high, low things where you can appreciate it on an intellectual level as well as just enjoying the acres of naked man flesh? Because I feel like really it's mostly just about the acres of naked man flesh.
- [38:38]
C
See, this is where my lack of film critiquing ability comes to play. But it did have that nice Soderberghian lighting and the quick cuts that I thought was trying to message, like, this is an artsy movie. This isn't Just a trash movie. Like, I've lit it in such a way that's interesting. Like, especially the beach scene on the little strip, the Tampa beach strip, where they all go and like, it's like that. Very golden tones and everything has a certain look. It seems very deliberate. That makes it seem more than just like about like hat man dancing. It had like a fancy look.
- [39:13]
A
Yeah, I think there's more to it.
- [39:15]
C
I don't know.
- [39:16]
A
I think if you, like, watch the movie and think about these people's lives underneath the acres of naked man flesh, as you put it, it's pretty depressing. And there are sort of the layers of kind of critique of the economy like we've been talking about. There is the cinematography and the lighting and stuff that Emily was talking about. I don't know. I really like and appreciate this movie for many reasons. Including the strippers.
- [39:47]
C
Yeah, I think that's right. I think there's more to it than, whoa, it's a stripper movie.
- [39:51]
A
I also, I think the dancing is really good. Like, it's a fun movie. Not just because they take their clothes off, but the dancing is excellent. It's very entertaining. Even if they had their clothes on, I think it would be entertaining.
- [40:04]
C
Yeah, the dancing was funny.
- [40:05]
B
That was the follow up movie. Right. Hail Caesar, where Channing Tatum does that amazing tap dance routine.
- [40:11]
A
Yes, I vaguely remember that. I definitely didn't see it, but. So maybe I did need him to take his clothes off for me to see.
- [40:18]
B
That wasn't Soderbergh, that was the Coen brothers. So. Yeah, let's get a verdict on this one. Shane, you brought us this movie. You wanted to talk about this movie. We can assume you like the movie.
- [40:29]
A
I like the movie.
- [40:31]
B
Give it a grade.
- [40:32]
A
What is the scale that you use?
- [40:33]
B
Whatever scale you want. We're not fussy on scales.
- [40:36]
A
I think I give it a seven and a half out of ten.
- [40:39]
B
Okay, good, but not good.
- [40:40]
A
Seven and a half to an eight out of ten. Like, it's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it is definitely an entertaining movie that I will see five more times.
- [40:49]
B
How many times have you seen this movie?
- [40:51]
A
Well, including. I saw it probably twice in the last month to do research for this and had probably seen it two or three times before that.
- [41:01]
C
Wow.
- [41:02]
A
But I also just rewatch things I've already watched before as a rule. That's just how I consume things.
- [41:09]
C
Do you fully pay attention when you rewatch or you do other stuff?
- [41:12]
A
Depends. If you're watching with other people. I usually Pay attention. But other times I'll just put it on background. It's a great movie to have on in the background because, like, you're doing something else and then you look over and they're like men dancing with their shirts off.
- [41:28]
B
Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I think, like that kind of seven and a half. Maybe like seven out of ten. It is not Soderbergh's best film by a long shot. And it's not Channing Tatum's best film by a long shot. It could conceivably be one of Matthew McConaughey's best films. His. His performance is fantastic. The huge weaknesses in the plot, they strike home for me just because I like more verbally adept movies. I guess I like more, you know, the clever scripts. The script is not clever. So I can't get too excited about this film.
- [42:03]
A
That's another reason why it's great to have on in the background, because you don't really have to be listening to it.
- [42:07]
B
Right. But, Emily, you're going to have to give us the final verdict then.
- [42:11]
C
So can I switch the scales to letter grade?
- [42:15]
B
Please do.
- [42:15]
C
I feel I can. I mean, I pretty much kind of agree. Well, I think that it's a B movie. It's a grade B movie. It looks really good. And yes, there are these, like, interesting capitalist critiques kind of in there. And the choreography is nice. It's very easy on the eyes. But the plot is dumb, as Felix has pointed out. The dialogue is poor. Except when Matthew McConaughey is talking and saying, all right, all right, all right. And yeah, and there's like nothing to it, really. You know, it's really just a. Kind of like a confection. Like, there are other movies about stripping that I think have higher stakes. There are no stakes here. The plot is whatever. It's just something like you said to have on in the background. So that's what makes it a B level movie. Even though it's very enjoyable.
- [43:07]
B
And there's no shame in making a successful genre B movie.
- [43:12]
C
No shame in that.
- [43:13]
B
That's one of the things we like about Soderbergh, is he dabbles in many pools. He doesn't need to achieve greatness every time. And I probably feel like he wouldn't. He would feel like he isn't stretching himself enough if he did achieve greatness every time.
- [43:25]
C
And, like, it's nice to see a movie. It's kind of a small movie. It only costs six and a half million to make. Thank you, Wikipedia. And it grossed $167 million. And I feel like Hollywood should make more movies like this that are, like, cheap to make, but they still look really good and are super entertaining. And it's not like a whole, like, extravaganza. No one got shot. There was a gun in the sorority party scene, and I was like, oh, my God, why does he have a gun? And I was like, oh, right, It's a prop from the street. So that was nice.
- [43:55]
B
So talking about labor versus capital, the great thing about making a movie for six and a half million dollars is that is a small enough amount of money that Soderbergh and Tatum could and did finance it themselves. There isn't a bunch of rentier Hollywood producers who are skimming off the vast majority of that 106 million in profits. If this cost 6 million and made 100 million, and the producers are Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum, that's like, they're obviously going to share that with a bunch of other people. But that's basically $50 million each, which is an amazing payday from this movie.
- [44:28]
C
Yeah, good job.
- [44:30]
B
That's more money than you could make, you know, from a superhero movie.
- [44:34]
A
It feels like this was a fun movie to make. It's a fun movie to watch. I think it's great.
- [44:40]
B
That's it for Magic Mike. Next week, we'll be back with Katherine Bell to talk about the Hudsucker Proxy.