“While it’s true that Magic Mike XXL offers an ebullient fantasy compared to the relative splash of cold water that was Steven Soderbergh’s original 2012 Magic Mike, it’s not quite so simple to say that they are polar opposites in vision. Both are essentially grounded in an inner acknowledgment of the harsh realities of life; it’s just that director Gregory Jacobs, star Channing Tatum, and the rest of the crew choose to look at things more buoyantly this second time around. As a result, instead of the anti-capitalist stance that occasionally tempered the choreographic pleasures of Magic Mike, the sequel is, simply put, a sustained blast of pure, unadulterated joy from start to finish.
“It’s the multilayered nature of that joy that deserves to be dissected, however. Sure, there’s the film’s unabashed celebration of female pleasure, with women allowed to be as sexually voracious as men, as perhaps most memorably illustrated by the seduction attempts of a group of middle-aged women, spearheaded by Nancy (Andie McDowell). And certainly, on a broader level, there’s much to be said about the film’s sexual and racial inclusiveness, with nary a thematic meal made out of, say, the African-American strip-club emcee Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith) basing her club in a former Southern plantation; or her apparent sexual history with Paris (Elizabeth Banks), an organizer of the stripping convention to which Mike (Tatum), Richie (Joe Manganiello), and the rest. Such details are treated as merely facts of life, parts of the grand fabric that is America.
“But, on a fundamental level, the appeal of Magic Mike XXL is more universal and timeless: as a metaphor for that constant artist’s struggle between balancing practicality and passion. Mike, Richie, & co. are hardly idealists: As with many artists, performing may be what they love to do, but they realize they won’t be able to do it forever, and thus need to find a back-up plan for the future. But why be depressed about that? Instead, for this band of strippers’ last hurrah, they decide to essentially turn their more mundane future into art, in the form of a blowout final routine that allows each dancer to express their hopes and dreams the best way they know how. Magic Mike XXL may present a democratic vision of America at its best, but at heart it also presents humanity at its most generous and optimistic. In an age when the politicians we are supposed to be able to trust to represent us seem to prefer divisiveness and fear-mongering, this is the kind of entertainment we need right now.” ~ Kenji Fujishima
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