To celebrate one year since its release, I talk to some men about Magic Mike XXL

Magic Mike XXL doesn’t need to exist. The first Magic Mike film, whilst featuring some well-choreographed dance numbers, launching the McConaugheysaince, and giving Alex Pettyfer his coup de grace, isn’t that great. It is, at its best, yellow-saturated present day Boogie Nights-lite. For every five minutes of fun in the film, there is Alex Pettyfer getting in way too deep with some dodgy drug deals, and painfully awkward scenes in which his dull sister attempts to flirt with Tatum’s Mike Lane. So, you can imagine my delight when I sat down in July of 2015 to watch XXL and found that all of the above was stripped from this film. Magic Mike XXL is an utterly ridiculous film, one that, from the opening shot of Tatum looking out to sea, pondering life’s complexities, to its final, DJ Khaled-scored “WE DID IT BROS” montage, doesn’t take itself seriously. All the film asks of an audience is to buckle in for “one last ride”, enjoy some male torsos, and be pleasantly surprised by its intersectional, fat-friendly, completely pro-female pleasure feminism.

But you know that already. There have been many, many brilliant pieces on the film, written by women. (This Roxanne Gay piece in particular is MAGNIFICENT, and makes me genuinely laugh out loud every time) Women have sung their praises about the film, from the internet to female customers I observed in screenings of the film shrieking and unabashedly singing along to I Want it That Way. So in a rare twist of fate, I want to know what men have to say about something. To celebrate the one year anniversary of the most ridiculous, light-hearted and brilliant look at masculinity of 2015, I asked some men what they thought about Magic Mike XXL.

Why did you choose to see the film?

Jake, 25, Law Masters Student, London: Numerous people I trust told me that it was great.

Daniel, 27, Videographer, Glasgow: I’d previously watched the first Magic Mike film with my girlfriend, seen the trailer and thought it looked pretty fun.

Gary, 55, Lecturer, Brighton: I was forced to watch it by my wife and daughter.

Miles, 20, Software Developer, London: I was recommended it by my friend so I knew it would be good.

Jason, 26, Museum Visitor Services Assistant, New York: I don’t remember reading any reviews, but the word of mouth really surprised me. A lot of people online were championing Magic Mike XXL as a fun road trip comedy with a strongly progressive stance on sexuality, a description that basically ensured I would go see it.

Mark, 25, Actor, London: I’d been interested in seeing Magic Mike for ages, so when the opportunity to see it and XXL together with a Q&A came along it was too good to pass up.

Peter, 22, Spoken word artist & curator, London: Wanted to get out of my comfort zone and see a film that doesn’t include me in its target audience.

Martyn, 22, Graduate, London/Essex: Because I was ushering at 11pm and had already seen the other screenings more than 5 times each that week.

Jordan, 20, Cinema Usher, London: I’d seen the first, and that song Pony.

Where did you see it — cinema or at home? Were you alone or with other people?

Jake: Cinema, with a friend.

Daniel: Went to see the film in the cinema with my girlfriend, have since watched it again at home with girlfriend and sister.

Gary: At home, with my wife and daughter.

Miles: At my friend’s house.

Jason: Cinema. I saw the eight o’ clock showing on a Sunday night two weeks after opening and the theater was still more than half full. I went by myself, but I was not alone in the theater — there were about five or six clusters of people who had come to see it with friends, most of them women. I probably would have gone to see it with my fiancé, but she went with a group of female friends to see it on opening weekend, which seems like a much more appropriate viewing experience.

Mark: I saw it in the downstairs screen at the Prince Charles. It was packed.

Peter: Saw it at Picturehouse Central, alone.

Martyn: At work.

Jordan: Hackney Picturehouse, went by myself.

Have you seen the first Magic Mike film?

Jake: Nope, heard it’s not worth it.

Miles: No.

Jason: Unless you count the ten minutes I saw on TV in a hotel room once, no, and frankly, the plot summary on Wikipedia makes it sound like a total bummer. Tobias breaks into Mike’s house? Everyone is selling drugs? What? No thank you.

Peter: Yes, I enjoyed it, but it was pretty forgettable, I didn’t revisit it until seeing Magic Mike XXL.

Martyn: Nope, probably why I don’t understand the genius of the second.

Jordan: Yes, unfortunately.

“It’s fun, trashy and its energy just goes up and up and up.”

What, if anything, is a standout moment in the film for you?

Jake: The finale embodies everything that is great about the film. It’s fun, trashy and its energy just goes up and up and up. Jada steals it (and the film for that matter).

Daniel: A bit obvious but the cheetos and water scene had me in tears, and I also lost it at Manganiello/Richie solo performance when Nine Inch Nails kicked in.

Gary: The end credits.

Miles: I like the gas station dance — I thought it was fun and sexy.

Jason: Does the entire climax count as a standout moment? Maybe the Backstreet Boys dance sequence in the convenience store? The conversation with the women at Nancy’s house?

Mark: Any of the dance scenes are spectacular but it has to be the ‘cheetos and water’ scene with Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello). It’s just so nice seeing him making somebody smile and being comfortable in his sexuality. The Backstreet Boys helped too.

Peter: Standout moment goes to the excellent reuse of Ginuwine’s Pony, for obvious reasons.

Martyn: The credits. Good music accompanied them.

Jordan: The whole sequence in the mansion, water bottle + cheetos, and Donald Glover’s speech in the car, All I Do Is Win.

Do you have a favourite character in the film?

Jake: There are many great characters but it has to be Jada’s.

Daniel: I have a huge soft spot for Tarzan due to growing up a wrestling fan but if I had to pick a favourite it’d be Big Dick Richie.

Gary: The woman (Rome) who ran the club.

Miles: Ken, because he’s sensitive.

Jason: For pure entertainment value, it’s hard to beat Big Dick Richie, but Jada Pinkett Smith’s Rome is probably the most interesting character. There’s a lot to discuss about Rome’s philosophy of female empowerment and what it means within her profession, as well as her personal position of power and how it affects her relationship to Mike and his friends, but to put it simply, her appearance is a major indicator that this movie has more on its mind than beautiful men getting high and taking their clothes off. Plus, it leads to the introduction of Donald Glover’s character, and I’m happy anytime that Donald Glover is onscreen.

Mark: Big Dick Richie is an incredibly handsome man and that’s as much as I’ll say.

Peter: Characters? Who needs characters when you’ve got thinly-veiled archetypes displaying perfectly toned rippling pecs in routines that would make any boylesque show jealous? (Shout out to the quiet beefy man-mountain, smooth-talking falsetto-singing freestylying black guy, and the alarmingly white-toothed Ken-doll etc)

Martyn: Driver in the Background 2.

Jordan: Jada Pinkett!

How do you feel about representations of masculinity in the film?

Jake: It’s a film about male strippers, but I don’t think its representation of masculinity is defined by physical characteristics. Although the film mainly depicts muscle bound men (that’s not meant to be an insult) throwing their bodies around, they actually all come across as really quite gentle. Each character seems to be sincere and caring, not just to each other but to the many females in the film too. It is particularly nice to see this depiction of masculinity in characters that likeable. Often films that try and step away from the stereotypes of masculinity create insufferable “everyman” characters who think they are “good guys” but are usually just smug, insincere, ignorant and misogynistic.

Daniel: I feel in terms of masculinity, the film has its cake and eats it. It pokes fun and almost parodies masculinity but at the same time validates its own sense of masculinity. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a fault in the film.

Gary: It felt like a homosexual romance with heterosexual characters. The whole thing was like some kind of fantasy world.

Miles: I like dancing, and it was nice to have male role models in the dance world.

Jason: Magic Mike XXL is really about five men shedding the trappings of traditional masculinity and learning to express their true selves. It’s all communicated through the medium of stripping, yes, but I think the message comes through pretty clear. Richie’s entire identity as a dancer is based around fireman imagery, but he admits early on that he never even liked firefighters — he just did it because it fit an imagined idea of ‘manliness,’ and he’s much happier once he embraces a routine (and an identity) built around romance and personal connection. Also, there’s that crucial scene at Nancy’s house where the guys all sit around all night talking to the women, which is notable not just because it shows women over the age of forty expressing sexual desire without being made the butt of a joke, but also because the men are taking the time to learn about these women and find out who they are as people and what they actually like. When Ken performs for that one woman, it’s not just about a pretty guy singing a sexy song, it’s a transformative performance done in the hopes of persuading her to reignite her sexual relationship with her husband. I realize this all might sound a little silly and overblown the way I’m describing it, but I think that’s a really valuable lesson about tending to another person’s needs, whether it’s on a sexual or emotional level. The fact that Magic Mike XXL even attempts something like that while also being an entertaining male stripper comedy is commendable.

Mark: Refreshing. I’d even go so far as to say the film isn’t about masculinity at all, but male femininity. There are no competitions or displays of power on offer, just a group of guys hanging out and having a great time.

Peter: I feel that its representations of masculinity are kept as deliberately uncomplicated as possible, which works for the film (a comedy/dance/drama?), because masculinity as performed by a troupe of travelling male strippers is already far enough removed from traditional representations of masculinity to be noteworthy as a break from the norm of summer blockbusters, and big-budget film in general.

Martyn: I’m inspired, in fact I attempted to recreate the petrol station scene in my local Tesco Express. The choice of music was Five’s “Keep On Movin’”, unfortunately the security guard got to me before I got to take the shirt off.

Jordan: More nuanced than usual Hollywood explorations.

“There are no competitions or displays of power on offer, just a group of guys hanging out and having a great time”

Do you think that the film is feminist?

Jake: Although the film’s protagonists are all males I do think it is a feminist film. I believe that the film does genuinely care for its female characters and for what is inevitably it’s largely female audience. The film does a better job than most (especially mainstream cinema) of celebrating female sexuality. What probably stands out most is that the film represents women of all races, ages and sizes and both expressly and impliedly states that each are equally deserving of love, attention and admiration.

Daniel: I think the film is wholly sincere in its gender relations and there’s some interesting aspects of the film that can be analysed through the lens of feminist theory. I wouldn’t commit to calling it a feminist film though.

Gary: Absolutely not. It felt like a fictional world that had no link to reality.

Miles: I’m not sure that I would call it feminist, but I think that it challenged ideas of masculinity.

Jason: My perspective on this is obviously somewhat limited, but I would say yes, absolutely. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a movie — certainly not a big studio release like this — that treated female sexuality as a positive thing worthy of discussion and celebration. There’s so much toxic messaging about women in the world of entertainment, even in works that are otherwise enjoyable, that seeing a movie take the opposite stance so aggressively is refreshing. I do understand there are some criticisms about the female characters being used as props during the dance sequences, particularly at the end. I don’t really have an counter-argument to that, except that I think the movie earns enough goodwill that it’s maybe okay to let that stuff slide?

Mark: Absolutely. Like I said, to me the Magic Mikes are more about male femininity than masculinity, which I believe most men repress out of fear that other people may think they’re homosexual and judge them (or worse, punish them). More men need to see films like Magic Mike, and more films like Magic Mike need to be made.

Peter: Yeah, I’d say it’s a feminist film. It’s certainly done more for equality in the realms of hyper-sexualised gender representations and genuine sex-positivity in film than any high-profile release in the past few years.

Martyn: Not as feminist as the original Step Up.

Jordan: I think it has claim to be in part, sure.

Overall, did you enjoy it?

Jake: Yes, a lot. Better than Minions.

Daniel: Overall I loved the film, I’ve watched it twice in its entirety as well as clips online several times.

Gary: No, it needed more representation of middle-aged men with man boobs and bellies.

Miles: 100% yes! It’s like Fellowship of the Rings but with male strippers.

Jason: When I was leaving the theater, I heard one woman say to her friends, “I feel so rejuvenated,” and I had to agree — silently, of course, since I was there by myself and had no one to talk to. Even now, thinking back on it makes me happy in a way most movies don’t.

Mark: Fuck yes.

Peter: Definitely enjoyed it. Once I gave up attempting to make sense of it through its characters or lack of dialogue, I enjoyed it for its barrage of eye-popping bulge-centred choreography, acrobatics, soundtracking, art direction, and sheer indulgence.

Martyn: If 5 starfishes were a 10, and 2 squids were a 0 — I give it 7 blobfish.

Jordan: Fave of 2015!

“Everyone should see Magic Mike XXL. The U.S. government should screen it yearly before the State of the Union. It should be taught as part of the Common Core curriculum. It should come pre-loaded onto every Apple product.”

Are you glad that you’ve seen Magic Mike XXL?

Jake: Definitely.

Daniel: I am very glad I’ve seen Magic Mike XXL, one of my favourite films of last year and one I will revisit many times I feel.

Gary: I will never have those 90 minutes back from my life.

Miles: Errrr… Yes!

Jason: Everyone should see Magic Mike XXL. The U.S. government should screen it yearly before the State of the Union. It should be taught as part of the Common Core curriculum. It should come pre-loaded onto every Apple product.

Mark: Definitely.

Peter: Glad to have seen it, glad to see queer culture being celebrated without being fetishised, glad to see a sex-driven film exist outside of the heterosexual male gaze.

Martyn: Just as happy as with Brexit outcome.

Jordan: Eternally.