thoughts after a second viewing of Magic Mike

1) Shouldn't McConaughey win some sort of award for this, or something? He's so great. He's sort of parodying himself, I guess, but he manages to be funny and somewhat likeable while also coming across as sort of insane. I had kind of forgotten about the part near the end where he sings a song, then proceeds to get up, smash his guitar, strip down to a thong and cowboy boots, and then walk backstage all "WHOOOO!" Here's the thing: Channing Tatum plays the guy who has been stripping for awhile and enjoys it to some extent, but doesn't really plan on doing it forever; he has other goals but finds it difficult to walk away for a number of reasons. Alex Pettyfer plays the guy at the beginning of his career who is getting a little too caught up in the money, women, and party lifestyle of the business. McConaughey's character, on the other hand, has been doing this for YEARS, has made his entire career and is basing all of his future plans on the male stripping industry. I don't know how a guy gets to that point in his life, but I imagine to get there, you would have to be pretty much like McConaughey plays him: charming enough to get customers in the door and recruit new talent, good-looking enough to go onstage yourself, and crazy enough to take the whole thing seriously. I think the thing is that most of the guys know that there is some ridiculousness to what they're doing but manage to keep a straight face through the whole thing. McConaughey's character doesn't think that any of this is even a little bit funny. That, I think, is why McConaughey's performance is brilliant.

2) Speaking of the scene where McConaughey smashes the guitar-- the end of the movie is also brilliant. (Don't read any further if you don't want spoilers.) The movie is clearly winding down. Channing Tatum's character, Mike, has just spent a lot of money to get Alex Pettyfer's character, Adam, out of trouble, and he is clearly sick of the whole thing. He's spent the whole movie trying to be successful at things other than stripping while making excuses for why he doesn't just quit. And then, backstage while McConaughey (Dallas) gives his performance, he just gets up, walks out, and drives away. And it means everything and nothing all at once. Everything because he's been thinking about doing it for so long. Nothing because it's so easy, and yeah, Dallas and the others notice he's gone, but it's not really that big of a deal; Adam goes on in his place, and the audience doesn't know the difference. Maybe there will be a bit more fallout later, but-- he left. And the world didn't come to an end. It's a great moment.

3) And then-- then!-- he drives over to Adam's sister Brooke's apartment. Mike has kind of been flirting with Brooke throughout the movie, but she's kind of had a boyfriend for part of it, and she's kind of not that excited about her brother being a stripper, or about dating a stripper. (That's another thing that's pretty brilliant about this movie-- he has another on-again/off-again relationship with a psychology grad student named Joanna, only he finds out she's been engaged to someone else the whole time. Another pitfall of stripping, apparently-- women don't really take you seriously as a dating prospect, even if they think you're good-looking and fun.) And he tells her he's done, and she thanks him for helping her brother, and they decide to go out for breakfast, only, she says, "There's only one place I really like, and it doesn't open until six a.m." Mike is confused: "That's-- like seven hours from now." Oh, no. How will we EVER fill seven hours? Boom. Movie over. Pretty smooth, Brooke.

So, basically, I liked it even better the second time. Good job, Movie.