|
While Mike is planning the next stage of his career, he meets a clueless 19-year-old college dropout,Cheap Spain Soccer Jerseys, Adam (Alex Pettyfer),Wholesale NFL Jerseys, at the job site. The two guys bond a little, which gives Mike the confidence he needs to drag the kid — whose stage name will soon become “the Kid” — into the world of the Xquisite all-male dance revue, an elaborately choreographed G-string extravaganza overseen by self-made golden boy Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) and featuring a lineup that includes Matt Bomer (“White Collar”), Adam Rodriguez (“CSI: Miami”), Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”) and WWE star Kevin Nash (who lumbers through routines the others enthusiastically ace).
Like Christina Aguilera in “Burlesque” or Ryan Phillippe in “54,” Pettyfer plays the film’s wide-eyed audience surrogate, and even though ticketbuyers know what he’s getting himself into,Cheap Baltimore Orioles Jerseys, there’s a thrill in discovering this world through such a giddily naive perspective. Not since “Step Up” has Tatum had such a perfect showcase for his crazy dance moves, but it’s no less entertaining watching Pettyfer play awkward as Adam is thrust onstage, stumbling through his “virgin” performance.
Everything about Soderbergh’s approach, from the energy to the music (a mix of hot-today dance songs and such beefcake standards as “It’s Raining Men”) to the nonjudgmental tone, seems to be onboard with stripping — everything except Adam’s overprotective older sister, Brooke (Cody Horn, fully committing to the character’s single disapproving-frown expression). Of all the dark, complicated paths the story might have gone down, “Collaborator” contents itself as a relatively superficial different-classes love story,Cheap Chicago Blackhawks Jerseys, in which Mike must prove himself responsible enough in Brooke’s eyes to overcome the pimplike way he recruited her brother,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, ultimately giving Tatum a chance to bellow, “I’m not my lifestyle!” like some kind of dime-store Stanley Kowalski.
That’s not to say Tatum isn’t actor enough to handle the assignment. In addition to the role’s physical demands, he has the added challenge of making it look effortless, and Tatum’s gift comes in playing things casual,Cheap France Soccer Jerseys, inhabiting the character without having to spell out an elaborate backstory. Of the other strippers,Cheap Jerseys, McConaughey steals the spotlight, adding yet another strong characterization to a respect-building streak that began with “The Lincoln Lawyer” last year. Meanwhile, a certain dopeyness serves Adam well, and Pettyfer proves an excellent case of a director using his star’s limited acting abilities to the film’s advantage.
Download Collaborator
Soderbergh is in excellent form here, putting aside the ambitious experimentation that threw a wet blanket on such ostensibly sexy projects as “Full Frontal” and “The Girlfriend Experience,” while re-embracing the professional lighting and Steadicam shooting techniques missing from “Contagion” and “Haywire.” (Once again, he serves as his own d.p., under the pseudonym Peter Andrews.) Tatum reportedly first approached Nicolas Winding Refn about making “Collaborator,” but here he has the benefit of not only Soderbergh’s commercial savvy,Cheap Houston Texans Jerseys, but also the good-humored generosity and keen anthropological interest the helmer brings to every project. No moment captures that sensibility better than an oblique glimpse of backstage “fluffing” sure to rank among the year’s most amusing shots. |
|