Positivity, representation. Accepting the world as it is. In the case of media, displaying the world as it is. Actively promoting differences in body, gender, personality, experiences.
"Magic Mike XXL" is a male-stripper road-trip movie. It stars Channing Tatum as the titular Mike, picking up three years after the previous movie left off. Retired from stripping and now a business owner, Mike just can't give up the dance. He rejoins his friends and former co-workers on "one last ride" to an improbably large male stripping convention. It's pretty much just a road-trip movie, but with few of the "disappointing mishap" scenarios found in most of that genre.
It's uniquely positive, socially and tonally. There's genuinely little negativity; the worst bits of back story occur largely off-screen, or off-script (what's happening to Mike's business while he's tripping on Molly in their stripper food truck?) It's feel-good. Feel-great.
The first "Magic Mike" first was a bit more substantive, a movie advertised for the "Fifty Shades" crowd but ultimately serving up something more befitting the rest of Steven Soderbergh's oeuvre. "XXL," directed by Gregory Jacobs, lets it all hang out, gives way to pure-candy moviemaking for an audience still hesitantly serviced in the marketplace. It was long past time. There should be more of it. Unlike "Fifty Shades" or "Twilight," both movies of haunted monogamy, "Magic Mike" doesn't bother itself with such things. The women in the movie have fun. They enjoy, as Jada Pinkett Smith's character states, "the beauty."
Hard bodies. Soft souls. The men of "Magic Mike XXL" are masters of masculinity, but not necessarily the kind codified by standard cinematic language. Richie (Joe Manganiello), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), Ken (Matt Bomer) and Tito (Adam Rodriguez) are dancers with hearts of gold. Their greatest desire is to make the women they perform for feel accepted and good, and to look beautiful while doing so. And they do. Gloriously. They aren't without some character, however; each of them is given a smaller desire, a want for the world once they complete their final strip, which Mike encourages them to express ... through stripping. It makes for a grand finale.
"XXL" is made with an obvious audience in mind, but there's plenty to appreciate if you're brought along. The movie is bursting at the seams with positivity and heart. Embrace the fantasy, even if it isn't yours.