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.

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.

DS95 I'm going to be brief and succinct. (I have been advised that brevity is not permitted, I have had to pad my comments to satisfy the website rules) I loved this film and all the actress' performances. They made the risky choice of portraying the sleezy world of strippers & stripping.My sister was a stripper and on many occasions I had to contact her at some of the clubs she worked. These places made my skin crawl, the smells were overpowering. (I will avoid description.) All were located in Southern California near the airport.Everything in the film was accurate and well represented. However, the corruption was a bit glossed over.I strongly recommend that everyone who has had a daughter, sister, mother or friend involved in this creepy business, to rent the film and watch it.Many times in the past, I had tried to discourage her from continuing in this field but her response to me each time was, "Can you make over $1,000 a week at what you do?"Fortunately, after three breast implants (bigger and better for more tips), and ultimate body breakdown, she has since retired 2 yrs. ago at the age of 52. She still looks good but she has NO Social Security to rely upon. However due to class action suits against the breast implant people she has managed to run a business on the big island in Hawaii.

rrichr If you're partial to the documentary approach to feature films, Dancing at the Blue Iguana is one you'll want to grab, possibly from your video store's for-sale rack or any bargain bin that it has tumbled into. It's interesting work and is considerably more than the soft-core porn for which it might be mistaken. The film was also an experiment on the part of the director Michael Radford, who began his film career as a documentary film maker. To remain true to his school, Mr. Radford allowed the principal actresses to map out their own back stories and interactions, then filmed the results. Many people seem to feel this process failed. I must disagree as I think it worked very well. The slight raggedness that resulted simply made the film more convincing to me. It's a thinking person's adult film. Viewers looking for a straight-up porn hit should pass. This film is more about people who have faced certain facts and settled into lives along the underbelly of Los Angeles. The fact that some of them happen to strip is merely coincidental.Dancing at the Blue Iguana takes an MRI-like scan of life in an L.A.-area strip club, clinically sectioning the lives of the dancers and staff of the club, as well as providing interesting vantage points on the various types that patronize it. There's an elderly gentleman who watches the dancers from ten feet away through opera glasses, understanding that the devil is truly in the details, a Russian hit man who may be targeting one of the dancers. There's even a young woman regular, apparently in the same age bracket as the dancers. The overall slant is so detached, so transparent, that one comes away from the film feeling as though almost nothing has happened. A number of questions are asked but not really answered, but life is that way at times.The entire cast turns in solid performances that simultaneously reveal both the surface and hidden aspects of their characters but the story really zeroes in on the various dancers, all of whom are portrayed with great conviction by several very fine actresses who have really taken the plunge into their roles; Daryl Hannah's wasted, self-deluding Angel and Jennifer Tilly's freaked and superfreaky Jo to mention just two off the top. There are more. But the real depth resides in Canadian actress Sandra Oh's Jasmine whose character, away from the pole, is a gifted poet in deep mourning for the dead end which her life, due to a lack of faith in her gift, is approaching. When Jasmine is finally persuaded to read at a local open-mike event by the owner of the bookstore where the reading takes place, she blows everyone out the door, including the headlining poetess who is touring behind her newly-published collection. But Jasmine can't be happy because her triumph is simply more proof of her, apparently, terminal weakness and lack of belief in herself, as well as the hate of what that lack has made her. It's a heart-rending performance. (You can catch a glimpse of this little-known actress in the beautifully-done Canadian production, The Red Violin, as the wealthy Asian lady who, with her husband, bids on the instrument near the film's climax.)Dancing at the Blue Iguana also contains what may be the shortest 75-second sequence ever filmed in which Kristin Bauer's Nico, a touring professional stripper and porn star, whose anticipated guest performance comprises one the film's wispy back stories, takes the stage. The regular dancers all tend to mime various stages of sexual involvement as part of their individual routines; no such nonsense for Nico. When she confronts the hooting, cash-brandishing, SRO crowd, she operates behind a calm, Apsara smile that might have floated off a wall frieze at Angkor Wat. Nico is obviously the girl who really does this stuff for a living. If you were a fan of the great 80's group, Echo and the Bunnymen, as I was, you'll never hear their hit, 'Lips Like Sugar' quite the same way after Nico works with it. Hard to believe that Ms. Bauer is the same lady who played Jerry Seinfeld's entirely mainstream girl du jour in the 'Man Hands' episode, but it is. Her opening at the Blue Iguana is also set up by one of the most unexpected scene-to-scene jumps that I've ever witnessed. Nico's tough as nails but later, in a touching scene with Jasmine, the girl behind the woman comes out. If you find a VHS copy of this very engrossing movie, (It's probably available as a DVD.) you may want to have it duplicated to provide a backup when you finally wear out the tape under Nico's scene.