Themes: Dancer's Life, Down on Their Luck, Women's Friendship
Main Cast: Charlotte Ayanna, Daryl Hannah, Sheila Kelley, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Tilly, Elias Koteas
Release Year: 2000
Country: US
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The personal lives of five exotic dancers go under the microscope in this drama, the first American feature from director Michael Radford. Eddie (Robert Wisdom) is the manager of a strip club in suburban California known as the Blue Iguana, where he keeps an eye on the women who make their living dancing for his customers. Stormy (Sheila Kelley) is an attractive, thick-skinned woman who is getting old enough to realize her days as a dancer may be numbered. Jo (Jennifer Tilly) likes to think of herself as the Blue Iguana's star attraction, though her career may hit a detour now that she's learned she's pregnant. Angel (Daryl Hannah) is a sweet, but immature woman, who tries to deal with her fear of being unloved by adopting a child. Jasmine (Sandra Oh), an aspiring poet, tries not to get settled into a career as a stripper, while being encouraged in her writing by coffeehouse owner Dennis (Chris Hogan), who features spoken word performers. And Jesse (Charlotte Ayanna), the youngest of the performers, expresses her desperate need for approval in her desire to please the customers. Dancing at the Blue Iguana received its world premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The video box describes it as "from the director of Il Postino," but Dancing at the Blue Iguana is a far less sentimentally sweet delivery from Michael Radford. In fact, he's pretty much doing a 180, infiltrating the back rooms of strip clubs for a realistic and uncompromising probe into psychological scars as naked as the women. Radford may saturate the spectrum of issues facing girls who disrobe for money, but the film exceeds the level of scolding message movie or tawdry skin flick thanks to the commitment of the actresses. Even the household names -- such as Darryl Hannah and Jennifer Tilly -- are on board for the nudity, which helps realize Radford's goal of taking in the incidentals of this environment, without blinking. Its closest corollary may be Atom Egoyan's Exotica, because Iguana overcomes its soft-core stigma with an art-house earnestness of purpose, which appears in the form of improvisational dialogue and a steadily wandering camera. (Elias Koteas appears in both films as well). Yet this film's focus is diffused among five strippers, whose stock ambitions -- one aspires to be a poet, another to foster a child -- achieve poignancy in the hands of these actresses. Hannah does her most nuanced work yet, giving a soulful variation on her usual ditz role, characterized by inspired off-the-cuff babbling. Tilly also excels as a psychotic burnout, but the real surprise may be Sandra Oh, whose subtlety has long been forcibly repressed on HBO's grating slapstick comedy Arli$$. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Vladimir Mashkov - Sacha; Robert Wisdom - Eddie Hazel; W. Earl Brown - Bobby; Kristin Bauer - Nico; Jesse Bradford - Jorge; Stephen Hornyak - trucker; Buckley Norris - talking man; Isabelle Pasco - female customer; Vincenzo Ricotta - customer; Jack Conley - Officer Pete Foster; John K. Thomas - poetry man; David Amos - Dave; Lobo Sebastian - rough looking guy; Christina Cabot - Christina; Maurice Compte - drug buyer; Rod Rowland - Charlie; Kevin Hunt - DJ; Peggy Jo Jacobs - Sarah, adoption official; Ted Rooney - assistant; Joel Hurt Jones - customer; Pete Gardner - Jerry, S&M Client; Igbal Theba - clerk; Harper Roisman - Harry Goldberg; Jason Kravitz - Gordon; Bill Chott - Angel's Regular; Chris Hogan - Dennis; Carolyne Aycaguer - Sophie Delvaux, poetress; R.C. Bates - Jimmy; Marta Cunningham - Yolanda; Ruthanna Hopper - Desiree; Michael Loprete - Stormy's regular; Ellyn Maybe - Fiona, poetress; Tenya Neilson - Castle; Shannon Ransom - bartender; Thomas Sherlorke - Jo's turned on customer
Credit
Trevor Murray - Art Director, Sharon Howard-Field - Casting, Louise Frogley - Costume Designer, Michael Radford - Director, Chad Rosen - Second Unit Director, Carolyne Sara Fine - Second Unit Director, Melissa Cummins Lorenz - Second Unit Director, Christina Collins - Second Unit Director, Charles E. Dowell II - Second Unit Director, Alain Jakubowicz - Editor, Roberto Perpignani - Editor, Samuel Hadida - Executive Producer, Willi Baer - Executive Producer, Elaine Chin - Executive Producer, Leslie Jean Porter - Executive Producer, Ketty - Hair Styles, Solina Tabrizi - Hair Styles, Jeremy Alter - Location Manager, Dave Pomier - Line Producer, Tal Bergman - Composer (Music Score), Renato Neto - Composer (Music Score), Alex Patsavas - Musical Direction/Supervision, David Franco - Musical Direction/Supervision, Farah Bunch - Makeup, Rick Rodier - Makeup, Suzanne Rodier - Makeup, Peter Pilafian - Camera Operator, Michael J. Walker - Camera Operator, Darin Moran - Camera Operator, Martina Buckley - Production Designer, Ericson Core - Cinematographer, Sheila Kelley - Producer, Michael Radford - Producer, Ram Bergman - Producer, Dana Lustig - Producer, Damian Jones - Producer, Graham Broadbent - Producer, Etchie Stroh - Producer, Coleman Metts - Production Sound, Gary Blufer - Recording, Chris Tunney - Set Designer, Kim Secrist - Sound Editor, Bernard Weiser - Sound Editor, Anthony R. Milch - Sound Editor, Bruce Barris - Sound Editor, Donald L. Warner Jr. - Sound Editor, Lance Laurienzo - Sound Editor, James Pearson - Sound Editor, David M. Barrett - Stunts Coordinator, Michael Radford - Screenwriter, David Linter - Screenwriter, Victor Iorillo - Supervising Editor, Becky Sullivan - Supervising Editor, Renato Neto - Musical Performer, Kat Dyson - Musical Performer, Gary Mick - Musical Performer, Michael M. Toji - Post Production Coordinator, Heidi Pavey - Production Coordinator, Dan Leahy - Re-Recording Mixer, Neil Brody - Re-Recording Mixer, Jan McWilliams - Script Supervisor, John Michael Fanaris - Special Effects Coordinator, Richard E. Yawn - Supervising Sound Editor, Thomas J. O'Connell - ADR Mixer, Ernesto Martinez - Costumes Supervisor, Casey Crabtree - Foley Artist, James Bailey - Foley Artist, Jeffery Heyveld - Foley Mixer, Title House - Title Design
This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (December 2008)
In 2001, actress Daryl Hannah released a one-hour companion documentary, Strip Notes, based on her experience researching her role as a stripper in the film, which is included as an extra on the Dancing at the Blue Iguana DVD.
