The Real Magic Mike: Male Strippers Get Exposed in Documentary La Bare

The documentary film La Bare promises “a new kind of super hero,” with “a different kind of action.” This summer movie isn’t a big-budget Hollywood fantasy: It’s a look inside the world of male strippers.

Directed by Joe Manganiello — aka Alcide from True Blood and Big Dick Richie in Magic Mike — the movie is about more than sex and flexing. As Manganiello tells Vulture :

I can’t express to you how many times I’ve heard, “We’ve seen it all.” “There’s nothing new.” “Everything is recycled.” “Nothing is shocking.” Blah, blah, blah … But I guess I just never really paid attention to the chatter until I made my first feature film.

Soon after filming, there were the bands that had pulled their songs from the film despite the protests of their record label, the ban of our art/posters on bus stops and billboards due to it being too risqué … And then came the wait for the MPAA rating … And with that, the realization that I indeed had found something new, something fresh, something shocking to show the general public.

With La Bare, I had somehow sailed my way into uncharted waters and stumbled upon an island not recorded on any map … the completely misunderstood world of male entertainment.

With Magic Mike, we scratched the surface, and with La Bare, I had the opportunity to plumb the depths of this strange and provocative world hidden in plain sight.

As you’ll see in the trailer, the film explores the weird dynamic between the male dancers and the women who love them. One lady says: “Even though every time I get a hug, I give ’em a dollar, I still feel like they’re my friends.” And a dancer admits: “To get used to a girl asking to pay your bills — that’s kind of weird… but I haven’t said no yet.”