Striptease

Striptease is a 1996 American black comedy directed by Andrew Bergman and based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel. Demi Moore plays Erin Grant, a former FBI secretary who turns to stripping in Miami after losing custody of her daughter, only to become entangled with corrupt politicians, criminals and a deeply absurd chain of events. Also starring Burt Reynolds, Armand Assante and Ving Rhames, the film mixes courtroom drama, Florida sleaze and political satire in a way that is very deliberately lurid and exaggerated.

The film is closely tied to South Florida, and much of its identity comes from the region’s humid, flashy and slightly disreputable atmosphere. Production was based largely in the Miami area, with locations including Miami itself, Key Biscayne and Hollywood, Florida. Among the identified sites are the Miami Seaquarium on Rickenbacker Causeway, used for one of the film’s more distinctive public settings, and the Swifty Laundromat in Hollywood, Florida. Other reported South Florida locations include North Miami and Fort Lauderdale-area sites, which helps explain the film’s mix of beachfront gloss, roadside seediness and overheated urban colour. Altogether, the film uses real South Florida locations to create a world of strip clubs, political corruption and sun-drenched chaos that feels very specifically rooted in that part of the state.