thoughts on Magic Mike XXL

"How did a sequel become both simpler and smarter than the film that came before it?" asks BuzzFeed's Anne Helen Petersen in this excellent article.  It's a good question, and the description-- "both simpler and smarter than the film that came before it"-- is a pretty good characterization of the film.  Yesterday, a day after I saw Magic Mike XXL, I was asked how it was.  "It was a lot different than the first one," I responded. 

"Was it as good as the first one?" the friend asked.

"No?" I responded cautiously, a question in my voice.  I felt like I was being asked to compare apples and oranges, though I couldn't quite put my finger on what was so different about this film.  It featured most of the same cast as Magic Mike (Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer are out; Jada Pinkett Smith and Donald Glover are in).  It's still about male strippers.  It still has heart; like the first film, it treats the strippers, as well as the women who visit male strip clubs, as Real Human People with Feelings, and manages to acknowledge the humor inherent in male stripping without making fun of or really even passing judgment on the profession, those who work in it, or those who consume it.  If the first film was an insider's look at the industry told through a man who had been in the business so long he couldn't see outside of it (McConaughey); a man trying to get out but unsure how (Channing Tatum); and a man just starting out (Pettyfer), the second film is a road trip movie in which the strippers try to reimagine what they do outside of the confines of the characters they've always played onstage and the routines they've always done (Richie (Joe Mangianello) typically does a fireman routine; he's actually afraid of fire).  This lays the groundwork for a less serious film the second time around...but it's fun, and each group of women the men meet along the road help them see why it's perhaps best to personalize their routines based on what works for them and for the women.

In the end, I think it works as a sequel because it's able to take the characters and heart of the first film and put it in a second, very different, film, rather than simply retreading what was done in the first.  I liked it.

thoughts on Girls, Season Two (spoilers)

When we last left the characters at the end of Season One, Marnie (Allison Williams) had just moved out of Hannah's apartment for reasons that were only vaguely clear; Jessa (Jemima Kirke) had just married Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd) completely out of nowhere; and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) had just lost her virginity to Ray (Alex Karpovsky).  Hannah (Lena Dunham) and Adam (Adam Driver) were finally a real couple, but he offered to move in, and she either didn't get that he meant it or just didn't want him to.  She asked her gay ex-boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells) to move in instead.  This hurt Adam's feelings, and he proceeded to get hit by a truck during their argument about this. 

Season Two picks up roughly three weeks after Season One ends.  The only thing that really changes in those three weeks is that Hannah inexplicably decides she's totally done with Adam and begins dating Sandy (Donald Glover) for like five minutes, so the three-week jump initially seems like a convenient way for them to avoid explaining Hannah's change of heart about Adam.  I eventually came to feel like I understood their dynamic, though. I think she secretly liked that he kept her at a distance throughout most of Season One because she didn't think he would like what he saw if or when he got too close.  We find out late in the season that Hannah suffers from fairly severe OCD, which seems to be heightened in times of intense stress.  She states that she thought she was "done with it" after high school, but the symptoms/behaviors associated with it resurface after she gets her first book deal and is given a tight deadline.  Her parents pick up on what's going on and take her to a psychiatrist, who prescribes medication; though she later tells her dad during a phone conversation that she is taking the medication, it doesn't appear that she is doing so.  The season ends with her videochatting with Adam, him immediately realizing that something is wrong, and coming to her.  Meanwhile, Shoshanna dates, then eventually breaks up with, Ray; Jessa and Thomas-John get divorced, Jessa briefly moves in with Hannah, and then disappears; and Marnie gets "downsized" from her gallery job, takes a "pretty person job" as a hostess at an exclusive club, briefly dates an artist named Booth Jonathan (Jordan Taccone), then gets back together with her ex-boyfriend, Charlie (Christopher Abbott), who has become very successful seemingly overnight through creating an app.

I didn't like it as much as I liked Season One.  It took me awhile to figure out the timing of events, for one thing; six or seven episodes into the season, Ray comments that he and Shoshanna have been dating for four weeks, indicating that each episode takes place over the course of less than a week.  This surprised me, as it seems like *a lot* happens over the course of the season.  Hannah has a number of hook-ups between Sandy and getting back together with Adam, for one thing: a guy who lives in her building that she buys coke from; a hot doctor who happens into the coffee shop where she works; and Jessa's nineteen-year-old stepbrother.  Jessa's marriage must last maybe a month, which makes me feel like it only happened in the first place to give all of the characters a reason to get all dressed up and be at the same fancy event at the end of the first season. 

Beyond the timing issues, the characters are all just generally at a pretty crappy place in their lives.  Hannah has a chance at professional success, but it seems that her OCD will make it difficult for her to achieve it.  Marnie is clearly a very driven, intelligent person...who doesn't really know what she wants to do with her life.  Shoshanna and Jessa just really aren't given enough to do, with their storylines in this season mostly reduced to their ultimately short-lived romantic relationships.

Also, I don't get Hannah and Marnie's friendship at all.  I reiterate my point from Season One that I don't really get why any of these people would be friends, but in addition to not really having anything in common, Hannah and Marnie are just generally not particularly nice to each other.  For example, in an early episode, Marnie has sex with Hannah's ex-boyfriend Elijah.  Why?  It would be one thing if she liked Elijah or even if she was particularly attracted to Elijah, but-- she doesn't and she's not.  She seems to do it purely to spite Hannah.  Again, why are these people friends?  It's one thing that none of them have that much in common, but another that some of them don't even seem to particularly like each other.  My friends and I have a ton of fun together and generally like and trust each other.  It's one thing to have people in your group who you connect less with than others, or to have falling-outs and arguments based on misunderstandings or personality conflicts.  It's a totally different thing to be intentionally spiteful to people that you spend time with by choice.  I just don't get it.

There were still high points.  I continue to like most of the characters individually even if I don't get them as a group.  Hannah's "boyfriend of the week" period was fun, even though I would have bought it more if this was all taking place over the course of a few months rather than one.  I still find it compelling.  Hopefully Season Three will be better.