Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

SnoopyStyle Various women dance at the strip club Blue Iguana. Angel (Daryl Hannah) is desperate to adopt. Jo (Jennifer Tilly) is angry, pregnant and wants an abortion. Jasmine (Sandra Oh) is a poetry writer. Club manager Eddie gets star stripper Nico (Kristin Bauer van Straten). Jessie (Charlotte Ayanna) is the new girl. Stormy (Sheila Kelley) is sleeping with her brother.Michael Radford is no drive-by B-movie director. This does have ambition of something more compelling than a simple T&A showcase. He has gathered various stripper stories together. They're fine but I don't find any of them that compelling. The movie feels scattered. I wonder if somebody who actually stripped like Diablo Cody would have more compelling stories. At least, her writing might be more interesting.

lastliberal It is amazing what you come across at 2am when you have trouble sleeping. The fact that this film is directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino) is an indication that it might be more than just a T & A film. It is, after all, about pole dancers at a strip club.Yes, it is loaded with T & A. Charlotte Ayanna (Jawbreaker) dances in just a thong. TV regular Kristin Bauer (Everybody Loves Raymond, Just Shhot Me) goes even further. Even at 40, Daryl Hannah shows her stuff and it is hot stuff, indeed. Just a photograph in Mike Myer's hands in So I Married an Axe Murderer, Shiela Kelley practiced at many bikini bars before she showed her stuff here. Even Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh gives us her first notable skin scenes. Lastly, Jennifer Tilly is un-Bound, and gives a show to remember.If they gave an Academy Award for this category, it would be Breast Picture, hands down.But, there is more. This is not Showgirls. There is actually a handful of stories going on as we examine the lives off the stage. Sandra Oh gives a super performance. I wasn't too thrill by Daryl Hannah as she acted as if she had an IQ of 30. Jennifer Tilly was just plain impressive and well worth the time.

thatwasrudeofme A gritty and harsh view of the Stripper's world. A lot of which was taken from screen siren Daryl Hannah's quirky and informative documentary "Stripnotes". The characters are all well developed and easy to relate and symapthise with,the most commendable performances laying with lesbian icon Jennifer Tilly, currently popular Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy) and last but not the least the leggy talent showered bombshell that is queen Daryl Hannah of the movie screen. The style and settings of the movie add much to its overall feel and are able to involve the viewer in the reality that is the sleazy but somewhat enchanting stripbar. The dancers,the costumes,the poles,the punters,the drinks,the smokes,the fun,the tears,the hardship,the routine. It'll have you whirling round lamposts like a hulla hoop on crack. A MUST SEE! 10/10!

L. Denis Brown I found this a strange film to watch for the first time, as the principal characters all gave me the impression that I was watching a social documentary showing the real lives of real strippers, even though I knew these characters were being played by half a dozen well known actresses who had presumably learned to strip just for this film. I was expecting a fictional story which involved them all to develop, but this never happened. Ultimately this mystery was partly solved in the final credit sequences which explain that the film's characters were developed during a series of "improvisational workshops" in which all the principal members of the cast participated. (I understand that the DVD includes additional extras which usefully expand these explanations, but I have not seen these.) This unusual, but in my opinion largely successful, approach has generated a great deal of controversy among the users of IMDb as fifty comments on this film, ranging from highly enthusiastic to extremely critical, have so far been posted. Viewer ratings are widely spread through the whole range from 1 to 10, and show that the film is most highly regarded by young women whilst it has least appeal for young men. I am not clear whether the cast were assembled for the first such workshop in time to contribute to the decision to locate most of the action for this film in a Los Angeles strip club. There have been many films such as "Steamed" or "First Wives Club" that largely comprise dialogue between a group of women; usually with the link that they all attended the same school or college at some time in the past, and clearly almost any venue where women characteristically meet together could be used for a film of this type. If this decision was made by the film's promoters before the cast list was assembled, it would be interesting to know the reason for it - the average age of a successful actress is very different from that of the typical pulchritudinous 18 to 25 year olds who most frequently perform in these clubs. Another problem is that all the principal characters are, for obvious dramatic reasons, shown as somewhat dysfunctional. In practice I am sure that many of the performers in strip clubs are perfectly normal, if somewhat uninhibited, local housewives who find that an occasional session 'at the club' provides an easy way for them to keep fit which not only saves the costs of belonging to a health club but in addition enables them to make a little money through part time earnings. Since the operator of the Blue Iguana is shown as a somewhat unpleasant character this singularity is easily explained, but the film might have been more credible if it had been planned as a true documentary rather than a pseudo documentary. If on the other hand the strip club venue was selected by the chosen cast at their first workshop we can have much more fun considering why this was their choice. I recall a comment by one reviewer after seeing the film "Striptease' that Demi Moore made stripping seem like an Olympic sport. A psychologist might tell us that most women have the occasional urge to flaunt their charms in this rather blatant way but are held back by propriety, and so an opportunity to do so in the guise of another character would be very appealing; a casting director might point out that a successful role in such a part could provide cast members with a career plus which would significantly increase the probability of landing other very rewarding parts in the future; a health consultant might simply comment that playing such a physically demanding role would clearly be very beneficial to any actress whose recent work had left her a little jaded; a marketing consultant might comment that any film featuring strippers can be counted on to generate a lot of interest; and a gossip columnist might unkindly associate this choice of part with an attempt to recover lost youth. We can easily postulate several other possible motives for the choice - my point here is simply to note that a film structured to provide so much food for thought is challenging enough to have the potential to be a very good film, whether it finally succeeds is a matter of individual judgement.What is the viewer left with after watching this film? Certainly some exceptionally well rounded characters very competently played by the cast member concerned. On this basis I would rate the film as worth 7 on a 10 point scale, although with less competent acting there might not have been enough 'meat' to warrant a rating of more than 3. Full marks to the cast and Director for creating a number of quite memorable cameos (it would be unfair to single out any individual cast members for special mention although naturally some of the parts are much stronger than others). These cameos make it a rewarding film to watch, and it deserves to have been much more successful than it was. The main weakness is its lack of a coherent storyline and its very inconclusive ending, although I personally believe that both these could have been made much less significant by more effective work on the cutting room floor.One warning - this film is certainly not a celluloid version of strip club entertainment in the way that, for example, 'Mondo Topless' was. Those whose primarily interest is in the venue should visit a real club and not watch this film. Although it shows plenty of nudity (which often appears rather self-conscious as camera angles almost always limit it to toplessness), and the dancing is extremely well portrayed; this is not presented in the progressive and provocative way that regular visitors to such clubs would probably expect.