In 1979, when Soman “Steve” Banerjee had the idea of creating a group of strippers to promote the nightclub he had just acquired, he had no idea of the monster success that would follow. Quickly, we hurry to see his Chippendales dance.
“The roles, for the first time, were reversed, and it was electrifying! Remembers the model, actress and playmate Sondra Theodore, admirer of these exotic dancers in thong, cuffs and bow tie whose history is exposed in the eye-catching Curse of the Chippendales.
Written and directed by Jesse Vile (The Ripper), the documentary miniseries is not content to focus on the plasticity of its dancers, who, before the pandemic, still rallied hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts.
Nourished by uninhibited testimonies and energized by festive archives that bring us back to the effervescence of the 1980s and 1990s, the whole is also crossed by deadly backstage games, first and foremost the one that will pit Banerjee against his partner Nick de Noia .
This duality lends the miniseries the outlines of a criminal documentary recalling at times the pop-trash energy of series such as McMillion $ Where Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. We even catch a glimpse on the occasion of the more supercharged one of Tiger king, which relates the setbacks of the manager of a wild animal park soaking in a murder case. Its narration like its realization, however, remains much wiser, if not conventional, like the impeccably tanned Chippendales, themselves frozen in time with their serial smiles.
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