Welcome to the dazzling follow-up to my first published piece for The Postrider, “Magic Mike: The Appetizer” in which I laid out the foundations of the Magic Mike universe. Besides the general story, I highlight key areas where Magic Mike showed promise. Yet with the release of Magic Mike’s Last Dance, I need to have my thoughts on Magic Mike: XXL revealed before I can review Last Dance in its full context.

At the end of Magic Mike, the funds Mike had saved in order to start up the small business of his dreams (Mike’s Custom Furniture Concepts) are stolen by drug dealers as recompense for a stash of ecstasy The Kid lost. In the final scene of the film, the kid replaces Mike at the Cock Rocking Kings of Tampa’s final show before they move to Miami. Mike abandons his life of “depravity” and chooses a chance at a stable relationship with Brooke.

The quality of Magic Mike XXL is on display from moment one as it cuts in media res to a day in the life of Mike Lane. A quick coffee on the beach before he picks up his employee Salvador (Juan Piedrahita) in a truck emblazoned with a Mike Lane Custom Designs logo. After showing enough deliveries and purchases to let you know that business is going well, but that it also isn’t glamorous work, Mike gets a call from Tarzan (Kevin Nash) that the Cock Rocking Kings of Miami are coming through Tampa and that Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) is dead.

Showing up at their motel in a suit for the wake, a naked Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello) bear hugs him into the pool. Now soaking wet, the guys let Mike know that Dallas isn’t dead, he just took The Kid and bailed on them to set up a new outfit in Macau. After a bit of reminiscing, and in which Mike reprises his “rise and grind” business mentality from the first film, the boys reveal that they are going to the annual July 4th Stripper Convention in Myrtle Beach one last time.

Then Big Dick Riche playfully announces each of them like the raw ingredients Dallas objectified them as. So we meet:

1. The Kings

“Two freak shows, one who can barely dance (Riche and Tarzan).

One, person of color? (Tito)…

One snowy white Ken doll for all those good little Christian women. (Ken)”

Then Riche exclaims:

“I’m Goddamned if I’m gonna let my last memory of this business be getting laid off. If I’m going down, I’m going down in a… in a…In a fuckn’ Tsunami of dollar bills!”

To which the Kings give an “AMEN,” and Mike cracks a small smile.

That smile is where Magic Mike XXL truly begins.

We cut back to Mike and Salvador, and we learn that Mike can’t yet afford to buy Salvador a healthcare plan and Brooke has broken up with him. His bluster at the motel is revealed. As he works into the evening the radio announces four notes to remind Mike and us what else he is missing.

They are the opening notes to Ginuwine’s “Pony.”

As Mike recalls his days of glory, he can’t help but lose himself in the beat, putting on a show for his empty furniture studio. Those beats pass through him and he cannot help but be returned to the rhythm that kept him in the game for so long, that helped him make the “Pony” routine, that made the Mike magic.

He whips around the room playing with his metal rod, playfully “drilling down,” then flips himself face up on his work bench, letting himself giggle. As the camera moves in on his face we can see that when he left behind male entertainment he neglected a part of himself:

2. The Passion

A passion for the art of male entertainment. Not just the beauty of a well-toned male body moving to the beat but also the playful absurdity of doing so with a giant metal rod between his thighs. This is his first escape from the Dallas mindset.

”You see, baby, you’re not just stripping. You are fulfilling every woman’s wildest fantasies. All right? You are the husband that they never had. You are the dreamboat guy that never came along, You are the one-night stand,  that free fling of a fuck they get to have tonight… You are the liberation. Own it. Who’s got the cock? You do, they don’t.”

In the Dallas mindset, a stripper is a puppet to bring pleasure to the customer so long as they’ve a dollar to hold, only “ worth the cash you pry out of their fucking purses,” dick doled out on stage to customers at the trough. Sure he’s well toned, he’s got well-choreographed moves to flex and pop. The audience are having fun, but you have to set aside reality to squeeze out feeling. You have to take a side helping of guilt to let yourself indulge in sensual desire, look past the nylon of the navy uniform to imagine the husband you’d want to wear it, catering to a dream without fulfilling it.

But seeing The Kings and feeling The Passion helped Mike understand that he can have the joy of male entertainment without the toxic mindset of Dallas. This gentle ember of passion drives Mike to join The Kings in their FroYo truck to Myrtle Beach and drive on to self-understanding.

Yet this ember of passion would burn out again if it wasn’t for the kindling of:

3. Brotherly Love

Brotherly love which we see catch, light, and grow from that ember of passion into a warm embrace of emotional communication and support. Now, out from under the darkness of Dallas Mike tentatively expresses his love of the craft. As Big Dick Richie is going over the old routines Mike interjects:

“Let me just throw something out. And I completely understand that I’m coming in at the 11th hour, and I don’t want to step on toes. But what if… I mean, if this really is our last ride, what if we make up some new shit and go out with a fucking bang and just burn this shit down with some new routines?”

This whips up in frank discussion about how basically all of their routines had been chosen for them by Dallas. They have some skepticism but Mike opening up about the troubles in his life (and a healthy dose of molly) they are convinced to abandon their hackneyed routines in favor of uniting their passion with their craft. Slowly the cycles communication, passion, and care leave every King with an idea for what they’re going to do on stage and feeling better about their life after the last hurrah. Yet this fire is missing what truly makes it XXL.

4. Their Queen

No, this is Mikes new love interest, though he and Zoe (Amber Heard) do form a lovely friendship that makes both of them better, it is his ex-lover Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith). We are introduced to Rome when Mike comes to her club nominally hat in hand to MC for them. They arrive at a luxurious estate that still has the intimate feel of a home. Between Rome’s Queens of every shape and size having a lovely time and the male entertainers each masterfully showing off their own brand of craft they are given an example of the type of performance The Kings yearn to give.

So with the resources and experience of Rome behind them The Kings are able to collaborate to put on a final show which showcases each of their passions within the dramatic, absurd, and sensual art of male entertainment. One that speaks to the heart of the dancer and the audience. One that understands the absurdity of a man in a skimpy outfit dancing on stage but recognizes that it can still be sexy, and that if he cares for himself and his audience it can be truly beautiful even as it is always a bit silly.

This is what truly makes this film XXL. Its ability to show that art is not separate from life. That great art can be made with compassion and collaboration. That art can come from the absurdist of places yet still touches us any and every part of our emotions from funny, to compassionate, to sensual. To deal with all of these emotions amongst a compelling culmination of multiple character arcs is what truly makes their final dance and the film as a whole truly…

Magic.