Magic Mike's Last Dance
The third movie in the Magic Mike trilogy is not as good as the first two. However, taken together, the films make a certain logical sense: the first film, Magic Mike, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was more of a funny, but slightly melancholy take on male friendships than a sex-drenched ass-fest. The second film, Magic Mike XXL, directed by Gregory Jacobs, is what people thought the *first* film was going to be: a thoroughly campy, good-hearted comedy about a bunch of hot guys taking their clothes off. This most recent (and final?) installment, directed once again by Soderbergh, is a love story, with almost too obvious tropes (the main characters can't be together for...reasons; forced proximity). It's also less funny and more sedate--but also more sensual--than the first two.
If Magic Mike is a quality craft beer and Magic Mike XXL is a tequila shot, then Magic Mike's Last Dance is a four-ounce pour of a very expensive Cabernet: it's lush, it's relaxing, it's sexy, but it ain't a party drink.
The film opens in present day, presumably about 7 years after the events of Magic Mike XXL. Mike Lane has lost his furniture making business in the pandemic and now works as a bartender for a catering company. While working at a fundraising event, Mike meets the hostess, Max Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault). Max finds out about Mike's past as a male stripper and offers to pay him a tidy sum for a dance. Mike protests that he is retired, but gives in and gives Max the dance of her life and the two end up sleeping together.
The next day, Max proposes and even crazier idea: Mike will come with her to London and spend a month training a cadre of male dancers to perform in a show at a theatre that Max's ex-husband bequeathed to her. Max's reasoning? She feels that if all women could experience the pleasure that Mike gave her through dance, it could change the world. Also, the show is a "fuck you" to her ex, a stuffy, wealthy British man with a reputation to protect.
It's all VERY contrived, and the entire "Magic Mike" trilogy goes a little overboard with the whole "if you just give women a little erotic attention, their lives will change" concept (If Mike drove women across state lines to access abortion services, he might be a little more "Magic" in my humble opinion, but yes the dancing is very good). But like a romance novel that is a fair bit ridiculous, Magic Mike's Last Dance has a way of charming you and making you smile despite yourself. It definitely has the most sensual dance scenes of the trilogy. Worth the watch!
Grade: B-
***
Elle
Elle, a French-language film directed by the slightly infamous Paul Verhoeven and starring the remarkable Isabella Huppert, is one of my favorite types of films: rape and revenge. Huppert plays Michele Leblanc, a middle-aged divorcee who develops video games for a living. Basically, she's cool as fuck. One day, Michele is raped in her own home by a masked assailant. Though she doesn't go to the police and appears relatively unfazed when she tells her ex-husband and best friend at dinner later that night, Michele begins to look suspiciously at all the men in her life.
Michele eventually discovers the identity of the man who raped her and begins a very ambiguous cat-and-mouse game with him that could easily get her killed. As viewers, we're led to wonder what Michele is getting out of this. Is she a masochist? Is she planning some horrible act of revenge? Is she simply in denial that this man is a danger to her? Or is she suffering severe guilt due to the fact that her father was a notorious serial killer in the 1970s (did I forget to mention that Michele's father was a notorious serial killer in the 1970s)?
Verhoeven is known for occasionally directing "trashy" movies, such as Showgirls. Elle could have easily been a trashy--almost retro--take on rape and "women's fantasies"...and some critics have argued that the movie is exactly that: a male fantasy about how women want to be ravished. But I found Elle to be a fascinating character study of a woman who is so sure of herself, so smart and powerful, that she may truly not understand the level of danger she's in. But, of course, being so smart, Michele does understand the danger she is in even as she is attracted to it on some level. It's a film that shows human emotion and motivation for the cipher it often is. Sometimes we don't even understand the choices--and risks--we make.
I was blown away by Elle, but I strongly caution people to really consider if they want to watch a movie with multiple, explicit rape scenes which also contain a scary amount of physical violence.
Grade: A-
***
Black Mirror, season 6 and Bandersnatch
I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that the most recent season of Black Mirror is excellent and possibly even the best season of the entire series. There are five episodes and not a dud among them, although the first three--"Joan is Awful", "Loch Henry", and "Beyond the Sea"--are truly exquisite. "Beyond the Sea" in particular feels like it could have been a straight up film that I would have paid to see in theatres. It's also horrifically devastating.
While "Joan is Awful" is, hands down, the funniest episode of Black Mirror ever, "Loch Henry" and "Beyond the Sea" bring that classic Black Mirror hurt--they're almost sadistic in their emotional devastation. And then the final two episodes, "Mazey Day" and "Demon 79" bring something unexpected to the table: supernatural horror. Typically, Black Mirror sticks to the realm of science fiction horror, but the final two episodes of season 6 venture outside that boundary quite a bit. And I was here for it.
I also finally got around to watching Bandersnatch, Black Mirror's interactive movie. While Will Poulter was a delight, overall I was not impressed. The concept of a "choose your own adventure" movie is a cool one, but in reality I have to wonder how many people decided to watch it more than once to get a different ending (especially since it would offer you the option of returning to a previous choice when you reached an ending). I just don't think the movie itself is good enough to inspire multiple viewings. But I have to give it points for trying something different.
Season 6: A
Bandersnatch: B
***
The Five Devils
This French film, directed by Lea Mysius, is a mix of genres, ranging from family drama to fantasy to horror. Young Vicky (Sally Drame) has a magical nose: she has a truly extraordinary sense of smell (she's able to smell her mother from 20 feet away while blindfolded, for example), but she is also able to create scents like some kind of prodigy perfumer.
Vicky lives with her parents Joanne (Adele Exarchopoulos) and Jimmy (Moustapha Mbengue) and their life seems peaceful (even if Joanne acts a bit forlorn at times). But when Jimmy's sister, Julia (Swala Emati) comes to live with the family after being released from prison, Vicky's quiet life is rocked to the core. Through scent, Vicky is able to experience people's memories--namely, Julia and Joanne's. She sees that Julia and Joanne were once very close until something pulled them apart.
The Five Devils is a thinker of a movie, and honestly, I'm not fully sure if I understood it. There are some really interesting ideas in this movie, but none of them seem fully fleshed out. One idea that keeps emerging is Vicky's realization that if her father and mother hadn't gotten together in the wake of the event that sent Julia to prison, she would not have been born. The Five Devils takes this very normal existential realization and plays a bit with it, suggesting that maybe Vicky is able to time travel via the power of scent and even interfere with events that occurred before she was born. But the movie never really commits to this idea one way or another.
Overall, a very interesting and beautifully shot film, but not clear enough to feel fully satisfying.
Grade: B
***
Evil Dead Rise
Sadly, I was disappointed by the latest film in the Evil Dead franchise. Set in a condemned high rise apartment building, Evil Dead Rise had the potential to be a really cool movie. It focuses on single mom Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), and kids Danny, Bridget, and Kassie (Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher).
Beth is a ne'er do well who has a history of ignoring her sister until she needs her. Well, upon discovering an unwanted pregnancy, Beth shows up at Ellie's door. But the sibling drama only starts to simmer before the kids discover an old-ass book bound in human skin and end up releasing untold horrors into their apartment.
I'm not really an Evil Dead person (I still haven't seen the first two movies, which I know is blasphemy to admit as a horror lover) so I might not have followed the plot as well as an Evil Dead fan would, but basically if you read certain words out of the book, some kind of demon possesses someone, and they can pass that possession onto other people through bites and scratches and stuff. Look, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the movie! I'm sorry!
Chaos reigns, bodily fluids are flung far and wide, and a chainsaw comes into play by the end of the movie. But at that point I was mostly playing on my phone and not watching. I'm not sure why, but the film failed to hold my attention. That said, a lot of horror fanatics loved it, so if you like horror, don't let my opinion keep you from checking it out.
Grade: C+
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