Holy shit, but the McConaughey was amazing in Magic Mike. Easily the best I've seen him since the Wooderson days.
I truly can't believe he didn't get at least nominated for an Oscar last year. Maybe it was just so... McConaughey that it appeared to be deceptively easy to play, but come on! Just for what must've been an intense workout regimen alone, the dude deserved a nod.
As for the rest of the movie, it was... fine. The dancing was pretty laugh-out-loud entertaining, though -- and I realize I'm not the target audience for this -- not in the least bit sexy. I got pretty tired of Soderbergh's decisions for shooting the thing -- all "natural" light that he basically just decided not to white balance his camera before hitting the record button. I got that the only place with "natural" skin tones was the club, but the overly sepia/just-plain-dark of all the other scenes was really distracting. I kept waiting for there to be a point to it, but it never came. Much like in Haywire, it just came off as an art-house/college film experiment gone awry.
And I never really bought the relationship between Mike and the Kid, his protege/"best friend," though that's admittedly due in part to the relative ickyness of Alex Pettyfer. That and having the character say "we should be best friends" more than once in the script doesn't mean it's fucking so. There was just never any build to that relationship, so some of the choices made by Mike later in the film just didn't hold any water.
Once upon a time (circa 2003)*, the Soderbergh was on my short list of directors who could do no wrong. but after the one-two punch of Haywire and the MM -- though at least I made it through Magic Mike -- that no longer holds... though I've still got high hopes for the yet-to-be-seen Side Effects and Behind the Candelabra.
*speaking of that list, now almost exactly a decade old, it's interesting to see what and where it's changed -- some of which is just my old age (I just don't have time to keep up with Todd Haynes and Jim Jarmush these days) and some of which is, like the Soderbergh, due to some relatively "eh" output -- Wes Anderson and Peter Jackson, I'm looking at you)
Why hasn't the Rock really made it big? Don't get me wrong, the dude is BIG, at least in bicep circumference, but while he's got the dubious distinction of having been in a (three) movie(s) that have been in the top 10 for the last 15 weeks, which is quite a thing, especially during the bombastic summer season, if you take a deeper dive, are any of those actually due to him? I'm going to immediately discount Snitch, even though it's his one real starring vehicle, because... well, nobody saw Snitch.
He's gotta get some credit for GI Joe Retaliation -- the first one was so bad that the sequel had a tough row to hoe from the start, and the addition of the Dwayne as Roadblock definitely piqued interest, though I think the real draw here was the "it can't be as bad as the first one, right?" and the early release of that crazy ninjas-on-the-mountain scene, which immediately eclipsed (and erased the memory of) the entirety of the first movie:
I don't think he gets much from Pain & Gain, though -- that's a Michael Bay vehicle through and through, with a little bit of the Marky Mark thrown in. I've heard he's really good in it, but I don't think many folks were all about the Dwayne in this one.
Then there's the movie of the summer (so far at least), Furious 6. While there's no doubt that his inclusion in this franchise is a damn good thing -- and that these movies didn't get good until he joined up -- he's still nowhere near the main draw. He just walks around looking Hulk-like and being gruff, but he's not involved in most of the reasons this flick is so outstanding. He doesn't even get to drive a cool car, for crap's sake!
But back to the Hulk-like:
The dude is just HUGE. When he was first making the transition from wrestling to the big screen in The Rundown, Mr. Johnson acutally got a little bit smaller than he was when he was in the ring, going for that everyman (or at least the Hollywood version of it) thing... but he quickly moved completely away from that. Which makes sense for the movies he's making now, which are big, dumb, and completely cartoonish, so making himself into a living, breathing action figure is the right way to go. But in the long run, it's probably pretty limiting. The dude's got charisma to burn and he seems damn smart onscreen, no matter how dumb the shit around him might be, but there's no way right now he could be taken seriously in any sort of dramatic role... like Snitch, maybe? In some ways, the fact that popular cinema has such a superhero fetish right now works to his advantage, but he still has yet to really capitalize on his own. There are rumors he's gunning for Power Man, which is about the only way I can see him really headlining anything major at this point. He needs something Conan- or Terminator-like to really launch him.
But no matter what, at least Michael Bay gave me this, my current favorite picture:
Watching GWDT last night for the first time since I saw it in the theater, I was struck by a few things. One, the thing is just goddamn beautiful. If there's a director with a better sense of composition and style working right now, please, I'd love to know. I know I'm not the first -- or most eloquent -- person to note this, of course, as that's the man's reputation. But still, there are shots in that movie that just take my breath away, and a few that I was able to rewind just to watch again this time, though I remember my audible gasp when I saw it in the theater at a single, very simple shot near the end of head and then brake lights flashing on this hill in front of trees that just makes me weak in the knees.
That said, all the style in the world means nothing if it's not in service to the story, and that, too, works for me here. Fincher's often been accused of being more interested in style than in the meat of the matter, but the way he and his team work, everything is in service to the characters and the story. Now, GWDT's story really isn't all that interesting in and of itself, but the way the pieces of the puzzle are put together here makes it work.
None of which would be possible without the great work of nearly all the actors (and thank god there was never a time when Julian Sands had to speak -- he's got a great look, but his halting delivery is like nails on a chalkboard every time I hear him), but especially Rooney Mara. I never understood the love for Noomi Rapace in the original series -- nor do I care for at all the original GWDT, which is shot and plays like a TV movie; I never bothered with the second and third. She was always too "tough" or something, too big, too normal, nowhere near the tiny, out-there punk that I pictured in my head when reading the book. But Mara, wow, she nailed it. It's easy to see why she might be underestimated, appearing very punk-pixie-ish and nearly emaciated onscreen, which makes her badassery and ultimate revenge on all the men who hate women all the more whoop-worthy when it happens.
Daniel Craig puts in some outstanding work as well. In fact, it may be my favorite non-Bond role of his (not that there are many, really), but just the fact that I was able to forget that he was the ultracapable James Bond in this movie speaks volumes. It doesn't hurt that he radiates fuckability (even while beat up and dirty)...
which is necessary (hey, he was a lady killer in the books) to his character but was one of the first of many I-don't-think-sos in the original series. I totally bought why Salander would go for him, though his persona is completely different in this. He also radiates intelligence. I love that you can see his mind clicking as he investigates the central mystery of the movie while at the same time attempting to decipher the enigma that is Salander.
*As a side note, just yesterday a preview for some POS Liam Hemsworth movie came out -- which might, might be worth seeing just to see Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford chew some scenery together for the first time since Air Force One, but the first thought I had as I was watching was that Liam just doesn't project the necessary "smarts" to pull off his role in that flick. Not to say he's not smart, just that it doesn't carry over through the screen. It's why Tom Cruise doesn't play doctors, he plays racecar drivers, you know? Even as superspy Ethan Hunt, he's less about the "intelligence" part and more about the "secret" and the kick-ass, leaving the brainwork to Simon Pegg -- or Emilio Estevez, but we saw how that worked out.
It's the smaller character roles who really sell the thing, though. The scene where Salander "checks up" on her guardian tormenter in the elevator is just fantastic -- Yorick van Wageningen just brings it in every scene he's got, whether he's being menacing and creepy or later when he's completely cowed and frightened. It's weird to say it, since his major scene is completely disturbing and intentionally disgusting, but his performance is definitely one of my favorite things about this version of the story... and especially now that I've checked out his pics online; dude cleans up well:
Joely Richardson is equally estimable, especially considering the change Fincher and his screenwriter, Steve Zaillian made at the end. This is a Fincher hallmark that he gets very little credit for: people just do career-best work in his movies, even if they sometimes decry the methodology.
The one thing that really doesn't work for me at all is the credit sequence. It's striking as all hell, but it's too straight-up music video for me. But it's a minor glitch.
The last real mention about sequels to this underperfoming flick (though still over $200 million worldwide) was in February of this year, where Mara said that she still expected them to happen and that Fincher would at least be involved, if not directing. While I'm just glad this first one exists, I'd really love to see Mara and Craig take on these characters again, though it remains to be seen if Mara will really be able to escape the Lisbeth shadow... though it's a good one to be in.
