1) Perhaps I am misremembering the scene, but I thought Ritchie *did* experience back pain during that sequence, making it an instance of “reality” invading the fantasy – something the film is invested in more broadly – rather than a bit of vicious comedy.

2) I’m not quite convinced by the notion that Mike eventually believes stripping to be immature, nor did I necessarily read the ending of the film as Mike’s rejection of stripping so much as the specific circumstances of the move to Miami (and, for the sake of an eventual sequel, it’s entirely possible he keeps stripping in Tampa given the nature of his conversation with Brooke).

For me, Adam’s self-destructive behavior served as a preview of what the larger market of Miami would offer, and Mike – whose involvement in stripping was framed as both personal empowerment and entrepreneurial investment – seemed to believe the drug-fueled mess tied to the former would no longer be worth the latter (not to mention his cut was reduced from his initial conversations with Dallas, a betrayal that felt more formative in those final moments than a rejection of the act of stripping itself).

On this level, I’m not sure the film vilifies stripping and the people who partake in it – Dallas’ reclamation of his stripper identity after years of hosting is largely received as a triumphant return (albeit laced with a degree of critical attention to his willful ignorance to Tarzan’s breakdowns that push Adam onstage, or Adam’s downward spiral), and Adam’s integration into the show in Mike’s absence is framed as tragic but less for his profession and more for its personal consequences.

The film’s relationship with stripping is messy, no doubt – I might believe that Brooke’s resistance to Mike has less to do with the act of stripping than it does the lifestyle that comes with it, but I can’t disconnect the two, and your reading is certainly valid. I just ended up finding the film’s counter-narratives of “Stripper becoming disillusioned with the business” and “Man reassessing what he wants to do with his life amidst a difficult financial climate” to render the question more of a gray area than you’re arguing here.