InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 6

FILM REVIEWS
supporting characters. The movie’s insistence on low-keyness
feels refreshing — this is surely one of the lowest-stakes studio
releases in recent years — if not particularly rewarding.
Soderbergh can’t be blamed for not attempting to recreate the
nonstop bacchanalia that has made XXL something of a modern
classic, but Last Dance too often hits the exact pitfalls that film
eschewed. Soderbergh is at his best when his material expands
the range of his talents — here, he feels constrained by a script
that, worse than being fairly undercooked, plays to the opposite
of his talents.
The family drama feels strangely thin and unmotivated — we
wonder why we’re spending so much time with these people,
and Last Dance struggles to give us much of an answer.
Director/cinematographer/editor Soderbergh also feels
stylistically reined in here — the last time he absconded to
Europe for a sequel, he synthesized the continent’s aesthetic
influences for the bravura formal achievement of Ocean’s
Twelve. Despite his career-long inspiration from the likes of
Roeg, Boorman, and Lester, the London setting doesn’t
invigorate in the same way. Most disappointingly, the treatise
on female desire and empowerment that runs through the
series gets its most didactic treatment here, spelled out in
dialogue or in Zadie’s book-report narration on the societal
function of dance rather than embodied in its performances.
“[This] callback to the
grindhouse flicks of the ‘70s
offers up the most respectful
portrait of sex workers the
big screen has seen in ages.
It’s telling that this movie finds Mike moving, somewhat,
from the role of performer to director, as Last Dance is
largely about the struggle to create art in a world hostile to
it, where reliance on a wealthy benefactor is the only
option left to the artist. Indeed, the movie’s most potent
wish fulfillment may be Soderbergh’s own — imagine if you
got your money from Salma Hayek instead of the likes of
David Zaslav. The show, when it comes, is worth the wait,
heartwarming and dazzling in equal measure, and topped
with a truly perilous-feeling, rain-drenched duet from
Tatum and dancer Kylie Shea. In moments like these, the
talent involved becomes undeniable — it’s nice to be in the
hands of a director who actually knows how to fill out a
widescreen frame, or how to judiciously employ handheld
or close-ups for emotional effect. Tatum, likewise, once
again proves himself to be one of the most talented,
reliable, and selfless stars of his generation. In the end,
however, the diminishing returns of Magic Mike’s Last Dance
may be its most lasting commentary on the worlds of art
and commerce — one just keeps trying to get the magic
back however one can, until the compromises and
disappointments met along the way become the story
itself. — BRAD HANFORD
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh; CAST: Channing Tatum, Salma
Hayek, Caitlin Gerard, Gavin Spokes; DISTRIBUTOR: Warner
Brothers; IN THEATERS: February 10; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 52 min.
SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW
Dave Franco
A Type A careerist finds her life spinning out of control after the
man she’s long harbored feelings for announces his intentions of
marrying a younger woman, inspiring her to recklessly insert
herself into their relationship to try and split the happy couple
apart. She feigns friendship with the bride-to-be, while secretly
undermining the couple every chance she gets – and the whole
thing explodes, spectacularly, the weekend of the wedding. Fans
of romantic comedies will likely recognize this as the premise of
1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding, which has now been ported over,
with only a handful of tweaks, to the new Amazon-premiering
Somebody I Used to Know, from actor-turned-director Dave
Franco. It’s a bit of theft the film even cops to with Kiersey
Clemons’ Cassidy, the younger bride in this love triangle, asking
Alison Brie’s Ally if she’s not, in fact, attempting her own version