"In the history of photography and film, getting the right image meant getting ones that conformed to the prevalent ideas of humanity. This included whiteness, of what colour—what range of hue—white people wanted white people to be....Movie lighting assume, privilege, and construct whiteness" —Richard Dyer, "Lighting For Whiteness"

The history of Hollywood in many ways is the history of the construction of whiteness. This goes beyond simply films that have depicted African Americans in stereotypes or margnizaled their roles in cinema but its material essence: celluloid was developed to favor light skin tones to dark skin tones. "In black-and-white films, cinematographers usually took white skin as the norm, employing lighting and laboratory practices that could reliably produce a certain image…

Magic Mike XXL is a putatively "modest"/"small" film — $14.8 million budget, 28-day shooting schedule, a shambling road movie meant to showcase extended musical numbers and largely excising the first film's recessionary panic. (Business is discussed, specifically the hustle of running a small business, but it's not the dominant throughline motivating everything as in the first, a line of inquiry Soderbergh pursued in Erin Brockovich, Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience, in ways that increasingly played like a meta-text about his own problems getting financing.) Where the original interpolated stripping sequences within Soderbergh's typically tight/obsessive editorial rhythms, XXL is very much meant to provide multiple, long, stand-alone showcases of raunchy choreographic acumen; comparison to the similarly chunky structure of Busby Berkeley…

like staring into the abs of god.

completely different from the first film, it feels like an R-rated STEP UP sequel as shot by Soderbergh, and if that idea does nothing for you, don't bother. characters bounce off each other beautifully in more ways than one... the film is so content to have zero concrete stakes. more involved in the communion of spectacle and the binding force of entertainment. reminded me of a great martial arts film re: the skill with which it knows how to top itself without ever going numb... this thing plays the audience to perfection.

recently saw Les Blank's A POEM IS A NAKED PERSON, and though MMXXL is a bit too linear for the comparison…