Recommend a movie for its SC relevance.
chandler
Blue Ridge Foothills
What's a movie you would recommend for the way it helps you appreciate or understand strippers or strip clubs? (Not that we need help.) Thinking very broadly about relevance here. No need for the movie to include strippers or strip clubs or nudity. (If it does, that's okay, too.) Also, let's try to make this more than just a series of "Angelina is so awesomely bodacious in this flick" posts or "because she reminds me of my ATF".
I'll start with: Before Sunrise, 1995
(Not to be mistaken with 'Before Sunset', a sequel from 2004)
Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
A very simple story that takes place in the space of 24 hours, almost entirely consisting of dialogue between the lead characters. It's about the poignancy of fleeting relationships and the urgency of taking chances when the opportunity is there. The kind of thing that sounds like it would be pretty sappy, but it's really not at all. I've seen this called the 'Casablanca' of our time, but it's way way way more low key. It really reminds me of the kind of interaction that can develop in the course of an evening with a stripper you strongly connect with (without the stripping or lap dancing parts). In some ways, it might have been better with less of a pretty boy lead, but Ethan Hawke is so good I almost forgive him for marrying Uma Thurman.
I'll start with: Before Sunrise, 1995
(Not to be mistaken with 'Before Sunset', a sequel from 2004)
Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
A very simple story that takes place in the space of 24 hours, almost entirely consisting of dialogue between the lead characters. It's about the poignancy of fleeting relationships and the urgency of taking chances when the opportunity is there. The kind of thing that sounds like it would be pretty sappy, but it's really not at all. I've seen this called the 'Casablanca' of our time, but it's way way way more low key. It really reminds me of the kind of interaction that can develop in the course of an evening with a stripper you strongly connect with (without the stripping or lap dancing parts). In some ways, it might have been better with less of a pretty boy lead, but Ethan Hawke is so good I almost forgive him for marrying Uma Thurman.
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25 comments
It's been a while since I saw that movie...but I do recall the dialogue between Owens and Portman being right on target. I also remember feeling a bit disappointed that her character did the guy...geez, stripper caves in and does good-looking wealthy doctor...sometimes realism is a bad thing.
As for movies with a strip club setting, they're always a big letdown for me in three ways. They get strip clubs all wrong, they aren't a turn on, and they're lousy movies.
The whole thing is very informative. For me, there's a gnomic moment at the end of the film, when one of the small-time pimps brings his best girl to a pimp-meet in Las Vegas and, after the festivities, brings her up to the top of a hotel to an observation deck. They look down at all the pretty lights, and then he talks to her in pimp-language. That's a "game" I'd like to learn to imitate. There is this kind of "not with reality" thing, the way he plays her emotions, shamelessly in some ways, but also very much to her benefit, in others. It's a way of "male dominance" that simply does not exist in typical middle class educated suburban (mostly white) American society.
I realize this isn't literally about strippers. The many women portrayed in this documentary include only a very few who work at take-off-your-clothes-on-stage establishments, and even those who do, offer full service in the back room in a dive in some bowery-type warehouse district in a major city. I do, sometimes, enjoy the company and services of these "extremely low-class strippers" who are actually just hookers working out of a street corner that has a roof over it. But they are definitely NOT the norm among America's sweet young thangs who get naked at tittie bars.
How about a few documentaries about strippers and strip clubs? The Strip Game or Stripped. In the previews, both of these look very intriguing. I'd put them in my Netflix queue, but I don't think I could explain it to the wife or family...
None of these appear to offer any help understanding the SC world, and are probably far-fetched and maybe even a little soft-porn-ish... but here's some obscure ones ... Stripteaser (not to be confused with Striptease with Demi Moore). Also, check out Stripteaser 2. Maybe even Strip for Action.
If anyone checks these out... I'm all ears to hear how good (or bad) they are...
After you see it PM me and let me know what you thought of Derailed. By the way until you see it, don't read about it on sites like IMDB since the comments contain spoilers and you will know the twists if you do. Personally, I bought the film for my collection since I really liked it, and though Jennifer as the femme fatale did a good job. Since her Friends demise about the only other movie she did that I liked was Along Came Polly, but it did not have the connotations that we have been discussing here. I would recommend that one as well if you have not seen it.
Oh, and as for Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers? I didn't notice... too busy lusting after Jennifer Love Hewitt!
Unfortunately since Friends, Jennifer has not done much wiorthwhile and although this film got some very poor reviews, I kind of liked it for the femme fatale aspect.
Another deeply cynical view of the way the world works is the HBO series 'Deadwood'. Not really a movie, but it is on DVD. There are dance hall girls on display - like a visit to the dive in your worst nightmares. The dialog and acting, however, are superb.
I echo your sentiments with "House of Games." This movie was one of my favs on many different levels. Yeah, the Mamet repetition of phrased lines for one. Lindsay Crouse the mannish-looking blond was doable (although not desirable.) We tend to settle for who's at the Club and available after we driven some distance and there's no other club nearby.
I also thought the scheming by all concerned was indicative of the BS we encounter in the SC environment.
Where but in a SC would we pay a washroom attendant a buck to hand us two paper towels and permit us a few tic- tacs or a spray of cheap cologne?
The Strippers expect a dollar tip on the tip walk; bouncers expect a tip to show you to an empty seat.
DG